Days 39 – 42 There’s a storm a’coming!

Well, so much for a relaxed and leisurely drive through France for the ferry in Dieppe!

Torn between staying south for the warmth and sun (although nothing like we’d left behind in Spain) as we crossed the border into France under lovely blue skies, we opted to head into the hills near Cèret just across the frontier, as Mrs B had spotted that there was to be a partial lunar eclipse that night, and where better than a proper dark-sky site up in the hills!

 

Pulling up behind a queue of young campers waiting at reception we didn’t expect to see, we were efficiently allocated a pitch by the receptionist who, although it was only a couple of hundred metres away, then drove the golf buggy to show us where we should park! These buggies are all the rage on very big sites – and you can see why, but Camping Mas Llinas was amongst the smallest we have ever stayed on…

 

Although we weren’t on one of the pitches that had a more direct vista out across the mountain peaks, the view was still pretty good, and with a clear sky promising some good moon watching, we settled in for our first meal inside Evie since we were last in France!

 

 

Keeping one eye on the sky, and one on the clock, we nipped outside just at the point the partial eclipse was due to be at its peak…

 

Now we knew that the shadow from the Earth would only obscure the moon by about 6%, but even with that knowledge we struggled to be certain that what we were viewing was an eclipse rather than just a bit of passing cloud – of which a few were gathering to add to the fun…

 

The pic is as good as we could manage with our limited skills and phone cameras, (thanks Nick for the tip about using binoculars next time!) but it catches the essence of what we were looking at and we enjoyed the experience!

 

 

Unlike the rest of the evening however, as the steady throb of loud music drifted up the terraces of the site and set some alarm bells ringing, it being a Saturday night after all! But hold on – we are in France – where campsites have pages of rules and are usually quite strict about the quiet period…

 

Thinking that a quick word with the management might help, Mr B wandered off down the hill, only to be greeted by a full on party, including disco balls and strobe lights, in full swing at the snack bar owned by the site – and amongst the party goers were of course the people we had seen queuing in front of us, and the reception team!

 

Recognising the limitations of the Entente Cordiale, Mr B beat a hasty retreat back to Evie, and settled in for a restless night…

 

Waking the next day to a cloudy sky (which fitted Mr B’s mood like a glove) we spent some time talking tactics, especially as we had become aware of the impending storm Ciarán and its likely impact on our planned ferry crossing on the coming Thursday…

 

 

It didn’t take long for us to decide that it might make sense to start heading north as soon as we had stocked up on a few French treats in nearby Le Boulou, and instead of having a destination in mind that we might spend time exploring as we had originally thought, instead we’d just head north up the free A75 from Béziers to Clermont-Ferrand and find somewhere to stay as the day drew to a close…

 

Which of course, now the clocks have gone back, it does that little bit sooner! Realising that it would be better to arrive somewhere in daylight if possible, Mrs B found an ACSI site south of Issoire in a small village off the A75; Lempdes-sur-Allagnon in the Haut Loire. New to us, Camping Pont d’Allagnon turned out to be the perfect antidote to the party-crazed mountain experience of the previous night!

 

With a free choice of any pitch we liked, the attraction of the sound of a fast flowing river soon helped us choose, and before long we were settled in for the night. And what a fabulous dark sky site it was, with just a few low level, low intensity lights left on after dark, and motion sensors lighting up the sanitaires as and when needed!

 

 

What with the darkness and the sound of the river, we were soon asleep and we woke ready to face the next stage of our journey homewards, with some anxiety creeping in about possible delays, or worse; cancellations and re-routing to Dover – which we have experienced before in stormy weather!

 

So, unsurprisingly, as we stopped for lunch north of Montluçon, we decided to see whether we could move our Thursday evening ferry at 1800, earlier to the 0630 on the Wednesday morning. With Mr B rehearsing his lines in French as he phoned DFDS, he was quickly delighted to find out that he could speak to someone in English, and yes, we could have a slot on the Wednesday ferry, and all for a £10 admin fee – result! Although we couldn’t know at the time, all four ferry crossings on that Thursday were indeed cancelled.

