Moving on from Ametlla de Mar

It's our last day at Camping Ametlla today before we move on to pastures new tomorrow morning. Although we obviously would have preferred better weather - it seems to be a mediocre season all over Iberia so far - we have enjoyed a number of good walks and visits from here. It's also worked out very reasonably pricewise. We did indeed get the stay-30-nights-pay-for-21 discount so our pitch for us both with electricity ended up costing just a little over 10 euros per night. No long car journeys for a month has meant a big saving on diesel usage as well.

We're gradually packing away everything today in preparation for a couple of hours towing tomorrow, but I just wanted to share a couple of images from local walks we have done in the past week through mostly agricultural land near to the campsite. The first picture above is of a small water holding reservoir attached to an attractive rural house that was 'se vende' (for sale). I wouldn't have fancied drinking the water, but the reservoir was almost full so we thought it must be spring-fed. The house was up a hill on a sun-trap plateau with room to park a caravan ... !

This second photograph is of an old lime kiln. One thing I love about coming to Spain in the winter is that we get the benefits of an infrastructure intended for many tourists, but without those crowds. In fact we often have places practically to ourselves. This Lime Kiln is a case in point. Our local rural wanders took us across an established walk, the Ruta de Oliveras, (route of the olive growers) which is punctuated by information placards about aspects of historic industry. Had there not been a handy and informative sign right there by the track, put up with EU funding for the benefit of passers-by, we probably wouldn't even have noticed anything special about this sandy bank. However, we now know not only that it is an old lime kiln, a Catalan version of those we saw in Devon and Somerset last summer, but also rough details of how it worked - all in three languages. (Forn de calc in Catalan / Horno de cal in Castellano Spanish).

Now it's adeu and moltes gracies Ametlla, and bon dia Oropesa!