apathtosomewhere

It’s chucking it down with rain, bouncing off the roof – not a good start to the day.

We had left the big outside mat outside overnight and as we trod on it this morning, it oozed with water. We dragged it over to a concrete area in an attempt to drain it as it needed to be packed away into a bag and ultimately in the Van – our pitch was just a patch of earth like the others, but it had a slight indent and had formed a puddle right by our side door, hence our soggy mat. It was very muddy and we slid as we got the Van organised for the day. The Pup had the right idea – she had hopped back on our bed and had curled up asleep, it seemed a good idea.

We pulled the Van out of the pitch, noticing the deep tyre tracks in the mud – it must of rained heavily overnight. It was raining now as we drove off, out of Pezenas, along its pretty main road through town. We were following the back roads again, through towns and villages – we passed through Paulhan, as it drizzled outside, the clouds dark and menacing. The countryside was starting to undulate and as we approached Nebrian, it started to get seriously hilly. Plane trees stood to attention along the roads, leaning at slight angles and they appeared again in the little communities, softening the buildings and making it look very pretty.

By the time we came up to Jonquieres, it was very pretty countryside with vineyards in every field and mountains looming in the background. The rain obscured any decent views that may be had, but it was still lovely. We passed through St Saturnin de Lucian before arriving in Arboras where we started to seriously climb into the wooded hills. The temperature on the Van said 7 degrees and still the rain came. We brushed the cloud base at 670 metres above sea level and passed over the Col du Vent before starting to drop back down slightly – we were on the southern edge of the Massif Central. We hadn’t seen another car or house for miles now, there was nobody around and we had this to ourselves. It was really autumnal here with the trees showing off their full colours of green, golds, reds and oranges – it was very pretty in the rain, but wished the sun was out as this would of been stunning.

We drove through the very picturesque village of La Vacquerie with its narrow streets – we had been through a couple of villages which had been a bit tight for the Van – and just past St Pierre de la Fage, we popped out onto stony moorland, leaving the woods behind. Since climbing high at Arboras, we hadn’t really dropped down again and seemed to be driving across a plateau – at La Caylar, the landscape turned back to arable/pasture farmland and we followed the D9 as it ran alongside its bigger counterpart, the A75 slicing its way across the countryside – the two roads kept meeting as we passed through L’Hopitalet du Larzac and then we did a slight detour to St Eulalie de Cernon.

St Eulalie de Cernon nestled at the bottom of a beautiful deep valley – we turned a corner as it all opened up in front of us, it was a fabulous view though somewhat muted by the rain. We dropped from 800 metres above sea level to 580 metres when we arrived at the village – you forget how high up you are still. We were going to stop and stretch our legs in the village, but as we pulled up in a very generous parking bay, the heavens really did open. As with all the villages, there hadn’t been a soul about so we would have looked a sight – two British tourists and their dog wandering around in the rain and getting soaked. So we shelved that idea and pulled up out of the valley to La Cavalerie where we had booked in an aire. We stopped at an isolated Spa supermarket just out of town for a few bits and found the aire, already with quite a few campervans in attendance and parked up. It was 2.15 and it was still chucking it down.

We made a cuppa as the rain bounced off the Van and a big black cloud loomed. The weather app showed an area map covered in rain for the rest of the afternoon – it was going to be a bit of a non day today, probably our first seriously horrible day. We had a restaurant booked for tea tonight so we wouldn’t be cooped up in the Van all day but we whittled the afternoon away, reading and taking naps.

The rain kept easing off and then lashing down again in a never ending cycle as more campers arrived at the site – there were about 17 of us now. Just before 7pm, we braved the rain (now just light, thank goodness) and wandered some 250 metres to La Poste restaurant for tea. Of course we were the only ones in there in a vast sea of tables until another guest came for a meal and several men in camouflage gear propped up the bar – we weren’t sure if they were from the nearby military base or local hunters. We enjoyed a nice meal and then waddled back, letting out a whoop of joy that it had actually stopped raining! We dodged big puddles in the dark and got back with relatively dry feet and spent the rest of our evening chilling.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Millau and hoping to see the famous Millau Viaduct if the weather lets us.

Boy, it was chilly this morning despite the sun shining. A real nip in the air.

