#ThrowbackThursday - where we were on this day in Marchs past

My twelfth #ThrowbackThursday post already and these trips down memory lane are some of my favourite posts to put together. I love remembering everything we have seen, heard and done since I began blogging in 2012!

March 2013 was a life-changing month for both myself and for Dave although we didn't realise its full implications at the time. I blogged a particularly apt Soren Kirkegaard walking quote on the 27th of the month as we were walking daily around Austin, Texas, at the time and had previously had a week in wonderful New Orleans. I thought of this trip as 'holiday' and wasn't blogging my travels as I do now so there aren't any Austin photos. (The image instead is Dave's competition winning shot of the Brecon Beacons.) Our house was so bitterly cold on our return from America that we decided we never wanted to winter in the UK again. As it turned out, this was the seed of our caravan adventure and we haven't!

Bilbao harbour through
the ferry window 

A year later we had just returned from our first touring winter and were pitched up in Bailey at a nice Horam campsite while we got our Polegate house sorted out and habitable again. I remember feeling overwhelmed by how much accumulated stuff I had and Bailey felt much more like home than our house did. Although we were only away about five months I now had a remarkably different perspective on how I wanted to live and what was important to my day-to-day happiness. I had taken a sabbatical from my job which then wasn't honoured by the company concerned so a bout of eBaying decluttering provided the dual benefits of a income until I found alternative employment and the therapeutic effects of a good decluttering. We also began thinking about whether Polegate was a actually where we wanted to continue living or if a complete change of scene would be beneficial.

Walking man in Limoges 

March 2015 saw us visiting Limoges in France and I still love this metal walking man we saw attached to a wall there. Limoges  has a very pretty medieval old town. The art deco railway station is definitely worth a look too. I had forgotten how grey the French weather was until I saw the foreboding clouds over the station in my photograph!
We were about seven months into what would become twenty months of wonderful caravan living having sold our house the previous September. We had wintered mostly in Spain and were now making our way northwards for an exciting spring and summer touring the UK.

Spring colour in the Perigord 

We were in the beautiful Perigord region of France in March 2016, again heading back northwards after a sunny winter split between French and Spanish campsites. Spring flowers were everywhere and our Bois du Coderc campsite was surprisingly quiet despite being in the ACSI book. We think it is just far enough off the main European migration routes to avoid the majority of caravanners and motorhomers. Great for us as we could enjoy a tranquil week there - perhaps not so good for the campsite's profits!
Lifewise we had decided we wanted to buy a lock-up-and-leave flat somewhere and Dave thought that the south west of England would suit us best. We planned pretty intensive flat-hunting on our return and were already spending hours on RightMove. We just needed to spot that perfect place ... !

And now we're heading up through France again with our heads full of plans for 2017!

Homeward bound

Tomorrow will be our last day in Spain, for this season at least, as we are then homeward bound. We have returned to Camping Les Medes at L'Estartit for a few days and will put our caravan into storage nearby before zooming up through France with just the car and a couple of cheap hotel overnight stops. Have you ever tried getting the contents of a caravan and a car into just the car? It's a marvel of tessellation!

I'm feeling maudlin as I always do when one of our travel seasons comes to a close. It's especially sad this time though because I don't know how difficult 'our' government (we didn't bloody vote for them and they certainly don't represent us) will make it for us to travel in Europe in the future. Article 50 was triggered today so 'our' Brexit (we didn't bloody vote for it and it certainly isn't what we want) will shape and no doubt significantly restrict what we can do in the future. Will we need individual country visas again? How much further will our currency be devalued against the Euro? We've already noticed the exchange rate dropping every time Theresa May opens her mouth. If she keeps up that ridiculous toys-out-of-the-pram bargaining stance, even Portugal and Greece will soon be too expensive.

It feels very strange happily sitting here amongst people from at least eight different European countries and seeing the disgusting anti-Europe vitriol on Facebook spouted by the predominantly right-wing media back in England. All so stupidly short-sighted - unless you're one of the very few elite people who are going to make an absolute killing out of all this. I don't think the rest of us will even get what the Leave campaign shouted about, let alone what the people who voted leave actually thought they would achieve. There's no extra NHS money, that's for sure.

