Carla GoGo is a GoGo - Costa Brava

10.5.09 – 13.5.09 – Platja D'Aro (near Calogne or Palamos), Costa Brava

Monday:

After two nights in the hotel, we head back to El Pongo to collect the van and then continue our journey up the east coast of Spain to the beaches of Costa Brava. We decide on a campsite on the beach in a smaller village, 'Platja D'Aro' which is one of a number of small villages all sitting in a row along beautiful beaches. The campsite is called “Cala GoGo” and we decide Cala is a gogo! Once we arrive we find it is one of the nicest and friendliest campsites we have been to – and would you believe it, free internet!! The campsite has lovely green pitches, terraced down to the beach - we can sit in our van and watch the waves rolling in!! Although we have said this at many a spot on our journey so far, Bob and I look at each other and say “Darl, you cant get any better than this!”

That afternoon we take a walk along the beach, on the sand, through rocks and over cliffs along a man made path that links all the beaches – there are about 7 or 8 little beaches along this stretch – it is wonderful! On the way back we take a detour through an estate of beautiful houses built on the ocean front. We are convinced that Christopher Skase was holed up in one of the houses – it looks familiar – and it has a name in Spanish that looks like it called translate to Pixie!!

Tuesday:

The next day, although the weather is overcast, it doesnt dent our enthusiasm to hop on our bikes to ride to the next little town, Palemos, which is only a 15 minute bike ride away. At Palemos, we ride along the promenade which hugs the beach front comprising around 4 large semi circular bays - the ocean is a beautiful azure blue colour, even though the sky is overcast – it is just fantastic. There is a huge cruise liner in the Port which heads off to sea as we watch it. Being the good little wife, I have packed morning tea in our knapsack so it is chockie bikies on the beach while we rest.

On the way back, I had an incident on the bike at a particularly sharp chicane (race talk for corner) in the sidewalk – off I tumble into the gravel and rocks – ouch! Bob rides on oblivious and then realises he hasnt heard from me in a few minutes and looks back to see Kerrie sprawled out on the ground. The wounds on my knees draw blood and look worse than they are but none the less I gather a good amount of sympathy from Bob. However Bob says I can no longer be trusted to ride at the rear and will now have to ride ahead of him so that he can keep an eye on me!

Once we arrive home and the wounds are dressed (savlon and bandaides will fix anything), I get out my newly acquired broom. My wonderful husband bought me a little broom with a long handle so that I wouldnt have to get on my hands and knees with the dustpan and brush to sweep the floor of the van (particularly now that I have sore knees!). Bob says the broom will be useful because it will help me to wash the windscreen of the van (I cant reach all of the windscreen with the dustpan brush) – isnt my husband good to me!!

Wednesday:

Earlier in the week, we had thought we would scoot up to Avignon in France to meet us with Ross and Di on their tour – but in the end we decided it would be too much of a rush to get there and Di said that their nazi tour director often only allowed them a small and exact amount of time for lunch eg 32 minutes, no more, no less! So we decide to give it a miss and to stay on at the lovely Carla GoGo campsite

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This morning the weather is not great again, but we decide to walk in the opposite direction to yesterday, into the small town of Platja D'Aro, about 2 kms down the road. Again, this is a lovely little beach side town, smaller but more quaint that Palamos. We into town, past the roman ruins, walk along the promenade (all the beach towns seem to have promenades!), have chockie bikkies again on the beach front and later on a filled baguette from a cafe in the main street. You might think that we will have put on weight given the chockie bikkies we are eating – and I agree but I think so far, we havent put on as much as we should have which I put down to either the nervous energy from riding the bikes or the long treks we take in search of toilet stops for Bob. Bob needs to pee just about every 15 minutes or so because of the blood pressure tablets he is on (they have a diuretic in them) and it seems the Spanish do not pee in public because public toilets are a rarity – we walk for kms and kms in search of public toilets and usually end up in a MacDonalds (you would be surprised where you can find Maccas!).

We stroll back home again and I have convinced Bob that we should try making fried rice for dinner. Neither of us have ever made it before so we look up the net (we have free wifi!!) and give it a go. It is a success so we decide to add that to our repertoire of easy meals to prepare in the van. Next we are going to try paella!