Heading to Spain in a bid to fulfil some long-held ambitions…
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY: Andy Stothert
It’s about 10 years since we first went to Spain for a winter break in the truck, and it came as a bit of a surprise to not just everyone we know, but also to us. After all, only old folk waste away the winter in Spain. Whilst all the intrepid young adventurers (like us?) are messing about in the snowy northern mountains. Challenging things, getting frostbite and enduring the long cold nights in the camper.
So why did we do it? Clear off to Spain, I mean. Well, it isn’t quite what you might be thinking. Not entirely the weather, the arthritis, nor even the cheap food, booze and fags.
No, a couple of years earlier we’d been in Spain in late May and June and, as the heat set in for the summer, things just got too hot to walk any further than the nearest bar or beach. Not that there is anything wrong with a bit of bar and beach. ‘Bit’ being the operative word. The locals also thought us to be a bit bonkers to be walking around in summer, and suggested we return in the cooler months.
Hence the winter adventure, and when we very quickly embraced the joys of wandering about in the Spanish scenery in shorts and T-shirts, but without the withering heat. Biking, too, without thermals, and amongst motorists who weren’t trying to kill us.
This year (early 2023), we planned to do a bit of filling in of some of the bits we’d missed in the more familiar haunts, three or four weeks at our favourite place in Spain, then boldly(ish) explore into the great unknown. With a fair idea of the places we’d like to see before we shuffle off.
However, most of that great unknown is up in the hills, where the weather can be a lottery in winter, so there was no plan really. More fingers crossed, with hopes rather than expectations.
Anyway, it was 8am on an early February day when we arrived in Santander, and immediately set off at breakneck speed (now reduced to 54mph) across the north of Spain towards the Mediterranean. In its latter stages this is a very scenic ride, and on the second day, near the old hilltop town of Morella, we were fortunate in that the snow plough wasn’t far in front. This was more like the Lake District in winter than the Lake District.
First stop, on the Bits We’ve Missed Tour, was the Coves de Sant Josep, at La Vall d’Uixó (near Valencia), and which entails punting along an underground river in a
