Our climb up towards Bourg-Madame and over the Col de Puymorens started well, with Mr B managing to drive Evie at a gentle enough speed that the radiator fan didn’t need to kick in and create the ‘accompanied by hovercraft’ soundscape that it generates!
It’s an odd engine in Evie, as the radiator temperature is constantly assessed, and by use of some sort of variable clutch arrangement, a constant, and efficient temperature is maintained, right up until the gauge reaches the red zone, way over on the dial – at which point the fan goes into turbo mode and drops the running temperature right back to normal – but at the cost of being able to hear one another speak! In spite of us crossing the Alps and the Pyrenees on a regular basis, the only time we can remember it coming on was the time we climbed Mount Etna on Sicily – a memorable experience!
So, pleased that we were keeping Evie cool and making good progress, we were a little disappointed when we hit a bouchon/traffic jam with some pretty obvious road works underway, and where alternate traffic flows were having to wait for the very efficient road gang to tarmac and roll a section of road, before waiting for it to cool enough to allow traffic to cross over it!
Having never experienced road works quite like it, and after some delay, we were eventually waved on and only after a few miles did we realise that the scenery looked pretty different than we remembered, and before we knew it, we were in a small queue to get into Andorra! It turned out that the road to Bourg-Madame was closed as part of the roadworks and all traffic that was heading there was diverted through Andorra… And our one experience of travelling through Andorra a good few years back had not been positive, with huge queues and delays getting into France.
Still, it was a dramatic climb as we drove across the top of Andorra, the diesel was super cheap at only €1.48 (although we only needed about a quarter of a tank) and at the border with Spain, only a six minute wait before we sailed across the frontier, much closer to La Seu d’Urgell than our original route. So not all bad – just odd that we saw no signs warning of the road closure in France (unless they had gone up further back than l’Hospitalet?) who knows!
Making the most of the time the detour had saved us, we pressed on looking for an alternative supermercado to stock up on Spanish goodies – something we usually do at Puigcerda as soon as we enter Spain, for the fabulous and much cheaper fruit and veg. Which is how we found ourselves pulling into a Carrefour (yes!) in the small town of Belaguer where we had a giggle reminding ourselves that our basic Spanish Castillian was about as much use as French here in Catalunya!
Last year we only made is as far as Alos de Belaguer, (which we had already passed this time) by nightfall after crossing into Spain, so, making use of the advantage of starting at l’Hospitalet and our unplanned but shorter route through Andorra, we stocked up with enough goodies for a few days and headed off to see if we could get to the coast, which would be one of our fastest transits from Brighton to the Med ever!
Not that these trips are about getting places quickly, more that we were keen this time to spend a chunk of our limited post-Brexit allowance on the Med whilst the weather was still warm and sunny! And it was certainly toasty, as the outside temperatures reached the low 30s and the cab temperature soon equalised!
Our route, which takes us from La Seu d’Urgell, around Lleida and down to the coast at Amposta is a favourite for us, as apart from the sections of intensive pig farming, it’s both pretty (especially the first and last thirds) and usually very uncongested, with high quality roads that put much of what we have in the UK to shame.
As it became increasingly clear that we were indeed going to make it to the coast, Mrs B suggested we take up an idea we have had in the past of staying on, or near the Ebro Delta. Yet again we had missed the boat for a lovely site right on the far coast of the delta (the season had just ended!) so instead, Mrs B found an interesting site just north of Tortosa in L’Ampolla, which looked promising for both proximity to the beach, had its own pool, and there looked to be good cycling opportunities to the north and south! Perfect for a couple of nights to allow us to chill, acclimatise, and plan the journey south.
Camping Ampolla Playa turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag – a great site in terms of its fabulous salinated pool, good sized pitches, lovely restaurant and facilities generally, along with friendly staff – but, because of its proximity to so many rice fields as well as sitting inside the northern bay of the delta, it was an absolute haven for mosquitoes and the beach a tumble of weed-stacked rocks and a bit of shingle, with the sea an unappealing shade of murky green.
However, in need of a rest, we made full use of the pool before we headed off after our second night towards one of our absolute favourite sites in Spain – pimp my pitch Tropicana in Alcossebre, just a short hop down the coast! And with the temperature set for a steady run of sunshine in the high 20s, we were keen to make the most of our early arrival in the Mediterranean!
S&J 02.10.23
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