Our sixth or so day here at Camping Los Batanes and we are starting to understand how things work around here. In particular, don’t try to find anywhere nearby for dinner because you won’t. The Spanish left on Sunday and the site has been almost deserted and also the gaggle of restaurants are closed. Lunch is possible though and we revisited the restaurant we had located on our previous hike. I don’t recall the name but turn right out of the campsite and then first left. It’s situated right on the lake and the food was excellent.

A three course meal with beer and wine for two totalled around 45 Euros.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the morning we had made a short walk around a section of the Laguna and spotted some large fish – possibly carp – and around 2 feet in length.

Mo woke up with a migraine this morning so we spent a quiet day around the campsite.

Later in the day we visited Castillo de Penarroya

which is situated next to the final Laguna which would perhaps be better described as a reservoir as it’s been created courtesy of a huge dam.

Two things underline the sheer remote and unspoilt aspect of Las Lagunas de Ruidera. Firstly, we wished to visit a larger supermarket to stock up on provisions. A 50 mile round-trip was necessary to find the equivalent of a small Lidl.

Secondly we needed diesel so pulled up at the local Repsol in Ruidera. A sign said something like “servicio asistido” which we assumed was “we serve you”. Anyhow after 5 minutes no-one appeared so I slotted 60 Euros worth in the tank. Went indoors to pay but not a sign of anyone in charge. A full 10 minutes later before a lady turned up and took my Euros – I wonder if she worked there?

We hiked a good 8 miles around a number of the Lagunas near to Camping Los Batanes.

Nice paths around the lovely lakes which would also be suitable for cycling. We headed north of the campsite today but no internet access seems to mean no MapymyWalk so we haven’t got a decent record of where we went. Maybe when I have some proper internet access, I’ll try and input some kind of manual route.

We stopped off at a rather nice bar restaurant for a couple of drinks and a “service” call – the food really looked rather good so we will be eating there one night this week.

It’s Sunday lunchtime and right now we should be enjoying Kingsdown beer with our dear friends at the Bell in Aldworth. Instead, desperate to ensure our loyal blog followers aren’t disapponted we have driven to a one horse town about 10km away from Camping Los Batanes which proports to have a bar with Internet access.

The one horse in this case is the Texas saloon and yes, this might well be the wild west. A quick speedtest indicates Internet access at 0.1mb which is about as fast as we used to get with dial-up. It could be a long afternoon with my new friend, Mahou (Cerveza Especial).

It has been a long afternoon. One picture uploaded and the outstanding blogs written but not published due to lack of pictures…

Mo insisted that this will be a rest day as she appears to be struggling with the pace of the trip. Not least nearly falling off her bike yesterday for the second time in two trips! I think though she may well be on driving duty by the time these posts have uploaded.

The weather is a little different in this part of Spain. The high today was around 30 degrees but overnight, the temperatures have been falling to around 13 – 14 degrees. A late afternoon thunderstorm covered us in hail and the temperature dropped sharply by 10 degrees before recovering to the mid-20s for the evening BBQ.

We set off on our round-the-lake cycle ride in the morning – not quite early enough as we were still on the road in the midday heat.

Apart from the first 1/2 mile (which was not really suitable for bikes), the rest of the journey was on a decent track around the lake. We returned on the road from Ruidera to make things a little easier. Total trip was about 21km.

 

 

 

 

The Lagunas really are pretty and very well preserved, but this is an extremely remote area.

We left Guizarrosa around 9:30 in the morning for a circa 200km drive to Parque Natural de Las Luganas de Ruidera arriving just after lunch at Camping Los Batanes.

 

This location is very remote, Manzanares being a reasonably sized town located some 60km away. There is very little mobile phone signal in the area and wifi is not available on the campsite nor anywhere in the nearby locality. It’s going to be difficult keeping up with the blog entries.

The section we are on has some fantastic new pitches, all fully serviced but the trees and hedges need to grow somewhat to provide some decent privacy.

