Yesterday when we arrived at the campsite, we were given a limited number of pitches to chose from, because the campsite said they had a block booking. What they didn’t explain, and which became obvious not much later, was that the block booking was for a motorbike rally. So yesterday afternoon and evening a hundred or more motorbikes and their riders swarmed over the camp.
Basil’s spot at Camping Monfrague Park
This would not have been a problem, given that the vast majority were middle aged bikers, except that some clearly have not left their teenage years behind. The result was that at times there was a cacophony as various bikes were revved hard, presumably to demonstrate the superiority of someone’s engine or exhaust system. By luck rather than good judgement, we had parked Basil as far away from the motorcycle rally as possible, so largely we were able to look on from afar.
In the evening we decided to eat at the campsite restaurant who were serving a €9 menu of the day! I had previously been down to the restaurant to practice my Spanish for “are dogs allowed on the terrace” and having got a positive response Mabel and Melek tagged along.
Regular readers will recall that Mabel and Melek have eaten with us in dozens of pubs and restaurants without problem. There may have been the occasional bark, but no more. Tonight however the dogs had clearly decided to audition for a role in slapstick.
We had settled down at our table, received our drinks and were discussing the menu when enter left a black dog and his owner on a very long lead. I warned Sarah of the approaching dog and we both thought we were prepared for any misbehaviour, but Mabel and Melek had other ideas. The black dog passed our table making sure it stuck its nose under our table for good measure and our dogs exploded with indignation.
They were both tied to Sarah’s chair so couldn’t get anywhere, but the energy of their combined response led to the table tipping over, our wine and beer glasses crashing onto their sides and a half pint of beer and a glass of white wine making its way over the menu onto Sarah’s lap. Luckily the waiter thought it was amusing (which I did not) and Sarah was as tolerant of her canine friends as ever. The waiter professionally cleared the mess and got us new drinks. The offending black dog and his owner sat two tables down whining (the dog not the owner) which had our dogs on high alert and me hanging on hard to my beer, for the next few minutes. Sarah spent the rest of the meal in soggy shorts!
Today has been one of our most relaxing. We have had long form to complete (more administration) and we have toyed with going horse riding (Sarah) and on a bird watching safari (me), tomorrow. But as usual we prevaricated for too long and so by the time I went to book the activities there were no spaces. So tomorrow we will be setting off for the town of Trujillo for some more cultural enlightenment.
The site has been mostly quiet, despite the motorbike rally, because the bikers all left during the morning presumably to ride around the national park. There will, no doubt, be more “my exhaust is louder than yours” tonight!