We headed for Ceret, a little town just up the road as Hubby had discovered that the local InterMarche supermarket had two dedicated campervan sized parking bays. Nearer the town, I tapped the InterMarche into Apple Maps only to find it located way out of town. So abandoning that idea, we decided to try our luck in Ceret itself and did our usual – got ourselves in a knot and sent our blood pressures sky high. We got trapped down a street as they had closed it off for roadworks so we had to do a ten point turn, we then went down a completely wrong street and finally did a couple of laps of the town. This was ridiculous – we made an executive decision to go to the Intermarche after all and work from there, only to discover it was a 43 minute walk back to Ceret.

To give ourselves some thinking time, we washed the Van in the car wash, filled it with fuel and found a possible car park in Ceret – which we successfully did. By reversing the Van in so the back tyres touched the kerb and its bum overhung the verge, we managed to get the Van in a car sized space. I went to get a parking ticket which also turned out to be slightly traumatic as I needed to translate all of its demands and a queue was gathering behind me – I stabbed a lot of buttons and came away with a ticket that cost me two euros and gave me 24 hours worth of parking, not really knowing how I accomplished that.

Parked up, we walked into town and what a lovely little town it was. Tall plane trees gave a beautiful shade under their autumnal foliage as we wandered around. We found a cafe in a perfect little sunny spot to warm up (it was quite cool that warranted winter coats and a scarf) and had a coffee, ended up patting the cafe’s giant Bernese Mountain dog and fell into conversation with an English lady who lived nearby. We carried on with our wanderings, coming across little squares, timeless alleyways and little side roads – we had to watch our step as there were deep concrete gutters running through the streets and were potential leg breakers. We stopped off at a bookshop and perusing a box of maps came across one marked “Minehead” which made us chuckle – how on earth did a Minehead map find itself in the south of France? We visited a bakery for some sandwiches and cake and enjoyed some banter with the lady behind the counter (we’re all over the place linguistically which made her laugh) and the Pup met a four month German Shepherd puppy and they played together for a while.

Armed with lunch, we said goodbye to Ceret, nestling in the foothills of the Pyrenees – if you looked east, the landscape flattened out dramatically, but look behind and the majestic Pyrenean mountains rose above the little town. It was such a contrast. We picked up the D900 and headed north along the coast to Montpellier, hoping to find a nice picnic area to have lunch along the way somewhere in between. First we hit Perpignan, sitting in a broad flat valley floor and the satnav thought it was fun to take us right through the centre of it. It was a pretty town with avenues of plane trees, but we didn’t really notice much more as we contended with traffic lights, buses and the general chaos of urban driving.

We skimmed past Perpignan’s airport and little satellite towns – at Rivesaltes, the satnav decided to take us down this awful potholed back road (probably to shear off half a mile) that tested the Van’s suspension and our spines. Something made an dreadful crashing sound in the back that made us wince. We were burped out back onto proper roads and ran parallel with the A9 motorway across unremarkable countryside towards Narbonne.

We passed the Etang de Leucate, a vast body of water, sandwiched between us and the coast – here we got transferred onto the D6009. We missed a couple of decent stopping places (no signage) and went for many miles where there were no parking places at all or there was a tiny little lay-by, right next to the speeding traffic. Finally we came across a big parking area, set back off the road and behind some scraggy trees, where we made a cuppa and enjoyed our sarnies, watching lorries come and go. Suitably refreshed, we carried on to Narbonne with the half hearted idea of visiting for old times sake – years ago, with friends, we nearly went over the town’s weir in a boat we had hired for a weeks cruising – but common sense butted in and we skipped round Narbonne’s outer ring road and continued up the coast.

These last few days, we seen a few people trying to hitch hike – walking along with their thumb stuck out, something we haven’t seen for years. We hitch hiked in Corfu when we were young and stupid, great fun but had a couple of moments of like “what have we got ourselves into”. Now older, wiser and no room in the Van, we carried on past them and wondered if they were ever successful at getting a lift.

The countryside improved after Narbonne – this was wine country and there were fields and fields of vines. It was very pleasant. We approached Beziers which the satnav decided that we needed to see, so again we were on red alert for all the traffic hazards that Beziers could throw at us including mad people whizzing along on electric scooters at crazy speeds with no helmets – they would just pull out without looking!

