2018-09-19 Celler Masroig to Camping Las Palmeras

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Celler Masroig to Camping Las Palmeras

A complete change of scene today, we leave our free overnight motorhome stop at the winery of Celler Masroig and head for the coast, to a ‘beach style’ mass campsite. What a difference! What heat! My idea of hell in more ways than one. Readers of previous pages will know that we are not ‘beach and sun’ people; this campsite was on a narrow strip of land along the sea with direct access to the beach. It was obvious that is exactly what the other people in tents and motorhomes had come for. To say it was too hot for us is an understatement. Now for the details of the day.

Blue sky and sunny here at Celler Masroig, it is going to be hot again… and later it is! We watch the tractors go out and come back with their trailers full of red grapes which go first to be weighed on a small weighbridge and then into the cellar for separating from the stalks. The empty tractor and trailer pass where we are parked and bounces off down the road for the next load. It has been a fascinating stop, clean, quiet and free (!) so much better than the awful Prades campsite that cost
€19.

From El Masroig we take the T734, back into the mountains to Porrera, up more tortuous bendy roads to a small village perched high on the mountainside. It is in the centre of the Priorat wine region and high above the village we see a sign of the future: a brand-new massive oval building which looks like an expensive hotel with semi-circular windows lining the terraced overhang, stupendous views for those very expensive tasting tours! In Porrera we park on the large central car park at the back of the school and walk into the village. We investigate a couple of wine cellars: Vinum Priorat and Vall Liur (there are more). At Vall Liur we watch the grapes vibrated along a belt where leaves, twigs and debris are removed by hand before dropping into the stalk-separator (grapes into the press and stalks into the bin). The vintner is very knowledgeable about Priorat, but their wines are niche market and €35 upwards to over €100/bottle. We return to Vinum Priorat as they have a very large selection of Priorat wines, reds and whites, prices between €10 upwards. We taste one white, a tremendously hefty wine for a white, and two reds, all very good. We buy 6 Priorat whites (€12 each) and 6 reds (€15 each) which are all a very good price; more than we are used to paying at wineries, but this is a more specialised product that is very difficult to find anywhere, let alone the UK. Having seen the steep, sloping terraces and all grapes picked by hand and carried down to the roads, it seems a very good price for a bottle of good wine (in this area typical bottles cost €20/25).

We have lunch and back on the T734 to Falset and the N420 to Reus. Here we take the A7 to Tarragona and the coast to another large ACSI campsite, Las Palmeras at Solimar, right on the beach. We are allocated a super spot (pitch 0102) overlooking the beach and Mediterranean. After a lot of faffing about, we reverse onto our pitch, shade on the ‘door side’ of the camper from the hot mid-afternoon sun… it is well over 30°C with a view of the magnificent, semi-circular golden sandy bay and turquoise sea. We get out the mat and chairs and relax in the cool shady spot and listen to the lap of the ocean waves and watch others as they sit on the beach and swim.

This is a big site (450) and about three-quarters full, but mostly our age, sitting reading, sunbathing or chatting. We open a bottle of Vinum Priorat white, it is very relaxing after such a busy day and make chicken stir fry for a late supper which we eat outside at dusk.