Oranges for Africa (Oops, I mean Spain!)

6fartsinacart
Dec 15, 2016
3 min read

7 December 2016, Wednesday: Before we leave Mula, Mum, Dad and Emile go for a walk into town to find the Correos (post office) and get a thorough tour through it as an added bonus. After dumping and filling up with water we depart. Our lunch stop is just after Abanilla where we come upon hand-dug homes underground in the hills... once upon a time inhabited, but subsequently just left empty. We presume that it served as a natural air-conditioned house. Fascinating! We continue to the coast and arrive in Xabia quite late. Therefore a quick meal... tortilla wraps with chicken.

8 December 2016, Thursday: We decide to go and look at the beach approximately 300m from our stop for the night. We then continue our journey and stop at McD's in Denia to update the blog. We have lunch at the camper-stop in Oliva and carry on to Turis to stop for the night. We are pleasantly surprised by the neatly created spaces between hedges for motorhomes. Thank you Turis for making us feel welcome!

9 December 2016, Friday: Today we have travelled through hectare upon hectare of citrus, vineyard and olive dalmations (oops... plantations). Now we know where the famous Valencia oranges originate from. We also travelled over a mountain range which was spectacular. The less travelled country roads, in our opinion, is well worth the experience, even though it adds to your travelling time. We pull off into La Salza-della the peaceful village of cherries, cherry soap, and cherry jam. After a stroll through the village, we set upon 'studying' the dinner menu. The order is placed at our in-house chef, Geneve, and to put the cherry on our day, freshly baked home (camper) -made shortbread biscuits. We've got our own masterchef!!

10 December 2016, Saturday: With the church bells announcing the time faithfully twice on the hour (maybe for the folk who doesn't hear it the first time around - yeah?) and a rooster obliging from the early hours of the morning, we're up at the crack of dawn, ready to pull up sticks and move on. Our journey for the day takes us north joining up with the massive Rio Ebro just south of Tortosa and following its curves up to Asco where we stop for lunch and decide to stay for the night. Dad and Emile go to cast a line to tease the fish. Apparently some of these fish are up to a metre long and the fishing rod only twice the size. No success though, so no fish on the menu for tonight... or to prove the size.

11 December 2016, Sunday: We set off for Tarragona, a city full of surprises. With thousands of years of civilization just waiting to be discovered. Roman ruins are dotted throughout the city and it is easy to lose yourself in the narrow alleys of the historic quarter, where the essence of the medieval city remains untouched by time. We spend a considerable amount of time wandering and exploring the monuments and ruins and then move on to a spot close to the beach at Torredembarra for a very late lunch and an attempted swim. Only one of the 6 farts is brave enough to take a dip as the Mediterranean water is rather chilly. Geneve, go girl!!

We carry on a little bit further and stop at a farm called Area Cellar Can Battle - Artcava, near Avinyonet del Penedes for the night. Lovely level parking surrounded by vineyards, beautiful views and not too far from Barcelona for those who would like to visit this iconic city the following day (like us).