Via Verde Los Molinos Del Agua

Reluctantly after 5 days it was time to leave 'Motorhome Friends' and Portugal, heading back to Spain for our next Via Verde located in the town of Valverde del Camino, just north of Huelva close to the border with Portugal. 

The town of Valverde del Camino is a laid back sort of Spanish town, quite smart, lots of cafes and restaurants and well maintained with a number of interesting rest areas decorated with elaborate fountains. It is also famous for leather work particularly the manufacture of handmade boots and shoes. 

We found the camperstop in the north of the town, but the weather was still messing up our plans with regular very heavy cloudbursts, so for our first day we set out on foot heading north on the Via Verde 'Los Molinos del Agua' (our 7th Via verde) The trail was too rugged for our hybrid bikes and we only walked 3 miles before we had a to turn back due to an immense puddle and some very soft sandy mud which we were sinking up to our ankles in, it also started raining again so we weren't too upset to turn back to the van! 

Every Via verde has proved to have different scenery and this was no exception- it was almost like being on the Moors with rolling countryside of heather and gorse, when we walked through the cuttings they had been cut through the most amazing coloured slate - I just wanted to collect some up to take home for the garden!

After an evening confined to the van we were were able to set out on on a sunny Tuesday morning on our bikes on the Via Verde heading south through another different landscape.

First through forests of umbrella pine (Pinus Pinea) then eucalyptus, then cork, all growing in an amazing ochre colour sandy soil. It proved to be an incredible sensual journey with the intense menthol smell of the eucalyptus, the hot pines and the wonderful colours with birdsong we had  never heard before.
 Half of our route was on smooth tarmac and the rest on compacted gravel so we were able to cycle almost 30 miles for the day without too
much difficulty, stopping at our turnaround point for a picnic lunch.
Back at the van we then had to decide where to go next, our time is slowly running out, the weather is getting cooler, the days shorter - another Via Verde or maybe another seaside resort?

Cork trees - stripped bare of their clothes!!

A day out in Alte....

Perched on a hill, Alte is one of the prettiest villages of the Algarve. Our generous host Pedro insisted we borrow their car for a trip out, 

The weather was decidedly changeable so how could we refuse, we certainly landed on our feet when we arrived at 'Motorhome Friends' !

So we headed inland to Alte and spent the day wandering the narrow streets of pretty painted houses typical of the Algarve.

We visited the 16th century church Nossa Senhora de Assunçao and the water source Fonte Grande on the edge of the village where the women would meet to do their washing and share the village gossip. 

The area is now a tranquil riverside picnic area dedicated to a famous poet who was born in Alte,the walls of the area are decorated with beautiful blue and white tiles inscribed with some of the works of the poet.

All this sightseeing made us hungry so we stopped for lunch in a restaurant overlooked by the church and just for a while we sat and watched the world pass us by.

Just a little bit of Portugal paradise...

Our adventure continues and on Monday we headed into Portugal and the Algarve. Our destination being a town near Lagos called Alvor, a bustling tourist resort with a pretty harbour area and lovely long sandy beaches.

And on the way we found the place to have our gas bottle refilled and for only just over 6€ (less than £5 - now that's cheap!) This means we can stay on camperstops with no electric hookup again. Thanks to John and Gill for the recommendation!

On our first night in Alvor we treated ourselves to a pizza in one of the many restaurants in town  followed by a coffee and a walk along the harbour front.

The next day we headed out on our bikes to cycle along the many coastal boardwalks around Alvor stopping, of course, for a coffee along the way.

Back at the site, we had mainly English neighbours who are staying on site for the winter. The Algarve has a lovely temperate climate to get away from the cold English winter with its short days, I can definitely see the attraction!

 But we wanted to find an area away from the resorts so using our app Park4night we head to a mini campsite 6 miles north of Albefeira.

The campsite is called 'Motorhome friends' and the site is actually in their garden with lovely views of the surrounding countryside. Mareilla and Pedro, our hosts, made us very welcome and
we had use of the toilet and shower in their house ( heaven after some of the places we have been to!)
We were also invited to coffee an Almond liqueur while Pedro showed us a video all about the site and the surrounding area, he is Portuguese and he spoke to us in English and French to the other couple - very impressive to be able to speak in two other foreign languages, switching from one to the other!

Paderne castle

Of course we explored the area and nearby is a ruin of a Moorish castle, a Roman bridge and an
ancient mill as well as a small town nearby for a coffee and cake, but this time we went out on foot as some of the paths were not so well suited to bikes.

Paderne castle is one of the castles from the last phase of the Muslim occupation in the 13th century eventually being conquered by the Portuguese in 1248. Although now in ruins it is one of the castles symbolised on the coat of arms of the national flag.

The Portuguese flag 

We cycled to Albefeira but didn't enjoy it, the roads were much too busy, the Portuguese drivers don't respect cyclists and give them space on the road, my nerves were frayed by the time we got back! The resort town was a massive tourist resort and not our kind of place at all. If you know anything about us you know we like to keep off the beaten track! Oh yes, and it was very hilly, I don't like too many steep hills!