I wonder if this will be the last time we will return Home from Europe? Not that I want or intend to stop travelling you understand. It's just that if the Tories get the Brexit they want, I don't think that England will feel like my home any more.

Harry Whitewolf has perfectly summed up today in his new poem:

I DON’T FULLY SUPPORT THE E.U.,
BUT BREXIT WAS A REALLY BAD IDEA

The U.K. should begin with an F
And have a C after the U,
And it should end in E D
Now that we’ve left the E.U.

Upcoming music gigs I'm eagerly anticipating!

Julian Littman and Charlie Dore 

I've just received my brand new Peter Mulvey album, Are You Listening, which I helped Kickstart back in February. It's fab and you should get yourself a download via Amazon US / Amazon UK!
We've only got another week on mainland Europe before we head back to Devon so are planning our entertainment once we return. Fortunately we've already spotted a half dozen or so appealing gigs during the next three months, some in Devon and some further afield, and I am going to tell you about the April/May trio here.

Charlie Dore is playing at Kingskerswell on the 20th of May. We discovered and I blogged about Kingskerwell Parish Church as a South Devon music venue last summer and I love the space for its wonderful acoustics. It's a bring-your-own-cushion venue with a lovely atmosphere and don't forget your cake money for half time. Having previously heard Charlie play at Hailsham Pavilion, I believe her music will perfectly suit Kingskerswell so this gig should be a real treat.
Charlie will be joined by Julian Littman and supported by Peter James Millson and Totnes Pop Up Choir. Tickets are £13.75 including booking fee and you can Buy Online Here. Check out the rest of the Kingskerswell season too.

I first discovered Kirsty McGee several years ago when I blogged for Theatrical Eastbourne. I love her voice and style. I supported her Those Old Demons Kickstarter too and now we plan to finally actually see her play live! Together with Robert Garson as the duo Ocotillo, Kirsty will be at the Hawthorns Hotel in Glastonbury on the 26th of April. I've tweeted the Hotel to find out how to buy tickets and hope they answer soon!

Thirdly is a band we don't know much about, The Hothouse Four, but they have a regular engagement at a very local-to-us venue, Wellies Of Wellswood. Their next gig is on the 4th May - the night after my birthday. They play Western Swing and American roots music which we both enjoy so we're planning to book a table and enjoy a good meal whilst tapping our toes.

So I have got these three gigs to look forward to when we get home, plus another three in June which I will tell you about closer to the time. In the meantime, have a scroll through these South West listings from WeGotTickets and see what catches your eye!

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The Millennium Olive Trees of Calig

We took ourselves on a walk from the opposite side of Calig a couple of days ago and discovered a duo of ancient olive trees in an orchard just out of town. A bright green signboard drew our attention to the orchard and we were both glad that it had. Otherwise we would have passed by thinking 'just more olive trees'! They are one of the most predominant crops in this area and have been for centuries meaning that certain trees are now considered millennium olive trees or Oliveres Millenaries. There are over 4000 such specimens in the Territori del Senia which encompasses Alcanar, Benicarló, Càlig, Canet lo Roig, Cervera del Maestre, Freginals, La Galera, Godall, La Jana, Mas de Barberans, Peñarroya de Tastavins, Rossell, Sant Carles de la Rapita, Santa Bàrbara, La Sénia, Traiguera, Ulldecona and Vinaròs.

Of course no one actually knows exactly how old each particular tree is - scientists aren't cutting them down to count rings! - instead, membership of the 'club' is determined by a tree's circumference. For an olive tree to be included in the inventory, it must have a trunk perimeter of at least 3.50m at a height of 1.30m above ground. There's more information on this on the Millennium Olive Trees website.

These are the two stunning trees we saw:

A Sunday afternoon cycle - Vinaros to Cases

Machine gun post near Cases 

We cycled all the way to Catalonia today! Yay us!
Admittedly this feat only actually meant about a three hour pedalling round trip, but it was fun to pass under the Welcome to Catalonia signpost on the N340.

