Spanish Sunshine 2023

 Sunday 26 February A lovely sunny day to drive back into France, but oh boy was it windy! We were aiming for the Camping-Car Park in Elne, but found when we got there, that they had a power cut on the site.  We can manage without electricity, but we needed to fill up with water and it needed power to operate the tap on the 'borne' (the facilities pillar - not sure what to call it as we don't have these in the UK). So we moved on to the nearest Park in Alenya.  Very spacious and quiet - and everything working. View from our doorway. We were blown along by the wind on our walk through the sleepy village.  The Mairie. Monday 27 February Our coldest day!  Oh boy, not used to this!  The wind buffeted us about as we drove up the motorway to Castelnaudary this morning.  We are right by the Canal du Midi, which was lovely to walk beside and see the flight of locks, but were very happy to get back into our cosy little box on wheels and put the kettle on.

 Saturday 25 February Unfortunately, no sunshine today, but good for walking around the lake.  There's a good path all the way round that sometimes is shared with bikes, but sometimes they get their own path.  When they do come whizzing past, it can be quite unnerving.  Strangely, there are no seats by the path, but there was a bench in a bird hide - so this is where we are sitting having our picnic and looking out over the lake. Further round we found the reason for umpteen young and (older) kids arriving at our campsite late afternoon/evening yesterday, complete with bikes.  They were taking part in a televised event that started during the morning (all we could hear from the other side of the lake was the rather loud commentary) but when we arrived here early afternoon, the elite cyclists were preparing for their race.  (middle of picture) We could see on the electronic display board that they were going to do 6 laps which took them around the track then...

Thursday 23 February  This morning was our last at Tropi, so lots of goodbyes to and from several of the lovely people we have met over the last 3 weeks.  Most of them are staying another month or so, so we wished them a very happy, warm and sunny time. For us though, it was a drive north to a small town inland from Barcelona, at Sant Sadurni d'Anoia.  This was a free camperstop - not particularly attractive and rather busy - but was somewhere new to walk around during the afternoon.  There was 1 geocache in the town to find - behind an information board, some interesting buildings s a fantastic chocolate shop! and a hidden church. We had a very quiet night, despite some rain, but then brilliant sunshine when we woke up. Friday 24 February Although this camperstop is listed as having 5 places, there ended up being 10 overnight!  We had wondered why this bank behind us was covered with a plastic membrane.  The car beside us arrived early and 2 chaps proceede...

 Tuesday 21 February We are coming to the end of our 3 weeks here, so we are definitely winding down now. So it was the seafront walk to town again, mainly for another visit to one of the Chinese Emporia.  So rather than take more photos of our lovely beaches, here are a few views down the aisles of the shop crammed full of just about everything!  There seemed to be bowls and boxes on every corner ... They apparently started re-doing the roads in the town centre at the beginning of January - this street has gained a pavement during the time we've been around.  Not sure which year it's planned to be finished.... Wednesday 22 February This morning - lovely and warm and sunny - John did a spring clean of the van back outside storage compartment and put everything back in all neat and tidy, ready for the next part of our adventure, our travelling through northern Spain and France and eventually, home.   As it gets dark around 7 we haven't been cooking evening meals ...