 

Realising that we needn’t drive on too far that day, as we’d have to free camp on the night before the ferry as check-in was at 0500, we opted to try another new-to-us ACSI site at Bourges, somewhere we have wanted to visit and if the weather held, we might get a sneaky preview…

 

 

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t hold, so we spent the time instead bringing the blog up to date, knowing that we should be able to post it before we left the next morning in the WiFi hotspot at reception. We’ve come to realise that these hotspots are ideal for us, as hardly anyone wants the inconvenience of having to get out of their van and go to the WiFi zone, so contention is normally low and we can grab enough bandwidth to upload.

 

And sure enough, at 0900 as he collected the pain-aux-raisins Mrs B had been hankering after, Mr B was able to upload the last entry in record time… which of course is relative, and in this case, only about 20 minutes!

 

Our decision to free camp the last night brought about a symmetry to this trip, as we found ourselves back in Auffay where we started all those weeks ago – and this time we were the only camper. Which is probably just as well, as our 0415 departure would not have enamoured us to any fellow campers that’s for sure!

 

It’s only a short hop north to the port at Dieppe, and with almost no traffic about it only took us just over 30 minutes, arriving at the port to see the departure lanes already full and a queue forming on the approach road back up the hill – so it wasn’t only us keen to escape the oncoming storm!

 

Embarkation was straightforward and we headed straight for the couchette lounge to catch up on those stolen few hours!

 

The sailing was a bit rough in parts…

 

 

…but not as rough as some we have experienced – possibly a result of the boat using its stabilisers (we never knew!) which, another first for us, we were told over the tannoy as we approached Newhaven, were being retracted, so passengers were advised not to walk about!

 

It’s a good while since we did a crossing during the hours that Border Force keep at Newhaven so we fully expected to get pulled over as we were amongst the first few campers off the boat, and Evie does have a thing for uniforms it seems… but this time we were lucky as a camper two ahead of us got pulled and we breezed past with the short journey home a welcome relief after a little too much storm-focussed anxiety than is good for us!

 

So, what do we think about this autumn trip? Well, it was a deliberate decision to stay as long at the various beaches as we did (over a month) and we are both of the view that it was exactly the right thing to have done for this trip. Did we miss the discovery of new places and road trip elements? Yes – but not enough to trigger any regrets! Instead, we’ve started to compile a list of towns and cities for our next trip across France.

 

Now we’re home, and the long list of jobs and responsibilities we have so easily discarded for the last six weeks are front and centre, we have loads of positive memories and a good few photos to draw on to keep our morale up as the days grow shorter, colder and wetter. And, more importantly, we are back amongst our family and friends, with diaries already filling up with loads of fun stuff to look forward to!

 

We now have plenty of time until next Spring to start planning the ‘wheres’ and ‘whens’ of our next adventure, although we do have a few early ideas…

 

Deri në aventurën e radhës…

 

or

 

Ata a próxima…

 

or

 

Hurrengora arte!

 

Thanks for reading – we hope you’ve enjoyed it!

 

S&J 05.11.23

Days 37 – 39 Transit to France – at last!

Leaving Oliva is never easy, and it was no different this time. As you can see by the weather forecast at the point we were heading off, it was hard to leave that idyllic, sunny, beachy lifestyle behind!

 

 

Mrs B had suggested that to make the most of the good weather, we take the route along the Mediterranean coast and head over the border at La Jonquera into France – a route that we hadn’t taken heading north for a very long time! And as we were in that memory lane zone, she also suggested a campsite we had last visited with our girl Lu and her bestie, Maisie, 24 years ago, in Tamarit, just north of Tarragona.

 

But first – and we timed our (slow) departure from Eurocamping to allow it – we thought we’d treat ourselves to one of our all-time favourite free-camps on the cliffs at Alcossebre, to stage the journey.

