Thursday 12 November 2015

Wednesday 4th November 2015 – Castrojeriz, Spain

We were so lucky with the weather for our visit to Coa yesterday – it rained overnight and was raining constantly before we left Moncorvo. We think that the aire has good views over Moncorvo and the surrounding countryside but as it was dark when we arrived and very misty when we left, we can’t be sure.
We had planned to visit the Roman gold mine site at Las Medulas in Spain, about 4 hours north of here but we decided that it would make the rest of the trip too rushed. Las Medulas is a definite visit for our next Spanish sojourn.
Instead we had a longish trip east to Castrojeriz, close to Burgos in Spain, the majority of which was completed in the rain. The route to the Spanish border took us on roads marked as scenic by Michelin and indeed it was but so was the road, not even shown on the Michelin map, that took us to Bemposta. We crossed over the Douro on a dam below Bemposta and climbed steeply back up to attractive scenery on the Spanish side. This is very a very stony with large boulders and many drystone walls. This scenery soon gave way to the typical Spanish plain countryside with its large, borderless fields put down to pasture or cereals. It was difficult to get used to not seeing a castle every few miles! We were going to use motorways to speed up the journey but our destination meant that there was no benefit, so it was quiet, good quality smaller roads instead – much better!
We arrived at Camping Camino de Santiago (yes, we are on the pilgrimage route) before five o’clock and found a pitch with a great view of the Templar castle above Castrojeriz.

Photos: The Duoro dam below Bemposta; Spanish drystone walls with an interesting construction - large upright stones are set in the ground and the gaps filled with smaller stones.

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