2025 September: Siurana to Sant Julia
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We are at Siurana on the motorhome aire at the olive oil farm, I am awake early, about 6.00am and wonder if something has woken me. I open the roof blind, it is totally black outside, no grey morning light at all. I wonder if I have read the clock wrong… no it is definitely 6.00am, well 6.15 by this time and still black as black. We drink coffee.
Then I hear a distant rumble of thunder… very distant but getting nearer. The sky lights with a blue/white flash of lightning, then the splattering of rain on the roof. The storm gathers momentum quickly, heavy rain is now falling, the lightning more frequent and the thunder getting louder. We open the blinds to the grey light of dawn and not much else visible. All the mountains have disappeared and some of the olive trees are looking like ghostly shapes. The rain spatters and then pours down in torrents, lightning flashing, thunder rolling. On and on it goes! I look at the rain lashing down and decide to forego the shower!
My C. gets up and makes breakfast, while we eat we watch the rain, torrents of it falling and running off the windows in rivers, it’s even too heavy to walk across to the toilet! The red patch on my leg is slightly larger and possibly more red, it looks like cellulitis to me most likely triggered by a small scratch on my ankle done at the Caravansserai. This is not good news as it will need treatment, likely antibiotics. We dress and discuss what to do. First, we put on our Paramo waterproof gear and drive to the drinking water hose, filling with fresh water, then to the vindage to empty the tanks. There is a lightness in the sky and, after about 2 hours of torrential rain (with deep puddles everywhere), the heavy rain eases off.
We decide to drive to the pharmacy in Sant Miquel de Fluvia (about 10 minutes away). The pharmacist looks at my now quite red and mottled leg and is unsure, I tell Mr C. to tell her (in Spanish) I think it is cellulitis, she nods and after some discussion (using Google-Translate to assist us) she finds me a 2% antibiotic skin ointment that costs about €7.50, to be applied three times a day. Back at Hymer I apply a good (sticky) quantity to the warm red area. Hopefully it will get me over the weekend and if I need a Doctor Monday will be a better day to find one and get an appointment.
The rain has stopped but the sky is still very heavy. We leave Sant Miquel on GI631 driving south stopping on a lovely lay-by next to the horse stables at Sant Mori with a great view of the Castel. We have a short break for coffee and then get on our way towards Saus taking GI623 towards N-11 and E-15 at Orriols. Turning south on N-11 a good (motorway standard) road, south, a busy section past Gerona, leaving at J.702 Franciac we take C-25 west towards Vic. A steady climb up and up crossing the Massis del Montseny through the mountains to Joanet, an altitude of about 500m at its highest point. There is a mystical view of range after range of mountains as we cross the Massif, each wrapped with a scarf of white misty cloud, all that remains of the early morning torrential downpours. Hymer seems to climb effortlessly up the steady incline crossing Les Guilleries mountains, alternating tunnel and viaducts over seemingly bottomless valleys. We leave C-25 at GI543 taking a tortuous mountain road with hairpins and narrow roads to Viladrau where we find the Aire (Area d’autocaravanes Viladrau). The Aire is level gravel with spaces for about 10 or so mohos (there are about 5 already here) but… the access is very steep (at least as steep and longer than the drive at home) and we do not want to ground Hymer of have to reverse uphill.
After some thought we decide not to stay and move on, taking GP520 (another narrow and winding road) to Mas Vidal, GIP5251 and BV 5201 to Sant Julià de Vilatorte and the car park, next to Parc de les Sept Fonts (seven springs). There are four moho spaces with hook-up and services (water & disposal), one moho here, so we park in one of the spaces, Mr C. pays online €3/night including electric, where in the UK can you stay anywhere with electricity included for €3? The rain has stopped, there are huge puddles everywhere and evidence of the morning’s inundation, but the clouds are thinning and the sun is coming out. We park up and have lunch, I apply another coating of antibiotic ointment to my still quite red leg (and now with ankles swelling). In the afternoon we get out to explore the surroundings and find the 7 springs.
The gravel carpark is very, very wet, fine gravel sticking to our shoes. This lovely park area is set below town level next to the small river and lined with large mature trees forming a full canopy against the strong summer sun There are flights of stone steps and small walls leading down to the first Spring (St Felix) and a further along, a wall with 7 taps about 12 inches (30 cm) from a shallow trough full of water (no doubt to metaphorically represent the 7 springs). A small child is playing in the streams of cold water, it looks fun. Walking up the hill into the town, along the main street and back across the park land, we find four of the seven springs, each set down at river level against a small stone wall with tap from which the water springs forth. At the lowest level it is clear that yesterday this particular font was under about 6 feet of water at the worst of the inundation! What a storm.
As we walk back to the car park and Aire we not a new development of palatial houses, built Hollywood style on a slightly raised bank, we gawp in awe at the magnitude and opulence of these houses in such a seemingly ordinary town! Back at Hymer, there are now four of us parked up. I cook chicken katsu with rice and we sit until it darkens, now some time after eight. An early night, another application of the antibiotic ointment covered with an old sock, hoping that the rest, sleep and antibiotic treatment combined will improve and ease the oedema and cellulitis.
Motorhome Trek Siurana to Sant Julia
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