Driving Miss Beatrix

Kevin's first car was a three wheeler. Since then, he has moved onto slightly faster options - so Beatrix is the slowest vehicle he's driven in many a year. Not that you'd always know it - driving back from the dealer, as I followed in my Yeti, he got that motorhome moving quite a lot faster than is usual. Since then, fully loaded, he's been a bit more temperate, but he's definitely getting more confident. So today we hit the coast road.

It started innocently enough: a drive on dual carriageways through the agricultural countryside, red earth, scarlet apples, immaculate allotments among the tumbledown farm buildings, with tantalising glimpses of walled towns or crumbling churches that we will have to visit another day. 

Then we turned towards the sea. The road started to narrow - but around the corner, a beautiful bay lined with restaurants. The menu del dia: seafood nibbles (calamari, mussels, whitebait, mullet), then paella - our best meal so far. Jemima tried a mussel and chomped happily on the rest (she is unafraid of tentacles but won't eat a pea - I don't get it). 

And then it got serious: narrow, twisty, and winding ever upwards, with sheer drops to our left (thankfully, on the other side of the road). There were lots of motorbikes and not much else - and whatever there was, was going past us. But it was worth the slow and grinding journey up and down for the fabulous views - and I'm never scared, despite the drops, because I know Kevin's a very careful driver. And good at finding wild camping spots too (last night, and tonight) - maybe after the distraction of fast cars, he's found his mechanical métier in the motorhome - or maybe not.

Counting mussels:

Jemima's smiling face:

The drive:

One for you Freeman:

Empuriabrava to Platja d'Aro (lunch):

Platja d'Aro to Tossa de Mar, our night stop (Google maps doesn't take the coast road so this isn't our route, but it's better than nothing):