Yesterday was uneventful. We have a bit of tedious admin to complete – insurance policies and other home related issues, so we have decided to head for a campsite for a few days.

SatNav tried to liven our mundane existence by taking us through some tortuous mountain roads. When I said in my last post that the Batuecas were a small range of hills rising out of the plains of Central Spain, I was wrong. In my road atlas they look like a small range of hills, but when we set of in the car we realised the whole area was mountainous. We had a hairy moment when roadworks had closed the “main” road in a tiny village and it was touch and go as to whether we could find an alternative route, but in the end we managed to manoeuvre through a totally unsuitable back street.

LIDL beckoned again when we reached Plasencia, the nearest town to our proposed campsite and then we ensconced ourselves at Camping La Chopera (40.047017, -6.057978 €17 on ACSI) located next to a lovely large river. The campsite is very empty and not much English is spoken, but it is good practise for my very fledgling Espanol.

There are a number of other Brits on site and one family who walked into Plasencia yesterday told us that they had seen and Otter on the way to town.

Basil at La Chopera

Today we had a day off, or to be more accurate I had a day off, other than the thankless task of trying to sort out house insurance. For those of you who have not done any long term travelling it probably hasn’t occurred to you that house or any other type of insurance would be a problem, but of course insurance company aren’t very welcoming to those of us that leave our houses empty for months each year! After much time listening to inane tunes on insurance company’s answer phones I think we have finally got something sorted out for next year.

Sarah went through her usual campsite routine of doing all our washing and then she managed to get her hammock set up. This was a £0.99 special from LIDL centre isle, but it has proved robust enough so far.

The Hammock in action

Later in the day I got my birding lens out hoping that if I took it down to the river I might spy a Kingfisher or something else interesting. As usual when the birds see the long lens they all disapear, but while I was walking along the river bank looking for birds (having honestly forgotten altogether about the Otter) on the far side of the river I saw a large Otter. I got my binoculars on it but before I could bring the birding lens into play it disappeared into undergrowth! I sat and waited for over half and hour for it to re-emerge, but it had obviously seen my birding lens too and was staying put.

Azure Magpie

The site has been quite good for bird spotting. Other than the obvious I have seen Azure Magpies, a Hoopooe, several Pied Flycatchers and a Blackcap. The Azure Magpies, which can only be seen in Spain appear in large numbers, but lighting conditions have not been good, but the birding lens will be out again tomorrow.

Hoopooe

No long after we purchased Basil we bought something called a Cadac. All caravaners and motorhomers will have heard of a Cadac. It is a type of gas fuelled barbecue will folds up for each storage. In addition to being a bbq, it also can be used as a griddle, oven, simple stove and it comes with a pizza stone. Needless to say our Cadac has sat in our garage for the last 3 years, unused and unloved. However this campsite is so hot, and the prospect of cooking in Basil so unappealing, that I have finally assembled the Cadac and read the instructions. Tonight, if the Cadac is very lucky it may get christened. It is sitting, attached the the external gas point, looking hopeful at the moment.

Mr. Cadac

Tomorrow our intention is to walk the two miles into Plasencia, which depending what time we get back I will either post about tomorrow or in two days.