 

As you might recall if you are following this trip, we stopped at the campsite in Alcossebre on the way down for a week or so, and whilst there we had admired the half dozen or so free-campers we could see each day, perched above the beaches not far from the Tropicana site. And after our sleepless last night there, kept awake by campsite aircon, what better than parking up right on the beach with the sound of the sea lapping the shore and lulling us off into a gentle, compensatory night’s slumber?

 

Well, let’s just say that Mrs B’s observation that the sea seemed higher up the beach than when we were here last, was not only accurate, but based on the fact that we were arriving on the tail end of a storm surge on this part of the coast that had washed away a fair bit of beach, some of the cliffs, and flooded some of the roadways…

 

But, none of that put us off and before long we had parked up in an idyllic spot…

 

 

…got ourselves ready for a moonlit dinner…

 

 

… and before long we had settled in, with the waves lapping…

 

…err, hold that thought, more like roaring at the beach (according to Mr B that is!)

 

And, as we had chosen our spot on a small headland, they were ‘roaring’ onto the beach either side of where we had parked. The effect of which (for Mr B only…) was that what was once a gentle lapping and lulling had turned into a discordant slapping as the waves pounded the beach…

 

All of which meant, that by dawn, Mrs B woke refreshed by a good night’s sleep, and Mr B was wandering about muttering that his masterclass in CIA interrogation techniques had left him just a little tired…

 

…which is why he ended up wearing sunnies for breakfast, when the sun had barely crested the horizon!

 

 

Heading out of Alcossebre after filling up with fuel for Evie and us, we headed north on the old N340, now quiet since the AP7 motorway became free to use, before joining the motorway at Ampolla and passing the nuclear power station just by the motorway near Tarragona…

 

 

…and arriving at the site at Tamarit that we had last visited in 1999, after a relatively easy drive.

 

We had left Oliva with enough time to arrive in Tamarit on the Thursday before the Halloween weekend, having learned the hard way in Conil last year when we struggled to find a site with any vacancies. So we knew that it was going to be busy…

 

…but we hadn’t expected to see all the arrival bays full of campervans waiting to get in (it’s now a much larger and very popular site!). Once we had waited our turn in the queue to talk to one of the busy receptionists, taken in the signs promoting three separate Halloween events at the site on October, including the weekend coming, and noticed the ghoulish decorations outside reception, we were pleased to be told that yes, we could stay for the two nights we wanted, but…

 

 

…no ACSI discount on the second night – eek! This was a surprise to us as sites normally list their exclusion dates on the ACSI app and in the book, which this one hadn’t, so the difference was €23 for Thursday with ACSI, and €41 for Friday and, as it’s Catalunya, taxes on top, just like neighbouring France! So, we thought we’d see how the Thursday night went and review on the Friday morning…

 

Parking up in our allocated spot, along with a good number of early arrival Spanish Halloweeners, we couldn’t help but wander around the site for old time’s sake (we have some very fond memories, as well as being both flooded and robbed, on two separate visits, back in the 90s!) and blimey has it changed! It is now so much bigger, and we could soon see why it’s now called a ‘resort village’!

 

It still has the lovely tall pines, but the area where we had camped with the girls (when their tent got flooded) is now a complex of rental chalets with a wellness centre and bike rental.

 

The charm is still there though and the flood management so much more sophisticated with concrete roads, massive drains, and a battery of pumps ready to send floodwaters on towards the sea.

