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NOMADAMS Diary - March 2003
1st - 6th; Well, we clearly survived the last night of February! It's strange how first impressions can influence you. The site turned out to be quite nice, friendly owners, 'pikeys' were just over winterers - we actually stayed a further 6 nights! From this base we were able to explore a fair bit of the Provence area. Saturday (1st) we went to 'Pont du Gard', a very impressive 2000 year old Roman aqueduct across the river Gard (which looked tranquil, but late last year flooded to 16m high & 100m wide in places killing 20 locals! You need to know these things when you're house hunting!!). We drove on to Nîmes (a bugger of a place to park), which had equally impressive Roman monuments (a temple and 'complete' amphitheatre), but was rather industrial & tacky on the outskirts. Sunday, we caught up with 'domestics' and saw the weather finally start to improve, continuing through to today (now sunny & warm, almost Tshirt & shorts weather!). Monday, we continued with excursions - this time to 'the Camargue', the Rhone delta wetlands (a large nature reserve), where we saw flamingos, storks, eagles, 'wild' white horses & black bulls, 'Castors' (beavers with rat tails) & other flora & fauna. We inadvertently took the landrover 'off-road', after a wrong turning, a romantic cross-beach drive until we nearly came a cropper in sinking mud (having cleaned the car the day before - nice one Mark!). We returned via Arles, with yet another Roman amphitheatre!! Tuesday, we drove into Avignon, which is a delightful 'walled' city with a pleasant centre (again difficult to park). We visited the 'Palais des Papes' & then 'Sur le Pont d'Avignon' (both touristy must-do's). Wednesday, we went East into the Luberon hills (Peter Mayle territory), taking in 'Fontaine de Vaucluse', a pretty town where mountain springs form the source of the river Sorgue, then onto Gordes, a mediaeval town sited on a hill with spectacular views and finally Roussillon, famed for its Ochre hills (had a walk around here, incredible vibrant colours). Thursday, another 'domestic' day, preparing to move onwards yet again. Whilst we began to appreciate the delights of this region (it must be stunning in high season), we concluded it is probably now too pricey for us.
7th - 13th; Friday we left Avignon to backtrack towards the Hérault region, setting site at Castries just north of Montpellier. A pleasant site, no 'pikeys', just Dutch oldies returning from over-wintering in Spain. Saturday, having now got back to the serious business of assessing our future, we investigated the area East of Montpellier. This is known as the Petite Camargue, where we discovered (almost by accident) 'Aigues-Mortes', a 16C walled town in a delightful setting beside lagoons and a canal. We ventured on to Port-Camargue, a tastefully developed resort/marina complex with nice quiet beaches (where we took lunch in the sun, toes dipped in the Med etc.). We continued through pleasant villages on our return. We liked this area! Sunday, we ventured West to more mountainous terrain (Nicky drove - now her speciality!), either side of the Hérault valley, reaching the 'Lac du Salagou' a large leisure lake trapped between the mountains. There are many interesting & attractive villages in this region, all close to the Med, but seemingly still undiscovered! Monday, we left Castries to press further West towards the Aude/Pyrénées-Orientales borders. An otherwise uneventful travel day apart from a slight mishap at a garage. After refuelling with the caravan attached we established the normal exit was too tight so we turned towards a wider exit swinging the rear of the caravan into a white van who had squeezed beside us. Fortunately, only superficial damage occurred (for which a 100€ cash settlement prevented an insurance claim!). Most damage was to Marks ego, as he was beginning to think he was invincible with a 7 metre tow!. We finally sited at Sigean, between Narbonne & Perpignan, close to an 'African animal reserve' (strange noises at night - and I don't think it was just Nicky!). Tuesday, we explored the area towards Perpignan venturing to Fitou (town of the wine region, not as affluent as St. Emillion, but then neither is the wine!) then towards the coastline through the delightful villages of St. Hippolyte, St. Laurent & Le Barcarès (very impressed by this area - could be a contender to 'Petite Camargue'!). Wednesday, we went North of Narbonne towards 'du Haut Languedoc' (a national park), initially alongside the Canal du Midi, then more mountainous roads (Nicky drove again!) with a breathtaking view down the valley towards Roquebrun. We continued along the mountain roads in the area North of Béziers (well populated with villages, but not as inspiring as earlier ones), dropping to the coastline into Valras-Plage (tired old style resort town), then along through some attractive villages (Vendres, Lespignan & Fleury) to St. Pierre-s-Mer & Narbonne-Plage (very nice sensibly developed resort villages) and onto Gruissan around the 'Montagne de la Clape'. Yet another area that appealed to us! Property here seems better value than Provence, but not as good as the regions further North. However, we shall reserve our judgement on the bits of France we've seen until after Spain, where we shall be heading on Friday.