It was at this point that we discussed the French and Spanish outlook on rules and regulations. There were, at times, where rules were blatantly ignored – double parking (even on a roundabout), just stepping out onto zebra crossings in front of you and back in Sant Pol, crossing the railway line after the barriers had come down and a red sign flashing “No Crossing!” There was this total laissez faire attitude which was quite refreshing, to be honest and most of it was basic common sense, though for the uninitiated like us, a touch alarming.

Finally we arrived at Pezenas, a few miles south of Montpellier where we had booked into a municipal camping site. We found it behind a line of retail outlets and supermarkets and it was actually very nice – we parked up in a little cul-de-sac full of campervans and took a deep breath. It had been a bit of a trip today.

We made a cuppa and as the sun started to slip out of the sky, decided to walk to the old part of town, some ten minutes walk away. It was fairly straightforward and we soon found ourselves in a delightful wide thoroughfare with little independent shops and cafes. It was lovely to visit all these different towns and not see any big multinational outlets that are so repetitive in our own High Streets – all the big names were usually found on retails parks in the outer suburbs or clubbed together down one street, but the actual town centres were full of independent traders and it was fabulous. We wandered around as night fell, down little tiny cobbled streets, with tall houses and old buildings on either side and it was beautiful – there was hardly anyone around in these back streets and you could imagine meeting a Victorian gentleman and woman coming round the corner, it was that timeless. It was lovely.

We found ourselves back on the main thoroughfare – we were still full from our lunch, so we sat down at outside cafe table and had a beer, soaking up this lovely little spot. We finally decided to wander back to the campsite, as the temperature was starting to drop and settle down for the night. Tomorrow we would take another little step back towards home.

We all woke up early this morning as we were all off travelling again.

We had a cuppa on the balcony – it wasn’t as warm today and it was quite cloudy. We walked daughter all the fifty metres to the train station and waited for her train to Barcelona airport before waving her off. We then walked to the bakery in town and picked up some croissants and had our final breakfast overlooking the sea and watched the street cleaners clean the street of leaf litter. Afterwards we packed our final bits back into the Van – gosh, we had pulled tons of stuff out – and after one final check, rolled out of the driveway.

It should of been a slick manoeuvre, except a Spanish person had parked their van on what looked like zigzags opposite and therefore possibly illegally – not that anybody cared – so there was a little bit of backwards and forwards before we cleared him. While we were doing that, the train klaxon burst into life and the railway barriers came down – bad timing on one level, but at least we would have time afterwards to line ourselves up with the narrow street opposite. So we parked against the kerb and waited, rather nervous about the right hand turn at the top of the street.

As it was, it was very easy. I got out and directed Hubby in between the high kerbstones and fencing as we left the railway line and then legged it to the dreaded right hand turn which we swept round (albeit very cautiously) in one. We were free. We crawled through the narrow back roads of town and jumped on the C-32 and headed north towards France. We did a lot of dual carriageway driving today bypassing Tordera and Girona and then onwards to Figueres, through the wooded foothills with the mountains in the background – the sun had come out making it a nice drive. At La Jonquera, we came off the main road and onto the N11, a quieter back road for the rest of the journey. During our little sojourn in Spain, we had noticed a neat little traffic calming measure involving traffic lights at zebra crossings. Basically they’re on red and at a certain distance, if they detect you doing the speed limit or under, they turn green and allow you to continue without hindrance. Seems they don’t change until you’re doing the correct speed. Brilliant idea!

We crossed the Spanish/French border at the town of Le Perthus, which the border runs right through dissecting it in half. We were back in the Pyrenees, but only just. The mountains here were mere pimples compared to the monsters in the far background and a mere slither of the great mountain range, but it was still very beautiful countryside. We were headed to a campsite just outside the small town of Maureillas las Illas, some 10kms from the border – we didn’t fancy a long drive today. The campsite was open and we parked in a sunny pitch before making a brew and sunning ourselves outside. It was quite warm, though a little breezy. Around 4pm, we decided to waddle down to reception to pay for our pitch and walk into town which was exciting as we had to walk about 200 metres on the busy road before we came across pavement. We had a look around the town, a pleasant little place with little squares and rambling alleys before we found a Spar shop and grabbed some bits for tea. With the sun disappearing behind the tall hills, we put a wiggle on back to the campsite and feeling hungry, decided to make tea and settle down. Daughter texted to tell us that she had made it home safely which was good and we made some video calls to family.

