Overland with Kids

This update comes a little late following our latest 10-day visit to Spain during Easter this year.

We had the most fantastic time as usual but this short trip was also a case of ‘what could go wrong - did go wrong’ at times and we came away with some small lessons, reminders and pointers in preparation for our big trip next year.

We’ve been to Spain before several times but in a bid to save a few pennies and being a bit tired and in a rush to go, we missed a couple of packing essentials which could have made a huge difference during the first few days of our stay.

 

About Our Trip

We visited the Tarragona region again (we went last year also and prior to this we have visited Tenerife, Ibiza and spent 3 weeks around and about Barcelona staying in the Villa Nova il a Getru area). This time we were dog-sitting for Andrew’s sister whilst she went off for a break to Morocco, and again staying in the same little village as before called La Torre de Fontaubella - a beautiful, lush and green mountainous region at this time of year and abundant with wisteria dotted and growing wild about the place. The area is great for walking and cycling etc. We flew again rather than take vehicle due to distance versus duration - but we did have the use of a vehicle for entire stay while there.

We managed to get out and about quite a bit more, to Mora where the River Ebro flows, to La Siurana (some photos attached of the area)- an amazing medieval village perched incredibly high up which, up until a few years ago, you could only reach it by 4×4 wheel drive before proper roads were built. It is a steep ascent which we drove most of the way in 1st gear! From the top you can see the Siurana valley, lake and river area which is very beautiful. Perched high on the top of a mountain hillside approx 500 metres high, is the village itself - with only one route in and out. We were advised that this village was one of the last places the Moors shored up in their battle against the Christian’s.  An almost impossible place to reach it would have seemed with the Moors seemingly starved out before being flushed out!

All around is an area of dramatic mountain scenery and the Siurana area is very well-known and famous amongst the climbing community. There is a campsite there and we are amazed people can reach as to get to it with, for example, a 1.8T VMW caravan like ours in tow would be a real challenge as, it is an incredibly steep route upwards with plenty of narrow hairpin bends. But for anyone who is considering - the prize of the views and spectacular scenery is well worth the effort and one which will leave an impression and memory with us for a very long time to come . A definate recommendation if you are ever in the area!

Whilst there, there are two search and rescue helicopters which seem to monitor the area and climbing groups but unfortunately, we experienced the sad task of witnessing a serious accident of a climber with both helicopters involved in the rescue.  From what we could tell (as we were far away from the action below us while we were at the top in Siurana village itself), it was a young man in early twenties who we saw being airlifted to Mora hospital. We hope very much that he has recovered and is OK now.

It is an amazing experience to be so high up in the village of Siurana and see the helicopters hovering much lower in distance beneath you. We have enclosed a shot of one the helicopters (yellow colour) in one of the photos but don’t know if you can spot or see so well - our camera could not do the vast scenery and distance beneath us any really decent justice.

Amongst old ruins, the village is occupied by approx. 20 residents. We were amazed that the villagers would be prepared to travel up and down the distance required each day to go to work or go shopping for food. What if you just need a pint of milk? The area is off the beaten track and seems quite isolated though you can see villages from Siurana in the distance beyond. Though we wonder if travellers simply make use of the pubs, restaurant, small gift shop and the campsite there.

We found an exert we researched on the net from a past traveller as follows:
“It is an area of dramatic mountain scenery, hillside villages, vineyards, and groves of olive and almonds. Wine producing has been important here for centuries and there is a monastery, vineyard and wine cellar nearby at d’Escaladei, well worth a vist! Tours of the vineyards and olive oil co-operatives are a great way to sample the local produce. There are many pretty hillside villages, La Bisbal de Falset, Ulldemolins and, perhaps most notably, Siurana. Built on a craggy mountainside and surrounded by spectacular rock formations, the village has become a haven for climbers and walkers. The Serra del Montsant national park provides some stunning hill walks, winding in and out of spires of jagged rocks and weirdly shaped conglomerate towers. Lying on a base of sandstone, then limestone, the road to the village winds up through the most dramatic scenery in the valley, huge crags on either side. The village itself has a couple of pricey restaurants and a small exclusive hotel, not open out of season, and one or two more modest places to get snacks and a cold beer or ice-cream. Most people on a budget stay at the refuge, a very unusual building, built into the rock, looking out over the cliffs of Montsant. The campsite is located within a short walk of the village, and is an excellent base to explore the area. It has quite basic facilities, but the location is out of this world. It is usually full of climbers, and this is the theme of the bar, which invariably has a climbing DVD showing, often featuring the proprietor, who is quite handy in the climbing world. The bar does reasonably priced food, basic (pizza, fries, steak, chips), but with big portions, very welcome after a day’s exercise, and is a great place to chill out and have a beer. It is a very sociable and friendly atmosphere, and the father and son who run the place have been based around the area for years, and are keen share information about the local area (and the climbing). If you don’t fancy being under canvas, there are some wooden huts available, one suitable for a larger group with it’s own shower/bathroom/cooking area. The others share the campsite facilities. They are a little unusual (somewhat like camping in a garden shed), but have the advantage of warmth during the Spring months, where the nights get very cold. There are also some very small rooms, really basic, and only worth considering if you are going in the coldest time of year, when camping would be unpleasant. The views from the campsite are really stunning, and you can walk out of the site and into the most amazing scenery”.