14th - 20th; Friday we left France for Spain, hoping for an incident free travel day this time. It didn't quite happen that way. We intended to use the motorway across the Pyrénées, but somehow missed the turning, so took a rather twisty 'N' route to cross the border, continuing on this bumpy road until we reached the Med just above Barcelona. We stopped for lunch and noticed we had lost a piece of bumper trim from the caravan (presumably loosened by the garage incident!). We decided to join the motorway and, as we entered the slip road, we got a puncture on the caravan. We were positioned very dangerously (partly blocking one lane on a blind corner) and to make matters worse Mark couldn't undo the wheel nuts (must have been factory fitted by Arnold Schwarzenegger's stronger brother). Eventually a 'Grua' (a motorway recovery vulture who had spotted a carcass) pulled up to assist. After a couple of hours (and several trips to get other equipment) the wheel was finally changed. The Grua's bill could have paid our site fees for a month!! We then carried on only to get caught up in a 4 hour traffic jam, eventually being detoured off the motorway in the dark, left to our own devices to find another route. We finally arrived at Sitges (just outside Barcelona) at 8:00pm, 10 hours after setting off for our 250km journey. Welcome to Spain!! The next day we cycled to Sitges town, which was pleasant enough, and organised our Spanish SIM card. On returning to the site we found it had filled with Spanish 'weekenders' and it stayed busy & noisy until we left on Monday. This time, we took the toll motorway & drove 450km direct to Denia (North of Alicante) on the Costa Blanca (as far away from Barcelona as we could manage in one trip). Thankfully, incident free!! Denia is not overdeveloped (unusual on this coastline), and therefore quite pleasant. The site, just outside town and right on the coastline, was also very nice, not too large but full of 'longterm' Brits. The next day we cycled along the coastline into town where their 'fallas' festival (in honour of St. Joseph) was underway. There was a great atmosphere, street music, processions in traditional costume with firecrackers being let off continuously. Wednesday, after a few hours fishing in the Med (usual result; Fish 10, Mark 0), we cycled back to town in the evening for the festival finale. Following a spectacular firework display, a number of huge (up to 10 metres high) 'monuments' are set alight. Apparently, these monuments take up to a year to make, cost tens of thousands of Euros to produce, they are displayed for a matter of days then they are burnt (in very close proximity to commercial & residential buildings) - quite bizarre!! However, a remarkable & enjoyable occasion! Thursday, we caught up with domestics prior to setting off for Torrevieja (further down the Costa Blanca) where we shall meet up with some old friends who now live in Almoradi.
21st - 31st; We delayed leaving Denia as our preferred next site was fully booked (there can't be many 'oldies' still left in Northern Europe!). We spent Friday on a 'recky', driving along the N322 coast road to Santa Pola, Guardamar and Torrevieja (passing Benidorm with its Manhattan style skyline) before deciding on 'La Marina' (in between) as our next site. We arrived Saturday, settled in and had a lazy Sunday reading the latest Daily Mail (our first UK newspaper for nearly 6 weeks!). Monday morning we drove down to Cartagena, returning by the coast road passing 'La Manga' (another skyscraper skyline) following the 'Mar Menor' through many urbanisations (villa and apartment developments rapidly spreading along and inland from the Costa Blanca coastline). Later that evening, we caught up with our friends, Arthur & Pip, whom we hadn't seen for 10 years (when they had the 'Runciple Spoon' restaurant at Rye). We had a good meal at a restaurant in their local village (near Almoradi) where they imparted some helpful advice and useful tips about rural tourism and energy efficiency grants. Tuesday was a quiet day at the campsite (Mark very, very hung over!), as was Wednesday, when we spent many hours on the 'free' site internet (when the Germans weren't monopolising it!) trying to sort flight tickets for Shelley & Russell to visit us in April. Thursday was spent trying to organise a much needed (and well overdue) service for the Land Rover, which we arranged in Elche for the next morning. The service was to take all day, so we spent Friday looking around Elche. What a little gem! Surrounded by Palm tree forests with an enchanting municipal park and Botanical gardens. Several interesting sights (Cathedral, Arab baths etc) as well, making a very enjoyable day. La Marina was an excellent site, with full amenities, and very relaxing although too many 'over wintering' Germans for our liking (why are they always so loud and arrogant?). So we decided to move on to Granada for Mark to spend his 50th birthday. Granada, being inland with the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains as a backdrop, was considerably cooler than the coast resorts but still an enchanting city. Mark's dreaded day arrived with Sunday and after a late start (silly idea putting the clocks forward an hour!) we cycled to Granada centre to find most sights just closing! We walked around the old town & market, ending up with a celebratory birthday meal at a restaurant within the Bullring (Mark had a 'typical' Alpujarran dish which closely resembled an all day breakfast - no surprises there then!). Monday, we visited Granada's jewel in its crown - the Alhambra. Simply breathtaking! We both agreed that the Nasrid palaces were probably the most spectacular manmade sight we'd ever seen! So we ended March on a high (quite literally, the Alhambra is some uphill climb - the surrounding views are worth the trip alone!) some 49 days, 4400 miles and 12 stopovers since leaving Portsmouth last month!