So not a really exciting day today – we are both tired from the weekend and though we only had three days break from the Van, it feels a bit weird being back in it again and rediscovering our routine. We’ve planned a route home – basically straight up the middle of France over the next fortnight which will be fun and a chance for us to get acclimatised to the colder weather as we head north.

Woke up too early.

Got up, fed the Pup, made a cuppa and then took Pup out for her ablutions. Then a leisurely breakfast watching Sant Pol de Mar waking up. A couple of street cleaners turned up to quietly sweep the streets which really didn’t really need doing – maybe empty the bins. Despite all of the Halloween celebrations, there didn’t seem a scrap of rubbish. A few families, joggers and people exercising their dogs wandered past in the morning sunshine.

We decided last night to head down to Arenys de Mar by train and so walked the few metres to the train station. We tried to purchase tickets via the ticket machine, but it wouldn’t accept our payment, so we turned to the chap in the ticket office. Again, the card payment wouldn’t go through, so we used another card just as the train pulled in. The chap shoved a piece of paper through the window and told us to get on the train, but our timing was lousy and the train doors closed before we got onboard. Annoying, but another train was due in 20 minutes. The train parped its horn and made us all jump – again!

We lurked by the beach before we went back to the station and jumped on the southbound train – we had just one stop before Arenys as the train hugged the coastline, running alongside the beach. We jumped off the train and came up against a row of exit gates which refused our piece of paper. There was a chap sat in the ticket office and he gesticulated to go to the end gate which we did and spotting a “customer service” help button, we pressed it expecting to hear his voice. It rang a couple of times and as we looked back at the ticket office the chap was signalling “go through, go through” which we quickly did and got burped out onto the main coastal road. We had made it!

We crossed over and walked a little way until we arrived at the bottom of the main shopping thoroughfare and decided to have a stroll up there to see what we could find. It was quite pleasant with people wandering around with quite a few shops open considering it was Sunday. We stopped at a little cafe – one of many – and sat outside for coffee and a piece of cake. It was very warm with the sun high in the sky. We walked up one side and down the other, before re-joining the coastal road lined with restaurants. As lovely as it was and being very busy, it was right against passing traffic which was a bit of a downer, so we turned tail and decided to go over the road towards the harbour to check that area out – we strolled along the harbour wall with other people, watching all the different boats coming in and out of the marina with long distance views down towards Barcelona. This was lovely.

After a while we wandered back – we had spotted a beachside restaurant, Justo, on our way in to the harbour and decided to eat there. We sat under the shade of the canopy and ordered beers. The tables and chairs sat on the sand so as we sat down, our chairs sunk lower. Pup positioned herself under the table, but couldn’t get comfortable for some reason and kept digging holes, burying our feet. Finally she settled as we ordered mussels, sardines, patatas bravas and a jug of sangria. We had a really lovely relaxed lunch on the edge of the beach with lovely staff who joined in with our silly humour – finally with the afternoon wearing on, we decided to catch the train back, after filling the hole under the table that Pup had dug.

We were starting to wonder about our little train ticket as we entered the station and queried it with two staff members. They started to book us another ticket and we were trying to tell them that we had already paid. After several minutes and with the assistance of Google Translate, we finally understood what the staff were saying – we hadn’t paid for our train journey as it had been refunded. Our piece of paper was a refund receipt. It appeared that with the train at Sant Pols approaching and with issues with the card payment, the ticket chap had just ushered us to the train without really explaining what he had done (given us a refund on our second card for some reason) hoping we would sort payment out on our arrival at Arenys. Why he had done this, we didn’t know, but these two very patient and understanding staff members finally sorted out tickets for us and gave us individual proper train tickets before we finally got popped out onto the platform, after another brief tussle with the ticket gates!

