Today is the biggest day in the festival of Sant Antoni Abad and Santa Agueda at Benicassim – Paella day.

Fireworks woke us at 07:30 and lasted for a full hour. A wake-up call to head into Benicassim for a traditional Spanish breakfast with Paul. By the time we arrive at 09:00 the square is busy and the beer flowing.

We pay our 1 Euro each for the breakfast which consisted of a chunk of bread and some meats. Whilst I examined the meats with suspicion, Paul tucked into the black sausage. Just at that moment I exclaimed they needed cooking. Too late, Paul has uncovered a new delicacy, raw Spanish Black Pudding.

When we finally figured out what to do, my dodgy Spanish sausages had already entered the recycling system.

At noon, all the bonfires are lit and the start of Paella day begins in earnest.

This Paella was the largest one we saw.

All the streets in the centre of town were closed to traffic and the compulsory bonfires were busy cooking Paella. The crowds were large and we figure the whole population of Benicassim were enjoying the feast and associated bank holiday.

Storm Gloria has finally passed and is reputed to have been one of the strongest storms to hit the Eastern portion of Spain since 1982.

The current death count stands at 11. In many respects we have escaped the storm lightly. Just lots and lots of rain and wind. Further North, monumental amounts of snow have closed roads and caused havoc.

Today (Wednesday) and things are much quieter. A chance to patch up the electrics on the bike and then a ride to Oropesa del Mar. The holiday town which resembles a ghost town. It’s around a ten mile round trip along the Via Verde and the electrics aren’t really necessary.

In the afternoon we met up with Paul and Andrea in Benicassim and spent the late afternoon and evening in a series of bars, eating at Chiquitas in the evening.

Today Moe joined me on the bike ride to Oropesa del Mar again and whilst the winds have dropped, the sea is still angry.

In the afternoon, we cooked a BBQ. This bottle of Rioja was left in the freezer a little longer than was necessary to achieve chilled status.

A testament to our new hybrid Domestic cooler / freezer.

This is an easy entry in which to catch up a few blog days worth of blogging. Storm Gloria arrived at Benicassim during the early hours of Sunday morning and will be sticking around for another 24 – 36 hours. It will be Wednesday before we can start to think about drying things out.

Weather is atrocious, but in many respects we are lucky as elsewhere in Spain and away from the coastal regions, some monumental amounts of snow have lashed the Iberian peninsula.

A BBQ in Paul and Andrea’s awning last night and a visit to Leroy Merlin today. It really is a quality DIY store and puts our aging and tired B&Q chain to shame.

We came away with a stunning new awning light – antique dimmable LED! I’m afraid the picture doesn’t do justice…

Next on to Decathlon for a few more items of warm clothing. Now, the checkout was really wacky. We had armfuls of clothes and the guy at checkout gestured to us to place them in a container. Immediately he demanded payment – no barcode scannning, just an instantaneous price – how cool is that?

And in blighty, we think we are ahead of the game… Think again!

In 2015, Vilafames joined two other Castellon towns on the official list of “Spain’s Most Beautiful Towns” and deserves to be on that list and one can appreciate this as you start to approach the town.

The town seems to delicately climb its way up the hill on which it is perched.

Vilafames feels like a boutique town with a lovely character which blends the old with the new and has a population of around 2000 inhabitants. Despite this history, culture and stunning views across the countryside the town was very quiet for a Saturday afternoon and we appeared to be the only tourists around.

On the ascent through the town is a massive rock. It’s known locally as “the large rock” and it is estimated to weigh 2163 tons and has a volume of 832 cubic metres. Its sits precariuosly at an angle of 34 degress.

As legend has it, the inhabitants feared that they might be crushed by this massive rock, so they wanted to drag it to the plain. A long rope was tied around the rock, and then the residents began pulling hard. When you see the rock, you won’t be surprised to hear that the rope broke, and the impressive rock didn’t move. The locals all fell onto the ground and got their “culitos” (backsides in Spanish) dirty, and this earned them the nickname of – culrojos – red bottoms.

The remains of the Vilafames castle, perched on top of the hill at 390 metres above sea level, are most likely from the 14th century. At this time Vilafames was annexed to the order of Santa Maria de Montesa, but during the centuries that followed, circumstances and different uses of the castle dictated that it underwent many changes. One example was during the Carlist Wars, in the 19th century, when the castle was adapted to keep up with new war techniques. The circular central tower was built, which is one of a handful of examples to be found within the Valencia community of Carlist architecture.

Construction of the Vilafames Parish Church of the Assumption began in 1594 and it was initially dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin. The architect Martin Garcia de Mendoza, who was the master of the Cathedral in Tortosa, designed the floor. Juan Palacios was in charge of the work being carried out.

On our way back to Benicassim, we spotted that London was directly overhead, in a manner of speak.

Later in the evening we headed into Benicassim for dinner at La Guindilla. This restaurant was a fine choice by Paul and Andrea – the food was superb and I would highly recommend the 25 Euro Tapas set menu – inclusive of drinks, desert and coffee.

The Electricity is a little expensive here at Camping Bonterra Park in Benicassim so we decided to heat the caravan by gas. At the moment, particularly during the night, temperatures fall off quite dramatically.

