Monday morning, we broke camp at Camping Terra Alta in Bot, first job was to collect the wine we had bought from the local cooperative. As we had enjoyed cycling the Via Verde, we decided to drive to an Aire further down the Via Verde at El Pinel de Brai station so we could cycle again. Google Maps first option to get to El Pinel de Brai was a very small round with lots of hairpin switchbacks, so we didn’t choice that one and went the longer way around. Once we had parked up and taken the bikes off (that Rog had carefully secured only half an hour ago!) we saddled up. We set off cycling downhill first this time, but not too steeply, but we knew it would be uphill coming home! We had a vague plan to cycle as far as the village of Xerta, however on the outskirts of the village we came across a small fire in a picnic area, thankfully the local Bomberos (Firemen) had just arrived to deal with the fire, so we decided to stay the same side of the fire as the motorhome, just in case it got out of hand, it didn’t! So we cycled back for lunch at ‘La Brasa Verda’ the café in the old station building. The building was old, it looked like they had ongoing renovation plans, which they were doing when they could. We chose to sit outside under a newly constructed veranda, which looked like a fruit cage, to keep the bugs out, we sat on a traditional basic picnic bench. However the food they served was amazing, it was some of the simplest, yet the best, we have had in a long time. We ordered;
Goats cheese tapas – three different types of locally made goats cheese, all soft cheeses and very ‘fresh’, nothing too “goaty” all wonderfully tasty and served with a fruit compote, that even Nic couldn’t identify, but which complimented the cheese.
Tomato Salad – Sliced beef tomatoes topped with seeds, mixed herbs and olive oil. Another stunning dish.
Grill – a choice of two meats from chicken, sausage or burger, we had the chicken and the sausage. Lovely tender chicken skewers and tasty sausage, served with potatoes, onion (sadly not cooked enough for Nic to enjoy) and aubergine (which Nic did enjoy).
We wanted to order the local lamb, but they had run out so we opted for the wild tuna.
Tuna – was stunning, it is without a doubt the best Tuna we have ever eaten, again just simply cooked and served, it was lightly cooked over an open wood fire (like everything else), it was so fresh and tender. We very nearly went back for lunch again the following day, just to have the tuna again!
Followed by fresh melon and watermelon, local sweet pastries & sweet wine, then local homemade shots (one peppermint and one quince) with the bill, and a chat with the Chef about the Isle of Man, as he was wearing a Celtic Nations T-shirt which included a Manx flag!
And all for less than €60 (£50) – which also included ½ litre of wine, a couple of beers
and coffee, possibly a little expensive locally but worth every cent!
Luckily the carpark was also an Aire so we spent the night. Once all the to-ing and fro-ing of the Via Verde stopped it was a quiet night with only one other van, and beautiful dark sky for star spotting.
Tuesday morning, we moved down to the coast, actually a delta which sticks out into the mediterranean sea (or according to Google Map the Balearic sea as we are opposite Mallorca), to a campsite called Eucaliptus, a large campsite, but our cheapest paid pitch to date, we were packed in, just enough room to get the awning out, but the closest motorhome was a seasonal pitch and they were currently not there, which was nice. There appeared to be a lot of seasonal pitches, the opposite pitch appeared to have lots of feral children, who were still running around at 1am on our first night, when they were accompanied by 3 females, the second night a man and dog arrived for what turned out to be their last night, and it was all much quieter!
We swam in the sea, went for cycle rides along the coast, saw flamingos, but did little else for the 3 nights we were there. We were approached by the only other Brit on the site to borrow a screw driver, so he could fix his pizza peel for his portable pizza oven.
Rog managed to lose a pair of sunglasses in the sea, whist trying to body surf and got hit by a huge wave (ok, a wave which was slightly bigger than the rest, but didn’t see it coming)
On Friday morning we left Eucaliptus camp and headed to Sant Josep Caves in la Vall d’Uixó, as their car park is another free Aire, as we had tickets to the caves on Saturday morning, but Friday night, was an interesting night, with fireworks in the distance and the loud music from somewhere until at least 6am (Nic heard it, Rog was asleep!)
Saturday morning, the caves of Sant Josep were really interesting, not that we understood much of the Spanish commentary, but we had a boat ride in the cave, on the longest navigable underground river in Europe.
Saturday afternoon, we set off for Valencia, or at least the Valencia Camper Park, 12km outside Valencia, but right near a Metro station for easy access into Valencia. However the Metro line is currently being upgraded so is not running, so instead there is a replacement bus service, which we’ll try on Monday!
The Valencia Camper park appears to be a converted industrial unit, with various sizes of pitches, being cheap we opted for the smallest size of pitch, it’s cosy, we can get our awning 2/3rds of the way out, but it is only €17 per night (£14)
Sunday, Nic spotted a good looking restaurant online called “ Resataurante El Gordo y El Flaco” in the local town of Betera, 20mins walk from the camper park, so we set off in search of lunch. We got there as it opened at 1:30 and managed to get the last table in the house. They also managed provide an English waiter from the Midlands to serve us, which was a bit weird but helped a lot with the menu and ordering. Another really good meal, but we managed to over order, partly as before the food we actually ordered we had, (on the house), nuts and crisps, a small slice of ‘pizza’, and a bowl of Russian tuna salad.
We then had 3 starters to share, thankfully on the advice of the waiter we had ordered half portions of these. We had Iberico Ham served with “tomato bread”, some Croquettas, and a Millefuille which was layers of Foie Gras, goats cheese and apple confit, with a brulee topping. Nic could have stopped there! Rog then had Hake and Nic had Turbot, both served with veg. Then Puddings had to be done too, Chocolate three ways for Rog and Cheesecake for Nic.
This bill was slightly bigger than the one on Monday!!
Then a slower walk back to the site and a dip in the pool for Nic to aid digestion!
Travurple 