Aljucén, Spain

 Friday 23/09/22

Bokkie has said 'até breve' to Portugal and 'bienvenido' to Spain, although it wasn't the best of starts this morning.

Until next time...

Crossing into Espana

On the way back from our beach trip on Tuesday, we popped into a filling station to fill Bokkie up for the long trip.  I was even explaining to Charmaine how petrol and diesel are called gasolina and gasolea respectively, so are very easy to mix up if you aren't careful (which we usually are).  

This morning, when I started Bokkie so that we could take Charmaine to the airport, she burped and farted plumes of black smoke - what was going on?  She had been fine on the way back, now suddenly there was something dramatically wrong.  I thought maybe the fuel was contaminated with water so ran some out of the diesel filter and from the smell I could tell I had fallen into the gasolina trap!  I had put 47 litres of petrol into Bokkie's tank, not diesel 😒.

A quick planning session later we had an Uber booked for Charmaine and contacted the European breakdown company to see if they could help.  Miguel, the Uber driver, whisked Charmaine safely to Faro for her flight at mid-day, and a local mechanic turned up in a van with empty containers and a pump to give Bokkie a stomach pump.  He was confident he could sort her out and about an hour later and quite a few Euros lighter, she was running again, thank heavens!

Parts of the area in Spain is very dry...

... and parts are surprisingly fertile

We had already cancelled our plans to travel into Seville; the heat and the prospect of a crowded Friday afternoon put us off, so we drove around the city and turned north.  We had a few possible stops lined up but managed to miss the first one (finger trouble on the iPad) and didn't really like the look of the second, in an industrial looking town.  

The third stop is luckily fantastic as it was getting quite late in the day (around  8pm Spanish time) when we finally arrived.  It's a perfect little aire on the edge of a small town and we were treated to a magnificent sunset upon arrival.  The perfect end to a long, hot and eventful day.

The town has gone to so much effort for the aire, it's lovely!

Not a bad view for the night.

A quick supper, walk around town and we're ready for bed.  We think we'll take our time tomorrow morning.  We're missing having Charmaine with us and it was lovely spending some quality time with her - she is now safely back in a rainy and cold England!

It's a small town but everything is beautifully looked after, with a lovely church