Day 49&50: Spain, L’Estartit

Day 49

I don’t think that I’ve mentioned Gillian & Steve of Not all who wander are Lost yet. We spotted them in Ovada, Italy after the first hooley of a storm that we had experienced on our journey. We woke up in the morning ready to set off for France and as we were leaving, spotted them in their motorhome. When I say “we”, I mean the gorgeous Mr T. He’s a bit of a motorhome and registration nerd and manages to clock each motorhome, the make, model, year and which country it’s registered in and, each time, relay this back to me. Rivetting!

“Oh look, it’s an A class Frankia and they’re from home”, this said as we were driving out of the aire in the pouring rain. I turned to wave but we were already passed them.

Then we hit those massive winds just north of Genoa and I posted on Motorhome Adventures on Facebook that if people were in the area, to take care. Up popped Gillian “were you the other UK motorhome in Ovada?” and that was the start of our contact as we keep in touch over the next few hours battling the elements.

We arrived in Vias and our wonderful time there continued until the Sunday when the rain came down and the floods came up, the rain came down and the floods…… well, you get my drift? Earworm, anyone? LOL.

Anyhoo, as you can clearly gather, it was storming and raining again.

To continue the story. We woke up on the Monday getting ourselves and Kaya packed up and ready to leave for L’Estartit in Spain (to try and find a good place to shelter for the 3rd massive storm in a week due in that night) and the gorgeous one says to me, “Isn’t that the motorhome we saw in Ovada?” pointing at an A class Frankia parked a row behind us. So we popped over to introduce ourselves and to simultaneously say hi and goodbye to all 3 of them (they have a beautiful spaniel called Sasha) as we went our separate ways.

Fast forward to today and just as we’re sitting around talking about getting ready to cycle to the beach front (BTW, storms are over & the sun is out), in drives an A class Frankia with Gillian, Steve and Sasha on board. Actually, it wasn’t a massive surprise as we had been chatting on Facebook. They were having battery problems, needed a place where they could sort this out so mentioned that they may come into the campsite.

We left them to get themselves sorted and settled in as off we rode on our steeds, sun glittering again, back in short sleeve tees and shorts and headed for our favourite beach shack near the yacht mole to settle in for afternoon of drinks.

Our first order was a carajillo (brandy with a shot of coffee with lemon, coffee beans and optional cinnamon), followed by some green olives (sabor anchoa – anchovy flavoured – so good I even drank the juice left in the plate!) and a bottle of chilled white wine, as we soaked up the warmth,

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said hi to Billy Ray Cyrus (those, folks, are real clanking SPURS on his boots!) and generally (but very discretely) behaved like schoolkids as we giggled our way through the rest of the afternoon (who would call their pub that?) and people watching.

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Reason to travel #61 Getting a buzz on from afternoon alcohol and sunshine.

Back to Kaya for a sleep and that evening Gillian, Steve and Sasha joined us for a braai. We cracked open our very expensive barrel of red wine from Supermercat (plastic 2L barrel, wine at €1.79 per litre!!) and at 11pm retired to their motorhome so we didn’t disturb our neighbours (any further!!!). Out came the brandy, down the hatch it went with chocolate and breadsticks (this was kebab stage, but when needs must!!!) and finally, without having exhausted a single topic of conversation, dragged ourselves off to bed at 2am with promises to meet up the following day for a late lunch in a cantina we had spotted that promised a good meal.

Reason to travel #62 Chance meetings

Day 50

The sun is shining, it’s 11:30am and we need to get these hangovers chucked and get ourselves ready for lunch!

Ok, it’s 12:30pm now. We’re meeting in 30 minutes to cycle over to lunch. Perhaps this calls for a paracetomol? And today will definitely be a dry day – we’ll skip the alcohol.

Come on, it’s 1pm, we need to go. Chug down a bottle of water, all will be well.

Right, there’s the Menu del Dia.

Oh, wine/beer, water and bread are included with a 3 course meal for €15 each? Make mine a white please. As I have been saying all along, fickle – as we each get a BOTTLE of wine plonked on the table.

Wellllll, it would be rude not to!

La Cuina de la Iaia (grandma’s kitchen in Catalan) didn’t let us down.

With a glass of wine down the hatch and feeling decidedly better, a plate of anchovy olives on board (I think I’m officially addicted) and all traces of hangovers dispatched, we tucked into fish soup, peasant potato & bean stew and spinach for starters, ploughed through massive perfectly cooked chunks of fresh tuna with roast veggies, oven-roasted chicken and pork meat & pork sausage stew all cooked over an open fire or in a wood fired oven and we all (including me) found space for a lovely creme catalan (creme brulee but flavoured with lemon & cinnamon) topped with crispy, crunchy deeply caramelised sugar.

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Yes, that was all for €15 each. Like I keep saying, the Mediterranean people know how to live a damn good, long and happy life.

Matthew, tonight I want to be………. Spanish!