The only word of caution we can add to this is that if you are visiting Siurana village on top of this steep mountain with very young children, beware as there is no protective barriers at the top of the village edges when looking at some of the views over the Siurana Valley and mountainside - just sheer drops all round - and we are talking hundreds of metres!

To get to La Siurana, we left from our base in La Torre, taking a route right through the Priorat region including the villages of Parcera, the Cernudella reservoir, La Siurana itself, the wild west looking Monstsant mountain areas (really does look like something out of the wild west), Villello Baixa, Gratallops, Falset and then home again to La Torre. Approx. 5.5 hours round trip in total. And, we could have spent longer if we decided to stop and have a beer, something to eat or take in some more view points but the bad weather (and need of the loo!) pushed us on.

Each day we took long, long walks with the dog, passing areas such as the Font de Fontaubella or going in the opposite direction for a closer inspection of the turbine windmills in the area. We brought some puppet making kits including ones you can paint as well as make from fabric along with wiggly eyes, all of which got used as part of fun projects with the children each evening. Outings we made also fuelled the children’s imagination and they spent time drawing pictures. Jessica wrote some made-up stories and also made a fort with guns out of a cardboard box at one stage. So we didn’t need much in the way of entertainment as there was plenty to keep them occupied. We also brought a bed-time story book, some DVDs and the Gameboy as fall-back.

During our travels around and about the area of La Torre, we found a nice quiet campsite approx. 30 mins drive away on the beach coast called Oasis Mar which we will consider using as part of our shake down trip later this year. It’s in a place called or near Badia Beach (near Mont Roig area). No swimming pool but is right on the beach. Looks quiet, clean and inexpensive.

Easter Sunday found us at Poblet Monastery, a still inhabited but a now UNESCO protected site. We chose the wrong day as apart from the Church which we were free to enter and look around, the Monastery and main grounds were closed due to the holidays. But, regardless of the black clouds and rain it was a very nice encounter as we could still walk around the main entrance vicinity and view from walking around the vast parkland outside.

Both Reus and Mora featured daily for us for provisions and the villages of Capcanes and Marca were visited also as well as the beach resorts of Salou and Cambrils which is famous for it’s fishing port.

We had use of Andrew’s sister’s small car - a fabulous ‘part of the family’ little battered Barcelona Fiat Punto runaround - with a snail like engine which was really great fun (and we are not dissing the car - we really did love it!). Having the use of a vehicle, enabled us to venture further than we had before - even if we were a bit squashed now and again with the dog on board!

La Torre itself has a small cemetry on the outskirts of the village we hadn’t really noticed before. We got a chance to see the cemetery and have a walk around and was surprised to find that the Spanish bury their bereaved in vaults or crypts “above” ground rather than underground. We didn’t realise this so were pleased to learn something new as well the fact of the speed in which the bereaved are buried - Spanish law states that burials should take place within 72 hours of death so funerals are incredibly quick in Spain it seems.

Lessons Learned

We had teriible weather………..including hailstones! Yes hailstones bucketing out the heavens at 10:30pm one very dark night while driving left hand drive vehicle on right hand side of the road of which we had never driven either (vehicle or road side) before in such conditions - on unfamiliar, unlit, steep windy and very bendy mountain roads with sheer and very severe drops into oblivion - and which seemed to go on forever - travelling at less than 10km per hour with two children in the back (who were not allowed to talk or even breathe!!!) while we focused on getting us all home in one piece whilst trying desperately to see within an inch of the road in front of us and while dealing with the edges and bends. Add to this very weak driving lights though would challenge anyone even with excellent equipment and on this occasion to attempt this. No pressure at all!

The main reminder to us being (apart from ensuring adequate driving lights and being more weather vigilant) to avoid night-time driving where possible as part of our bigger, trip, particularly if unfamiliar territory (e.g. dangerous, steep, narrow mountain roads with no barriers) - regardless of whether children present or not!

Believing the weather to be reasonable in Spain before we left the UK (which we thought it was) and adamant that we didn’t want to give up our shillings and pence to Ryanair for expensive luggage check-in - we decided against taking any jackets, coats or waterproof boots this time - only warm fleeces. This way we would only need to cleverly bring hand luggage onto the plane, not have to carry extra load or wait around on arrival at Reus airport.

How wrong our decisions were! We are not bad at packing but were conscious that each time we go travelling off anywhere we could always improve so this was our opportunity to try to streamline this area better.