The Roman bridge viewed from the castle 

We had intended to stay at Motorhome friends for two nights but they made us so welcome we stayed for longer, they only charge 8.50€ a night (about £6) and we felt we could experience more of the real Portugal here.

Is this the real Spain?

In the end we stayed at Chipiona for 5 days and on Sunday we cycled the whole length of the Via Verde (and back!) again, having found a window in the weather which had rather turned against us! The forecast was for rain and we certainly got that during the night but after about 10am the rain held off and we could enjoy our cycle ride without getting a soaking!

We did have an incident along the way though, the overnight rain had turned one short section of our trail a bit muddy, a very sticky mud which got caught up between the back tyre and the mudguard and we both ground to a halt with our back wheels refusing to turn! In the end Keith removed the back mudguard on each bike to clear the clod of mud out, we then wheeled the bikes to the next section of the path which was not at all muddy. Strangely, on our way back we were able to traverse the same section without any problem because the sun had quickly dried all the sticky mud. It was as if we had had a trick played on us - very odd!!!

Our campsite owner, Alfonso, had made a point of being friendly and helpful right from our arrival and he always made a point of calling out to us " Hello Kate" and "Hello Anhela"  we didn't have the heart to correct him...

All sorts of people stayed on this campsite, only one other English couple ( ask Keith to tell you about the Two Poodle Puppet Show when you see him (!) ) mostly Spanish families, a Belgian couple, three French motorhomes and a Swiss van occupied by a short man with a very long grey pointy beard and long grey hair wearing a wooly hat, we called him the 'Motor-gnome'.  Oh dear! We have become such terrible people watchers, you'd think we had nothing better to do!

The promenade at Rota
Here are a few observations about the real Spain that we have found on our journey:

Spain is the land of the barking dogs especially early evening, nothing you can do - just get used to it because the Spanish obviously do! It's a noisy country.

Some places expect you to put your used toilet paper in a basket or bin by the loo and not to flush it down. Not easy for us and not nice when the bins are full (a bit stinky!)

The Spanish are very family orientated, you will often see all three generations out together and they love children (I'm not sure how they feel about their dogs?)

Sunday is family day, all the shops close after lunch and the families will gather in a local restaurant, enjoying a long lunch, they always wear their best clothes on Sundays.

The Spanish are great conversationalists, they can be seen walking or sitting together having intense conversations, what about I don't know - I wish I could understand them! 

The older men all sit about under the trees in the town square, gabbling away and maybe putting the world to rights

Generally speaking, food in the supermarkets and eating out is much cheaper then the UK.

Green grocers will often throw in something for nothing with your purchase- a few oranges, a pepper or a lemon. It's a nice gesture to get something for nothing!

The Spanish people will always greet you with 'Hola' or 'Buenos Dias '

Blue skies over the lighthouse at Rota 

Their weather is much hotter and better than that in the UK - no wonder so many people chose to move out to Spain! We love the endless (mostly) days of sunshine and blue skies!

And finally (for now) it's a great country with a lot to discover - and some wonderful trails to cycle along! And maybe some of the best places are away from the well worn tourist track

An undiscovered part of Spain.....

Have you ever heard of the Spanish resort of Chipiona? No? Well, neither had we, it's a real hidden gem of a resort.

It's a lovely seaside town at the northernmost tip of the Costa de Luz about 50 miles north of Cadiz. 

We travelled here after arriving on the coast a few days before, having spent a few nights on a couple of rather non-descript campsites along the coast, being brought here for our sixth Via Verde - the Entre Rio.

The town itself is very typically Spanish with lots of whitewashed houses, a smattering of low rise hotels and long streets full of tapas bars and little shops selling all sorts of goods from shoes and handbags to bazaar shops with their baskets and plastic flowers.

The skyline is dominated by a very tall and elegant lighthouse. The beach is golden sand with a wide promenade and plenty of beachside bars to suit all tastes.

There are tourists, but these are mainly  Spanish so the town maintains its typical Spanish atmosphere. 

We were pleased to find our camperstop was right on the seafront- the sound of the waves lulling us to sleep at night. And once again the Via Verde was just a few hundred yards down the road.

We planned to cycle out on the trail the day after we arrived but unfortunately our gas bottle gauge went from 2/3 full to almost empty overnight so we had to decide what to do - we needed gas to keep our fridge running. 

Using an app called Park4night we located a place nearby where we could go, a small campsite where we had most importantly, electric hookup but also wifi, water toilets and showers - perfect!  And it was located just down the road from the Via verde and a few steps away from the beach. The owner Alfonso was incredibly friendly and helpful he went out of his way to get us a gas cylinder from a local company, but sadly it wouldn't fit in the van cabinet so it didn't solve the problem. It's a funny thing that across Europe gas bottles are not standardised which makes it very difficult to obtain an exchange - our only answer was to have our cylinder refilled and as luck would have it John and Gill had told us about a place on the Spain/Portugal border. We had planned to go
along the coast to Portugal so it was an option to seek out this place on our way there over the next week.

Anyway, enough of the trials and tribulations of motorhoming!