We drove from Calig and parked near the outward point of our previous Benicarlo to Vinaros cycle so we could continue along this stretch of the coast. It was a glorious day so the promenades and restaurants were packed. Fortunately the car park is huge so we had no trouble finding a space and unfolding our bicycles. The route is on roads through the edge of town for the first 10-15 minutes which could have been hairy were we in the UK, but here drivers are patient with cyclists and gave us a wide berth when they did pass. Eventually, just after an uphill curve, we spotted the beginning of a dedicated cycle path and this continues all the way into Cases. There were stunning sea views all the way!

View from the Vinaros-Cases cycle path 

After detouring to zoom round a potential campsite for next year, Camping Estanyet, we pedalled into town. Cases was even busier than Vinaros. We paused at a little Tourist Office kiosk to pick up a couple of local hiking maps, pleasantly surprised at its being open on a Sunday, before continuing straight on as far as another campsite, Camping Cases, which didn't look as promising for future trips. We didn't immediately realise that this was about as far as we would get. We tried cycling further, but had to rejoin the N340 which was heading to a grim-looking industrial plant and wasn't fun. We decided to about turn and look for lunching opportunities in Cases.

It soon struck us that, while we might have enjoyed the excellent cycle path facility, we hadn't seen any bike stands or bike parking since Vinaros. A quick zoom around Cases revealed only one bike hoop which had a restaurant table so close to it as to be unusable. Despite many cyclists, there was nowhere to lock up bikes and weirdly, none chained to railings or lampposts either. Where were they all? Hmmm! Fortunately we hadn't been sure whether any food places would be open - they all were - so had packed an emergency apple! We ate this on the prom, hoping it would provide energy enough for our return to Vinaros.

Machine gun posts near Cases 

I was intrigued by the sight of these two Civil War machine guns posts just outside Cases. We had seen them on the way in and couldn't work out why they were just offshore. You can see in the first photo that Curious Dave nearly got his feet wet in reaching one to peer inside! According to a handy signboard (in four languages!) the concrete emplacements originally faced out to sea from above the waterline and were part of extensive anti-fascist defences along the beach here. Since the 1930s, sea moving the shingle underneath has turned them around so they now seem to glare inland. As well as these two, there was another single post about half a mile further on.

Once back in Vinaros we were pretty tired. It turned out that the 'flat' cycle route had been slightly downhill on the way out! We thought again about lunch, but couldn't make a decision so instead treated ourselves to coffee and cake (and a caipirinha for Dave) at The Royal Bar before heading home.

Walking the PRV201 from Sant Mateu

We're into our last week at Camping l'Orangeraie now and have both loved this beautiful tranquil campsite. The glorious hot sunshine is an added bonus - we'd started to think the might be our first sun-free winter! On Thursday we returned to nearby Sant Mateu for a good tapas lunch at Bar Moderno in the Placa Major - I can recommend the delicious Ensalata Mixta - followed by what was supposed to be a 11k walk following in Roman footsteps and viewing the ruins of a medieval mill.

Our walk started out well. The route is the PRV201 (map and more info here) which has fairly frequent new signposts as well as yellow and white stripe markers. It starts out going away from the town along the Sendero Via Augusta from Placa de la Pietat in Sant Mateu where there is parking and a signboard showing a map of the town's several walking routes. Our first historical spot was the Pont de la Coma, a small old-looking bridge over a river that actually had water in it! (rare for this part of Spain!) The short concrete pillar you can see to the right of the bridge was moulded with the words 'VIA AUGUSTA' and its wheel symbol so we guessed there was a bridge or ford here in Roman times too - although this one looks more recent.

Pont de la Coma 

Moli Vell 

We continued a while longer, enjoying the scenery and pretty easy walking. Disappointingly though, shortly after crossing a larger road the PRV201 led up through a farmyard which had fenced across the path temporarily in order to move cattle. We decided to retrace our steps to the road and make a short detour. This cut across the middle of the walk meaning we missed out hill country views, but were able to proceed in the 'wrong' direction as far as the Moli Vell. This fifteenth century Old Mill is now in ruins and you can probably just make out its two stone constructions in this photo. It's big and sits above what is now a dried up rambla. We got a good idea of how fast water still flows along here in flood times though from the numerous tumbled boulders.

After exploring around the rambla for a while we turned back towards Sant Mateu and continued the walk as though we had done the whole loop, passing a spring and just about being overtaken by a jogger running much shorter loops up and down a steep hill - in this heat! We appreciated seeing a different aspect to this area from the coastal and agricultural areas.

