Our Gap Year – What, Where, When?
I’ve mentioned here and elsewhere that my partner and I are soon to set off »
Top iPhone Apps For Van Campers
There’s an app for that. That’s what they say, isn’t it? »
Review: Snooper Ventura S6000 Sat-Nav
I have to confess that until I bought a motorhome, I »
London LEZ Compliance & The Price Of Used Motorhomes
If you already own a motorhome, you no doubt have already »
Processionary Caterpillar Nests
Whilst we were staying with Susan and Malcolm on their almond farm in Lledo, they told us about the Processionary Caterpillar, and how dangerous it was. It was quite something when the very next day, on our visit to Morella, we found these nests in the pine trees, as we walked around the castle gardens.
Processionary Caterpillars are extremely poisonous and could kill a dog, or make a human very poorly indeed, bringing up welts and blisters and even causing anaphylactic shock. These pictures show you what the nests look like, and the caterpillars themelves are big and hairy, and can be identified by the fact that they form a procession, nose to tail when they’re on the move.
Susan and Malcolm said that the nests are supposed to be professionally destroyed, with the caterpillars burnt because of how dangerous they are. Obviously they haven’t subscribed to that option at Morella, where we probably saw upwards of 30 or 40 nests.
Read More »Lledo, Aragon
I don’t know how a fortnight has passed since I last posted a blog…how time flies and all that. I’ll try to back-post our travels over the next few days, but for now I’ll recount our two days spent at Llédo, in Aragon.
We went to stay with Emma’s cousin Susan, and her partner Malcolm. This adventurous couple have upped sticks from the UK, and have come to live in the mountains of Aragon. They bought an almond farm here, and built their own house here. It’s a fabulous house that sits beautifully in the landscape, and offers the most amazing views over the Els Ports mountains.
Because of its location, the house is totally off-grid…no mains electricity, no gas, no mains water even. But the house has been built to overcome all of these issues. It has huge underground water stores, so that the winter rains can be stored and used through the rest of the year, when it’s unlikely to rain at all.
Read More »Besalu and Lake Banyoles
Today, after quite a long stay in the same area, we’re back on the move. Not a million miles, but we’re on our way again. First up, after a trip to Carrefour in L’Escala, we headed for the medieval town of Besalú. It’s much less theatrical and touristy than some of the other medieval towns we’ve passed through recently, with a very laid-back, sun-shiny air to it. A Roman bridge spans the River Fluvia, and the old town looks down over the lazy river below.
Having pottered around Besalú for a while, we got back on the road and along to Lake Banyoles. This is where the Olympic rowing competitions took place during the Barcelona Olympics twenty years ago. Photos don’t capture the incredible blueness of the water, which is striking. The lake is zoned into lanes for rowing, and some of the rowers looked pretty serious.
We’re camped at Camping El Lac, just across the road from the lake.
Read More »Cala di Montgo, Cataluna
We woke this morning at Sant Pere Pescador, ready to set off towards Besalu and Lake Banyoles. Our day didn’t entirely go to plan so we find ourselves this evening at Cala di Montgó, just along from L’Escala and only a few kilometres along the Bay of Roses from Sant Pere Pescador.
First up this morning was a slightly alarming message from home, saying that a campsite we stayed at recently in Saumur had written to us to inform us that they had a suspected outbreak of legionella at their site. The letter explained the symptoms, and the incubation period, and said that whilst it wasn’t confirmed that they were the source of the infection, they were notifying all recent campers out of an abundance of caution.
Fortunately, we have no symptoms and it’s about 20 days since we were there, so I think all is fine. But it did make us a little twitchy about having a shower this morning, and we were keen to flush our van’s water tank through thoroughly before we set off.
Read More »Van Spotting: Dethleffs Aero Style Caravan
Maybe it’s because we were at a campsite that’s favoured by a younger, kite-surfing crowd, that there was an unusually high proportion of stylish vans to be ogled at Camping Aquarius, Sant Pere Pescador. I’ve not seen one of these in the UK – it’s a Dethleffs Aero Style, and from the outside at least, it’s quite an eye-catching design, isn’t it?
My photo doesn’t show off the massive, curved and tinted window at the front of the van, which, accoring to Dethleffs’ brochure offers “a unique breezy seating experience with a verandah atmosphere”. Since I could hardly invite myself in for a look around, I can’t vouch for the verandah atmosphere. The brochure picture of the interior looks pretty snazzy though, and the van comes in a choice of different ice-cream pastels.