Anyhow, our LPG cylinder is approaching empty so we set aside the morning to get it refilled. There are about 100 LPG stations throughout Spain and they are reasonably evenly spaced.

Our first choice was the Repsol garage at Castellon, about a 30 minute drive away. We always struggle to fit the propane dispenser properly; coupled with a potential requirement to Prepay and it wasn’t long before some jobsworth spotted us filling the Safefill cylinder and started gesturing at us. A few minutes later the manageress appeared and basically told us we weren’t filling it there!

Fortunately the Cooperativa was a totally different experience and we now have a full tank! Despite that, pretty much the entire morning had passed by.

Post lunch and we prepared the bikes for a trip along the via verde from Benicassim to Oropesa del Mar. This via verde, like many others across Europe, follows an old railway line which, in this case, used to traverse the coastline between these two towns.

The cycle ride (some 6km to the outskirts of Oropesa) itself is stunning but the town of Oropesa del Mar is just a ghost town. I suspect during the height of summer it will be rammed with tourists but right now it’s closed.

The weather so far has been nice during the day and very pleasant in direct sun. Daily highs have been typically around 19 degrees but under clear skies, temperatures drop off rapidy post sunset and overnight lows are only a few degrees.

Electricity is charged at Eur 0.40 per unit which is close to three times the price for typical domestic energy. We can fill our Safefill LPG bottle for around Eur 14 and the equivalent price per kw/h is about Eur 0.90.

Needless to say we are running the heating on gas!

Pleasant BBQ in the afternoon before heading into Benicassim – this is after all, Thursday 16th January and the day on which the festival of San Antonio Abad and Santa Agueda commences.

From what we can see, this represents a perfect excuse for the Spanish to party for a good 10 days. Not that the Spanish need a lot of encouragement to throw a decent fiesta.

The tradition of St. Anthony Abad and the blessing of the animals is celebrated in many towns, not just Benicassim. Here there are campfires in the streets, and some of the typical products are roasted, such as chops and artichokes.

There is also a procession of floats, animals and bareback riders on horseback.

The celebrations will be noisy and last most of the night. Probably every night over the next 10 days!

Day 3 and we finally docked around 10:45 am Spanish time and the ferry, Cap Finistere, had found calmer waters the closer we got to Bilbao. Because of the late arrival we had a decent nights sleep but it would be more of a challenge getting down to Benicassim (just north of Valencia) in a days drive.

Fortunately we were in touch with Paul and Andrea who were already camped at Bonterra Park and they had reserved a great pitch for us. Thus eliminating the need to wander around the site in the dark trying to pick a decent pitch.

Had we not had that luxury, we should and would have stopped of at the municipal site near Zaragoza.

In the end, save for some caravan wobblying winds near to Bilbao – necessitating a max 40mph on the motorway – the remainder of the journey was uneventful on typically quiet Spanish motorways. A mixture of tolls and free passage with the charges coming in at about 35 Euros for the entire journey from Bilbao to Benicassim – some 405 miles.

We had reserved a standard plus pitch, which wasn’t the largest at the site but included water at each plot and grey waste disposal. The tiny avenues to the pitches are an absolute nightmare – we had to unhitch the van and use the motormover to get it all into postion.

We then found that the pitch wouldn’t fit van, awning and car with the direction we wanted to face so we actually moved into an adjoining pitch the next morning and set about siting the awning and all of our toys.

Here’s a picture of the setup.

Setting up took most of the day and dinner in the evening was at the site restaurant.

Our Brittany ferries sailing finally departed around 09:15 and I’m fully loaded with anti sea-sick pills.

The Club class cabin is nicely appointed with TV, fruit, water and a selection of biscuits. It is though close to the bow of the boat and this isn’t the best place to be in a force 9 gale. .

In fact, dry land is the only place to be – we are still a couple of hours away from the Bay of Biscay and the ship is heaving big time.

I used to tolerate sea motion but this tolerance appears to be fading as age advances. Still, the Stugerons appear to be keeping physical symptons at bay but whether or not tonights dinner hits the spot remains to be seen.

The bar at the rear of the boat isn’t too bad but it’s close on 5pm and I haven’t dared to try a beer yet. Times of old a few pints of beer would cure any motion sickness. In fact most any illness!

We are 8 hours in with another 16 to go. Correction it’s been changed to 18 more hours as progress is slow.

In the end, an uneventful 3 hour drive from East Devon to Portsmouth Harbour. Storm Brendan is brewing in the Atlantic and we are waiting for our sailing to be cancelled. Presently the departure time has been put back from Sunday @23:00 to Monday morning @08:45.

This is apparently due to prior delays, not an attempt to avoid the impending storm acorss the Bay of Biscay.

No email or text alerts arrive so we set off early afternoon, arriving at the dock just before 5pm. We will camp here until boarding commences at 6:00am on Monday the 13th.

We discovered a nice little unspoilt pub close to the docks – the Ship and Castle – for early evening drinks. Shame we hadn’t know about this place before as it’s a much nicer spot to enjoy early evening drinkies than the port building. It also serves a very nice pint of Fullers ESB and is just a three minute walk from the quayside.