Cycling from Benicarlo to Vinaros

Artichoke fields 

At the end of February I blogged about our day cycling from Benicarlo along the seafront to Peniscola. Now we have done the opposite journey - starting again at Benicarlo, but this time cycling to Vinaros. We anticipated similar scenery so were pleasantly surprised that our green route mostly sent us through agricultural land a little way back from the coast. At one point, all we could see between our cami and the sea was endless artichoke plants!

Vinaros experienced its heyday in the 16th and 17th centuries when extensive fortifications and navy yards were built. Its prosperity continued for another two centuries thanks to ship building and Valencian wine trade, but the town suffered a strong decline in the early 20th century when phylloxera devastated the region's vineyards. Now Vinaros relies mostly on tourism and fishing. It's is known for its prawns and this industry is celebrated with a huge iron statue on the town outskirts by the bullring. The giant shrimp is the work of Lluiz Ferrer who lives nearby in Sant Jordi. If you visit Sant Jordi, apparently his is the madly painted house!

Giant shrimp sculpture by Lluiz Ferrer 

Do you see that gorgeous blue sky in the shrimp photo? This was taken about half past twelve and depicts the weather as it had been all morning. We kept cycling along the seafront promenade from the bullring and passed numerous cafes, restaurants and shops, most of which were open and busy. Once past this commercial area, we decided to keep cycling, crossing over a river and passing a motorhome freeloading area before we suddenly ran out of road. We could have turned into a residential area, but looking ahead across a small bay we realised that we couldn't see very far anymore! A thick sea mist was rolling in! I did take a photo, but it was so misty that the picture is just a grey square.

Vinaros seafront 

Somewhat disappointed, we headed back into Vinaros with out minds turning to lunch instead. After a brief stop for Dave to relax in a fabulous concrete seat - there are several of these along the promenade - we decided upon Cop De Mar as our lunch spot. Dave had chipirones and I had one of the best salads ever. When in Vinaros, eat Ensalata Mandragora at Cop De Mar!

Suitably refreshed, but getting a tad chilly from the encroaching mist, we did cycle round a little of Vinaros for a couple of blocks back from the seafront. It is a pretty town with decorated buildings and more sculptures in public spaces. I liked the fountain pictured below. We had to cut our meanderings short and head back to the car because we didn't fancy cycling in the thickest of the mist and it was showing no signs of dispersing. Once back inland at our campsite we had glorious sunshine again!

No Fracking Way march happening right now! #nofrackingwayuk

I received an email yesterday evening from Andrew Cooper, one of a group undertaking a No Fracking Way protest march across Yorkshire and Lancashire this week. Regular blog readers may already have read my anti-fracking posts and will know I am a keen walker so I am happy to support this protest, albeit virtually and from two thousand miles away.

What is the No Fracking Way?
The ‘No Fracking Way’ is a 5 day protest march from the Yorkshire Fracking site at Kirby Misperton to the Lancashire Fracking site at Preston New Road in Blackpool. A core group of Green Party activists are walking the 120 miles between the 2 points starting on Wednesday 8th March and finishing on Sunday 12th March. Along the way these walkers will be highlighting the dangers of Fracking to local communities and the global environment. They will also be talking about cleaner alternatives to Fracking such as the different types of renewable energy, and how energy efficiency programmes for our homes can help reduce how much energy we consume.

As well as the walk itself, there are events planned en route including evening gigs and talks in York, Harrogate, Skipton, Burnley and Kirkham. Check this page of the No Fracking Way website for details.

And if you want to join part of the walk, No Fracking Way left Kirby Misperton at 7:30 this morning (ouch!) on a 29 mile hike as far as Brafferton. Further days' walks are broken down into between 19 and 25 mile segments and there is a detailed break down of the schedule Here.

