This morning we only cycled a couple of miles to Alcanar as they had a market, which actually turned out to be only half a dozen stalls but we had a wander around, found a great fruit and veg shop (basically someone selling it out of what looked like an empty garage). I have noticed in several fruit and veg shops that there is always a large stack of what looks like flat leaved parsley by the tills and most people have a bunch added to whatever they’ve bought. We also bought a few bits and pieces for lunch before making our way back.

The cycling was great, through orange groves, olive groves and fields of vegetables that I think were artichoke. There were also passion fruit and pomegranate growing wild in the hedgerows. I was just thinking how lovely everything was when we cycled past an old building with a big snarling, barking dog behind a fence. Lottie (running alongside us), was giving as good as she got, barking back, when suddenly the big dog got under the fence and came out after Lottie. I slammed on my brakes, ready to get between the dogs but Paul didn’t stop and ploughed into me. Lots of shrieking (from me) and barking (from Lottie) ensued, and the big dog obviously decided it wasn’t worth it and went back under the fence! Paul had hurt his thigh on my back wheel and his front wheel had scraped a layer of skin from my ankle but remarkably we’d managed to stay upright and weren’t too badly injured. There were a few words exchanged ie ‘why did you stop?’ But I wasn’t going to just ride on, was I?

We spent a couple of hours back at the campsite. Told the owners that we were staying until next Tuesday. I’ve booked a vet appointment for Lottie to have her worm tablet on Wednesday near Tarragona, after that we’ll start the long journey home. If we could have got a ferry from Spain with a pet cabin we would have but they’re all full.

Paul found his hammock and got it set up between and orange tree and an olive tree. I read my book.

Later we walked down to the beach to give Lottie a walk and I wanted to get in the sea. As it turned out I did have a short swim but there were lots of boulders in the sea where we were, so I didn’t venture too far.

About 5pm the sun went behind cloud and it rained 🙁. Out came the awning to cover up the tables and chairs.

Lottie had to have a shower as she was definitely not a white dog anymore. She then went over to visit the French neighbours 🙄

The rain has now stopped, here’s hoping the sun comes back tomorrow.

Hammock out

I suggested that we cycle to Benicarló this morning for the market. It’ll be about 10 miles I said. Well, it was a tad more than that, 27 miles there and back. We were on cycle tracks, side roads, main roads, footpaths, in and out of housing estates, always trying to stay near to the sea. There were beautiful views, lots of lovely coves, sailing boats, divers, and most of it was flat fortunately.

Views along the way:

En route we went through Vinaros which is quite a large town with lively beaches.

Once we’d arrived at Benicarló we had a drink at a cafe by the beach and then I left Paul whilst I went up to the market. I had a mooch around and also went to the indoor food market which is always great to see, all of the fish, vegetables and meat. I rejoined Paul and we cycled back to the campsite (the bill for his 2 large beers and a tin of lemonade for me was 4.80 euros – very cheap).

Some interesting art work on a block of flats in Benicarlo:

We stopped en route to visit the designated dog beach and to let Lottie have a dunk. She didn’t really like the waves and needed a little encouragement (as in I picked her up and put her in the water and she had to swim to shore), but she needed to cool off. I ended up getting quite wet myself from the waves. She had insisted on running alongside us whenever possible, so was very hot. As we’d done quite a bit on the road, she had been restricted in her running.

The dog beach:

Once back at the site I changed into my swimsuit and headed for the pool as I was very hot. It was bliss.

We’ve started to think about our journey home. As we have to take Lottie to a vet for a worm tablet at some point, it needs a bit of thought. We will probably stay here at Camping Estanyet until next Tuesday. It’s very quiet, has a lovely feel to it, and the showers are excellent!

You do have to get used to Olives dropping on the van as we’re under olive trees. But we can live with that. 🙂

Paul took Lottie out, was gone for ages, came back and announced it was one of the best dog walks he’d ever had, all along the coast.

After hanging up a washing load to dry, we set off to cycle to Sant Carles de la Ràpita, a fishing town to the north of us. I was hoping to cycle along the coast but we had to do most of it along the road, fortunately there was a wide strip of tarmac outside of the main road.

The sun was out, it was perfect weather.

After 8 miles we arrived at our destination. There was a lot of holiday accommodation leading into the centre, but it was very quiet. There were several lovely sandy beaches which had been raked, but not many people on them. None were dog friendly. We found the tourist office next to the port/marina with a lovely girl in there who pointed us in the right direction of the old part of town, and the shops.