We set out on Thursday morning along Via Verde Entre Rio and cycled the whole length of it to the lovely town of Rota - another lovely Spanish seaside resort - we really have found an undiscovered corner of Spain ( but please don't tell too many people about it!)

The trail took us through mainly agricultural land with lots of greenhouses full of horticultural plants and the two main crops being sweet potato and cotton - I never realised cotton wool balls grew on plants (!) We also enjoyed our first Via Verde which had a hard surface for it's entire length of 13 miles.

We enjoyed this area of Chipiona so much we decided to stay for a while......

Our favourite place for dos cafe americano 

Tunnels, vultures and so much more...

About 100 miles southwest of Cabra we arrive in the town of Olvera and Campsite Pueblo Blanco where the pitches are terraced into a steep hillside giving spectacular views to the mountains beyond and the town set into the nearby hillside, the castle and huge church perched at the top dominating the area. We are here for our fifth Via Verde - Via Verde de la Sierra. The trail is 32km long and has 30 tunnels, the longest almost 1km long and descends gently from the edge of Olvera to Puerto Serrano, but here's the strangest thing the railway line was not completed so trains never ran along the line. It was commissioned at the turn of the twentieth century but work came to a halt during the Spanish civil war and was finally and definitely abandoned in the sixties, all the stations, viaducts and tunnels had been built but no tracks had ever been laid. Fortunately it was later to become a trail for cyclists and walkers passing through some outstanding scenery and was awarded the First prize in 2005 - the best Via Verde (or Greenway) in Europe.

The helpful site receptionist provided us with a map to locate the start of the trail at the old station building in Olvera and on Wednesday morning we set out in the sunshine to cycle half way along. The surface started as tarmac but after a couple of miles became compacted gravel, but not too bad for cycling. The surrounding mountainous scenery was wonderful with ever changing views. The frequent tunnels adding to the interest, the longer tunnels had automatic lighting so we didn't really need our cycle lights at any time.

After a long viaduct the Rock of Zaframagon comes into view - home to one of the largest colonies of griffon vultures in Europe (about 200 breeding pairs) The nearby information centre offers the opportunity to see the nesting and perching sites of the vultures using powerful zoom cameras, the images shown on large screens. Unfortunately the centre was closed on this particular day! But we were able to see the vultures soaring above on the thermals

Eventually we reach the old station building of Coripe and our turnaround point. We stopped and had our lunch and decided at this point that one way or another we were going to cycle the other half of the trail. We just had to work out how to get us and our bikes to the other end to do it!

The route back was steady uphill until we got back to town then we had to get up the steepest hill to return to our site, I pushed my bike up it was so steep! By the time we got back to the van we had
cycled 33 miles so we decided to have a day off the next day - we only cycled 6 miles to get to the
town and back for coffee and a cake, the afternoon was spent 'chilling',enjoying the sunshine and the
lovely views from our pitch.

Friday morning and we packed up and headed out to the end of the Via Verde at Puerto Serrano, finding the start of the trail easily on the outskirts of the town with good car parking to leave the van. We cycled through the countryside through all the tunnels, alongside the narrow ravine of the river Guadalporcun, through meadows and past livestock farms of cattle and goats. Eventually we find ourselves back at Coripe - our first completed Via Verde! Surprisingly the station cafe/restaurant is open so we celebrate with a cafe Americano.

We take a steady cycle back to the van taking in the breathtaking scenery and the 30' heat. This may not suit everyone but to us it is definitely Cycling Heaven!!

Our mission to cycle as many Vias Verde as we can has taken us well off the beaten track to wonderful places we would never have visited, it's been quite an adventure and great fun!

We arrived back at the converted Station, it's almost deserted so we decide to 'wild camp' for the night, perhaps haunted by the families of the railway workers who lived for a few years in the station buildings as if waiting for a train that was never to arrive.

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The route back was steady uphill until we got back to town then we had to get up the steepest hill to
return to our site, I pushed my bike up it was so steep! By the time we got back to the van we had cycled 33 miles so we decided to have a day off the next day - we only cycled 6 miles to get to the town and back for coffee and a cake, the afternoon was spent 'chilling',enjoying the sunshine and the lovely views from our pitch.

Friday morning and we packed up and headed out to the end of the Via Verde at Puerto Serrano, finding the start of the trail easily on the outskirts of the town with good car parking to leave the van. We cycled through the countryside through all the tunnels, alongside the narrow ravine of the river Guadalporcun, through meadows and past livestock farms of cattle and goats. Eventually we find ourselves back at Coripe - our first completed Via Verde! Surprisingly the station cafe/restaurant is open so we celebrate with a cafe Americano.

We take a steady cycle back to the van taking in the breathtaking scenery and the 30' heat. This may not suit everyone but to us it is definitely Cycling Heaven!!

Our mission to cycle as many Vias Verde as we can has taken us well off the beaten track to wonderful places we would never have visited, it's been quite an adventure and great fun!

We arrived back at the converted Station, it's almost deserted so we decide to 'wild camp' for the night, perhaps haunted by the families of the railway workers who lived for a few years in the station buildings as if waiting for a train that was never to arrive.