The White Donkey

We are now quite far west of The Meridian, 6 degrees west to be fairly precise, yet all of Spain is locked to Central European Time. This results in slow mornings, as sunrise isn’t until 7 or maybe later, yet sunset is around 9pm - as we are used to at this time of year in the UK.

As as result and as we are finding, the mornings are slow. It’s been cold at night, around 6 or 7C and so the sun is needed to get things going. 

Nothing seems to happen early here. The only noises are the distant church bells which can be useful, grass strimmers in the distance and that bloke who drives past up the bumpy track with the rattle-bang trailer. The strimmers are everywhere and only seem to be heard in the early mornings.

As a result of the slow start, the rest of the day moves later too. We should have remembered this from previous visits but it has come as a surprise. The most noticeable effect is that morning coffee is taken around noon. Lunch, often the main meal of the day, isn’t offered until at least 2pm. You simply can’t get in many restaurants until then. The shops close at 2pm and open again at 5pm.

We went on a lengthy, hilly and fairly strenuous walk the other day, aiming to do the 15Km in time for lunch. We set off at 10am but were outside the closed gates of the recommended restaurant at 1:15pm. One solution would be to walk more slowly and I will be having a word with the Head of Progress just as soon as I can catch-up with her.

Feeling that we are, for the time being at least, post Covid-19, it has come as a genuine surprise that there is so much face mask wearing here. I don’t know the rules but it’s very clear that you must wear a mask on the bus and it seems as though you should in a shop also. However there’s a lot of masks worn outside in free air which I find a little bizarre. 99% of the oldest group of people seem to wear them and outside at that.

I talked to a lady many years older than me and that was a feat in itself as she had no Ingleesh and I very little Español. All I was able to establish was that she doesn’t have any grandchildren (or children for that matter) and she has had to wear a face mask for two years. In fact I doubt she’s ever taken it off.

We drove south west from Salamanca and immediately the scenery changed to one of almost savanna like features with rolling grassland and low trees. Perhaps a huge parkland would be a better description. This is cattle country and very healthy cattle they seemed to be.

The mountains to our south are ones a little northwest of Madrid and amazingly rise to 2,500m  so it was no surprise to see snow on them.

We are now in the south of Castilla y Leon, not far from the border with Portugal and we headed for El Burro Blanca campsite which turns out to be Dutch run by Eddie and Vera. They took over the site three years ago from other Dutch people and this is a good example of the perfect rural site.

It’s in an oak woodland with 25 pitches spread around, many with stupendous views over the high, wooded hills. It’s advertised as peaceful and tranquil and it is certainly that, well once the frogs have stopped croaking at dusk and the cicadas have stopped chirping around 11pm. If you want loud voices, music etc. then stay away.

‘Our’ village is Miranda del Castañar and is typically beautiful in a 17/18 century kind of way. There are more tiny narrow streets here than in the whole of York and this is one of several similar villages in the area.