Advertisement
Published: October 22nd 2017
Edit Blog Post
Beach at Serra Irta Natural Park
Snorkellers in the sea and their rods set up on the beach Geo: 40.2696, 0.307225
It was with some reluctance that we tore ourselves away from our first Spanish site of the trip, Camping Can Coromines, after a relaxing ten days. Not only were the site facilities very good but the owners and their family who run it are very personable and helpful. David in particular enjoyed Marc's company, and the two would often chat and debate all sorts of topics, with much humour thrown in. A lovely man. Both Marc and Sally are very hands on in respect of the site - he doing maintenance, mowing, bar - while Sally doing meet, greet, welcome, preparing accommodation (apartments and glamping pods) and judging by the reviews she is no slouch in the kitchen either in high season when the informal restaurant operates.
So, farewells said, including our neighbours from The Netherlands who were there for the duration of our stay, we set off on the 230 or so mile journey through Catalonia (bypassing busy Girona and Barcelona) into the Castellon region of Valencia. Towards the conclusion of our journey the orange groves bordered the motorway which gives this area the name Costa Azahar, or Orange Blossom Coast. I spotted a truck laden with the bright
orange fruit suggesting it is harvest time. Our destination was Camping Ribamar set in the Irta Natural Park just outside Alcossebre, a relatively quiet and undeveloped area of the Spanish coast. Now we have said that with so much of Europe available to us we would avoid retracing our steps. However, having ditched one possible site as being rather remote and inaccessible we were looking for a suitable place to break the journey and this was a unanimous decision as we had spent a pleasant week here in September 2013.
On our first visit, despite the reports, we were alarmed at the 1-mile final approach along a dusty, unpaved track, but you are rewarded by an oasis of quiet and excellent, clean facilities. At this time of year there is no problem with availability so as planned on the way down we took a decision to look to see if the pitch we occupied last time was vacant. It was but since the one directly opposite was slightly flatter we went for that. It proved a good choice as from the kitchen window I can see the sea beyond the hedges and villa roofs.
Once pitched, we started to relax, made a meal, showered and got into bed to read, but it was not long before my eyes got heavy and turned off the light. Come 6am I was a bit restless so made a cup of tea and read a little to the sound of birdsong, the sea lapping against the shore and a boat chugging across the bay. I soon turned over and went back to a sound sleep.
Today we caught up with laundry and relaxed at the caravan for most of the day before going for a stroll along the coastal path which is accessible via a gate at the bottom of the site. An internet connection via the iPad eventually made we caught up on emails and other E-admin.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.183s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.044s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ali
non-member comment
Barcelona is v interesting with the sagrada familia n gaudi n tapas. Flew into girona.