Along the Costa Azaha......

Port Salou

We didn't realise how lucky we were to have a lovely sunny day in Barcelona because we next had to endure a few days of unsettled weather. Leaving Vilanova we travelled further down the coast to Cambrils, just south of Tarragona. We had visited Cambrils a couple of years ago and enjoyed the long cycle route along the sea front, but this time the weather was against us and we had to spend a long day cooped up in the van whilst it poured with rain. Still, we had plenty of DVD's to watch revisiting the early episodes of Gavin & Stacey - so funny!

When the rain eventually stopped we were able to get out on our bikes and cycle along the coast to Port Salou, stopping for coffee along the way of course! As you can see the skies had cleared but there was still a chilly wind blowing - not shorts weather yet!

From Cambrils we headed another 40miles down the coast to Peniscola, a large but attractive resort town with rather a lot of high-rise hotels, the old town and fortress dominating the view along the promenade. We stayed in Campsite El Eden, a large site packed with many long-term tourers from Holland, Germany and even as far as Sweden with just a few people from the UK, it seems Spain is becoming ever more popular as a winter destination as many other areas of Europe or Morocco become less popular for Motorhomers.

Peniscola Fort

Whilst we were at Peniscola we got back out on our bikes and cycled along the quiet coastal roads encountering a rather inviting restaurant where instead of stopping for coffee we had the Menu del Dia- a three course meal for 10 euros each. Needless to say, it was hard work cycling back to the campsite - specially as we had to cycle into a rather strong head wind.

A few days at Peniscola and we were on the move again to Benacassim and Bonterra Park - a massive campsite but exceptionally well located just a couple of hundred yards from the lovely promenade, opposite a Mercadona supermarket, just down the road from Lidl but best of all it backs on to a Via Verde trail.
The Promenade on Benacassim seafront is famous for its many lovely old villas and the high society bourgeois people who stayed there in the 1920's onward until the Spanish Civil war got in the way.
We attempted to cycle along the promenade but cycling has now been banned and the Police car was cruising along so we had to dismount a bit sharpish!!

The Via Verde goes from Benacassim to Orepesa - a place where we met a lovely Dutch couple on one of our previous trips. I'd sent an email the night before and was surprised to find that they had arrived earlier in the week so we pedaled along the trail to Campsite Didota to meet them for coffee in their caravan. And as it was my birthday the next day we invited them to join us for a meal in the evening.

Which brings me to the present time, but before I go I must tell you about a wonderful machine that was on our last campsite - this machine emptied, cleaned and added the necessary chemicals in a few minutes - all for just a Euro! Cleaning the toilet cassette is everyone's least favourite job  -every campsite should have one - it was Amazing!!!