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.
