Granada to Toledo – approx. 240 miles – 14th May

I accidentally managed to publish two posts at once so if you want chronological order, don't forget to read the Granada post (below) first.

As I’ve already mentioned, the first task when leaving a city is to refuel with LPG, but at least we had seen the garage, knew vaguely where it was and knew that it had gas.  I was aware that there was a low height tunnel nearby and we had experienced Granada streets by bike, I spend about 20 minutes studying the SatNag to find a good route to the gas station.  I did find a good route but it wasn’t the way the SatNag wanted to go.  I had planned to get out onto the dual carriageway ring-road and do one junction back to the garage.

All packed up we headed off and as the route I had picked was quite complicated Iain suggested that we follow the SatNag route, at least we would get there. BIG MISTAKE.  The first part of the journey was ok but then there was a straight on at these lights (my route would have been to turn right here).  Well we have an adage that if a bus can go down a road there’s no reason why we can’t.  We actually followed a bus through Lyme Regis once and it worked there, so should be good again.

The street was so narrow with parked cars on the right so at times we were close to pulling in our wing mirrors.  One very kind Spanish man who was selling vegies at the side of the road decided that he’d help to guide us through – I wish they wouldn’t, I might be a woman driving a big truck, but I’m quite capable and I have very big mirrors and a reversing camera.  

Then it was straight on again and down a steep slope and – wait for it – under a low bridge with a very sharp right turn after it. The bridge sign said 3.5m and we have always said that we are 3.5 m high.  There was nowhere safe to turn around and we had come down a one-way street anyway so all we could do was suck it and see.  Iain got out and watched as I inched my way along.  You don’t want to go very fast in case you hit a bump and the last thing you want to do is bounce up into a bridge smashing off your satellite dome.  

Well I inched and inched and inched and finally we got through.  I had already decided that if anyone was behind us then they could bloody well wait.  Iain thought we must have had about 10 cm clearance so all was well and at least we now know that we can get under 3.5m in future, albeit slowly.  

The narrow sharp right turn was not too much trouble and I just clipped the curb going round.  Then the SatNag said to turn left, Iain was telling me also turn left, turn left but I could see that the road was blocked off at the bottom with some very large boulders so it was straight on for me, whether he or the SatNag liked it or not.  Finally a sweeping round to the left and hey presto the Repsol  garage was in sight, and I thought we were going onto the dual carriageway to get there.  So tank full as appropriate we headed off, stressed but still speaking, to Toledo.

At least the garage was on the side of the dual carriageway so there was no further drama getting out of Granada.

The roads were ok and once out of Granada we found that again they were very quiet.  The scenery was lovely, the main source of income for the area appears to be olives and the hills looked like they were knitted.  The pictures on route are not good, especially as the camera had been left on video and Mr Right is certainly NOT Mr Technology and I haven't got the software to take stills from a video.

Once again we didn’t entirely trust the SatNag so when we saw signs to Toledo and the SatNag said to keep going, we took the exit.  Now this was not a problem, in fact it was a good thing as it took us around the outside of the city centre.  The roads were modern and not too bad but it did give us a quick look at the city.  Wow!!!!! Can’t wait to get back in there tomorrow.

We pulled up at the campsite El Greco and booked in for two nights.  Again the weather was very hot, up in the low 30’s and again it was May and still spring so the swimming pool was not open. At least at this time of year it may be very hot during the day, but the evenings and nights are much cooler so you just have to wait it out until the sun sets and there’s no problem sleeping in heat. The campsite was really nice, with Grecian influences everywhere.  The toilet block was second to none and it had a good looking restaurant and bar.  The WIFI was free but not a good signal so we went to the bar to see if we could download some TV.  What a view!!!!! Even though this was an excellent campsite, I would recommend it for the view alone.

View from the campsite restaurant terrace

We were by then really looking forward to a visit to the city the next day, but for tonight rest.