With perfect timing, the train appeared and we jumped on, arriving back in Sant Pols about 15 minutes later. We spoke to an English girl who had lived in Spain since she was small and she told us that it was cold here at the moment. Cold? We had light clothing on and felt hot! It was 20 degrees for goodness sake! We told her it was around 10 degrees with rain back home which was cold, so this was like summer to us. She laughed at the thought.

We walked back to our house and took our positions on the balcony, the street below busy with people taking a Sunday afternoon stroll. Our road curves round and ends in a dead end some 250 metres away so a little while later, the same people come wandering back, but it’s lovely to see families and couples enjoying the afternoon sun, meeting in little groups and engaging in conversations and admiring our campervan, seemingly still amazed how well parked it is. It’s busy deep into the evening, with a great atmosphere and vibe.

Thinking about the young girls comments about it being cold, we noticed a lot of the locals wearing coats and jackets, all wrapped up and we were sitting outside on our balcony in summer clothing having tea. No wonder people were staring at us! Around 7:30, the young people started to gather again, but an hour later they had disappeared and all was quiet outside apart from the crickets (and the crossing). With school tomorrow, they all went home early after celebrating Halloween weekend – it all kind of made sense now with them bouncing around to the early hours.

The daughter heads back to the UK tomorrow, so an early departure for her to catch her flight home before we also leave Sant Pol and start heading north and for home. We have just under two weeks left now and it’s whizzed by. Maybe I will have to change the title of this blog to Heading North.

Had a lovely sleep and it’s so nice to just to get out of bed without having to clamber over a dog and a human to get to the loo.

The house is vast! Over three floors, the balconies overlook the beach and it has a beautiful little courtyard at the rear. We’re doing a lot of running up and down the stairs as the kitchen is on the ground floor and the lounge area and balcony are on the next floor! Keeps us fit!

The Pup discovered that she could peer into daughter’s bedroom via the balcony and the patio doors and barked to be let in – bit of a rude awakening for daughter who was sound asleep at the time!

We went to the local bakery for the usual croissants and ate breakfast overlooking the sea. It was quite noisy as the street cleaners were out in force and the trains were still parping and the klaxons wailing, but it was okay. The trains are rapidly becoming background noise and it’s great to see the streets so clean (it was mainly leaf litter) despite the early hour.

After breakfast we decided to go for a walk on the beach so we wandered south of our place, along the Main Street until we came up to the river which was dry and sandy. We dropped on the beach which was a bit of a disappointment – grubby from either seaborne debris or careless visitors, there were bits of rubbish everywhere especially on the tide line. We walked in the surf to escape the worse, but it dropped away and it was hard to walk on barefoot. It was more grit than sand – our feet had a good exfoliation! The Pup enjoyed playing in the water albeit on a long lead (as per local by-laws). We got to a point where there was an old concrete bunker from the Spanish Civil War and we had to walk up close the railway line which was totally unfenced – we were practically yards from a live track. So weird. We walked a little further, but there seemed to be no bridges or underpasses to get to the other side and it wasn’t the prettiest path. So we turned around back to Sant Pol de Mar and followed this sandy path by the side of the railway track, until we spotted a few locals skipping across the tracks from a shady park area. We hesitated to whether to follow their example, but the park was so much nicer than this path, so we scuttled across (looking both ways) and through a flattened piece of fencing. This was so much better, under shady plane trees and grass on either side. We bobbed out by the dry river again and stopped for coffee at a little cafe amongst the locals before taking the higher road to check out a couple of monuments. We ended up wandering through the residential area which was very nice and finally came out above the railway tunnel and the back of our house – we could peer over a bit of rusty fencing and down into our sheltered courtyard from high above.

We could hear music on the beach, so we had a quick look at a nearby prominent church, then dropped down to the railway crossing and back to our little pad. The music was coming from a basement tapas bar directly opposite our place and it sounded fab. We had a quick look at the menu and scurried back for wine, beer and nibbles on the balcony, enjoying the music wafting across. This was perfect! We decided to try and book a table there for tonight and once the music had finished, I sauntered over armed with my best Spanish.

I did my usual introduction – I’m English and my Spanish is crap, so please forgive me – and asked for a table for tonight at 8.30, feeling very proud of myself as the lady behind the bar understood me and I had said fairly fluently. Unfortunately, her face was crestfallen as she replied that the restaurant was shut in the evenings and only opened at lunchtime. Pah!

