Vilanova Park - Post 2

Tuesday 26th February to Tuesday 5th March 2019 - mostly lots of lovely 🌞🌞🌞 🌞🌞🌞 but with occasional short periods⛅⛅⛅ !
Motorhome Miles 0,  🚴🚴 miles 35 and maybe 12 ish walking miles
Parking Co-ordinates 41.23161, 1.69432

First things first!

Grandma and Grandad hope that our little Grandson Maximus had the best 1st birthday ever on 26th Feb!  





We really wish we'd been there to share the celebrations😞












Now, some of you may have noticed that our blog has been unavailable for a few days and that's because I'd nearly decided not to write it anymore!  That was partly because we're not roaming very much at the mo and it's becoming increasingly difficult to find interesting things to write about, and additionally,  we've both been a bit down in the dumps for several reasons:-

• Firstly we're not used to being 'still' for quite so long!  We've been in Spain now for nearly 5 months and we've only moved 3 times thus resulting in us having a lack of new and stimulating places to explore and discover.
• We also think that 'Rallying' for quite so long might not be quite our thing, so next year we'll still definitely come to Spain, and it's quite likely that we'll join a 'Rally' for the first couple of months, but after that we plan to do what we do best - and just roam wherever we fancy! 

T4rdis2's windscreen - on a good day
Your can't see out on a bad one!

• This site is also a bit challenging!  As I mentioned in our last post it's huge, very well kept, has a lovely spa and the facilities are spotlessly clean, but the wood yard behind us is often noisy, the pine pollen falls on us by the bucket load (coating everything and every orifice in fine yellow powder) and we've also had to put up with being fumigated - but more on that in a mo!
• As well as that we've also been a bit despondent cos we've both been a bit poorly with 'funny tummies' but for both of us that seems to be resolving now!
• And finally, I think  we're both a bit homesick, especially when we know we're missing out on special family events!

The fumigation of our part of the campsite occurred today, and it was done because we're camped under pine trees that are not only shedding loads of pollen, but which often house cocoons of 'Pine Processional Caterpillars'! 

The caterpillars are blind so walk nose to tail in a procession! 

I've mentioned these horrible 'crawlies' before - when threatened they can 'fire' harpoon like hairs for a distance of about a metre, and if a human should be unlucky enough to be in the firing line it can cause nasty skin and lung problems, but if a dog gets caught it can kill him.  Apparently the site is very vigilant and diligent in preventing these creatures from taking up lodgings here, but once you walk away for the site the nests are evident everywhere you look!  Unfortunately, this is also the time of year when the caterpillars descend  to the ground and seek burrows where they pupate and emerge as moths that fly up into the pine trees to start the whole process again. 

Anyway, back to our despondency!  Today (Tuesday 5th) we both felt much better and had slept fairly well, so we gave ourselves a big kick up the rear end and decided to count our blessings, which with the way we live are many! 

Just one of the far reaching views we enjoyed

Earlier this week we'd already been out for another long but fantastic walk into the hills behind us, and we'd also spent time down in the town of Vilanova exploring and just enjoying sitting by the sea for picnics!  Additionally, we'd been back to see the 'Cow' which I told you about in my last blog - and here are the promised pics and a repeat of the story in case you missed it!

The story goes that Pasifae was the wife of King Minos, and the sea God Poseidon sent a white bull for sacrifice at the hands of Minos - but the king refused to kill it which angered Poseidon and resulted in him causing Pasifae to fall in love with the bull.  Pasifae was unable to control her desires for the white bull and ordered a large wooden cow to be built so that she could hide inside it and indulge in carnal acts with the beast😱!   In so doing they conceived a child that turned out to be half man and half beast - a Minotaur - and that beast terrorised the people until his eventual death at the hands of Theseus.

Today, Tuesday 5th proved to be one of our best since being at Vilanova and was filled with 🌞🌞🌞 and also a lovely 25 mile ride that took us from the site down to Cubelles, onto Cunit and then further along an almost 10 mile promenade to the town of Calafell.  And almost for the entire time the Med kept us company as we peddled along - what more could you ask to lift your spirits and put things into the right prospective!

Looking one way

And the other!

We've only got another couple of weeks left now before we start wending our way back through France to catch our ferry from Caen on the 26th March, and then we'll have about 6 lovely long weeks to see all our family and friends.   So for now we've put our homesickness firmly in a back pocket and we're just going to get on with enjoying what's left of our stay here even if some of it is a repeat of what we've already done!  However, I'm not promising more blog episodes in the near future unless we do something different to write home about, but for now we're  back in the right frame of mind to keep enjoying what's left of this 'holiday'!

Bye for now
Click here to see our Spanish Camping spots