Elciego

Quite a lot of photos today as we managed to stop a bit more often.

Last night a large flock (must have been hundreds) of egrets landed in the trees at the end of the lake. 

In the fading light, they made the tree look like a magnolia. This morning they were gone, probably back to the nearby estuaries.

There was a beautiful blue sky this morning, showcasing the mountains around us. 

Today we travelled across country away from the fast roads. Some pretty towns along the way and a few gradients. Then in second gear and struggling, Marge summited Puerto de el Escudo at 1011 metres, nearly as high as mount Snowdon! Thank goodness Marge is a strong old girl (held her nerve better than the driver!).

After an equally gruelling decline, rolling down off the plateau we stopped for lunch at the medieval town of Frias. We were parked just below the ruined 12^th century castle, and as we ate our lunch we could hear the songs and music of the street entertainers up in the town.

Continuing on our way we passed through a gorge, where there were mountain goats in the road, and stopped to look at the old church under the rock. 

One last mountain to go, which had large sweeping bends, meant Marge could slowly and steadily make her way to the top, where the view of the plains with their patchwork fields below were lovely.

We are now in Rioja country, staying at the small town of Elciego. It has been 30 + today and we have had a fierce thunderstorm overhead for about an hour now. This is the most rain we’ve had so far, we guess it’s good for the grapes. As we look out of the van window now, we can see the sky starting to clear over the nearby church, although the thunder and rain seems to be set in, and as I type this we have just experienced some huge thunderclaps directly overhead. Thank goodness we didn’t take that walk to sit outside a bar in the town!

Let’s hope tomorrows journey is less eventful, and the weather is more settled.

John walked down to the bottom of the Aire, and took a look in what had been a dried up river bed, it is now a raging torrent.