I took the bad news back to the family. We would find another place, so we settled down on the balcony, catching the afternoon sun on the sun loungers and relaxing. This was the life.

As it was Halloween, there were lots of children and adults all dressed up starting to wander around and having lots of fun. Later we wandered into town and it seemed that the whole town had come out, celebrating – we were sticking out like sore thumbs dressed in normal clothes. We went to check out a Halloween party at the local park, but it was young children so we wandered back into town and found an intimate little restaurant called Celler La Llosa, just outside the main hubbub and enjoyed a lovely meal there. Afterwards we headed back, the town a little quieter as the younger children headed for bed. We sat on our balcony and watched the young teenagers gathering below again, the group ebbing and flowing. It was fascinating to watch – obviously excitable, but just hanging out together. They eventually drifted off and we went to bed.

We think there was a Halloween disco as just before 1am, they were back, still lively and adding a bit of tomfoolery into the mix. In the night air, their voices were amplified and it disturbed us. They were only having fun, but we wanted sleep. Finally they decided to go bed around 1:30. Hooray!

Tomorrow we’re planning to catch the train to Arenys de Mar, a couple of stops south and have a change of scenery.

The mist had cleared out of the valley and another nice day was dawning.

We were on a mission today – meeting our daughter this afternoon. We had a leisurely morning before packing up – we realised that Barcelona bound planes were flying right over our valley so we tracked our daughter’s flight. Of all the planes flying overhead, hers went a slightly different route – typical!

We wound our way down the mountain towards the coast. We had an AirBnB booked and was following the owners directions to the house. Let’s just say that we ended up taking the Van down a very narrow shopping street (we thought it was pedestrians only, but later discovered to our relief, that vehicles do drive down there, but not as big as our campervan), then arrived at very tight right turn into narrow single track lane that ended up us reversing down to get round the corner, then going backwards some 60 metres to the railway crossing, going over that the wrong way round and arriving, some 50 metres beyond the crossing, at our destination. We were becoming a bit of a curiosity as people stood and watched. Stress levels were off the chart!

Our next challenge was to get the Van on the drive, equally narrow and awkward. It just about fitted. Then we wandered all the 50 metres to the train station to meet daughter who had caught the train to Sant Pol de Mar. We unpacked stuff from the Van into the house and went for lunch in a nearby restaurant, got some food for tea tonight and then went back to sit on the balcony, overlooking the beach and sea and people watched. We realised that passing pedestrians were stopping to look at the Van – probably wondering how we squashed it in amongst many other questions. We were becoming minor celebrities.

As darkness fell, we went off into town across the railway line and had a wander around the shops – the Main Street was buzzing with people. It was a great atmosphere. We walked back to the house and enjoyed wine and nibbles on the balcony, watching the trains pull in and out. It’s a touch noisy with the warning klaxon blaring out for a few seconds as the barriers lower and the trains have a habit of parping their horns as they leave which plays havoc on the old nerves. The young people of the town have a tendency to gather on this road of all places, so they were a little lively too, but it was nice to be in a vibrant area, sitting high above and watching it all.

After all the excitement, we headed to bed with the patio doors open and the curtains wafting in the breeze. We didn’t take a lot of rocking……

We woke to a fine, crisp morning and watched the sunlight fall on nearby mountains.

Since we got our new Van, I had wanted to sit in bed at the rear with the barn doors wide open and watch the world, snuggled under my duvet. And this morning, my wish came true watching the day dawn and a beautiful view down the valley. Perfect.

It was going to be a slow day today. The sun itself didn’t appear over the mountains until about 10am and with its warmth shining down on us, we sat outside and enjoyed the peace and quiet. There was probably no more than four more campers on site. The Pup met a 17 year old dog and his owner (got made a fuss) and later a little girl and her dad came along for a pat.

We wondered what to do – Hubby wanted to walk up the valley to the road, but I didn’t fancy a big walk – it was nice to sit here. So Hubby and Pup went off on their walk and after a while, I wandered down to the campsite entrance and walked down the tarmac lane, following the bubbling stream. The valley is so steep here. I probably walked for about an hour before coming back and sunning myself again. It was glorious. Hubby and Hound arrived back – they had followed a track up to the road, found a hotel where the chap didn’t speak a word of English, but somehow Hubby got cheese and ham on a plate and a beer. After a few photos they waddled back down again.