Despite all of the holiday accommodation we found the town to be very Spanish, not touristy. There were normal shops selling the items that you would expect in a Spanish town, fruit shops, opticians, shoe shops and a few bakers with lots of pastries. After a wander around we stopped for a light lunch and a drink, juice for me and a beer for Paul. From a menu we picked a Serrano ham bocadillo and potatas bravas. We got a plate of sliced bread with tomato and a slice of ham on, delicious. The idea was to have the potatoes with the ham but we had eaten the ham by the time a plate of chips arrived. Not sure what happened there as we were expecting spicy potatoes. But it was all very nice. It certainly wasn’t fast food as it took ages, but we were very happy watching the world go by.

By the time we got back to the campsite it was late afternoon so we crashed out in the sun.

Tomorrow we’re going to cycle the other way to Benicarlo where there is a market. About 10 miles I think.

Said goodbye to our English neighbours this morning, they left just before us, a lovely couple, very down to earth. They’re actually only going about 10 miles down the road from us.

A short while later we left Camping Ampolla Playa, and headed for Camping Estanyet, stopping off at a Mercadona on the way.

Each of the Mercadona’s I’ve visited have had these counters with 3 people slicing ham. Very impressive to see.

Not sure I fancy this drink

We only travelled about 25 miles but managed to take a wrong turn and then missed the turning for the campsite. After turning around and going down the right road, I wondered what I was bringing us to as we went down a single track road / lane, bumpety bump. But although the entrance to the campsite was a tad tight, it is a lovely campsite. The pitches aren’t very big and we ended up straddling two pitches. This was a bone of contention initially as I wasn’t happy with it at all. I am programmed to follow the rules, so using 2 pitches went against the grain. But the owners (it’s a family site) seem OK with it. (And it was the only way Paul could get tv 🙄).

Unlike the last site, which was full, this site is very quiet, only about a dozen pitches used. But I’m fine with that.

We had some lunch and then went for a walk to explore outside the campsite. We are right opposite the beach (pebble) and if we turn left there is a huge pavement/cycle path. We walked into Les Cases del Alcanar. This fishing village is only about a mile away, very Spanish, no sign of tourism apart from the fact that there are a lot of little restaurants along the front.

There were only about 4 people on the beach, no-one in the sea – it was quite rough so I wasn’t tempted.

We came across these signs which look quite amusing

any ideas??

We returned to the site and sat down for a spot of relaxation. Shortly after sitting down an English chap came along, initiating a conversation, and ended up sitting down and chatting for a while. After about 2 minutes I decided I didn’t like him and thought he was an egotistical twit. But I was polite and smiled when he told us how long his caravan was, how wide his caravan was, how many wheels his caravan had (lots), how wide his awning was etc etc etc. Eventually he left.

We had to check in late afternoon (the chap who saw us earlier and gave us a pitch had told us in broken English to check in later). This time we saw his son who speaks very good English. He was very friendly and chatty. The reception is in the same building as the shop and the restaurant. When I asked for a washing machine token he said I could have one from the bar. A sort of comedy sketch then ensued where we went out of the reception door and into the bar, he went behind the wall between the reception into the bar and I said ‘oh hello, can I please have a washing machine token?’ Yes, of course he said, smiling.

A while later I decided to try the swimming pool. I knew, from experience, that it was going to be cold, but I was very hot so I managed to get in without any screaming! It was so nice to cool down, and it was in fact a lovely pool, nice and deep.

The ‘facilities ‘ here are excellent. Spotlessly clean, and a pleasure to go and have a shower.

Tomorrow we will explore on our bikes.

We woke up to sunshine – hurray. We decided to go for a cycle ride and try and find some flamingoes, so followed the sandy path/road that runs alongside the edge of the rice fields and has the sea the other side. It was a really lovely ride with beautiful scenery. Big birds, little birds and finally – flamingoes! A group of 19, most with their heads below water, they were amazing. My photo doesn’t capture them at all well, at times like this I wish I had my proper camera. These flamingoes have been here since 1992 and nearly 3,000 pairs were counted in 2017, this is the only breeding colony in Catalonia.

This is a perfect place for us to cycle, lots of space, Lottie can run alongside without being on the lead as there aren’t many people around, and lots of lovely scenery to look at.

We had a lazy afternoon sitting in the sun and then went for a walk along the beach with Lottie and her ball. It’s great just to walk through the surf which is not cold at all.

We move tomorrow, a huge 25 miles down the coast. The reason being a change of scenery and the new site is near a fishing village, and a long promenade to cycle along, Camping Estanyet.

This chap is sat like this every time we go in and out of the campsite, I’m beginning to wonder if his family put him there in the morning and pick him up in the evening 🤣

These are the flamingoes

This is an Archimedes Screw which takes the water from one side up and out to the sea. Paul was very excited to find it, I tried to be excited, honest.