 

So after our orientation wander, and getting lost a couple of times, we had to go for a beach walk up the coast to Altafulla beach. The clouds may have filled in, but it’s still a very picturesque beach and walk…

 

 

Further evidence of the recent storm surge could be seen as we approached the town, with giant sandbags outside a restaurant to protect its underbuild, and this precarious life-guard tower left casually leaning out to sea…

 

 

Making our way back along the beach after admiring some of the older beach front properties…

 

 

…we decided to have an early dinner on the pitch and then a wander around to see how the site was filling up…

 

Suffice to say that we now appreciate just how well behaved the weekenders are at Eurocamping in Oliva, as the night got louder and louder in the zone we were in, with no-one minded to keep quiet after midnight, or indeed at all until they were ready to turn in some time before dawn…

 

So no surprises that when we did eventually prise our eyelids open next morning, Mr B scampered off to see if we could change pitch to one of the quieter areas we had reconnoitred the night before; after all, if we were paying more, surely we would have some choice…

 

Well, up to a point. Mr B returned with our options – two pitches only, with the rest that were at that price point already booked! Within minutes we had made our choice and by mid morning we had settled into our very much nicer, larger and hopefully quieter pitch, closer to the beach and further from the noise ‘hotspots’. We also think it’s close to where we got robbed, but that was in Daisy when we used to sleep with the back doors open and just a mosquito net between us and the knife-wielding ladrones, who slashed the net and stole Mrs B’s watch from right beside our sleeping heads… Needless to say, no more open door sleeping these days!

 

 

And as if to celebrate our good fortune with the new pitch, the sun then blessed us with its presence for the rest of the day, tempting us into the new and much, much larger pool…

 

 

… but with our waterslide days firmly behind us, we reverted to a day of the usual, reading and snoozing on the beach, with its amazing old castle at one end…

 

 

 

or walking along it and up into the old town for a wander around.

 

 

The old town is typical of so many in coastal Spain, with its narrow streets and old (mainly 18C here) houses superseded by a more modern beach resort on the coast itself. So it has plenty of charm…

 

 

a castle…

 

 

and, a definite to visit if/when we come back; a very nice looking Michelin starred hotel/restaurant that Mrs B had soon spotted…

 

 

Returning along the beach, with the sun setting appropriately on what was our last day on the beach in Spain…

 

 

…we arrived back just in time for the first of the evening’s entertainments, a children’s dance-along disco with roasted chestnuts for sale…

 

 

After watching for a while, and before Mr B was tempted to join in, we headed back to Evie where we enjoyed a much calmer-than-last-night dinner on the pitch, reflecting that for our entire time in Spain on this trip, we had not needed to eat inside the van once, with our alfresco breakfast, lunch and dinners reminding us of one of the things we love so much about our travels – being outdoors as much as possible!

 

By about 9pm the camp had gone eerily quiet, of course, it was suppertime for the locals. So we used the hiatus to wander around and have a look at the Halloween displays that almost all the Spanish campers had erected on their pitches, with this one being our favourite…

 

 

The second instalment of the entertainment – a live band – kicked off at 1030 for an hour or so and, unlike the previous night, and partly because we were in an entirely different part of the site, by midnight we were able to settle down and, in our now heavily clichéd world, were serenaded to sleep by the waves crashing on the beach in the distance….

 

After a restful night, we made, for us, a timely departure, helped along by an early morning wake-up playlist of the theme tune to Pan’s Labyrinth on repeat over breakfast (more onsite entertainment with an actual labyrinth set up amongst the trees – they really go all-out with Halloween here!) and, after a final stock up at a Spanish supermarket we were back on the AP7 heading for the French border, destination tbd!

 

So it’s ¡Hasta luego España! And thanks for an amazing time and such incredible weather! We have an inkling of what we are returning to in the UK, but first, we need to manage our return across France, not wanting to leave the sunny south too soon, and not wanting to have to race to the coast to get the ferry in Dieppe…

 

S&J 31.10.23

 

Days 25 – 37 Oliva - Part Two

As we write this entry we will have been in Oliva for the best part of three weeks (20 nights) – the longest we have ever stayed on a campsite so far! And it’s a testament to how much we love it here – and how lucky we have been with the weather, that neither of us has had itchy enough feet to move on. It probably helped that we had an idea that if the weather allowed, we’d likely enjoy a beach focussed trip rather than one of our more adventurous road trip style journeys…

 

So – what have we observed/learned through staying put for so long?

