2019/20 Winter Tour Catch-up

Wednesday 4th March 2020
Parking Co-ordinates Vilanova Park 41.23161, 1.69432

Hip Hip Hooray!!!  After 120 days we've finally started our trek homewards from Spain, and although it'll be at least another 3 weeks before we get there we can now start counting the days to when we'll be seeing and hugging all our family and friends again😍😘.  (I think maybe after all this time I'm just a little bit homesick).

So have we enjoyed it?  I think the answer to that is mainly a positive one, but this tour has certainly brought some very unwelcome stresses with it, and in case you missed previous episodes I'll briefly explain why.

We left England and arrived in Calais on 5th November and at that time we were very much looking forward to some lovely warm sunshine during our time in Spain.  And all started really well as we tootled through France and into Roses which lies just beyond the French Spanish border.  However, our next stop at Cubelles was much less pleasant because it was there that we were broken into and robbed in the middle of the night, but as I've written about that part of our story before I wont repeat myself (just click here if you want to know what happened).

This event speeded our transition onto The Marjal Rally site, but even there it took us quite a few days of being amongst friends and fellow campers before we settled down to enjoy ourselves. 

But once we did settle we partied and feasted out on numerous occasions (some of which turned out to be excellent and some not quite so good), and additionally we cycled and walked for many miles in the beautiful mountains that surround the area. 

We also enjoyed quite a few excursions to the calm coastal beaches where the Mediterranean usually laps gently up the sand.

However, it wasn't quite so calm all the time because on the  13th - 14th January when Storm Brendan hit havoc was wrecked with floods and tons of sand being pushed inland along with the shredding of numerous palm trees.  Luckily, because we were several miles inland our site and it's occupants mainly got away without any damage, but as the storm raged overnight it's ferocity felt as if it might blow the van over, and the rain roared deafeningly on our roof making sleep impossible.

Our very 'lively' stay at Marjal came to an end on the 30th January (following us extending our stay by 22 extra nights), but way before that point we'd shelved our original plan to wander south and stay on Aires because this now felt like a very unsafe thing to do.   Instead, (back in November), in a bit of knee jerk reaction we'd booked ourselves onto another Rally at Vilanova Park where we stayed last year, but almost as soon as the booking had been made we realised we'd made a mistake!   However, by then it was paid for and a cancellation would have resulted in quite a large financial loss, so it seemed we'd made our bed and now we would have to lie in it!

We arrived on 2nd Feb with a 44 night stay in front of us, and although the place is pleasant enough with teared serviced pitches and a lovely spa, the Rally pitches sit near a noisy dusty wood yard, and are canopied by pine trees that dropped fine yellow pollen for most of the period we were there.  As fast as we cleaned it up it settled again and in the end it seemed to be in every nook and cranny and I'm sure we were eating it!  Additionally my 'well being' wasn't aided because we were only about 7 miles away from where we'd been burgled, and I felt even more unsettled when a fellow camper told me of another unfortunate person who'd suffered a similar event  when he'd parked his van just outside the site following his late arrival from a ferry!

Thus we never really settled, and almost from the get go we were ready to leave!   But in the end we gave ourselves a good talking to and decided to stay for at least part of the time we had booked, thus over the next 32 days we once again walked in the mountains and cycled for many more miles.

Processional Caterpillars that were always in abundance on our hill walks

Me on the sea front at Cubelles

Additionally, our time became much more social when our friends Keith and Jackie arrived and several outings with them proved to be very enjoyable. 

Us Visiting Roman Ruins at Els Munts

However, as the time went by our feet became increasingly itchy so on the 4th March we packed up and started a slow meander through France ready to catch a ferry back to Blighty on the 17th, but even then we are quite likely to dawdle on the south coast for another week or maybe 10 days so that we arrive back in Ripley near to when the clocks go forward.

I'll let you know how we fair with our travels soon.

Take care 😗😗

Click here to see all our French Camping Spots
and here to see all our Spanish ones