Northward Ho!

It's been a while since I posted on this blog and a lot of water has passed beneath a good many bridges. We have overwintered with a few practice outings in the new motorhome and now feel ready to launch once again, into the semi-unknown. We left home on Monday and travelled roughly northwards to a tiny village called Torremocha de Jiloca. Why did we choose this spot? Well firstly, it is free and secondly is really quiet most of the time. The perfect place to get some work done. Unfortunatley I am still working full time online so we have to find places to stop to work. All my work is online and so we have bought a Starlink satellite system which, apart from the fact that I am lining Elon Musk's pocket with my hard earned cash, is brilliant. The dish can even stay inside of the motorhome most of the time and gets the signal it needs through the skylight at the front. It will work everywhere we go on our journey.

This is the church in Torremocha de Jilcoa

You might have recalled I said that it was really quiet most of the time and that is true. Not many vehicles pass through the village because there is a main road that runs roughly parallel to the road through the village. So why am I telling you this? Well I was in bed and I heard a single clang of the church bell. I was wondering if it was time to get up and I knew it was not 1:00 am so I figured that it is half past something on account of the fact that most churches clang once on the half hour. I decided, since I was warm and cosy that I would wait until the bell clanged again and count the clangs then I would know if it was indeed time to drag my body out of the cosy cocoon that I had formed around myself. Half an hour is quite a long time to wait for a clang counting exercise but I waited patiently. It was really quiet. really, really quiet. I think one vehicle came and went and I wondered who it was. Maybe an early shift worker, who knows? Anyway I waited and listened to the silence. After what seemed like about three hours but in actual fact was only thirty minutes I heard the first clang and excitedly began to count. Then from nowhere, I could hear the rumbling of a huge lorry, probably the only lorry that passes through Torremocha de Jilaco in any given week getting closer. It proceeded to drown out the sound of the bell which I can only assume continued clanging for I can not be certain. Would you Adam and Eve it? One truck, one rather large truck, and my plan was scuppered. I looked at my phone and it was eight o'clock which, for those who know me well, means I had had a great night's sleep. Maybe that's why people live in Torremocha de Jilaco, it is easy to sleep.

It is, by the way, bloody freezing here. As luck would have it Torremocha de Jilaco is 1000 m above sea level which by way of camparison is only 385m lower than Ben Nevis. Now of course there could be some of my avid readers who do not know anything about Ben Nevis. Well Ben is not a particulalry tall person it is in fact the highest mountain (if mountain is appropriate) in Scotland. So here we are freezing near the top of some mountain in Spain. I am feeling particulalry pleased that we packed the wooly blanket that my darling knitted for me.

Tomorrow morning we are moving on because it is my day off. We are heading to Zaragoza where we once holidayed. We are hoping it will be warm and dry enough to visit some of the sights of the past. 

Ten clangs have just clanged, it will soon be bed time. Night night.


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