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Sant Pere Pescador, Spain
We’ve been here, at Sant Pere Pescador, since Saturday, making this quite an extended stay for us. We’re staying at Camping Aquarius, an ACSI campsite costing €16 a night. Since free aires are much less common, it seems, in Spain, an ACSI campsite seems a good bet for us, as we’re still a bit squeemish about wild camping.
I don’t know whether it’s the ACSI deal, or the site’s proximity to the beach, but Camping Aquarius is surprisingly busy for the end of April. In a good way…plenty of folks around, but still not crowded. There’s direct access to the huge beach, and the beach is very popular with kite surfers and wind surfers, so maybe that’s why the campsite is popular. We’re as likely to kite surf as we are to enter the Barcelona marathon, but we’ve loved the beach just as much. It’s been a bit too choppy and a little bit nippy for full-on swimming, but we’ve had a good old paddle over the past few days.
Read More »Salvador Dali Museum, Figueres
Today, we crossed over from France into Spain. We’d been hopeful for stunning mountain vistas as far as the eye could see, but the reality was blanket mist on every side. To spice things up, our sat-nav suggested leaving the motorway about 100 metres from the Spanish border. Only when we’d hit the slip road did we notice sat-nav had sent us onto a narrow ‘Police and Emergency Vehicles Only’ road to nowhere. A panicked emergency stop on the chevrons, followed by one of those awful ‘what-were-they-thinking?’ manoeuvres you see on ‘Cops With Cameras’ style programmes…and we were safely back on the road to Spain.
We had picked Figueres as the first stopping point in Spain…it’s close to the border and is also home to the Salvador Dali Museum. We also picked a campsite yesterday whilst we still had an internet dongle, and we’re at Camping Pous, which is walking distance from the Dali Museum and from Figueres itself.
Read More »A Month On The Road…
I can’t quite believe that we’ve been on our gap year for a month already. Where did that month go? We pootled through Normandy, then hurried up a bit to the Dordogne, then sat still, then hurried up a bit to Carcassonne, then pootled a bit around the Camargue, then dawdled over to Spain. And here we are. One month in.
Are we liking it? You bet! There have been some ups and downs and plenty to get used to on the road. But it’s a fantastic experience, and we both feel healthier and fitter for it.
Here’s my bullet point thoughts on things one month into our trip:
The motorhomers’ best friends are:
Lidl
kitchen towel and baby wipes
constant supply of cheap chocolate
The chemical toilet isn’t nearly as bad as everyone makes out (so long as you’re not that French bloke at Narbonne who emptied his on his slippers)
Read More »Wine Review – Picpoul de Pinet
I first tried a bottle of Picpoul de Pinet a year ago, in a selection I “bought” with a very generous £40 voucher from Naked Wines. I knew nothing about the wine, and I’m no conoisseur (but I know what I like, if you know what I mean).
The Naked Wines bottle put Picpoul de Pinet very definitely on my radar, as it was easily the best bottle of the half dozen I bought. But Picpoul de Pinet isn’t a wine you see on the supermarket shelves, so it’s stayed on a dusty shelf in the back of my mind since that Naked Wines experience.
So we’ve been in Languedoc Roussillon for the past week or so, and you can’t miss how much wine production goes on here. There are acres of fields left and right along every road, full of vines bursting into life. We’d seen some vineyards in the Loire Valley, but nothing on this scale.
Read More »Parc Ornithologique de Pont de Gau
Today was always going to be Flamingo Day. We were weighing up whether to cycle to the lagoon where the flamingoes are supposed to breed and gather in large numbers (14km each way) or whether to go to the Pont de Gau reserve (4km each way). The Pont de gau reserve won, and we pootled down the road to find it.
Even before we’d finished the bike ride there, we knew we were in for a treat, with flamingoes coming in to land every few minutes, egrets at every turn and all sorts of tweeting and flapping going on.
The reserve costs €7.50 to get in, and it’s worth every penny. There’s a bit of a sensory overload within the first few minutes as there are so many birds to look at in every direction…herons, egrets (little and cattle), flamingoes, terns…all within the first five minutes.
It’s all very discrete so after the initial section of the reserve, you barely know that you’re on a reserve at all.
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