Safe Return Doubtful

I’m going to be in the Alva valley, most likely at the campervan area by the river, and next to the village of Barril de Alva, for a couple of weeks. After the dog attack last Sunday I needed to get the dressing changed on my hand on Tuesday at the medical centre in Coja. They are excellent there. It is only ten minutes away, and they will change it every few days for me. As it’s an open wound, it needs a more professional touch than the job I could do myself. I went again yesterday, Friday, and it’s gradually closing, but likely to be another few days. 

The decision to stay put was helped by the grassy park-up area by the river being very pleasant. There’s two other people staying long term, an Estonian guy who is a vegan chef, and between jobs. His motorhome needs a repair, it has a warning light, and the local mechanic can’t get to it for a couple of weeks. In addition, his friend has a birthday party in early February, so it suits him to lay low for a while. The other van is a young Dutch lady with an aggressive German Shepherd dog. She is in a blue Renault van, which isn’t converted, just still basically a panel van with a bed frame in it. She has an electric hook-up, a cable extension lead basically, which enables her to her to recharge her devices, but little else. She is renting her house out to visitors for a  month, but it does seem she is regretting her decision now. There is a cafe by the river, where she eats meals, and uses the toilets, but it’s snack type food only, hot dogs, burgers, chips. Each evening about 5 pm the cafe attracts a small crowd of local ex-pats from Ireland, Netherlands, UK and Germany. I went in once, and it’s a bit like pubs used to be twenty years ago, quite a lovely atmosphere, cheap beer, and from what I could make out, quite a bit of drinking then driving home. The crowd stay for about two hours, each night, about four or five beers, outside on the terrace, and most of them smoke. They’re a good group, very friendly, but this sort of socialising has lost its appeal to me. I know I run the risk of being seen as a ‘beer snob’, but the only beer, Super Bock, is absolutely terrible.. It was in Santiago (2011) when I last frequented a pub regularly, two or three times a week, and I managed to get up to 107 kilos… just one of the reasons I don’t do it any more. 

There’s plenty of hiking around, though Roja has been sore with his arthritis after being out for an hour or so. The trails would be good for cycling also, but I need to give the wound on my hand another week or so before it can grip a handlebar safely. It’s a good chance to catch up on a few admin matters therefore, tidying up the virtual bookshelves, wrestling with submitting VAT for work, discovering new podcasts, and casting an eye to plans for the first half of 2025. 

The site is large fortunately. I was lower down last night, closer to the cafe and the river, but last night a couple of Portuguese motorhomes arrived, and were noisy with loud music and something of a party until about 9 pm, when it poured down with rain. This morning a few more arrived, and when I noticed them circle as wagon trains do, I moved fifty metres away.

There have been showers around, but otherwise a fine and warm day, late teens in temperature. Such places as this do attract visiting motorhome at weekends all over Europe, but I had thought so early in the season this would be less of an issue. It’s a big enough area to be well away from it.