Stove fuel for Spain

[woodsmith]

I'm planning on spending a couple of months in Spain (Altravesur, Spanish Divide, etc) and am undecided on which stove to take. I hate going miles off route hunting for gas canisters and wondered how widely available the screw on type are. What about meths? What's it called in Spanish? Is it purple? Where can you typically find it?
I'm leaning towards taking the gas stove as the main one and the alcohol stove as a back up as its only 25g.

[ripio]

I'd go with the alcohol stove.
Alcohol de Quemar or Alcohol Denaturalizado
Pretty much available everywhere in supermarkets and small stores.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Perhaps a small wood burning stove?

[pistonbroke]

Don't take any type of stove that isn't immediately extinguishable by turning off. In fact if you get caught with any naked flame away from designated areas recreativa, you will be heavily fined. The countryside is like a tinder box, especially in the south but also here in Cataluña. If you must, screw canisters are available from all Decathlon stores, they're red and are compatible with all stoves that I know. Tbh I wouldn't risk it, a guy local to us was fined 6 figures when fire he'd started to burn his olive prunings got out of control.

[Bearbonesnorm]

In light of Duncan's comments ... do completely ignore anything I may have said

[woodsmith]

Don't take any type of stove that isn't immediately extinguishable by turning off. In fact if you get caught with any naked flame away from designated areas recreativa, you will be heavily fined. The countryside is like a tinder box, especially in the south but also here in Cataluña. If you must, screw canisters are available from all Decathlon stores, they're red and are compatible with all stoves that I know. Tbh I wouldn't risk it, a guy local to us was fined 6 figures when fire he'd started to burn his olive prunings got out of control.

Thanks for the info. Confirms what I'd suspected from my experience hiking in California.

[fatbikerbill]

Out of interest what examples of stove might be OK?

Would an alpkit kraku or koro be allowed?

[pistonbroke]

As in most things, Rule 1 applies.
If you absolutely must, the only places where cooking would be allowed are designated Areas Recreativa although many of those are taped off at the moment due to the risk. These areas have brick built barbecue buildings with grills. Clearly the Spanish countryside is a big place but there are specially appointed Agents Rurales who patrol the popular areas and have powers to fine you if you are being a dick. Wild camping is not allowed but tolerated, again back to Rule 1.
So to answer the question, screw in mini stoves are usable but only in specific areas.

[Rasta]

I've done a few long trips in Spain.
I gave up looking for gas canisters as I wasn't riding near any big towns. And when I did, most shops had 10 hour siestas and were closed 4 days a week.
I used my alcohol stove. Fuel was available from small local supermarkets. But it was hit and miss with the quality. Many times I had to throw whole bottles away. I would test a new bottle before riding off.

If you really want to use gas, then the puncture 'French Camping Gaz' canisters are everywhere. Supermarkets and hardware shops (paint striping).

I also used a fire box. Very discreetly. The wood and pine cones on the ground are usually bone dry. That means you can start a (fire box) fire very quickly, smoke free and have boiled water in 5 mins. I would often just use dead pine needles off the ground. But heed Duncans' warnings.

[javatime]

Follow all the good advice above but if it helps we moved to a remote burner that uses the screw on canisters. This also allowed the use of long / small diameter gas canisters as well that could be bought from the building supplies mega stores on the edges of many big Spanish towns. I think they were used for plumbing torches and weed burners.

You can also get various adapter cages that turn the blue Camping Gaz puncture canisters into self sealing ones for further flexibility.

We were in a different part of Spain, and it was very wet at times