Walking the almond orchards from Calig

Dave chose our current Calig campsite, Camping l'Orangeraie, as it is further inland than our usual coastal bases which we hoped would give us different walking opportunities. Admittedly we are still less than a half hour drive away from the coast, but very few truly inland campsites are open in Spain in the winter unless they service large towns and cities. Camping l'Orangeraie opened on the 5th of February this year and is slowly filling up now we are in to our second week here. Interestingly, and perhaps because it is a French-owned site(?), there have been absolutely no Spanish people staying here. We are mostly Dutch with a few Germans, French, British and Belgians. I was surprised how happy I felt wandering into Recepcion on the spur of the moment yesterday to ask about staying longer. Not so much because we're staying another week on this beautiful campsite, but because I just knew the French phrases and responses I needed to converse. For a couple of minutes I felt fluent!!

We've now explored several hours worth of the local agricultural tracks and camis nearby. There is a nice one-hour circuit from the campsite although over half of it is along the campsite road - not particularly busy, but tarmac and with not much of a verge onto which to jump away from traffic! Dave spent time Google mapping the cami network the other day and managed to put together a rewarding three hour expedition that took us over towards the hilltop town of Cervera. There was a good view of it in the distance, but sadly just too far for my phone to cope with. Most of our walk was alongside almond orchards where the pretty pink blossoms are now giving way to new green leaves. If the trees aren't almond then they are probably orange or mandarin, many of which are dropping their crops to the ground which seems such a waste. There was a sweet scent of rotting oranges for much of our walk - actually more pleasant to experience than it sounds!

We have also resolved one of our local Questions. We find that travelling raises hundreds of Questions, usually none of which we ever manage to answer - I wonder what that is / what that word means / why this is here? However, we learned that a 'Pou' around this part of of the world is a spring or fountain. Elsewhere in Spain it is 'fuente'. We know this because instead of just seeing yet another handwritten wooden arrow pointing to a Pou, we saw the very thing itself! Pictured is Pou N'Eriol which consists of a large covered well with a lowerable bucket plus a trough alongside. There are shepherds with sheep and goats around here who must make use of these springs for their flocks daily. Several Pou are signed in the area.

We visit the historic walled town of Sant Mateu

Medieval tombstones at the Calvary 

Sant Mateu is mentioned - alongside Vilafames, Onda and Peniscola - in our Castellon Day Trips And Getaways book as one of twelve towns to visit in order to comprehensively discover Castellon province's history. Over thousands of years Castellon has been home to Iberians, Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, and chivalric orders such as the Knights Templar so there are traces of an incredible diversity of cultures here.

One of Sant Mateu's prides is 260m of Montesian style masonry walls which are certainly an impressive sight. This section was restored in 1995. Originally 1600m of wall encircled the town at an average height of 6m. It was built between 1357 and 1380 and was the second significant enclosure to be constructed here. An earlier wall protecting the then much smaller settlement around St Peter's Church had been built in the 13th century.

Sant Mateu town walls 

We enjoyed strolling Sant Mateu's streets and noting interesting details such as heavy doors and intricately tiled balconies. There seemed to be a disproportionate number of town houses for sale here, especially away from the centre, with many being in a very poor state of repair and numerous renovation companies at work. A far cry from the town's heyday when it was a rich commercial centre particularly famed for its wool which was exported as far away as Florence! We even saw one demolition site where parts of a kitchen interior - tiled walls and a sink - were still attached and hanging from where a second storey apartment no longer stood.

Other more official sights we explored included the public laundries two of which exist and one of which is still open and even appears to be used. We also popped into both churches which were remarkably not-gaudy and gilted, and peered up at the bell tower, unusual due to its having eight-sides. Sant Mateu council has arranged for small placards at most of the historic sites of interest. Written in several languages, including English, they give a good idea of the town's past and meant we were never in need of a guidebook - which was great because the Tourist Office is shut on Mondays!

Sant Mateu main square 

In contrast to the dilapidated exterior, Sant Mateu's main town square and surrounding streets were an uplifting bustle of commerce and leisure. We sat outside a cafe near the Angel Fountain watching the world go by and soaking up the sunshine, both thinking that this would be a lovely town in which to live! There are predominantly independent shops including several small bakeries, greengrocers and butchers, and the views out over the surrounding agricultural land are beautiful. Sant Mateu is about a half hour drive from our current Calig campsite and we are considering returning on any-day-but-Monday to perhaps explore the museums and treat ourselves to a €12 Menu del Dia lunch!

Those Romans woz ere too!