We woke to a crisp morning at the somewhat bleak Camping Despenaperros – sun shining but still wickedly cold. Spoke to a chap from Blighty who didn’t appear to have too many concerns driving as far as Madrid. In fact he’d phoned a site close to the M-50 (Camping Madrid Arco Iris) the previous day and been told there were plenty of free places.

The weather forecast North of Madrid, near to our preferred stopover of Camping Riaza, still had severe weather warnings for snow and wind so we decided we would head for Camping Arco Iris.

The campsite itself though is somewhat of a revelation. It’s undergoing a lot of re-development and the pitches, which are of varying size, are nicely laid out and covered in gravel. Ours is a large plot with a fresh water tap and grey waste facilities.

Now, come at the “wrong” time of year and this place is likely to be overflowing but right now, it’s perfect. The toilet blocks are heated – essential – and everything is to a high specification, clean and nicely laid out.

We’ll definitely return to this site another year and spend a week or two near to Madrid. Public transport links from here to Madrid seem fine.

We sampled the Campsite Restaurant in the evening which was very good. The Tapas delivered to the table was a fantastic Potato Tortilla accompanied by something I can only describe as the Spanish version of Pork Scratchings.

We ate with Nigel and Joan (from Melksham, Wiltshire), the couple who at Despenaperros had recommended this site.

Main course was a shared “meat platter” which was also excellent. Moe of course sampled the Postres.

The journey of 165 miles was projected to take around 2.5 hours but in the end, despite no hold-ups, the journey time came out at 3.75 hours. The wind speed forecast and reported was 61 km/h (38 mph) with gusts in excess of 94 km/h (59 mph) and progress was very slow in places. Some sections of the motorway we were towing the wobbly box at just over 40 mph and by the time we reached Madrid, any wild ideas of progressing further had receded.

Note to oneself – don’t tow with wind speeds > 40mph or gusts > 60 mph.