Monday 17 March - Chaves to Ampudia

Another nice, if cool, morning and gave Jamie a decent walk, mainly to find a different way off this site because we're a bit worried about catching the water drain again on the top of the steep slope. Found a back road out so we'll go that way. Breakfast, paid our dues via the honesty box, service then with Leon in Spain on the satnav headed off. Short holdup just outside town due to a police investigation, though couldn't see what about, and onto the autostrada to cross the border into Spain. In heavy contrast to Portugal, Spain was flat and boring so we stuck to the autovia, only leaving to try for a cross-country road to Leon but failed to find it.

Not long after we stopped for lunch and checked the maps etc to plan for the afternoon. That's when we noticed an old favourite Spanish aire, at Ampudia, was more or less on our route so decided it was worth heading for tonight. Fuel looking a bit low so started looking for replenishment but nothing showed up on our route except the station at Ampudia which looked like it had been shut down for a while. Not too worried though as Palencia was only about 30km and we'd more than enough for that. Aire was empty, not surprising as it is well off the beaten track, but we were joined later by a Belgian van, the occupants of which marched off into the village and we didn't see them again!

Put the clocks forward an hour to correct for Spanish time.