We had lunch with super crunchy bread and relaxed until the cloud started to gather and the temperature dropped considerably. I went for a shower and got cool water which I wasn’t impressed with – my feet were freezing so I sat under a blanket to warm up again. We sat in the Van to read until Pup started to whine for dinner and as we nipped out to get her bowls, we were taken back to find the valley shrouded in mist! It was very atmospheric, almost eerie.

It’s all very well travelling in autumn time, but now with the clocks gone back, night falls heavily around 6:30 (especially when’s it’s misty) so we were cooped up a bit. We tried to watch Traitors, but it kept buffering every few minutes (a little bit of WiFi here, but not enough). We read for a while and then sat in bed, which proved fatal as we both fell asleep!

Tomorrow we’re back at coast and meeting up with our daughter for a few days. That will be great fun!

We had a lazy day.

With the sun warming our little corner, we spent the morning lounging around, not doing much. The Pup made friends with most of the Germans in our little cul-de-sac, which in turn, we ended up chatting with. It’s amazing what you end up talking about – today it was travelling on Le Shuttle.

https://www.tamarit.com/en

About 1:30 we waddled down to the beachside restaurant for lunch, near the reception and enjoyed a “plato del dia” overlooking the beach and the sparkling sea. The waiter was great – part of the meal was sharing four little starters and he served and described each one. It was the best service so far.

After lunch, we went back to the Van briefly to change shoes etc for a visit to the beach. The poor Pup had accompanied us on a variety of errands and jobs all morning and each time, she was happily making a bee-line for the beach before we pulled her in a different direction – at each little junction, she would hopefully peel off left, hoping we would follow, but alas, it was not to be. So we took one of her balls and made her day – we went up the quieter end of the beach so we could let her off lead and she could go swimming unhindered. She had a whale of a time and to cap her day, two little Cockapoos appeared and the three dogs chased each other while we and their German owners just laughed. The Pup hasn’t had this much fun for quite a while and it was lovely to see her enjoying the freedom.

The Pup staggered back to the Van and crashed on her mat. We relaxed for awhile and then I headed to reception with my postcards, hoping there was a postbox. There were a few empty pitches now and it seemed a lot quieter though the remaining kids still didn’t have any road sense and seemed determined to mow you down on their scooters. This was such a vast site as it took many minutes to get to reception (yes, they did have a postbox) and then a couple more to get to the supermarket for a baggie. I was sure that you could easily get your 10,000 daily steps in this place, it was that big. But saying that, it was a very pleasant site, with lots of trees and nicely laid out. It was quite fun to wander up and down all the lanes and check out all the different campervans, caravans and motorhomes. Some looked like that their owners had brought everything with them including the kitchen sink – all sprawled under awnings, that made you wonder where they stuffed it all when they were on the move. With it being Halloween, quite a few had decorated their holiday units with cobwebs, skeletons and other ghoulish paraphernalia (it’s so weird walking around in 23 degree heat in your shorts and t-shirts and seeing people celebrate Halloween – so surreal) with one very imaginative and macabre holidaymaker with skeletons dressed in aprons, “cooking” limbs on a barbecue surrounded by giggling ghosts!

And the size of some of these motorhomes/campervans are a bit jaw dropping (and that’s not adding bike racks, trailers for motorbikes and small cars to tow behind them). I spotted one that resembled a 54 seater coach and I was so astounded that I nearly walked into a lamp post. How on earth did he get that in here? It’s quite amazing how people go on holiday.

I went for a shower which was lovely (sorry France, but the Spanish beat you in the shower department). Hot with a tap and a rain shower head so I didn’t flood the rest of the block as well as my cubicle which is the trouble with these fixed and angled shower heads a lot of sites favour. It was a warm evening as we retreated inside and pulled our fly net across – would be nice to sit outside, but fear we would be a banquet for any passing gnat. We didn’t see the Pup for the rest of the evening as she was worn out by her beach excursion and we had a light snack for tea, just to keep us going.

