Begur is un-forgiving in terms of its mountainous terrain and narrow roads so, being predominantly leisure cyclists we are tending to load up the bikes, drive nearby and explore. It takes forever to get ready and with the bikes atop of the Sorento, a small step ladder is required to get them there.

We drove to Torroella de Montgri and parked up at the Carefour Express near to the road bridge over the river Ter. Away from the very large cities and at this time of year, parking is easy and cheap in Spain. There doesn’t appear to be the same petty attitude to ripping of the motorist that exists in blighty.

We tracked along the northern bank of the Ter and kept cycling until we hit the beach. Kilometer after kilometer of beautiful sand, close to deserted. We sat on the rocks and enjoyed a picnic before heading on to l’Estartit which is a few more kilometres further up

the coast and the journey is primarily on tracks until reaching the town itself where there is a beautiful “board walk” (although in this case more accurately “concrete walk”!) running the entire length of the town and on to the harbour.

Refreshments were required at a local café and then the return back to Torroella de Montgri. All told a pleasurable 25km, mostly on the level which is just how we like it.

Today is our anniversary. Moe got to choose the itinary, just like most days!

The botanical gardens at Cap Roig are a short drive away and we spent several hours wandering around probably the most important and beautiful botanic gardens in the Mediterranean.

The cactus garden was incredible.

In the evening we walked into Begur (not the easiest of walks – it’s 5km round trip and very hilly).

 

 

 

Early evening and a street party was in full swing with copious amounts of cava being handed out to the (mainly) locals and tourists. Celebrating the refurbishment of the local butchers shop although the Spanish don’t need to much of an excuse to bring out the cava…

Dinner was at Casa La Juanita which specialises in baked fish. White sea bass for me and hake for Moe. Very good and reasonably priced but I don’t think I ever really got the hang of properly dealing with the bones on a whole fish. The proprietor was really helpful, in trying to show me the correct technique…

Dull and a shower in the morning so not quite the hot weather we were hoping for. Anyhow, provisions were running low so we took advantage of the poor weather and had a shopping trip to Palafrugell.

Begur castle overlooking the medieval village was the afternoon’s agenda. By now we had some sunny periods and the sun is hot now but just isn’t visible quite enough. And at the summit where the castle is located, the wind still has a nasty chill to it.

Fortunately it was dull and grey today because this was just like old times, when work was 7 days a week and holidays often allowed maybe a normal weekend of relaxation. Sometimes. The entire day spent working around the problems caused by BT the previous day.

Ordinarily I’m not a big fan of art and visiting art galleries. We always try to on our travels but I’m rarely left inspired – that’s not to say some of the artwork we have seen isn’t special but it just doesn’t work really well for Moe and I.

There is an exception though – Salvador Dali. A true genius and some of his work is just inspiring so a visit to the Dali Theatre Museum in Figueres was a must.

 

 

 

One of our favourite pieces is the head of Abraham Lincoln which close up features the naked body of a lady but at distance, is just Abraham Lincoln. How he painted such works I can’t comprehend.

We also visited the Dali museum at St Petersburg, Florida and for me, that was a better experience than the theatre museum. But maybe that’s because it was far more orderly, less crowded and everything was in English!

Still, a must visit.

This was our first full day near the town of Begur. Our caravan was fully stocked with provisions from the previous region so no need to perform any mad shop. We decided to take things easy (although that failed epically later in the day) and explore the area a little by car.

We drove to Flaca which has a direct train connection to Barcelona. We wanted to see what the parking will be like and to view the timetable. On this line Barcelona is served by three stations and the most central one which we will travel to is Barcelona – Passeig de Gracia. Service takes around an hour and a half on one of the medium fast trains.

We returned to Begur and headed down to Sa Tuna. A beautiful cove with the magnificent colour of the Mediterranean highlighted against the breath-taking coastal mountains. Our alternate agenda here was to assess the mountain path from Begur to Sa Tuna for a stroll one day. We decided it would be more than any stroll with hiking shoes a must.

 

Lunch was followed by a spot of sun bathing before we set off for a late afternoon walk to Fornells which takes about 20 minutes (down) and considerably longer back. It wasn’t helpful that we took a wrong turn and spent the first 30 minutes heading up the major trail to Begur.

 

Dinner was the most exquisite steak cooked to perfection on the Weber.

Transfer day from Dolores to Begur. As luck would have it, we encountered heavy rain for the first time on the entire journey. It started right on cue with the task of stowing the outside items, moving the van and hitching up.

The preparation day previous wasn’t a resounding success as I had previously detached the removable towbar and safely stowed it under all our gear in the back of the Kia. Another lesson learnt. Even less surprising, was that the rain stopped just as we were pulling away from Sheppards Rest!

The drive was 432 miles according to the satnav and the journey was uneventful. Traffic was quiet (albeit busier in the Barcelona region) and we arrived as expected at Camping Begur just before 17:00.

Camping Begur is a 5-star site and is immaculately kept.

Everything was ready for our arrival and whilst a nice pitch had been allocated, we decided to explore the site on foot to find the perfect pitch. Having found just such a pitch, we realised that a group of Romanian travellers were almost next door playing loud music and generally doing everything possible to spoil the tranquil setting. Rather ironical that this was the day news broke in the Times of Nigel Farage’s comments about Romanian neighbours. Still we turned a blind eye to PC and quickly sought out a different area of the site.

We chose well. Peaceful plot and close to all the site amenities

Transfer day preparation so the day was spent stocking up on provisions, washing and cleaning. Most notably was the decision to jetwash the car without understanding the instructions. Result was 3 Euros spent on a rinse and wax (that was actually 3 separate cycles as cleaning progress was slow) and then a further 3 Euros spent on the correct sequence of washes – it didn’t help that the wax had nicely encased all the dust and grime.

Friday is market day in Dolores. A large traditional Spanish street market is held the year round and we needed some fruit and vegetables. We had cycled the three plus miles from Sheppards Rest and our plan for the remainder of the day was a 12 mile circular ride through the local natural park with a nice long lunch in the middle.

Lunch was at casa Harrys in San Felipe Neri and whilst this might sound like a British export it certainly isn’t. The journey out to casa Harrys took considerably less time than we imagined so our initial error was arriving too early – merely to find the restaurant staff and family enjoying their lunch. Anyhow, service was friendly and accommodating to our lack of Spanish linguistic skills and poor timing. An hour later and the restaurant was full of locals imbibing on the traditional fare.

The 3 course set meal (with salad and bread also) was ticketed at 10 Euros per person. The cycle ride had created quite a thirst and this was thoroughly quenched with 4 bottles of the local beer (fortunately the return journey was all off-road). Anyhow, when the bill arrived, the total was still just a mere 20 Euros for the two of us. Needless to say we left a generous tip.

There are other reviews of casa Harrys and references to an exquisite wine cellar. Sounds fascinating and if I’d had the skills to communicate with the owner, I would have loved to have explored it.

Carrefour and chilling…

We had spotted a nice big Carrefour near Torreveija so we decided this was an opportunity for some serious shopping and we didn’t disappoint.

 

The afternoon was spent chilling at Sheppards Rest.