Tuesday 24 April 2012  - The long drive to Granada. Hello Mother Hello Father here I am in Camp Granada… Everyone sing along now.

Day 12 and 146 to go – Wildcats loose grand final to NZ Breakers AGAIN!

What a day! We knew we would be in for a long haul when I set the GPS for Granada and it came up saying 550km and 5 hours on the road. With Paul still feeling crappy it would be hard going for him having to concentrate that long. Knowing it would be long we were up and running by 830am. It wasn’t the easiest of starts with us getting a couple of turns wrong on the GPS causing us to do extra km’s we didn’t need and causing extra stress Ahhhhh! The start of the trip was through some smaller towns which is slow going and taxing as the streets are often skinnier and full of parked cars, but we made it through and we were soon on the Autovia with all the trucks.

Once Paul was up and cruising it was generally easy going. There are always moments when the heart races when you get traffic cutting in or trucks swaying or taking up more of the road than they should, but all was good.

We stopped about halfway at a rest stop for a stretch of the legs and then back on the road. The landscape before us was a mix of rugged rocky outcrops, spinifex like grasses and farming lots. It became quite mountainous and we could see snow capped peaks before us. We were passing many homes carved into the rock faces. It was quite incredible.

We made another stop to fuel up before facing the last 100km into Granada and the campsite I had plugged in. Well that was the plan only trouble was there was no camp ground so we scrambled to locate another.

We made our way out of the built up area following the GPS again. This time it was more promising as at least there were campground signs. However it took us a few goes to find the right street, more u turns and stress before we drove into the grounds of Camping Granada.

The receptionist was welcoming and spoke good English and before we knew it we had parked. Thank goodness. 

We set up the van before I went to do some washing while Paul had a well earned beer.

We had a wander around the park. It wasn’t anything special, was quite isolated and nowhere near Grenada, but it had a spectacular view to the snow covered mountains.

I got started on dinner as I figured we needed an early night not only because today was so hellish, but because we would need to be up and on the bus to Grenada by 8am tomorrow.

After the make do spaghetti bog we walked into the town of Peligros about 15 min back down the hill. This allowed us to determine how long we would need in the morning to get to the bus stop, find the bus stop and also pick up some drinks at the supermarket. Read 2 more of the beers to tick off the list.

With all things sorted it was back up the hill for a not so quick ascent. Paul was really struggling, as it was quite steep, his cold hampering his breathing. When we made it back inside the van he had to sit and rest. Is not much fun.

Early bed for once. 

View Larger Map