Winter greens

Just how cold it was first thing this morning is a matter of some dispute. Our on-board digital weather thingy registered the outside temperature as - 0.8°, but when I switched on the ignition later the dashboard thermometer showed - 3°. The difference in practical terms was academic, too bloody cold whichever. We opted to use the on-board shower rather than brave the Gulag conditions of the sanitary block.

Even by mid-morning when we parked at the E Leclerc hypermarket the freezing fog that had descended over Salamanca showed no sign of lifting. Only as we drove south towards Caceres did the sun break  through creating, like yesterday, spectacular banks of pure white mist which hung between the plains and the peaks of the Sierras.

 By the time we stopped for lunch it had reached 12° which felt warmer in the strong sunlight, in the shadows it remained bone-chilling. It created the peculiar sensation of being an utterly different season depending upon which side of the van you happened to stand.  

Winter in southern Spain turns northerners' assumptions upside-down. Most of the year the interior of Spain is sere and yellow, a proverbial sun-baked plain. However, in January the winter rains turn the prairie-sized fields and lower slopes of the Sierras bright green. Once you are south of Madrid or Salamanca then olive trees abound, as do pines and Eucalyptus, all of them evergreen. It is a very viridian winter to our eyes, and under a bright blue sky it is difficult accept it is  barely a week past New Year.

We were heading for a free overnight parking spot next to Embalse de Alange. It is situated about 12km from the motorway in a quiet tract of countryside southeast of Merida.

The parking place was basic, an empty, muddy piece of ground next to the lake. 

The village is nice enough and seems to have developed into a minor spa resort capitalising on its lakeside location and the fact that the Romans built baths here. Though the village itself looks modern, it is overlooked by the ruins of a Moorish castle on a nearby rocky outcrop. Like many seemingly unprepossessing places in Spain, often they hide a rich, complex history.

We were planning to simply settle down, have a meal and relax. The evening light tempted us to take a short walk instead. It was good that we did, the light was glorious.

Today must, count as a good day. Roads south - they have a magical quality, conspiring to ensure you  arrive feeling happier and more enriched than when you started out. It as to be one of life's small pleasures, at least I think so.