Ruidera's Ramon.

Top tip:

If you come to Ruidera go to the Perca Rosa restaurant, on the lakeside (good parking) and see Ramon who runs the pedalos. He doesn't speak English but he can interpret really bad Spanish and he is really, really helpful. Will tell you where to walk (waterfall, look out point) and information about the locality. Also helped us by making phone bookings for horse riding and organising bits- great when you can't speak Spanish on the phone.

Here Ramon models bread.

 And this was breakfast. Typically Spanish, toast with olive oil and tomato salsa y café con leche.

Ruidera.

So, rolled up in Ruidera Monday pm. We chose it accidentally by aiming for a patch of water which was on our route. Travelling gets hot and Betty needs a swim to cool her down,  so we often try to aim to park up by water.

Ruidera, as it turns out, it's a hidden jewel. in Spain's crown. It's small, unspoilt, friendly and a holiday destination for Spanish people.

When we arrived we found that the lake next to which we had decided to park has a river area sort of running through it, or at least it is a source of water for a river (technical geographical term?). Consequently,  the lake has a 'beach' area, complete with life guard, and a 'rio' area, which had two mini waterfalls and some deeper pool areas caused by the pressure of the water digging into the rocks. It's just lovely.

The first day we arrived we went for a swim and took Betty too (dogs not allowed on beach but ok in river). The second day we managed to cram in more activity than we have in the whole of the rest of the holiday, day went like this:

Get up, swim, walk, breakfast, pedalo, swim, lunch, siesta (me), swim (Lady R), walk, horse riding, swim, bed.

And the photos:

 Falling asleep on the table after a long swim.

 Pedalo!

 Swimming from the pedalo - Ruidera's answer to the biathlon.

Lunch (starters): bacon, egg and sausage in a non-breakfast combo / salt cod, potatoes and nuts in an non-anything combo.

Menu featuring 'Gachas manchegas', for which the Internet provided the interesting translation of 'porridge stain'. Am sure it was much more appetising than its name implies, although neither of us were keen to try, funnily enough..

El caballo.

They allocated our caballos with an unexpected accuracy. Mine was uber-enthusiastic to the extreme of being pushy..walking with its nose up the bum of the one in front (not that I ever do that, you understand), whilst the Lady R's couldn't really see the point of all the exercise and decided to spend as much time in stillness as he was able. Consequently we were met by the alternating instructions:

'hold her back'

'give him a kick, get him moving'

Ruidera's river area. When the water is blue the stone is eroded and there is a little pool. 

Tomorrow we move on. Refreshed, happy and heading towards France. Yipeeeeeee

Lecrin

This is the view today:

By a lake in Ruidera. 

Its beautiful, but before I tell you the story of Ruidera I need to tell you the story of Lecrin.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin...

OK, so Fifi is one of those girls who gets herself hot under the collar,  if you know what I mean, easily a chick to start her own boil in the bag party. After an hour's climb Fif is gasping for water and complaining about the weather. IF (take note Kim) you want a camper van then it may be better to invest in a cool chick who isn't at that ' time of life' when she's prone to flushes. 

So Fifi flushed, one bright, sunny morning an hour from Nerha and decided she wasn't going any further. 

Fifi was kaput.

Issue: 10am, Saturday morning. Day of 'fiesta'. Fifi dies.

Solution: wait til Mon am when garage opens and seek help. 

End result: following advice from Mission Control (i.o.us currently recinded) we tried to 'top up the water but don't overfill her, blondies' and set off. 2kms down the road we realised the problem was serious and headed back to Lecrin.

D' you ever get deja vu?

D' you ever get deja vu?

Our experience was like Groundhog Day. We arrived, we left, we cranked up, we drove round, we left, we came back, we went to the garage, finally (oh, finally) we left.

These were Fifi's problemas:

1. The cap on the plastic water overfill tank was cracked.

2. There was a stopper missing from a 'muy importante' place.

3. The fans were not working properly.

4. There was a leak from one of the pipes,  due to the ratchet metal closing circular thingy.

The mechanic:

1. Fixed everything.

2. Was very kind in explaining all the things which were wrong with Fif and how he had fixed. 

3. Gave us advice for daily driving. 

4. Worked for three hours 

5. Charged us €30, including parts.

Move over Mission Control, we have a new Best Man. He was an absolute star. One bottle of wine and four kisses later we left, happy Fifi, happy girls.

Drove for three hours and arrived in Ruidera. 

A natural lake with natural waterfalls and an unnatural, but lovely, restaurant. Decided to stay two nights.