Tomorrow we will be leaving Tamarit and heading back into the mountains around Barcelona. On Friday, our youngest daughter is flying out to spend a few days with us so we’re wheedling our way up the coast to meet her. Fun days!

We woke to another cloudless blue sky and it was quite warm too.

We were hitting the road again, heading towards the coast, just north of Tarragona – we fancied a change of scenery. We sorted the Van out and set off, through the winding, twisty roads of the stunning wooded mountains. This was very beautiful around Prades and probably our favourite bit so far. We must of driven for about 30 minutes, negotiating hairpins and eventually starting to drop down, when we turned a corner and whoa, we had the most fantastic panoramic view of the coastal plain way down below with the Mediterranean Sea in the distance. We gasped.

We followed the road down as pedal cyclists wound their way up – I am in awe of these guys – hitting the town of Alcover and then suddenly, we were down off the mountains and the roads were more straighter. We decided on a brief detour to seek out the Pont del Diable (aka Ferreres Aqueduct), a Roman aqueduct some 4kms outside of Tarragona. We followed the satnav on quite fast dual carriageways before swiftly turning right into a car park. We followed the signposts some 500 metres and came across the double arched aqueduct hidden in the trees. It was quite stunning and worth the diversion, though somewhat ruined by the noise of two busy main roads close by and overlooked by high rise apartments. There were paths heading off in all directions – think it was a sort of country park, but on the way back, there was a sign saying “hide your valuables in the car”. We had no need to linger and so headed off to the Tamarit Park Resort, our home for the next two nights.

https://tourismattractions.net/spain/pont-del-diable-history

The satnav made us skim the edge of Tarragona which had an emissions zone (eek) and back onto a main road which sliced its way through the gentle wooded hills. Soon we arrived at Tamarit and checked in. This was quite a big sprawling campsite and as we drove down its main avenue to our spot, there were campervans everywhere, all a bit packed in. We were allocated a pitch right at the very back, secluded by hedges and in the full sun. Suited us perfectly. It was 23 degrees, so we pulled out the awning and made some lunch, before going for an investigative walk – I was back in sandals and summer clothes, which I thought I had seen the back of. We wandered down to the shopping village where there was a supermarket, a bar area, a clothes shop and icecream kiosk and then up to the dog park, hoping it was a big green field for Pup to have zoomies in – alas it was a sliver of grass with agility equipment which the Pup was not impressed with. She doesn’t do agility. So we wandered through the labyrinth of chalets that dominated this part of the resort and found the beach which abutted the campsite. Pup had been smelling the sea air as we walked around and was eager to check it out. Most of the resort’s clientele were on this beach, so we kept Pup on the extendable lead as she charged down to the water’s edge and dived in. She was so happy. We walked in the surf, while Pup jumped the waves, swimming in the shallows. This was perfect for her and she so deserved this reward.

We walked about halfway down the beach before heading back into the resort – the gate took us back into our end of the campsite. There was a little beachside bar at the entrance, so we stopped for a beer and an icecream, hoping the sand that we had accumulated would dry off our legs and The Pup. We then wandered back to the Van, noticing that the majority of campervans had German number plates – we later found out that it was German half term, so it also explained why there were hordes of kids running around. We had a relaxing afternoon and even managed to squeeze in a nap and as the sun set, decided that we would go for a drink (we weren’t particularly hungry). We walked back down to where the shops were, wandering into the boutique to see if they had anything I could treat myself with – ended up with a friendship bracelet and four postcards. We then went to the bar opposite, but there were lots of families and screaming four year olds, all overdosed on the recent mini disco. The restaurant nearby was empty so we meandered to see if the beachside bars were still open.

This place is a grid system of avenues, but parts were in darkness as the streetlights had failed – fine, until hordes of children on scooters are bearing down on you, not looking where they’re going. We found the bar we had a drink at earlier and sat down – a lovely waiter came and made a fuss of the Pup – and we enjoyed a beer, two packets of crisps and some funky Ibiza set music. It was cool.

So we wandered back to the Van, the Pup retired on our bed (hope it’s not too gritty later) and we chilled. Not sure what to do tomorrow – whether to walk to Altafulla some 30 minutes away or just chill here. We’ll decide tomorrow.