![\"DSC05106\"](\"https:\/\/ourtourmedia.s3.eu-central-003.backblazeb2.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/DSC05106.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWe\u2019re still in Rocamador. When I say \u2018still\u2019, that\u2019s a whole two nights we\u2019ll have stayed put, so it\u2019s not quite like we\u2019ve gone native. The lure of evening sun into the cab drew Ju to roll Zagan across the parking area, around the petanque, but apart from that all is calm in here. The fridge is working cool magic on a litre box of Lidl vin blanc, the inverter is gently humming as it swaps the sun rays for rolling electrons, and a fine wisp of wind is wafting the brittle orange leaves around Zagan\u2019s wheels.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Friday afternoon, and we should be at work, eyeballing the clock throughout lengthy conference calls and wishing the hours to pass. Here the hours can take as long as they like to ease along towards another evening where the only task we have is to suss where to head tomorrow. It\u2019s pretty damned fabulous.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nBack to where we are: Rocamador. Between the two of us we\u2019ve come to describe our feelings of a place in terms of the other places we\u2019ve been. A little Mont St Michel-ish maybe? Yeah, perhaps a little Monemasia thrown in, with a tiny bit of Montepluciano? It\u2019s easier than actually trying to relate what we can see.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nRocamador has an extra-ordinary look about it, a chateau landed with a thump atop a cliff falling away into a tree-lined gorge cut by what appears to be a mere splash of a stream. Down below the chateau churches topple upwards towards it, and below them a single road lined with stone buildings. This was\u00a0once at the epicentre of one of Europe\u2019s great pilgrim routes, back when people travelled out of the desire to gain favour from their god rather than for the sheer fun and celebration of life which drives folks along roads and through the air these days. Having said that, all of us tiptoe and whisper our way around the dark insides of the tiny churches, and I\u2019m fairly sure I\u2019m not the only atheist here along for the ride.
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\nNah, but for three aged and good-natured nuns, dressed in dark blue and helping each other along umpteen slights of outdoor stairs, we\u2019re mostly here to eyeball this place. It\u2019s quite wondrous to look at, the kind of place where you find yourself trying to capture it all through the lens of a camera, but the preview of the photo popping up each provokes none of the feeling you get from standing and staring.
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\nNot that I let that bother me. We were out last night in the dark, and again before dawn this morning, alone but for each other, snapping away a hundred times. We took our time to walk along the narrow roads, through 700 year old archways, past tat shops, medieval-looking loos, telepheriques and restaurants, carrying Charlie up the great staircases where kings would on occasional knee their way up in a show of reverence. Yesterday we met a French couple with a 2 year old version of Charlie. Retired growers of Champagne (he half-bashfullly showed me a photo of his 11m Concorde with him using a winch to roll a Fiat 500 out the back), they made a great attempt to chat with us about dogs, travelling with a large van in the UK and the nearby caves (like the ones we saw in Greece and Slovenia). I have to admit I was glad when the conversion grew to a close, my lack of French was beginning to twist my head backwards and my eyeballs were starting to hurt.
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\nThe plan now is to enjoy this evening\u2019s late October heat (some lucky swines live in this fab climate) and get the map out. Four years ago we hit the Dordogne on our first long trip out in Dave, just a few miles from here. It felt like our trip had started as the landscape was so lovely and again the sun decided to shine. It\u2019ll be a treat to go and relive those particular salad days, before we get going again south. Happy days.<\/p>\n