Day 18 - Kucavanas Fest
Our 1st Caravaning Festival & Getting That Over Heating Feeling
Day 18 brings us to Kucavanasfest. Kucavanasfest is a caravaning festival that takes place in TÃ rrega, Catalonia, Spain. It is the first national festival of its kind in Spain, and it brings together caravaners from all over the country to celebrate their love of the open road.
The festival takes place over three days in April, and it features a variety of activities and events for caravaners of all ages. There are talks and workshops on caravaning topics, as well as live music, dancing, and a market where caravaners can buy caravaning goodies as well as locally made products such as honeys and soaps. There is also a children's area with activities and games, and even a dog agility course for your furry friend.
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Feeling Hot
Our travel to Tà rrega took slightly longer than perhaps it should have. The trip should have taken around 2 hours if all went according to plan, however, things didn’t go according to plan and instead took us closer to 6 hours! All seemed to be going well until the road started going uphill and the temperature dial in the car also started to go up. We soon started to frantically look for somewhere to pull over, but the road just continued to go upward. Just as the car’s temperature was reaching a critical level, we were able to just about pull off the road to let things cool off. While we waited for things to cool down, we looked at places where we could stop along the route, just in case we had any more problems. We waited for around an hour before setting off again. We were only on the road for around 10 minutes before the temperature of the car was on the rise once again. So, again, we were at the side of the road waiting for things to cool down. This continued the trend for the remainder of the trip. We had originally planned on getting to Kucanavanasfest by lunchtime to catch the beginning of the festivities, instead, we arrived a little after 6 p.m., which felt like a very long drive. But at least we eventually made it; we could forget about the car and enjoy the weekend.
Enjoying The Weekend
We were one of three caravans that showed up at Kucavanasfest amongst around 450 motorhomes. To say we felt a little like the odd ones out is an understatement, especially as it appeared we were the only non-Spanish people there and everyone seemed to know each other. On the other hand, everyone was welcoming, and there were lots of dogs, which Chewie loved. After being in relatively quiet areas, being around so many people was a bit of a welcome change.
Our first morning didn’t exactly go according to plan as we had to locate the local vets. Chewie had woken up with a very irritated ear, which turned out to be an ear infection, which we believe he picked up at the beach in Playa del Trabucador. We soon settled into the weekend afterwards and started to enjoy the festivities. Chewie even took part in a little agility training, which he was surprisingly good at (amazing what he would do for a piece of frankfurta).
During the days, we walked around the different stalls and listened to some of the talks that were held about fellow travellers experiences (we envisioned one day sharing our own advice and experiences). In the evenings, we listened to live music and enjoyed the atmosphere.
Time To Relax
It was soon time to start packing away after Kucavanasfest and we started to think about where the next destination would be. We knew it couldn’t be too far as we didn’t know how the car would behave, although we did know that we wanted it to be somewhere quiet as all the festivities had taken it out of us, including Chewie.
We found a very rustic service area out in the countryside, in the little town of Vallverd.
It was a very calm place to hear the sound of the birds and relax. It was a beautiful area to walk in and take pictures.
Nothing was particularly close by; the nearest supermarket was 15 minutes away, but it was a beautiful place to spend some time and recharge our batteries. We had the perfect spot under two large trees with views all around.
Where To Next?
Well, as the original plan of heading towards Madrid and then up to Galicia changed within the first week of our travels, we didn’t really have much of a plan after Kucavanasfest. We decided to try and get to a place in the area of Zaragoza. We didn’t think it was wise to try to get there until we knew if the car was capable of longer travel, so we decided to do a smaller journey to another service area to give the car a little test. We moved on to a service area in Binaced which was around a 127km trip. The car did surprisingly well, even through very rough roadworks.
The service area was a little bit of a strange one. The area itself was great, nice, open field for Chewie to play, very quiet, they even had electric there which was free to use. But for some reason, the rules stated that we weren’t allowed to unhitch the caravan or put down the supporting legs, which is a little sad as it meant we couldn’t visit the town as it was too far from the area to walk. We would have preferred not to have electricity and be able to drive into town and maybe spend money in the community.
We stayed in the area for the maximum amount of time allowed (48h). As the car did so well doing the 127km to Binaced, we looked to go to the motorhome service area in Zaragoza, but looking at it on Google Maps, it didn’t look like we would be able to fit, so we chose a service area just north of Zaragoza, in the town of Zuera, which should have been a 130km trip. It looked like it was going to be motorway most of the way. We weren’t expecting the motorway to have such a consistent incline, however, which again, the car really didn’t appreciate. We were soon having to stop in a motorway service area for things to cool down. We soon realized we weren’t going to be making the journey to Zuera, so instead we headed back downhill to the first campsite of our adventures in the pretty little town of Almunia De San Juan, which brings us to Day 24, which we’ll tell you all about in the next post.
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Any Questions?
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Yes, I remember from my road trips that the stretch from Valencia to Zaragoza is lovely but surprisingly remote with few stopping points. And I remember the long and gentle incline. I hope the car is ok, and Chewie is recovered from the ear infection. Happy travels!