Leaving Spain and our cats

Having started our world trip I wanted to start writing about it.  Already having spent 10 days away from Barcelona but within Spain it has been an adventure.

30-06-13 The first days were spent with Chris and Isabelle in their house near St Miguel, Banyoles. Isa is 8 months pregnant but seems to not suffer any lack of energy and was happy to entertain us in her house.  We spent the time relaxing in the very nice countryside around their house. Walking the dogs and our cats, though unfortuantly not together.

Lili in garden near the house

If anybody is looking for a place to stay which is set in the countryside near a river then stay with Chris and Isa, they have a self contained unit which is just great for big or small groups.


Meet the Flintstones Molinas!!04-07-13

The next stop was to drop the cats Rambo and Lola in their new home for the duration of our trip.  Close to the small town of Colera on the coast by the French Spanish border is an abandoned village named Molinas, the village consists of around 10 houses that are either in a dilapidated condition or boarded up deserted for the last 40 years.  However just 5 minutes’ walk down the valley is a ruin of a house which is now being reformed by a group of people who have spent the last 2 years gaining permission to do so.

We arrived just before dark, not knowing the exact location of the village or its condition… we drove for 30 minutes up a mountain down a mountain to the village and nobody was there! What’s going on here, is it a joke I was thinking… No says Sandrine she has spotted a house and heard some music…

So we drove down to the house, which is a ruin, and found a group of people sitting in the dirt about to eat dinner which had been prepared in the makeshift kitchen, we were duly welcomed and invited to eat.

Maida, Ivan, Looa, Lauren, Joel, Lisa, were all busy preparing the dinner table. This group some of whom were just there for a few days some for the next years have undertaken the reformation of a house in ruins.  Surrounded by mountains and trees the natural landscape has the appearance of an amphitheater and indeed at nighttime when the forest is quiet your voices bounce off the surrounding landscape and echo back to you.  The next days of our stay were as part of a team doing their best to get the ruin into a state that it is comfortably livable a task which seems enormous given limited resources and remote location but it’s amazing what you can do with hard work and innovation. 

One day it will have a roof again!

View from the old village down to the house

Flintstone village!

On the first day one group was builing  a dry toilet. Which will serve both for comfort and a fertilizer for the gardens. The other group worked on clearing a ruin which originally was two storey but now was just the outside walls; the room was full of rocks and ceramic as well as soil/dust our mission was to clear the room of the debris to make a flat surface and add a roof this room would then become a kitchen. I worked on the kitchen, lifting rocks and sorting debris of bricks, rocks and soil, so that we could clear the area, it was hot dusty work.  After a few hours it was coming close to lunch and one of the girls said she was going to the pool to get washed and did I want to come… One of the resounding positives of the location is its wonderful natural landscape and small rivers.  The bathing pool was about five meters wide and around 2 meters deep, we stripped naked and dived into the pool for a well needed refreshing dip…  After lunch it was decided that we go to the beach…  Colera is part of the Costa Brava, the water was crystal clear and fresh… a great place to chill and relax.  Lili was having fun in the water playing with other kids and I discovered a new massage technique..  Take a Sandia melon and eat it! Then take the part which is left the rind and rub it into the back of your chosen person, refreshing and effective to use as a massage tool, it does not leave a sticky feeling but just super soft skin.

Bathing pool,  it had snakes in it!

The bottom half of the toilet!

Kitchen before roof

The following days were a buzz of activity a real outdoors rough camping feel mixed with a great feeling of group work. Many of the group are great characters bringing their own spice to the story Jordi taught us how to make cement out of cow dung, dust and ash!!! It really does work and its free if you have a few cows around.. The kitchen took shape from a ruin to getting a roof made of bamboo and canes that we cut from the local river. On our arrival I was asked had a been stung by a bee! I said not recently, the reason they asked was that the house is situated next to bee hives and when the beekeeper collecyts the honey the bees get rather angry! Everytime we walked past the hives Sandrine wrapped up well, she still got stung! I never took precaution and did not get stung! 

Wild creatures found everywhere!!!

The new kitchen with roof!

Lunch under a tree

Sandrine in anti bee attack mode

Russ and Lili

The major neagative of our stay here was Rambo, he ran away on the first night and we have not seen him since, lets hope he lives up to his name and can survive until he wants to be with the people of the village, Rambo we love you go find Lola she will share her food with you!!

Prunelle arrived on the final night of our stay and was subjected to attack by mosquito, its great sitting next to her, I never get bitten!! However that meant we left the next morning… I did have time to finish the roof of the kitchen and the Eagles that live in the area, did come and fly near to the village. I felt complete in my work and seeing the eagle if a little upset that Rambo was still missing…  on to the next place

Andorra 11-07-13

The quaint principality in the Pyrenees was our next stop, we wanted to buy a camera for trip, after visiting many of the shops we were sold on a Fuji rather than the Cannon that we had originally wanted, basically it came down to price… During the evening we stayed at the  aptly named Marco Polo hotel, which was well priced and would recommend it, both breakfast and dinner was a buffet, so I made sure that I filled up to the max!!

France

13-07-13

Currently we are in Quillon with Marina Gigi and Lila, staying in their mountain top house for the weekend, it was an impromptu stop and longer than expected after Gigi said he was doing a course teaching parents about a method of teaching that improved on the Montessori method, we both started the course which was in French but after the first session it was obvious to me that I could not keep up with the French so instead preferred to spend the time with Lili and in the village and countryside which is again beautiful, Sandrine continues and will hopefully be able to translate the results of the course to me to help with our upbringing of Lili.