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Published: January 3rd 2015
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We had been blessed with pretty good weather for much of our time in France but the first few days of December brought a mixture of wind, rain and cold which made us think it was time to move further South into Spain. However, we enjoyed a last few days pottering around the Minerve and Corbieres regions stopping at a few FP wineries and an olive farm. The red wines from this region are particularly good and the local Limoux sparkling brut is as good as those from Champagne. Our last Sunday in France was of particular note as we visited the Cathar castle ruins of Lastours, followed by a Michelin starred cassoulet for lunch, followed by a visit to the majestic Cabrestine cave, a 250mt high cavern filled with amazing formations. By 13 December we crossed into Spain and found a delightful new camper park in the coastal town of Palamos just South of Figueres. Whilst it is a typical “costa” resort town there are some nice walks nearby around forested hillsides and a lovely wild coastal section. On our second day we walked into the old town to find it buzzing with a local Xmas street party so we settled into a bar to enjoy people watching over a beer. Having good internet at the camper park meant a rainy day was able to be spent talking to family and friends via Skype and doing research on further Spanish destinations.
The next few days we moved inland to explore Cava country (the Spanish version of Champagne) and stayed on a winery one night with fabulous sunset views of the Montserrat mountains. We also enjoyed several scenic walks in the mountains of this area (you don’t have to go far inland anywhere in Spain to find sparsely populated mountains). December was an expensive month after the clutch on Izzy died one Saturday afternoon. We were just trying to position ourselves on a pitch in a camper park next to the sea just South of Tarragona when the clutch pedal suddenly went flat to the floor and we were stuck on a very awkward angle. Luckily we have European breakdown cover in our insurance and they were able to get a tow truck to us within a couple of hours. He helped us to get onto a pitch properly where we were to remain until Monday morning. The camper park was also able to provide us with a cabin to use for however long it would take to get Izzy fixed. Getting a 6.74mt motorhome with a 2mt overhang up onto a flat bed truck is not for the faint hearted and our towman had to use a lot of wooden planks to stop the rear of the motorhome scraping too much; getting it off outside the Fiat garage was even worse!
Our insurer provided us with a hire car until the repairs were completed and luckily for us this was done within 2 days so we were back in Izzy on Xmas eve and 1200Euro poorer. Finding the place to drop the hire car back to was a challenge in itself as the sat nav could not find it and we went around in circles for a couple of hours until finally asking someone for help. The hire place turned out to be just 400mt from where we were! With Izzy back to normal we headed for the Ebro Delta hoping to do a little birding whilst the weather was still sunny and mild. We enjoyed 2 days of terrific birding around the shallow lakes and rice fields of the delta despite it becoming very windy. There was a surfeit of Marsh Harriers constantly quartering the reedbeds, masses of Flamingos which are amazing to watch in flight and lots of Kingfishers constantly darting off along the irrigation canals.
Next stop was a well maintained and busy camper park at Betera just a short walk from the metro station which took us into the heart of Valencia. We have previously visited before so only spent a day strolling the streets, stopping for tapas & drinks at a number of venues and enjoying the buzz of a large city. We also visited the Fallas museum which houses winning models from the annual “carnivale” procession which was very interesting and entertaining. Our last night of 2014 was spent on a small camper park overlooking the village of Bicorp deep in the Muela de Cortez national park. Early in the evening the villagers held a fancy dress fun run around the streets which provided a bit of light entertainment for us strangers in town. Not so entertaining was the party that went on until 3am in the nearby bar! However, my noise reducing headphones earned their keep yet again, never travel without them I say.
Last but not least we had a record month for Geocaching. We bagged our 900th cache, we had a record day of 30 caches and the month was also a record of over 100. Happy 2015 to all of you dear readers.
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