2. The Gironese Costa Brava ☀️

Waking up to sunshine and warmth was a real treat and we were keen to get out and explore the area. We’d both been pining for some better weather - it’s been such a miserable winter (so far) back home, and we could definitely notice our moods lifting as we felt the sun on our faces 😃 

Port Lligate lies on the tip of the Cap de Creus peninsula (Natural Park) next to the quaint old whitewashed fishing village of Cadaques. The coast is rocky and rugged, with beautiful deserted sandy coves - maybe wouldn’t be so deserted at the height of the season, but for now was lovely 🤣 

Spent the day pottering along the coast, exploring tiny coves, testing the temperature of the water (mainly Ruby 🤣), and ending up in Cadaques. Nothing much open as mid afternoon, and out of season, but managed to find a lovely sea view cafe to sit and watch the world go by for a while. A very leisurely day - unwinding after the long journey down here, and enjoying the warmth 😃 

Ruby taking every opportunity for a dip

Dave - trousers rolled up and flat cap - anyone would think we were at Southport 🤣

Chilling on the beach

Cadaques

Dave & Dali 🤣

Double head sculptures on the top of Dali’s house

Cadaques bay

Ruby acquired a new friend - Annika from Lithuania. Her family had spotted Ruby outside our  van so decided to park next to us as apparently Annika loves dogs. The two became best friends, quickly bonding over many games of tug with Lenny Lion 😃 Wondered whether they may have regretted this after a while,  as every time the family tried to go out for a walk, Annika turned round and headed straight back to the van to Ruby ❤️

Ruby & Annika - best friends ❤️

Our trips are never without a bit of drama - so having safely negotiated the French farmers, the next challenge was me damaging one of my contact lenses (and not having a spare - Specsavers fault, not mine 🤣) and Dave breaking the step on the van 😢 After numerous frustrating calls to Specsavers in the UK it seemed that the new contact lenses which should have arrived before we left the UK had now been posted to home - the challenge on how to get them to to me now began - enter the world of post Brexit import checks, duties and taxes, postal and courier services …..to be continued 🤣 No solution for the van step yet 🤨

After a couple of nights, feeling refreshed, and in need of some services, we decided to head back to the main Girona coast. The free parking area had served a purpose, but it was now time to move. Interesting that in the summer it costs €50 to park here for the night - without any services - paying for the location I guess 🤨 The sunsets were amazing 😻 

Our parking area for a couple of nights

Beautiful sunsets

Heading back from the peninsula over the very steep windy road to the main Girona coast (another great drive by Dave!), we made our way to the small medieval village of Sant Marti d’Empuries. Parking a little way along the coast we had a fabulous walk along the sand dunes, passing the Ancient Greek and Roman ruins of the former town of Escalia. The beaches were amazing - and deserted, so we looked the other way when faced with a dog restriction sign, and let’s Rubes pop down for a quick dip 🤣 

Quiet Costa Brava 😊

Remains of the Ancient Greek pier

The medieval centre of the village is very small - just a handful of well preserved buildings, a church, and thankfully a couple of lovely looking restaurants 😃 Ended up having an amazing lunch there, sitting in the sun, and despite only ordering 4 tapas dishes the table overflowed with food 🤣 The area is famous for anchovies - they didn’t disappoint 😃 Our first meal out in Spain, and it was delicious 🤤

Pottering around Sant Marti d’Empuries

Beautiful flowers already in bloom

Loved the series of bells on the church 😃

A feast 🤣

Prawns & Anchovies

The motorhome parking area by the dunes that we had read about didn’t seem to exist anymore, which was a shame, so we headed 15 minutes further along the coast to a fabulous farm - La Granja - at Torroella   De Montgri. Set behind huge wooden gates was a lovely clean farm yard, all set up for vans to stay. Looks like the farm is diversifying into tourism, as challenges with traditional farming increase. In fact, Dave was chatting with the farmer who said that their sweetcorn harvest had failed this past season due to the lack of rain - Dave mentioned that they would have been welcome to have had some of our rain! Not sure how well that went down 🤣

Farm motorhome area

Former sweetcorn harvest

We’d had a lovely time pottering around, exploring the coast and ancient villages, but were now ready for a bit more activity - the mountains were beckoning 😃 So the following morning we set off, heading for another new destination for us - the stunning Els Portes National Park a little further south in Catalunya. The sun was still shining, and we were feeling very lucky to be here 😃

Hasta Luego 😃