6 November 2011

You all knew it would happen at some point and it did today. 

Our first encounter with the police so far. No offence was committed but we were held captive by an automated barrier. It was Sunday and we were leaving Narbonne to go to another aire 10 miles away at the port of Gruissan. We paid the machine for our overnight stay but the barrier only went half way up and then came right back down. We were trapped!! As it was Sunday there was no one at the council offices to answer our plea for help. There was no escape or so we thought.  We reparked Blossom and luckily for us the lady in the next van spoke some English, she called the police to come and liberate us. 3 policemen arrived and we started to gather quite a crowd, also the barrier to let vans in wasn’t working so there was now a queue at the other side of the barriers. The police after a lot of humming and haying managed to contact the engineer to come fix the barriers. 2 hours later we were free to leave.

We then headed south to Spain on the N11 passing Perpignan and crossing the border at La Junquera and stopping for the night at San Pere Pescador on the coast beside Figures. What a fantastic campsite, really clean, pleasant staff, great facilities, well worth a visit if you are passing that way.

We are now heading for Valencia, a 5-6 hour drive on the AP7-E15, tolls were quite hefty at 30.65 euros and another 8.25 euros. Our plan was to stay in Valencia for 1 night then go camp at the race circut. Anyway we stopped at a really horrible site in Valencia, up during the night with the mozzies again, glad to leave that behind. We got up early on Thursday to go to the track and get tickets and get a camping space. We got tickets for Friday, Saturday and Sunday then went to look at the campsite. There were porta loos and a form of shower and nothing else, no fresh water so we moved on 50 miles west on the A3 to Villargordo – del- Cabriel. Nice site again. The next day we had no option but to go back to the track and stay there for 2 nights. Motorhomes are not permitted in the car parks and the only place to park is in the campsite which is not cheap. This is the only campsite within 20 miles of the circut.  Not much sleep as boys and their toys were revving bikes and playing loud music til 5am.

 On Saturday we went to watch the qualifiers, we got there just as the GP riders were starting. I went through the gates and had my ticket scanned but Kev was stopped by security as he had his tripod with him, also known as a leathal weapon. I said I would go back to the van with the tripod, bear in mind the walk back to the van was 10mins then back to the gates another 10mins, then I couldn’t get back in as my ticket had already been scanned for Saturday, after eventually finding someone who thought they could speak English I managed to explain the situation, lots of arm waving and such, I got back in and then had a further 20 mins walk to our seats, I caught the last 5mins of qualifying. Next day we were up early for the 30mins walk to our seats, we watched the 125cc race, then the moto 2 race and then after 3 hours of waiting the MOTOGP started and the moment Kev had been waiting for, to cheer on Rossi at the actual race track, suddenly the Griswalds strike again and Rossi crashed at the first corner, didn’t even make it as far as our stand. Oh well what else can you expect from us. Moving on to Barcelona to meet my daughter.