Post It from Camping Las Palmeras, Sant Pere Pescador, Gulf of Roses, Catalonia, Spain. Sunday 28th

The short hop across the border into Spain did not take very long and after stopping to shop at a very large ALDI supermarket in Figueres we were at our intended destination very early for us and before 12. We knew that in all probability there would be many Spanish campers at the sites over the weekend but when we arrived at our first site, right on the beach, that we wanted to inspect before making a decision we found it was completely full. We did not like it too much as we thought it was too cramped.

Fortunately there were a number of sites in this area and Deleted User User from the Club forum had recommended one to us. He had said it was a nice site, less busy than the nearby ACSI discount card sites and they gave pensioners discount. I had checked Camping Las Palmeras out before we left the UK and whilst we were far too young to get the pensioner discount I saw it did give a very good discount, about the same, to Camping Key Europe card holders so I had purchased the card from the Caravan Club before we left just in case we stayed there. We ended up paying 21€ a night all included.

This site was only 200m from the beach along the same road and on checking we found it had some space, although after the weekend there was a steady but small departure of vans every day with less arrivals. A tour of the site revealed it was much better suited to our needs. It was quite large but with spacious pitches and had many facilities including gym, tennis court, heated outdoor pool, bar with restaurant etc. so it is quite well set up. Internet access is excellent from everywhere on the site and at 3€ for 150 minutes I thought it was good value for the type of access I use it for. We chose a long pitch close to the end wall of the swimming pool which meant we were hardly overlooked and had plenty of space for us, our kitchen tent and we also erected the windbreaker to give us some protection from the breeze and a little more privacy when dining. All in all we were happy and had plenty of shade with access to the sun for almost all of the day somewhere on the pitch. Smokee seemed to be settled, he still likes to sit outside on our knee in the sun, or on the back of the seats, but I think the older he gets the less time he seems to actually spend in the sun. Gone are the days he would spend almost the entire day in the sun cooking!

There are mainly Dutch campers on the site with a few Germans and couple of French and Spanish. We have only seen 3 other GB vans in the whole 9 days we have been here but have had very good Dutch and German neighbours. We have become quite friendly with a Dutch couple, John & Marja who left today. They were in the process of holidaying for 3 weeks at a time and hiring different styles of motorhomes so they could decide what layout suited them best before they bought one in 2 year time when John retired. They were using a 1998 Hymer so we invited them to come and see the very different lay out in out Bessacarr. They seemed to like it but I think our bed was a little too high above the garage for Marja’s liking.

The River Fluvia separates the campsites from the village itself which is 1.4 miles away; it has a selection of shops, a large supermarket and petrol station, restaurants, bars and a weekly market. There is a cycle path almost all the way there from the site and there are 12 cycling and walking paths in the whole area from l’Escala in the south to Roses in the north. They range from 6.5K to 46.8K in distance and we found lots of information about them and the area at the Tourist Office just by the bridge which crosses the river into the village. We too had managed to do quite a bit of cycling in between getting some sun to our bodies. 

The bay of Roses is highly regarded as being a beautiful place and just a short walk from where we are staying there is a nature park. The surrounding fields are full of apple orchards growing a variety of apples which I think are exported. The soft sandy beach is backed by small dunes and for the first 8 days we enjoyed warm days of 25º to 29º C with some very sunny ones as well but the rains are due to come. The weather forecasts had shown we were to have some rain for a few days but on checking the rest of the Spanish coast further south we saw that they were having worse rain than we had be forecast to get. In some parts of Valencia and Murcia provinces there had been terrible rains resulting in flooding and the news channels showed car floating down the ramblas. So we have decided to stay put for a short while longer and see what happens after the rains have gone, hopefully on Thursday if the weather forecasts are correct. We have only had slight showers today as opposed to the heavier rain we expected. 

The whole purpose of this holiday was to enjoy some relaxation, preferably in the sun, and just chill out. So far we have managed to achieve that on the Costa Brava and Sharon has read more books than ever before. It was good she found some more in the swap library here or she would be running out. Thankfully I have my Kindle now so I can actually read my ebooks outside in the sun. We have managed to eat outside for the whole holiday so far, and cook outside since we have been here with the kitchen tent up, so let’s hope that continues.

Regards, Roy