20th October Tentacle Touch

A fab day!

Firstly Ian and Paul set about sorting the tyres on the bikes while Kate and I made lunch - baguettes filled with a variety of cheese and meat. Then they tried out the bikes to ensure they were ok and picked up my new phone case which had been delivered nearby - yay! I now feel more at ease using my phone as I was always a bit apprehensive about dropping it 😀.

Today we were going on an adventure to explore the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes which was on the way to El Port de la Salva, north of Roses. Getting there was via some very windy mountainous roads, but worth the journey.

View over El Port de la Selva from the monastery.

We parked up and went on a circular walk from the car park, via the village (above) that used to cater for the pilgrims to the monastery and then on  over the hill back to the monastery.

We found a geocache on route!

We ended up climbing right up the hill, overlooking the monastery.

We were quite relieved that our route didn't take us up to the castle!

Back over to the side of the hill overlooking the monastery.

Looking forward to a cuppa after eventually getting back to the monastery. 

Then we continued our drive down to El Port de la Selva. We arrived and managed to get into the tourist information about 5 minutes before it closed. Here we picked up local maps and information but unfortunately forgot about using the loo. This meant casually diving into a local restaurant loo as the beach ones are now locked up as it's out of season. We did end up chatting to a couple of Brits also in search of a loo on holiday for a few weeks. So we suggested places to visit and they were keen on a trip to Figures fort 😄

Armed with our walking map we stopped for lunch which involved a few local beers for Paul and Ian - but this meant ice cream for me and Kate later! Once comfortably full we took the coast path to Cal Tamuria ( a bay recommended by the lady in tourist information).

On our route we spotted loads of cactus with fruit - prickly pears. Unfortunately Paul found out how prickly they were when investigating what the fruit was like. The prickles are very sharp and fine.

The fruit are sold in the market and we were intrigued as to what it was like. Apparently it's eaten raw but can be made into jam or alcohol!

The bay of Cala Tamuria. The route back was looking slightly dodgy as our GPS was sending us over a hill. Based on our recent experience with navigation according to the GPS we erred on the side of caution and took the same route back as we came in on. At least we knew it didn't involve going through ditches getting under fences or hacking our way through bamboo 😅.

Safely back in El Port de la Selva it was time for an ice cream and another beer beverage for Ian and Paul. I was now on driving duty so took us up the coast a short distance to go for a snorkel.

Kate declined the offer of a refreshing dip but did have a paddle. The rest of us took the plunge. With it being rocky I wore my red beach shoes for a more comfortable beach entry so it didn't look like I was walking on marbles as I navigated the first few metres into the sea. Ian headed off whilst I took my time getting used to the water temperature and sorting out my mask. I felt something crawling up my leg and thinking it was seaweed just went to brush it away. Imagine my surprise when it was an octopus! It had taken a fancy to my red shoes as it kept extending its tentacles out to my shoes. I even managed to get right up close to the shore for Kate to look at it as it swam after my feet.

After a while it lost interest and snuggled under a rock where it stayed for quite a while. Ian came over for a look and found that it was guarding a €2 piece!

I snorkelled around and Paul beckoned me over to see a purple fish. He seemed quite excited with his find, especially as we'd seen a lovely bright green one on our last snorkel session. Well I had a good look but couldn't see anything swimming around and the spotted the 'purple fish'. There was a purple prickly pear jammed in between a few rocks! Poor Paul. I think he needs prescription Google's. He did say that he wasn't going anywhere near it after his recent experience of touching one 😁.

By now it was about 5.30pn but it was still warm. Once dried and back in Rolo we had the roof down as it was about 24C on our drive back. This time we drove along the coast road to Llanca before heading back over the hill to Roses.

Once home we've enjoyed dinner cooked by Ian and then rugby on TV (New Zealand v Argentina) accompanied by tinto and pralines - yum!

Tomorrow if weather permits we plan on Empuriabrava market and then we'll see. Paul and Kate's last full day with us so depends on what they'd like to do.