We’d like to add at this stage - Andrew had to remain behind for the first few days of the trip in the UK due to having to attend his Australian visa practical assessment in London. So, Anne flew out solo with Jessica and little Andrew - another reason for wanting to travel light (without e.g. bulky jackets and heavy walking boots).

The result was that it poured from the heavens most days! Morning, noon and night - it rained relentlessly - we woke up to rain and literally rivers flowing where normally dry and barren and went to sleep with it in our ears (we did have a couple of warm days in between somewhere)….

Little Andrew (AJ) wasn’t that well (not terrible but not 100%) before leaving the UK - so cold, wet weather which we were forced out into in order to walk the dog or go shopping in local towns, did not go down too well. Add to this the cold, chilly evenings, the electricity irreparably blowing out in the house (no lights, no cooker, no fridge and food having to be thrown out for 3 days/2 nights), the boiler packing up (no hot water), the dog (Bonzo) doing a runner on one of the days (we did get him back successfully after a short panic heart panic and found him happily visiting a fellow dog friend - Bonzo was on holiday too!). The toilet also decided not to work by refusing to flush after a couple of days. Clearly, this incredibly old village house not used to a hard-hitting family invasion like us - and then we had AJ constantly falling and grazing, bruising or cutting himself on countless occasions. We brought medicine and plasters but not enough and with no local shops (unless travel by car), we encountered a few challenges to say the least.

Bonzo of course adored these super-wet conditions for some reason plus the long, long walks (we are sure Bonzo did these long walks through the wettest most muddiest parts of the village on purpose!).

By far, the biggest problem was the weather - rained relentlessly all morning, day and night -While Anne could withstand it (along with the adult-size waterproofs in the house which fitted her), the children were like two tinkers going around in their soaked sponge-like fleeces (taking an age in turn to dry indoors as could not be hung outside for obvious reasons). The children were eventually swapped into adult size fleeces when their own dry ones ran out - adding to the tinker image stakes hugely. Anne would leave her tinker children with the dog outside the small town shops in the rain inviting strange stares from inhabitants and passers by - bad mother! (any available adult waterproofs in the house meantime were forced on the children but really proved a hazard as just too big for them).

Add to this - soaked trainers each day (which were not waterproof!), soaked socks, trousers and cold feet - leaves little to the imagination to work out the misery inflicted on the children in terms of discomfort. Ruined were the rose-tinted spectacle memories of sunshine, pool and beach life of yesteryear. Instead, each outing demanded a dry change of clothes and it would take an age to dry out our limited spares.

So, the message is - don’t forget the waterproofs including protective footwear!

Being solo for the first few days, Anne did not have the luxury to be able to leave the children (or the dog!) indoors with someone to babysit for a short period in the dry and the warm - so this contributed somewhat to the regular soakings. To go shopping for food or quickly walk the dog meant the whole entourage had to come along and duly get a drowning. Bonzo is a big, strong dog by the way who is used to at least 3 walks per day (and he takes you rather than you take him kind of walks!) with at least one of these a nice long lengthy (1 - 2 hours) exercise.

Needless to say, we coped very bravely and had a good time. In order to eat, we had to cook (but as mentioned, had no working electricity) and in order to wash, we needed hot water (but had no working boiler), plus we needed a toilet (we struck lucky here as there was a second working toilet -so this item we quickly resolved - a relief!).

Electricity issue was finally resolved by deciphering a Catalan/English dictionary left in the house to translate the words ‘Electrician now please’ to the village neighbours whilst banging on doors, playing charades and performing the art of mime to explain this issue. Result was that electrician visited and got all working again after a fashion. We could eat and see again in the dark evenings instead of cold sandwiches and candlelight. So, translation tools for each country we visit is a must really - we should not assume we can get by without being able to communicate effectively. Also, to make sure we have reasonable mobile phones with coverage (ours could not communicate well due to the mountainous region we were staying in).

As for the boiler - a continuing on/off relationship ensued - but we did manage to get it working now and again to bathe children and get enough hot water for washing up.

Needless to say, jackets, walking boots and fresh dry fleeces (even wellies!) all arrived on the next flight with Andrew a few days later (following texts when could get coverage to UK to ensure Andrew packed before he left - there was no reception to make any phone calls from the village so it was texts only!). Funnily enough, it became worth every penny to get Andrew to pay Ryanair for unexpected and unplanned additional luggage requirement!!!!!

For the record, we could have bought waterproofs etc. locally but we would have had to find and locate (a bit of a hassle factor in the rain adding more misery for the children - though the dog would have enjoyed!). And, we could have spent quite a lot of money (possibly) on unplanned purchases we didn’t really want and already own. Luckily for us, Andrew was on his way out 5 days later from UK so we finally resolved this (and of course the sun came out as soon as he landed!).

All in all, a great time had by all.

Diary (Blog)
Europe