If you go down to the woods today...

Today was a bit of a magical mystery tour as we had no idea where we were headed. Our destination was Allariz, a town in the province of Ourense. We parked at a campsite and loaded our gear on to a 4x4. We headed off on the 10 minute walk along a heavily wooded riverbank, quite idyllic, picturesque and totally isolated. Our lodging was to be a converted mill with all mod-cons well, except Internet, TV and a very limited phone coverage.  No probs. We unpacked and set up for a late lunch. As there is a high risk of forest fire and this part of Spain is notorious for them, Xose wisely vetoed my idea for a Bar-B. We had an electric grill, marinaded slabs of steaks, I’d love to see the animal they came from. We also had ‘Patacas con Grelos’ prepared by Sebas, this is a local dish and any Irish person would immediately identify boiled spuds and cabbage though Grelos are similar, they have a much more delicate taste and it grows as individual leaves – actually not like cabbage at all.  All this was washed down with a selection of wine from Laguardia, there is method to the madness. It was time to go on a photo-shoot as the sun was going down and the light coming through the trees was splendid. It’s also the time of day when all sorts of flying creature make an appearance and being beside a river the effect was multiplied. We had dinner inside and finished off the rest of the food and wine. All this fresh air and good food can be very tiring and although the boys were settling in for a traditional evening of ‘tertulia’ beside an open fireplace, yes, we lit a fire in the house! 40ºC in Madrid and I sleep with two blankets. Nothing left to do the next day except clean up, pack up say our goodbyes and head back to Madrid. A footnote to this was when we got back to the campsite, part of the reception office had collapsed, not in a very dramatic way you understand but enough to excite the local constabulary and the locals. Some masonry had fallen on Xose’s car and chipped the windscreen, we left them to the form filling.