Monday 23 September

Our local village had a market this morning so we cycled over but couldn’t find it. In the Spar we bumped into the English chap who had arrived on site yesterday with a Hobby van (the one here for 7 weeks) and he told us where it was. Turned out to be quite small so didn’t spend any money. 😊

We had quite a chat with this chap and he was telling us about 2017 when a terrorist bomb exploded in one of the houses in the village. They were setting up the bomb to take to Barcelona but it detonated whilst they were preparing it, killing 2 terrorists and injuring about a dozen firefighters as there was a secondary explosion. This was at the same time as the bomb in Cambrils, further north, and the terrorist attack in Barcelona. Seems incredible that it happened in this sleepy village. 😯

He also told us how he goes swimming in the sea here. I said that I was worried as it seemed quite dangerous and he agreed that a lot of the beach was dangerous but there was a spot where there was sand underfoot and no big rocks. He usually goes swimming with his springer spaniel.

So earlier today we went off down to the beach with Hobby man, his wife and dog. (Out through a gate at the bottom of the site which we didn’t know opened 🙄) The water was quite rough and I had a few second thoughts but followed him into the sea, wading through seaweed and pebbles being swept along the sea floor. Lottie was barking furiously on the shore, it was much too rough for her to be in the sea. There was a deep step on the sea floor and suddenly I was out of my depth, swimming to stay afloat. Unfortunately it was also too rough for his springer to swim in, so it was just the two of us. Despite the stormy conditions it was good to be in the sea and it wasn’t cold at all.

After a while we got out, which was no easy task, the shore shelves quite steeply and the water wanted to take you out again. Once I was out I realised Lottie was very wet, apparently at one point she had tried to get out to me and been swept out to sea – by the time Paul got to her, the next wave was bringing her back in. He said she was braver than the springer. That’s my girl!

On the way back into the site we passed a Belgium couple, with a very fat cat under their outside table. Lottie detoured to wander over to the cat when the cat suddenly went berserk and tried to attack Lottie – claws out, teeth bared, hissing like crazy – I lifted Lottie out of the cats way, literally yanked her up by her harness. She was petrified. The Belgium lady explained that it wasn’t her cat, it was a wild cat that she had been feeding. And it wasn’t fat, it was very pregnant. Which might explain the unprovoked attack. Phew. We were told later that she had previously taken a wild cat home to Belgium.

After a quiet afternoon in the sun we showered Lottie in the dog shower, the best one we’ve seen so far. Not that she thought so.

The site has become very busy, many more English arriving. Paul has pointed out that there’s quite a diverse crowd here, Swiss, Finnish, Dutch, French, Hungarian, 2 chaps in a van at one end of the site and 2 women in a van at the other end of the site. I feel quite sad to be leaving, we’d just got into a very relaxed routine.

Tomorrow we move 75 miles up the coast.

Didn’t take any photos during the day so here are a couple of the campsite