His Nipping to Valencia

Eddy and Angela were off back to the rain and cold not to mention Brexit turmoil. So after a week at Playa Fiesta we packed up and set out for Valencia which had a campsite “Camping Valencia park” close to Betera just off the N344.

The access is good for a big RV, though it is smaller than some sites, it had a pool but it was closed, I guess its to avoid the paying clients turning blue in the winter weather. The facilities were lovely, with nice clean toilets and showers and a restaurant which was very family run and Spanish, but the chef was a young English guy.

In the evening the staff and family that live there were playing guitar and singing Spanish songs as a family, not for our entertainment, I could have listened to this all night, it was so lovely to see such bonding.

The reception was very helpful. We stayed two nights. The site is 5 minutes walk from a Metro that goes in to Valencia, you buy a metro card at the site reception, trains are every 30 minutes, and the time table is very visible at reception and the Metro station, they have even made a video to show you how to use the metro which is exceedingly well done, even professional.

Valencia Campsite pitch

Valencia was really worth the visit, and we managed 21000 steps on the fitbit! This was to walk around the impressive historical areas with so much to see.

Central Market Valencia

Plaza de Virgin Valencia

Plaza de Virgin beautiful fountain Valencia

Plaza de Virgin Valencia

Plaza de virgin Valencia... again... well it is nice

Part of our walk, just a beautiful city

Valencia old city wall Gate

From Valencia Camping we made for Pinosos where we have a campsite we reconnoitred last year, and booked for a Month. The only issue was, we needed to find LPG or GPL. FindmyLPG.eu gave us some fall backs but all were off the AP7, if leaving the AP7 or A class roads we have to do a lot of checking to ensure the way is safe for Monty. So we set out hoping not to have to leave the main highways. After pulling in to a couple of Cepsa garages it became clear that after filling on the Spanish side of the border GPL was not to be found on the toll roads as in France, or at least not so easily, so we set the Sat Nav for our fall back which was a Repsol close to the toll road.

At this point I should mention that as I pulled in to the Cepsa garage, one of the road cleaners called to my wife “Lady look” and pointed to Mike on the rack at the back of Monty. I went to look and found a ratchet strap had unlatched and dangled till it touched the road. Mike was still very secure, but a good bit of the ratchet strap and mechanism had ground away. So I had to remove this strap and apply the spare and be grateful for the kind help in pointing this out from the garage cleaner. Thank you anonymous but helpful man.

Further on, and no straps seeking self-destruction, we left the highway for a Repsol service station in an industrial area and praise our good fortune, they had GPL and spare adaptors. A very kind attendant even came out and did the filling for me, I was quized about Monty, the final comment was that Monty was a palace. This turned out to get the cheapest LPG (GPL) at a mere 0.65/Litre. We did have to go five miles out of our way to get the fuel. That 5 miles was endless roundabouts, clover leaf junctions and speed humps, but it was worth it I think.

We now made a carefully planned beeline for our campsite at Pinoso, we were passing a Repsol on the A31 which was touted to have LPG so we intended to top up, just South of Villena we had to watch the Repsol float by as the planned slip road did not exist as indicated on the satnav. I suspect the satnav shows what was planned, not what was built, we did notice the highway itself was not where the satnav thought it should be. We have since been informed the GPL is on the carriageway passing from Sax to Villena, we have yet to confirm this.