Borriana to Sierra d’enGalceran

2/4/16
Borriana – Sierra d’enGalceran

Woke Late. Sun is beautiful today.  Bertie picked up 2 more burrs this morning – again had to cut them out

We’re off to Albocasser to do a little shop in the co-operativa there!

Should explain here that our friends Graeme and Louise have a beautiful holiday home in a village hereabouts that we are lucky enough to have been invited to on many occasions….. on our wonderful visits to Saratella with Graeme and Louise, we’d met some of their friends who are potters; Rob, Catherine, and Seth.  We’d heard from Graeme a while ago that Seth had sadly passed away.

We made contact with Rob up in Sierra d’enGalceran, to see if there were any places for motorhomes he could recommend – and Rob said we could park up near his house IF we could get up there!

Set off from Albocasser,  and found a nice, out of the way aire for lunch – has real potential for intrepid motorhomers!!!

We followed directions after lunch to try to find to find Rob’s house – he lives way up in the hills, and we wondered more than once if we’d bitten off more than we could chew as we wound our way up into the hills,

higher and higher!

Fortunately, Rob came to meet us at the end of his track….

and we made it, with a bit of casual topiary on the way up!

Mucked in for a supper – up to my elbows in bread dough while Rob cooked Moules Trout and potatoes for supper for us and Catherine his partner.

They have invited us to see Seth’s memorial exhibition tomorrow at the Town Hall. Rob has worked really hard to put on the exhibition in honour of his friend and fellow potter, Seth Cardew.

The exhibition has been in place for a week or so, and will stay for a while longer, before moving on to another local town; but there’s an official reception tomorrow.  Rob and Catherine are providing food as well, and we’ll need to get everything up there for 11 in the morning so it’s all hands on deck. Seth’s son, Alex, is flying out for a few days and Rob is picking him up in the morning from the airport at Castellon.

3/4/15
Sierra d’enGalceran – Rob’s place

Rob had already left for the airport when we went down to help Catherine get some food ready. She was baking tiny little sweet buns with dried fruit and Rob’s Pink Grapefruit Marmalade, and I helped make some cheesy canapes.  All was bundled into the car along with us – and off we went to the Town Hall.

People were milling about looking at the exhibits, nibbling food and chattering…

everyone was called to order while the Mayor gave a speech, then Rob gave a speech, along with Pedro and Belinda and also Seth’s neighbour, who was quite tearful.

The exhibition was celebrating not only Seth’s contribution to the village, but also 3 generations of Cardew Potters. It was quite special.

I was particularly touched when I saw Seth’s waistcoat of many colours, which he had been wearing on the first occasion we met him on a visit with Graeme and Louise some years ago.

We were also introduced to the local garage owner – who seemed confident he could fix the UJ for us (despite it being a bank holiday on Monday).

We were invited to look upstairs in the Town Hall to check out the Bishop’s Room,

and some artifacts of local origin…

You can see how important Ceramics are from the massive collections of tiles here:

Looking across the valley, from the top floor of the Town Hall, we could see Rob’s house and Blobby!

Not only was Blobby visible from the town hall, but we had it on good authority you could see it from the airport, too!

Rob had invited Belinda, Dina, Pedro and others back to his house for Fideua – which was spectacular

He’d made a stock from scratch with tiny little fish (cabot?) and the result was stunning!

We all sat in the sunshine enjoying the fabulous food, and eventually the guests left, and Catherine went back to her house.

When everyone left Alex and Rob went for a siesta while Nick Bert and I went lumberjacking, cutting back some of the overhanging branches along the track which caused us some grief getting up here.

We got to know the animals – Idgy, Rob’s black lab; Tinker, his pregnant stubbytailed cat; the neighbour’s Siamese type cats (think one is the Daddy), and little Custodia all made Bert feel so welcome – teehee..! and there’s no distractions up here – so Bert has been off the lead and running all over the hills.

Tonight he went out in the dark with the other dogs while we were sitting in Rob’s house, and when they came back and he didn’t, we were a little worried.  We called and walked up the hill to the Blobby bus and sure enough, there he was, sitting by the step, waiting to go to bed … bless him!

We’re heading for Els Ibarsos early tomorrow so that the mechanic can check out the UJ and see if he can source a replacement for us… The Alps are not going to be achievable without a fix – so we have to try again to see if we can get just the UJ and not a whole driveshaft assembly. Rob’s brilliant translations have helped no end. The sierra is quite beautiful – stunning in fact – and there are loads of griffon vultures today.

Rob has very kindly invited us to stay with him while Blobby is in Els Ibarsos, so I’m emptying the fridge tonight to prepare some more ribs…