Early rise and off we all went in Abuelo's car and left Madrid. Our objective: the chestnut forest of El Tiemblo, in Avila. Our mission: to take photos of the autumn colours and to gather as many chestnuts as humanly possible. This was something we had wanted to do while Daddy was still on leave (and on a weekday, so as to have the place to ourselves) but it was too early.It is less than 2 hours from Madrid, so by mid-morning we were waiting for the imminent arrival of Tito, Tita & the girls who came separately. We gave them back some clothes of Primita I'd borrowed which no longer fit me, I'm growing so fast! After stocking up on goodies for lunch we headed off to the forest. On the way there we were informed that this was the last week entry was free, so lucky us! Daddy got his late birthday present from Tito & Tita and the girls (the fleece and rucksack we got the other day) which we put to use immediately.
So we parked and followed the trail, me with Mummy in the pouch, Daddy & Tito trailing behind filling up the bags. We stopped halfway, next to a really old chestnut (called "the grandfather") which was over 525 years old. To put that into perspective, that's about a year of tree life for every 2 hours I've been around. There we spread out the adult's lunch and had a rest.After ambling back to the cars we headed for out hotel which turned out to be lovely and cozy. Had a little walk by the river and then had dinner and settled down for the night. Oh, and I had my first bath in a portable inflatable baby bath I've inherited from Primita.
