08th May 2010

Sant Pere Pescador – Aquarius – ASCI 2010-1660 Continued

The start of the day is depressingly familiar, the sound of rain on the roof!

But good news, by the time we have had breakfast, the rain has stopped, and the sky has cleared, lots and lots of blue sky.

We set off to cycle to Castello Dempuires, there is a cycle track route, but my exploring of yesterday told us that it is flooded. So we cycle along a small and fairly quiet road. It is 8km (5 miles) from San Pere Pescadore, so that makes it approximately 7 miles from the campsite.

Almost immediately, we find the supermarket which eluded me yesterday, it is set back from the road out from San Pere Pescadore, just beside the petrol station.

It is easy going cycling to Castello Dempuires, the road is fairly flat, and cuts across a nature reserve (Parc Natural dels Aiguamolls de l’Emporda), the sun continues to shine.

Castello Dempuires is a quaint and well kept little place with an impressive church, dating back to 1060, where we do the tourist thing, then we retire to a bar to quench our thirst from the cycle ride.

There is supposed to a market on here, but we cannot find it (what a shame). Kathleen finds a tourist information office, and is informed, the market is in Empuriabrava, about 5km away on the coast. The helpful young man in the Tourist office gives her instructions on how to get there (on a bicycle), and how to find the market.

The cycle route to Empuriabrava is very pleasant, taking us along the river Muga, the coast. Here we find the market, and buy some fruit, vegetables, and a belt for me (I have lost so much weight, because of my healthy lifestyle, my trousers will not stay up). Being a man, I buy the first belt I see, at the first stall we come to, selling belts. It costs me 7 Euro. Kathleen is highly amused to find the same thing, several stalls along for 5 Euro.

According to the young man in Tourist Information, there is a cycle track back towards San Pere Pescadore, but it is flooded because of the recent heavy rain, so we must retrace our route to Castello Dempuires, and then return along the road we came on.

The total journey turns out to be 22 miles.

We get back at about 14:30, the site seems to have filled up somewhat, partly because it is the weekend I think, there appears to be an increased number of Spanish families, and we have new Belgian neighbours, in addition to the English who arrived yesterday.

After lunch the rest of the afternoon is spent reading and lying about in the sun.

I see our friends Bryan and Joan are steadily making their way south (see http://www.bryanandjoan.blogspot.com/ ).