After the Roman ruins of Empúries and a stop for lunch on the seafront at Escala, we decided it was time for a big jump south, and headed onto the Autopista towards Valencia. Mel had sussed out a campsite that might be a good place to stop for a few days and enjoy the new year break. We finally arrived at around 6:30pm after sailing past Girona, Barcelona, and Tarragona. This evenings sunset seemed to go on for ever, disappearing behind the hills of the Parc Naturel dels Ports as we came past, leaving an artists pallet of pink and rusty hues hanging in the sky.
After a slight disagreement with TomTom about whether a service road was the right option for getting to the campsite, and the inevitable 5 mile detour to go around the other three sides of the square, we arrived at the Spa|Natura Resort – somewhat elegantly titled but a fairly family orientated camp site. Alas we learn that the new years eve festivities are all booked out, so we’ll need to find other entertainments. The site is midway between Benicarló and Peñiscola (no sniggering please), and slightly inland, so the bikes will need to come out to see either town or the sea.
There is a spa centre here, so we may well be pampering a little over the coming days, but there is some good flat cycling it would seem, and also some tantalising looking hills to be assaulted. I for one have spent too much time on my arse the last couple of weeks, and so its about time we picked up the pace a little. Why wait for a new years resolution?
Mind you, we have just been to check out the on-site facilities in terms of food and beverage, whilst the quality was somewhat dubious, if you were here for ‘health’ reasons they would probably turn out to be the ‘fastest way to a heart attack’ variety. I think I managed all the ingredients of a fried breakfast and a roast dinner, all on one plate. The texture and taste of the desserts could only be described and ‘indescribable’, but for all the wrong reasons. At least I won’t have to look far if I need any gap filler or silicon sealant over the next few days.
