Day 12: Camping Las Palmeras – Monroyo – Morella – Didota Eco Resort

The atmosphere at the campsite yesterday was completely different to the evening the day before. It had emptied significantly during the day and many Spaniards went home. It was extremely quiet in the evening – but there was a significantly higher volume of traffic on Monday morning.

Given the size of the area, you could use a bike to get bread/croissants in the morning (which we definitely don't have on board) – thankfully Wolle did a running unit.

We take a detour into the back country, because the highway here is just boring, although good for making distances. The infrastructure is difficult on the country road – the parking bays without shade, with a lot of rubbish and never a toilet.

But the route is great: hilly to mountainous, with olive groves, fruit trees (perhaps peach trees), vineyards – and smelly pigsties. But the Jamón Iberico has to come from somewhere.

If you are looking for a shady spot with a view of mountains and valleys, Monroyo invites you to make your first stop. The place is nice, but unfortunately everything is closed.

The next “wow” moment is Morella: an impressively powerful city gate, a large fortress – although not particularly photogenic – a pretty church and nice alleys. Finally, however, we waste our time in these two wonderful villages and have to change our plans. Instead of driving past Valencia, we look for a campsite north of Castellòn de la Plana.

The campsite is nice, but the surrounding area is showing the first signs of the bed castles that will then probably extend to Benidorm. What the heck, we look towards the sea, enjoy our daily swim and a home-cooked dinner and have a cozy evening.

Finally, we have some vermouth in the bar (which we refused to do yesterday) and it completely blows us away.