Northern Spain in Autumn

After leaving the desert behind we headed on to Soria. There were two Areas there for motorhomes, one in a supermarket car park and an unofficial one by the side of the river. Obviously we chose the scenic one by the river. It looked out over the yellow and bronze trees that lined the riverbank and had a walking path that stretched along side. A 5 minute walk took to you a beautiful old church that was set in the rocks. You could go inside and see the stained glass windows, and the cave like interior.

It was about a 20 minute walk into town but we weren’t bothered as we’re trying to keep fit and healthy. Luckily for Kev there was a football stadium nearby too so he managed to get a game in whilst we were there. I stayed in and wrote my blog.

The town of Soria was nice, as it isn’t touristy. It was packed with locals drinking outside the numerous bars.

We had a peaceful night by the river and the following morning we went to the other Area to use the service point. We got talking to a Dutch man who’d stayed the night there. I asked if he knew about the other Area. “Yes” he informed me, “but why stay by the river when I can stay here and have got cheap diesel, a shop and a town near me?”. I’m glad everyone is different, otherwise we’d all be in the same place doing the same thing! The diesel was cheap though at €1.13 a litre!! He didn’t even venture down to the riverbank, so missed a real treat.

Our next destination was The Black Lagoon (Laguna Negra) in Urbion. We followed the sat nav and it took us to a bridge that was closed…We needed to find another route..

We did a U turn and headed back the way we came and found another road..this lead us passed a “Playa” (Beach), not the sea but a sandy area around a huge lake. We decided to do a detour and explore..

Wow!! It was fantastic, we were so glad the other road was closed or we’d have missed this.. I think we’ve chosen the right time of year to come as everywhere is so peaceful. We only saw a dozen people in the whole area. The place was called Playa Pita, a must see if in the vicinity. It has designated free parking for motorhomes too.

We couldn’t decide whether to stay and soak up some of the sun’s rays or carry on our journey to Laguna Negra. We got our chairs out and had lunch with a view. Shortly after the sun went in so we packed up and carried on with our original plan.

The drive to the national park was amazing. We’ve always fancied going to New England in the fall, this makes us want to do it even more.

It was a steady 1.7km hike uphill to the lagoon from the car park. The pathway was level and the views from it were spectacular.

When we reached the top we had a few stairs to climb to reach the lagoon and the setting that greeted us was like being in one of Canada’s National Parks.

The lagoon is clearly green on the photos. To get the “black” look you have to climb to the top of the mountain and look down on it. Not a prayer I was doing that. The “path” was non existent and said to climb at your own risk! My idiot of a husband did it though!! You can see on the photo below the “path” of rocks 😮.

As you can see on the above photo the water now looks black. He climbed all this way for a photo and all I could think of was, if he fell I would have to find his body and get the motorhome keys off him or I was stuck 😂. Video below of how high he had to go.

We noticed to get back down there was a seperate path for wheel chair users…haha yeah right! They haven’t thought that one through. It was rocky as hell!

Kev had found an Area to stay in for the night, as you aren’t allowed to camp in any National Parks in Spain. The only problem was it was 1.5 hours away. We didn’t have a choice, so we set off. Twenty minutes into the journey we drove passed a ski resort that had a restaurant with a huge car park. I noticed a motorhome parked in there so me, being the cheeky person I am, decided we should stop here and go ask if we can stay the night. If you don’t ask you don’t get. In my best Spanish I spoke to the manager in the restaurant and asked if we could stay in their car park for the night. No problem was the reply..happy days 😁. There was a few cars and us and this other motorhome. Within an hour the car park had cleared. We were the only ones there. Seems the other motorhome had parked up to go for a walk in the surrounding forest. Haha. We had were it all to ourselves with great views of the mountains around us.

Some people thought we were crazy to sell our house and live in a motorhome. Our daughter knew we were mad enough to do and enjoy it, and she enjoys spending time in the motorhome with us. Our son thought we’d lost the plot and couldn’t get his head round why we’d do such an unconventional thing.

Can you see why we love this lifestyle? Our home is definitely where we park it, and if we don’t like the area or the neighbours, we move on. Our son has now asked if he can use our motorhome to go on trips in it in the Summer (we house/pet sit for people in July and August). Seems it’s not a bad idea to spend quality time in a motorhome after all 🤔😉🤣.

The next blog will have more incredible scenery. We’ve seen some fantastic views and travelled some great roads.