Ok, so it's taken us a while to leave Spain. We've chugged and struggled, checked water and leant forward uphill.
On Friday we knew the day had dawned. It was Adiós Espana, Bonjour La France! We set off, it promised to be a hot day and we had kilometres to travel. We decided to use the motorway, on account of the fact that we needed to get to a friend's.
We thought we'd stop of close to the border and buy some goodies. Lady R picked out La Jonquera, a mere six kms from France. As we pulled off the motorway we noticed the temperature gauge wobble over 90. Uh oh, danger territory. Yeah, you guessed it... We conked.
In the heat and with the stress of it we did what we knew best. I went shopping. Lady R made lunch. We ate morosely, shame as lunch was her delicious pear and roquefort salad.
If you remember it was only last Friday that Fif lost the will to live, had she decided on a regular weekly strike??
Using my rudimentary Spanish (in which now I am almost fluent in mechanical terms) I approached the cops and asked for help. Was there a mechanico aqui? Turns out there was. Off we trundled. In pigeon Spanish with his pigeon English we 'discussed' the problema. Joe was very helpful. The Lady R, in her friendly way, interrogated him. Turns out (halle-bloody-luiah) that Joe is from Morrocco. He speaks French! Hoorah. Two hours and €90 later and we know this:
The pipe which mechanic no1 had told us to keep an eye on, had been further degraded due to expansion caused by hot water whizzing through it and subsequent rubbing on neighbouring pipe.
Bloody friction Burns.
Once sorted we were off! Again! Hit France. And phew.
Monday 24 August 2015
Carcaixent to Cunit.
Time is flying! We are wondering where the days are going.
After Ruidera we continued to head north. The Lady R had cleverly found a document online which she downloaded to laptop, it listed aires in Spain. The great thing about France, Spain and Portugal is that there are many free places to park your camper, also there are free places to offload your toilet waste and grey water. In Portugal many of the supermarkets had camper van spaces and facilities, all free.
The Lady R looked on the aires document she found 'tucked up amongst the orange groves' Carcaixent. It sounded idyllic, we agreed to head over there.
Two hours later and we were squeezing through high sided walls on a narrow road which was flanked by orange groves.
I was quite nervous driving but we continued and reached the top. There, on a hillside, looking out over green orange trees on red soil. It was beautiful, perfect. The campsite was huge and (dedicated by the mayor) seemingly newly maintained.
There was an swimming pool, which we couldn't use, a bbq area, which we couldn't use and a toilet which (the morning after) we couldn't use! Such a shame. Not allowed to put chairs and tables out or to let your dog off the lead it was like a show home, come and admire but please be careful where you sit.. We were surprised to be the only customers until 3 am when all three of us were lying awake in the airless hell that was a Carcaixent night, it was just too damn hot. Too hot and windless. We sat up, we chatted, by 4.30 the temperature had dropped, we slept a little, we moved on. Poor Carcaixent, beautiful oranges, delightful landscape, insufferable August nights.
We decided to head back along the coast. Well, we were near the coast and going up. A few more hours driving and we did one of our 'pot luck' specials ie, find the coastal road and drove along it. Now, this has resulted in some amazing finds and some near catastrophes, so we were slightly trepidatious and slightly confident in turns.
We had lunch on the beach en route, I siesta'd, Becky sought shells, Betty dug a hole next to me and covered me in sand.
Then, in the evening, we found Cunit. Oh, oh, oh, the parking. Right next to the beach, airy and breezy. Bliss! Ok, so there may have been some 2am cleaning and a high speed rail link just behind us but boy, did we sleep well.
When we arrived we went for a promenade along the promenade. Had a frozen yoghurt
Then spent the evening watching the world go by.
Cunit, we love you.
In the morning I took Betty for a walk. Found some graffiti, on the walkway entrance into the town. In large, red letters someone had thought to scrawl the word 'pussy'. Product of an immature mind or a word play genius? I'll leave it to you to decide. I did consider taking a photograph, but I would have felt like a proper...
plonker.
After Ruidera we continued to head north. The Lady R had cleverly found a document online which she downloaded to laptop, it listed aires in Spain. The great thing about France, Spain and Portugal is that there are many free places to park your camper, also there are free places to offload your toilet waste and grey water. In Portugal many of the supermarkets had camper van spaces and facilities, all free.
The Lady R looked on the aires document she found 'tucked up amongst the orange groves' Carcaixent. It sounded idyllic, we agreed to head over there.
Two hours later and we were squeezing through high sided walls on a narrow road which was flanked by orange groves.
I was quite nervous driving but we continued and reached the top. There, on a hillside, looking out over green orange trees on red soil. It was beautiful, perfect. The campsite was huge and (dedicated by the mayor) seemingly newly maintained.
There was an swimming pool, which we couldn't use, a bbq area, which we couldn't use and a toilet which (the morning after) we couldn't use! Such a shame. Not allowed to put chairs and tables out or to let your dog off the lead it was like a show home, come and admire but please be careful where you sit.. We were surprised to be the only customers until 3 am when all three of us were lying awake in the airless hell that was a Carcaixent night, it was just too damn hot. Too hot and windless. We sat up, we chatted, by 4.30 the temperature had dropped, we slept a little, we moved on. Poor Carcaixent, beautiful oranges, delightful landscape, insufferable August nights.
We decided to head back along the coast. Well, we were near the coast and going up. A few more hours driving and we did one of our 'pot luck' specials ie, find the coastal road and drove along it. Now, this has resulted in some amazing finds and some near catastrophes, so we were slightly trepidatious and slightly confident in turns.
We had lunch on the beach en route, I siesta'd, Becky sought shells, Betty dug a hole next to me and covered me in sand.
Then, in the evening, we found Cunit. Oh, oh, oh, the parking. Right next to the beach, airy and breezy. Bliss! Ok, so there may have been some 2am cleaning and a high speed rail link just behind us but boy, did we sleep well.
When we arrived we went for a promenade along the promenade. Had a frozen yoghurt
Cunit, we love you.
In the morning I took Betty for a walk. Found some graffiti, on the walkway entrance into the town. In large, red letters someone had thought to scrawl the word 'pussy'. Product of an immature mind or a word play genius? I'll leave it to you to decide. I did consider taking a photograph, but I would have felt like a proper...
plonker.
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