 

Not only did we stay on the one site the whole time, we also stayed on the same pitch, as luckily, apart from a couple of very short bursts of light showers at night – neither enough to clean the windscreen (see pic later) – and a couple of cloudy days, it has been wall to wall sun for most of the three weeks, and we swerved the much feared Gota Fria! 

 

We did however have one pretty weird evening, where the wind went from nothing to very strong gusts with a spattering of rain in a matter of seconds, leaving us scrambling to get the laundry in and the skylights closed, but not before the van was covered in tiny little pine needles, inside and out - even in the bed! It then blew noisily for the rest of the night and throughout the next day.  This is not at all uncommon here, but we’d clearly been lulled into a complacency based on the pretty idyllic run of sunshine and more gentle breezes until then!

 

Staying on the one pitch has meant that although we may have not moved, life around us has changed on a regular basis, which for us, has delivered enough change/variation/new neighbours as it never gets dull, and delivers plenty to natter/gossip about!

 

One of the best bits of staying put, was the series of serendipitous ‘bumping into one another’ events with a couple of fellow Brit travellers, Nick and Tessa, who we ended up seeing (unplanned) on an almost daily basis on the beach, in the sanitary blocks, walking around the site, out on the bikes, in Oliva town, in the supermarkets…

 

Which led us to meet up a couple of times for drinks, swap phone numbers and, hopefully, stay in touch with our future travels, as you never know who you might just bump into…

 

This more social vein than usual (for us) was also continued when we had a lovely ‘come back to ours’ evening with Janette and Ian, who walked up to the site along the beach from their nearby house and we had our first ever BBQ’d chicken on the Cobb ‘oven BBQ’ – which we had trialled in the UK but had never used camping! (A brilliant bit of kit – see here if you’ve never come across them!) Luckily it worked well, and as well as managing to consume slightly less alcohol than we had round at theirs, we had a great time! You can also see in this pic that we have succumbed to one of the trademarks of the long-termers here – we bought a printed Indian ‘mandala’ (at least that’s what they call the large printed cotton sheets used for shade here) from the market to help keep the pitch cooler, (although we now realise they are also used by some just for privacy and they’re pretty good for that too).

 

 

And apart from the usual campsite gripes of occasional annoying awning lights left on when the campers have turned in for the night (we are talking super-bright LEDs here that shine into our hippy-style solar and candle-lit pitch – or into our bedroom windows...) or, post-midnight game players with associated dice-dropping onto tables… it would be fair to say we have had a very fortunate stay that we would easily repeat!

 

In fact, given how busy it was when we arrived, we intend to use an empty plan of the campsite and mark up pitches we might fancy next time – and consider booking ahead – and that will be a first for us!

 

Staying longer has also allowed us to observe longer-term campsite life, including two campers being evacuated by ambulance, a visit to one of our neighbours in la Calle Valenciana by the Police, and the fascinating ebb and flow of near neighbours in our own cul-de-sac, including two German families with young children that gave a lively and familiar sound to our own camping adventures with the grandkids – or Enkelkinder as we now know to call them!

 

We have also been able to explore the local shops and supermarkets at a more relaxed pace, which has meant that we’ve refreshed our local knowledge on where is best for what, from fish to empanadillas, all of which has meant it has brought back some very happy memories of our longer stays here in the house at Font Salada!

 

Which probably contributed to the decision to take a ride over to the Font for a swim and a cortado for old time’s sake. We didn’t swim last time we were here and we were so glad that we had packed our swimmers in the panniers as we arrived at the font in the sunshine, with its warm waters empty of anyone swimming!

