leaving the Costas and heading north to the ferry

27^th November 2013 still on the coast

We wake early enough to catch the man with the bread van, and buy croissants and fresh bread. The croissants are coated with a watery sugar glaze that makes them sticky to handle, and adds nothing to the taste. Delicious anyway.

We have finished breakfast by 0930 and this means today we get away and see something of the surrounding area. The sky is blue and the sun is out as we set off up the mountain to see El Castell de Guadalest, and the grand house or Casa Orduna at the summit. It is slow winding our way up the mountain, and gets quite cold as we ascend. We manage about 40kph up the hill. There are far reaching views down to the sea 15km away. Maybe it is the town of L’Alfas del Pi rather than Benidorm since we don’t see any high rise buildings from up here.

The grand house is nicely furnished with artefacts from the 19^th century. The Orduna family look severely at us from formal portraits, and then suddenly there are a few rooms of modern art, mostly local landscapes. The house sits on and overhangs the rock, and there is a staircase built onto the rock going up to a cemetery above. The view down to the local streets and tourist shops is very pretty. There is a terrace with crenellations and a huge drop over the edge.

After a good look round the hilltop ‘castle’, we decide to have lunch in the town, Guadalest. In an unlikely café we have a three-course meal followed by coffee. It comes to a modest €22, which included our drinks. As a gesture of kindness to the owner we spend another €12 in the shop adjoining it.

Coming down from the mountain village, we take a different route, going past a motorcycle museum, and looking for a series of cascades or waterfalls. We don’t see these, but enjoy some stunning vistas coming down.

The weather has turned cold, and with dark skies overhanging the mountains, we are riding in drizzle. A local pharmacist displays the time and temperature. At 3pm it is 10’ C and feels even colder on the bike. We are well wrapped up against the cold. The ride is exhilarating, and the road twists sharply down the mountain.

We find our stanav has a flat battery and is of no use, so I rely on the signs to Alfas and the sense of relief in finding our site in the orange groves is calming. We put the kettle on for a hot cup of tea, badly needed. Our neighbours collar us to garner every little detail of our trip. They are spending three months on this site, and their days out will be walking their dogs, and going shopping.

29th November

We stayed overnight inland from Tortosa, maybe at 500-800m, and we had frost outside in the morning. We were woken at about 4am by the water pump and our fresh water being dumped.

I got up and had a look; the solenoid switch opens the water tank when either the battery is run down, or the temperature approaches freezing. The thermometer read 3'c and the battery was almost flat. I put a clothes peg on the solenoid switch to stop it dumping the water, and turned the fridge off, since it was using battery power, and went back to bed.

We were sleeping under 2 duvets it was so cold, and in the morning when we got up there was frost around us, but not much. The spiderwebs around spiky aloes have frost on them.

We are driving northeast towards Bilbao and the ferry, and are thinking we will stop at San Sebastian for the last few days on the northern coast, near France.

We are spending less on road tolls than France, but are sometimes stumped by the instructions!

The scenery has been changing from the orange groves of the south to fruit trees of peach and plum, then cereal crops, and large flat plains which look arable. It reminds me of South Africa, or even parts of Zimbabwe, in places. Here are some lovely fruit tree plantations.