Mind you, our pitch is huge and the all-in ACSI price is 16 Euros per night. Not bad.

 

 

We have arrived at Camping Los Batanes. No wifi. No mobile signal.

But an area of absolute stunning beauty.

Half way round a 30k cycle ride and picked up mobile to submit this.

Firstly a correction to yesterdays post. The Flamingos don’t live in the nearby Laguna but fly there for a day trip from Donana National park – where we had previously visited during our stay at El Rocio.

Everybody needs new neighbours… They are from New Zealand – ok, so maybe the theme tune is wrong, but I’m struggling to find a claim-to-fame for this fine land. Cricket maybe?

Today they’ve been a little less friendly and the lady made some comment at breakfast (yes, the site provides a “free” breakfast and of course the opportunity to exchange pleasantries with the other inmates) about how noisy the site was last night.

That was a bit of a surprise because we are in such a tranquil location, everyone is tucked up in their vans around 11:00pm and I slept like a dream. I know we didn’t retire to bed until around 12:30 but we didn’t exactly host a rave. Or, could it have been sleeping next to a wide open window to mitigate the 30 plus night time temperature in the van? Is it possible that there was a snoring problem? No, of course not.

Today we were still feeling the effects of our exertions on the bikes yesterday. Mo has far more bruises and gravel marks than seemed apparent after her fall.

Still, we headed into Cordoba again and before lunch, toured the Alcazar and gardens.

Temperatures were upwards of 35 degrees so a long lunch was called for – and successfully executed.

 

 

 

 

 

It is festival time here in Cordoba. Like a much smaller version of Octoberfest but all the local girls are dressed in the traditional Spanish flamenco.

 

 

 

We move on again tomorrow so early evening we packed up the van and ate dinner at the campsite restaurant.

I ordered Flamenquin which is apparently a Cordoba speciality. I’ve never seen it before but it’s not entirely dis-similar to a Cordon Bleu, just a different shape. The body was in need of a fatty meal with chips covered in copious amounts of salt.

We will visit this site again. Probably March or October would be a better time of year in order to avoid the blistering heat and plague of midges.

 

 

The plan was for an early start today as we planned to take off on a cycle ride from Santaella to Laguna de El Donadio …. Around 14 miles round trip, mainly on gravel / unmade service roads and there would be a detour to cross the high speed railway line.

We weren’t exactly on the road particularly early and it was another hot day.

 

The two half litre bottles of water were wholly inadequate given the late start, 30 degree temperatures and the fact that we didn’t arrive back at the car until 1:00pm.

It didn’t help that Mo fell off her bike grazing her arm and bruising her hand. Fortunately a Spanish farmer was passing and he provided us with water to clean up the wounds. All the more embarrassing given that her velocity was zero at the time. She somehow tangled herself up amongst the bike trying to turn around.

 

We couldn’t get particularly close to the lake but were able to photograph the wild Flamingos living there.

 

 

Later in the day, we visited Ecija. Ecija is home to several magnificent baroque churches, the towers of each glisten with brilliantly coloured tiles which can be spied from far in the distance.

 

There are eleven in all and without a guide book, we managed to find about five of them before collapsing in front of a bar with a couple of cold beers.

 

 

Camping La Campina is a lovely site in the middle of the Spanish countryside, nestled alongside ancient olive groves and arable farmland. But… There is a problem here with a plague of annoying and biting midges.

The campsite owners make light of the infestation – after all, it’s due to being in the countryside and in no way a reflection on how the site is maintained – yet Rick spends his whole time in boots, jeans and a long sleeved shirt. And its 37 degrees in the shade.

Rick reckons they are some kind of wheat fly and that they don’t bite. However, the abundance of red swollen marks on our bodies suggest otherwise.

We did think about moving to Camping El Brillante in Cordoba which is a municipal site within walking distance of the city but we decided that the move would consume the best part of a day and so abandoned the idea.

So the plan is to stay here until Friday.