A no news day today I’m afraid.

We had rain this morning so I got into a good book. It did clear at lunchtime so this afternoon we took Lottie for a long walk along the beach at the edge of the water with the ball thrower. It was great, Lottie loved chasing the ball and all the smells along the beach. I loved paddling through the water.

We have children in the campsite 😳 the Spanish families have arrived for the weekend so it’s getting lively.

I hadn’t taken any photos so I’ve taken one of Paul cooking our tea :

Living the high life – sausages, fried potatoes and ratatouille. 🙂

Quiet day today. I wasn’t in a hurry to get up and neither was Lottie.

The weather forecast turned out to be wrong and we had rain this morning.

After lunch we cycled to a nearby village, I’d like to say it was very pretty and interesting but it wasn’t. It was a very rural Spanish village, square bare architecture, no-one around, one shop – a Spar. Spar seems to have the monopoly around here. I popped in and it sold absolutely everything you could possibly need. The road to the village had started off with beautiful tarmac, then the tarmac suddenly ended and the dusty road was potholed, then after about half a mile, we had tarmac again.

We found a canal to cycle along for the way back, very quiet and lovely, through the rice fields again. Birds all around us, all shapes and sizes.

Back at the campsite we had a long chat with the neighbours who come from Dagenham, he’s a bit of a ‘geezer’ in a vocal way. They’re a lovely couple – even if they are ‘leavers’ and archetypal leavers at that. Lots of talk about immigration/ Muslims etc. But we managed to have a civilised conversation about the whole thing. I was very restrained 😄

Lovely sunny day today, the wind has almost completely died down. I was feeling much better than yesterday, just had a thick head – like a hangover without the pleasure of the drinking beforehand.

We needed to stock up on a few things so I said we’d cycle across the rice fields to the Lidl in a nearby town, supposed to be 6 miles. Well, we had a few wrong turns so it was actually just over 8 miles but a lovely ride, mainly on paths but a few miles on quiet roads. Seeing the rice plants was very interesting, most was still there although some had been harvested.

We remembered where we’d gone wrong on the way back, so it was a bit quicker.

We saw lots and lots of birds, and there were quite a few hides around for bird watchers. One path we went down was strewn with crayfish claws, crunching as we cycled along. These were red crayfish, I thought they were American crayfish and when I got back to the van I checked and yes, these were Louisiana crayfish brought over years ago by the restaurateurs as they are bigger than native crayfish, but they escaped from their commercial pens and now infest the rice fields, burrowing into the banks. But apparently the birds love them so there’s nature for you.

After a late lunch and a doze I decided to try the swimming pool – I was apprehensive as I hadn’t seen anyone actually in there so guessed it was going to be cold – but I hadn’t realised how cold. I managed to walk in up to my thighs and had to give up. Such a shame.

Instead, we took Lottie for a walk along the beach, it was great to walk through the edge of the water, which was a lot warmer than the pool. Lottie enjoyed chasing her ball and sniffing all of the seaweed and shells brought up the beach by the wind. The JCB was out clearing the sand from the road, very quick considering it was only yesterday that the storm brought all the sand into the road.

Hottest day today, my lip sun stick melted – had to put it in the fridge.

Nearly had an international incident when I had a shower. 😳 I came out of the shower, thought how stuffy it was and decided to reach up and undo a window. Standing on tip toe I managed to get the window open about a foot. About 2 mins later a Dutch (I think) woman marched into the shower area and – hands on hip – asked me why I’d shut the window (she said she’d been washing her dishes outside and noticed me ‘closing’ the window). No, I explained, I had opened the window. She looked at me, looked at the window, and jumped up on the sinks and opened all the windows. And left. Phew.

We’ve decided to stay here until Monday. I love being so close to the beach and it’s lovely being next to the nature park.

Paul pruning the tree!

Our pitch:

Unfortunately I developed a migraine last night so had to go to bed really early. Had an interrupted night as the cystitis had me up several times tripping to the loo – double whammy, cystitis and a migraine.

It started raining in the night and carried on all morning so I had a long lie in and watched The Bake Off as I had missed it last night. Paul sat in my seat in the front of the van and watched all the coming and going on the site. We had bought some WiFi, which was only supposed to be for one device, but he set up our Motorhome Wifi so that we could have internet on all of our devices.

Late afternoon I felt well enough to go for a walk and get some fresh air. At the campsite we are quite sheltered as we are in a slight dip, but when you walk up and out of the campsite you realise how wild it is, the sea was whipped up by the wind, splashing over the pavement and road, we managed about half an hour before going back to the van.

Tomorrow is forecast to be full sun, let’s hope the wind dies down.

The pool at the site