Barcelona to Narbonne

Why am a day late posting this? Read on.

Yes the site was noisy and the planes started early, but it was easy to find!! We had already decided to take a few cases of wine to Jills because it it so much cheaper in Spain. Hence a shopping expedition. Well the camp site is off a dual carriageway so getting back on doesn't give much option. Usually in Spain the Hyper markets advertise on all the motorways and guide you nearly to their door. Intuition is required and a note of the position of the sun relative to the sign as you come off the motorway. This time however the turn off was to anothe motorway and thestore was on the other side!! No problem just go to the next exit -over the motorway- and back to the store. NOT IN Barcelona you end up on another motorway heading further and further away. I won't continue to bore you, but this went on for another 45 mins, both getting more stressed and Sophie hypeing it up for both of us. Well we found the Carrefour shopped and the started the return journey. I hadn't put the location into the SatNav so we set off through the only exit from the Super market to find ourselves on a completely different road to our approach. The same maze of dual carriageways with no returns took hold and having left the camp at 10.30 we eventually got back at 12.20. Sophie, who understands my shouting 'where the f**k are we?' means stress went into melt down and that didn't help as Nicky followed quickly. Anyway we hitched up the van and got on our way. Nicky and me sorted; Sophie in remission.

I have done; missed; ignored some things in my life that have ben critisised as stupid but I now realise I should have taken more notice of the map. We were on a motorway into Barcelona the C31, if anyone knows it, and we were to leave on the C31, no choice!, what I didn't pick up was that this goes through the centre of Barcelona and for many kilometers it is 5 lanes wide with crossings and lights etc etc evey few 100 meters. The traffic was horrendous and with a rig my length nearly 40ft I could easily block a crossing if the traffic in front stopped and the lights changed. I was trying to be sensible and wait 'til I had room, but my fellow travellers saw that as an opportunity to pass and fill the gap I had left! Of course pedestrians and bikes, motorised or not, think they have right of way at all times and the closing of the bus/taxi lane did only helpto add to the general confusion. The conclusion fellow followers if you want to take a 22ft caravan from one side of Barcelona to the other Take the Ring Road, even if it means going back on yourself from your camp site.

I set the satnav to the GPS position of the site printed in the book.

The drive from Barcelona through the southern Pyrenees is easy, due to the new motorways, but very spectaular. Although we left Barcelona at 12.15 we were in Narbonne at 4.30pm. I followed the satnav, Nicky was more sceptical, anyway the satnav said we still had 16kms to do, which figured with the book. We went through vineyards, villages, smaller than villages, farms, all very bumpyand eventually arrived at the coast with instructions to turn 1KM inland! The book said the site was 6km from the sea!! With no where else to go I went through the very narrow streets and promenade of Narbonne-Plage na headed bak t the motorway and the instructions in Nickys book! We found it, but it was full!! We retraced our steps to another site in the book-- yes FULL! We followed signs to another campsite and after some pleading booked in there. Pleasant enough but basic. 8 pm We're all exhausted especially Sophie. Although a 6 year old French lad took a liking to her and started running her round the site. An English couple took pity on us and helped park the van. The site is run by a young couple and Mum and Dad; who stay in the background. I think Mum is in charge! The restaurant only had half the menu available and the entrecote steak and chips turned out to be Steack Hache and frit( beefburger & chips) . The Wine ? 50ml carafe for 1e25. ??

Ah! well another day tomorrow.