Bowled over by the Costa Brava, L’Escala
Zagan the motorhome feels like he’s on top of the world. He’s perched on the Punta Montgo (N42.11083, E3.17231) above the town of L’Escala with an ever-changing, breath-taking panoramic view over the Bay of Roses.
I didn’t sleep too well last night as we free camped in a car park near Llafranc, perhaps I’ve gone soft in the two years we’ve been out of a motorhome. While I’m not a fan of campsites and we don’t really need to be in one as we have everything on board, I do sleep better knowing we’re somewhere official like an aire or other specified parking. The only place I felt comfortable free-camping was Greece, where the locals welcomed us, showed us where we could get water and put me at ease.
Don’t get me wrong, here in Spain no one has batted an eyelid at us. The police pulled up next to us earlier, we both tried to look as if we weren’t looking at them as they rolled down their window, admired the view we had come here for and then drove off. Maybe that’s it, if they had looked in our direction and given a smile I’d have felt we had their OK to be here. Sometimes though it’s worth the minor anxiety for a view like we have tonight.
After breakfast this morning we left Charlie, his paw is still a bit raw so he’s on light walking duties, to sleep in the van a while we set off to walk another part of the GR 92, our new favourite footpath. We’ve only done a tiny bit of the 583 Kilometres along the whole route, but what we have done has been stunningly beautiful and fairly easy-going.
Poorly pooch paw, which is also in need of a fur cut!
We followed the road to Calella, the resort to the south of Llafranc, then walked the coastal footpath back to Llafranc. The small harbour had a few signs of life; people enjoying the sunshine on their balconies, wet-suited folks heading off spear-fishing, couples eating breakfast in a beachside café and one chap capturing it all on canvas.
Calella
Wonder if he added Jay and me in as we walked past?
Previously, for me, the Costa Brava would conjure up images of big hotels, loud bars and full English breakfasts, but my view has totally changed. I have no idea how crazy it gets in the summer, but on a warm November morning there is no place I’d rather take a stroll.
Is this warning you to beware of seagull poop?
Jay puts himself in the frame!
Last look at Llafranc
Keep seeing flashes of red from their tails as these birds fly around, has one already got his winter coat on?
Not wanting to overstay our welcome in our car park, yes ‘our car park’ we were the only ones in it, we packed up and headed north to a place that was described as a small car park with a wonderful view in our parking database. Arguing with satnav pretty much all the way – she does love a narrow road short cut – we reached the edge of L’Escala at which point I had to let her take over as my map doesn’t have enough detail. She informed us that there were still 16 minutes to go, surely that can’t be right, the town isn’t that big? Those 16 minutes were spent threading Zagan through tiny gaps between parked cars and weaving our way up, and up, and up through streets lined with villas and apartments.
Finally we had just seconds to go, but ahead of us was a very steep, narrow bit of tarmac. Spotting street lamps above us (a sure sign of some flat land) we went for it. Zagan arrived in the car park with a roar, resembling a killer whale leaping out of the ocean onto the ice to catch a penguin! We looked around and smiled – it had been worth the ride.
Overlooking the Bay of Roses and the snow-capped Pyrenees, perfect!
We parked up and had a spot of lunch, during which the police popped by as I’ve mentioned, and we also noticed that cars were arriving in a different direction to the way we did. Seems we used the exit as an entrance, the actual road being much less steep. After lunch we explored the Punta Montgo, a rocky patch of land with 360 degree views, a tower and an old gun emplacement – we haven’t seen one of those for a long while, and didn’t expect to find one in Spain.
Charlie and I have chilled in Zagan and admired the view, while Jay has explored the paths down to the bay behind us, and walked the road back up here – which he assures me isn’t as scary when you know you can make it and aren’t going to have to roll back and turn around.
View from Zagan’s windscreen as the lights start to come on around the bay
We were joined by several cars for tonight’s sunset, and I suspect there will be more as the evening goes on to watch the lights twinkling around the bay and the stars, or they may all be tucked up at home watching the Antiques Roadshow? This is the sort of place that reminds me why I love motorhoming. Tonight we’re deciding where to go next, the volcanoes were calling, but may have been trumped by the coast!
Ju x
PS – We’ve had a few problems with email notifications going out. Thanks to everyone who got in touch, worried that we might have dropped off the face of the earth. We’re all fine and have been putting on updates, but we now have more people subscribed than our server will allow (it’s all technical stuff that Jay deals with), so it wouldn’t send out all the emails.
As the keeper of the budgets, I’ve released funds to pay for the premium version of whatever it is that we use, so normal email notification service should resume with this post – sorry if you’ve not been receiving them, but please have a look back over the last couple of weeks – the Costa Brava has been amazing!
Mum fought the bull in Calella! It was 1966 and the Bull has probably passed away.
I stayed in Sitges but Geoff Batey and I did drive up to Calella in his trusty Ford Corsair
Mum’s bull would have been at the big Calella a bit further down the coast (just north of Barcelona). We’ve been at a little resort the full name is Calella de Palafrugell. It is confusing around here as there are loads of places named after bigger places, also driving yesterday we had the choice of two roads going to the same place in different directions both called the C31! Ju x
Wow you lot are popular! I don’t post but I do read every one of yours so even if the majority are silent I imagine that they’re still actively following you. We’ve lived in Spain, Altea, for 13 years and still haven’t visited Costa Brava.
Hi Jay and Ju – we’ve been following your latest adventure. It’s been a great source of information (and entertainment) as we have also been travelling around Europe in a converted van for the last 7 months. We’re also in Catalunya and plan to head south in the next few weeks. We’ll be spending Christmas in the Algarve so any tips would be welcome. Gracias
Your little birds are Black Redstarts. The top one, side viwe, is the male in his winter plumage, the bottom one, front view, the female.
Hi Guys…Sorry we never met up on this tour but we did have a few toasts to you last night with Vicky and Barny who met you both and Charlie a few weeks ago. We just met them last night…they were here at Capbreton for the surfing. I had a very bad head this morning….Revenge of the Rioja…
Tips? If you have time look at our blog entry for L’Escala http://peterandnia.com/2015/04/02/how-sweet-it-is-to-be-reclined/….we thought the old Roman/Greek site at Empuries was worth a visit. We have just spent a few weeks in Andalusia …amazing…well worth going inland, better than the over-Britted coast in many ways. Ronda and Cordoba were particularly good. On previous tours we also liked Camping Cabo de Gata…wild and good dog walks, and also El Rocio…wild west like town close to Portugal. We are heading home for Christmas now…Best Wishes…Peter, Nia & the Krays
Hi Peter! Sounds like you’ve had a cracking time out on the road, good stuff. We’ll get to develop a bad head together sometime, the universe will make it so. :-) We skipped the Roman site, just because we’ve seen son many of ’em in Europe and North Africa we were starting to feel a bit like we were Roman ourselves. Appreciate the advice though, all helpful stuff. Cheers, fun trip home, Jay
If your off up to or near Cannes then maybe you can free camp outside
:-Le Siècle d’or 85 Allée Louis Blériot, 06210 Mandelieu-la-Napoule, France…the best all you can eat for around 15 Euros,,Oysters ect if you like..All you can eat for rich people at a low price..also seen for myself nice people free camping there in Motorhomes.
We’ve just done our first motorhome trip in April/May travelling from our home in Italy, through France, Spain and over to Gibraltar to visit an elderly aunt. We passed L’escala and Empuries on our way and I remembered that my parents used to take us there (five children) on holidays, so on the way back we stopped over but plan to go back and spend more time there and your car park sounds perfect.