We left the lovely campsite in Cambrils and followed our instincts into the mountains, stopping at a site in Prades. Prades sits in the Muntanyes de Prades, and the area is stunning, just what we needed after the coast.
On our way up, we headed off to Carrefour and stocked up with a few bits, but in the International aisle, we discovered a whole load of English (UK) goodies – crumpets, Aunt Bessie’s thick cut oven chips, Richmond sausages, Cornish Pasties and cottage cheese! We do love Spanish food and some that we have tried has been excellent, but when you crave a sausage sandwich, the Spanish ones aren’t quite right!
On arrival at the campsite, you are handed a welcome pack, which includes things to do / see and there was a walk which looked good. So the next morning we set off to the town and followed the directions up to La Roca Foradada (the holed rock). First we passed the Ermita de Sant Antoni, then a lake with frogs before we found the Rock itself. It literally is a large piece of sandstone, with a hole in it! We headed back down and wandered back through the old town, looking at the architecture. There is also a photo exhibition of people who lived in the town on the walls of some of the buildings.
We have had some more weather here! We arrived with an amber weather warning for wind on Tuesday, it was a bit blustery but after Storm Gloria, seems a little tame! It started gusting in the night and continued until about five o’clock in the afternoon, when as if a switch had been hit, stopped dead! However that night it did get cold and we awoke to frost.
On Wednesday, we continued our journey across, above Barcelona to the Massis del Montseny and the lovely town of Taradell, just outside the town of Vic. The campsite was a gem and is another we will come back to, but the weather has turned a little colder up here and getting back to the coast is on the cards.
Thursday, we set of again up the mountain passes towards the Costa Blanca. We passed through Vic and then on to Osuna, another Game of Thrones location – we really need to get up to speed with GOT and find out what we need to know! Next, we headed into the Parc National de la Zona Volcà nica de la Garrotxa, and on to Palamós. Our stopover here is a Camperstop, with amenities but it is well kept and quiet.
The town of Palamós is close by and the following morning (Friday) we cycled down to the Marina and the old town. The wind off the sea was bitter and very cold, so we headed back to Nortia and the remainder of the sunshine, to cook ourselves a curry. Ric had been wanting to cook a beef curry for a while so I duly found what I thought was beef, to discover it is lamb! Knew I should have checked with Google!
We decided we would stay another day at the Camperstop Empordarea, where we felt comfy and there were (limited) services – motorhome service point – also available to drive in and use for 3 Euros – toilets (1 male and 1 female) and 2 showers – 1 Euro for 5 mins. It is also about a five minute walk from the Supermarket and about 15 minutes from the town / beach.
We set off on our bikes towards Platja d’Aro and as the cycle route disappeared in several places, we stopped at the town and returned to Palamós, before heading off on another Via Verdes (green route) towards the town of Palafrugell. After 21 miles, we returned to Nortia and stayed comfy and warm.
Sunday, we had already decided we were going to leave and head over the border to France. We set off along the coast road to Sant Antoni de Colonge and then inland to Colonge, where we followed French cycle training group up the hill, they pulled over at the top and we carried on towards the border and were stopped by a cycle race in progress. We continued to the border, where the number of parked up lorries, service stations, cafe/bars, restaurants, shops and prostitutes increased. At the border the number of Police also increased and once safely over the border and back into the quiet of the countryside we could breathe again! We stopped overnight in Saint-Jean-Pla-de-Corts, on a little campsite with views of the snow capped peaks of the Pyrenees.
Tomorrow, we’re off again on a new adventure, where will we go? Find out next week! As always thank you for reading and following our travels.
THREE GO TRAVELLING 