 

 

After an excellent coffee and a lovely chat with (the owner) Antonio’s daughter Sandra who we can remember as a young teenager (she’s 33 now and has a two year old daughter of her own) and Dani the waiter (now the chef) who we probably spent the most time chatting with over the years, we spent a lush half hour swimming up and down with the fish and ducks, still amazed at how lovely and warm it is with the bubbles percolating up from the bottom…

 

 

Most of our time in this latter part of the stay was, predictably, spent on the beach, reading, swimming and walking – and on one occasion, taking afternoon tea and cake courtesy of Mr B’s fine balancing act in bringing the tea tray back from Evie…

 

 

Like other campsites on this beach, Eurocamping has pitches on the dunes - and only a €3 premium!

 The beach stretches for miles to the north...

To the south...

One of the small lagoons that appear after the tide has been high...

Looking back from the extensive dunes to the sea...

And a surprise one morning...

 

When we first arrived we promised ourselves that we would go out to eat in either lunch at one of our all time fave eateries, L’Almàsera Hotel Rural in Margarida in the hills behind Oliva and about an hour’s drive, or, for dinner, to the Hotel Rural near the Font where we have eaten a couple of times before and we’ve loved the relaxed vibe and fabulous architecture – and only a short bike ride away…

 

So it will probably come as no surprise that we opted for the short(ish) bike ride! Friday was vetoed as it was too windy and we booked for Saturday instead. With darkness now falling about 1900 and no-one in Spain ready to eat until about 2100, we guessed we’d have the place to ourselves if we wanted to ride over with some daylight.

 

Setting off with the light failing and the moon rising, we noted the drop in temperature as we headed into the marshland and orange groves that lie between the beach and the Font…

 

 

…which was no big deal for Mrs B who of course had worn a cardigan – and packed an extra jumper for the return trip… unlike Mr B, who of course relied on his body temperature alone and the fact that he was wearing long trousers for the first time this trip…

 

Arriving at the hotel just before darkness fell, we were unsurprised that we were the only people in the dining room, and we fully expected the tables to fill as the evening unfolded (they did). We had booked a table for 1930 to allow us to get there in good enough daylight… as Mr B had forgotten to charge the lights up since our last nocturnal adventure…

 

Greeted by a very friendly staff member who, as soon as she heard Mr B’s Spanish, very thoughtfully slowed her speech, which enabled us to have a pleasant chat that all three of us could follow, and we soon plumped for the ‘menu diario’ at €28 which we thoroughly enjoyed, along with a bottle of the local Bobal red wine

 

 

Leaving the hotel feeling very mellow, we noticed immediately how the temperature had dropped further, with Mrs B donning her jumper and Mr B his wine goggles, we negotiated our way back across the marshes and orange groves, lit by the moon, with hardly a soul about and just the sound of some cicadas settling in for the night...

 

 

Of course, it being a Saturday night, the relative silence was soon replaced by the hubbub of Valencian weekend campers, but, as seems to be the case consistently here, by midnight calm had returned, and we enjoyed the sound of the sea one more time as we drifted into sleep…

 

And so our last few days in Oliva hove into view, with mixed feelings of sadness to leave what has been an amazing run of good weather and relaxing lifestyle, and also excitement about being back on the road again! Of course it wouldn’t be a stay in Oliva without one more ride into town to the shops, past the orange groves with their ripening fruit, and woodyards waiting for the older trees…

 

 

…with Mr B hauling the shopping back on poor old Freddy and wondering just what the payload maximum is…and how well the spokes are holding up…

 

 

…a final Corvina BBQ (completely delicious – again!)…

 

 

…tackling some of the departure jobs before the day arrived, including Evie’s filthy windscreen – a testament to how little rain we’d had – just a few spots – and at night…

 

 

…a final load of washing in the hi-tech lavanderia, with its App driven capability to check which machines were available, book and pay for one over the web, and even be alerted when your washing was done – and all for €4! Of course, we felt adventurous enough just using the touch screen pad in the room and putting our washing bg in a queue in front of our chosen machine…

 

 

…and of course, a final day on that amazing, if rather windy by the time we left beach!

 

 

So it’s ¡Hasta luego Oliva – a la proxima vez! We’re not sure when, but we know we’ll be back!

 

S&J 24.10.23