tales of winding roads and elusive supermarket parking

Camping Graus... day3 had been a pleasantly damp day in fact Dr Fred just made it back before some serious thunder storms hit with massive torrential rain turning the campsite into an instant lake.

I felt for those in tents the water was inches deep. A group of campers were setting a fire in the big communal fire place - they had huge paella dishes... when the rain first started they were optimistic and erected a large parasol. Then it REALLY rained and they had to run for cover carrying everything into the shared games room - I'm guessing it got finished on camping stoves as the rain continued for a couple of hours.... 

We put some tunes on and drank wine. Spent some time sorting photos and determining that Dr Fred had seen a goat/antelope indigenos to the area... 

In the morning we filled up the water bottles and emptied the loo and hit the scary steep windy road back down the valley.... its only 5 k's but meeting someone coming the other way on bits of it would fairly difficult. We did meet a couple of cars but fortunately we were in the right place so it was okay but it was a relief to get down to the bottom. We retraced our steps to the town of Sort and then took the road for Andorra. 

More mountain roads... our van is working hard.

It is very beautiful landscape and due to the rain still quite lush and heavily forested. We pulled in at a miradorewith a balcony viewing platform. Stunning vista everyway you looked.

The roads are good and not too busy we had a very circuitous route to a supermarket... at least once completely round a roundabout then a psych out due to low barrier warnings.. so then a reverse and drive off looking for? Alternative entrance? or parking?... possibly another supermarket. We drove round in (another) big circle and as we came down a hill at the side of the shop we saw loads of campers in the carpark - in the bit before the height restrictions... lesson learnt theres always a spot for campers.  

Stock natural to a spanish supermarket replenished we set off and Andorra loomed - a slow drive through border control and almost immediatley we found an Andorran supermarket - we had been told to buy alcohol in Andorra as its a 'tax haven'. 

Usual Shenanigans getting into carpark.... what happened to that lesson learnt less than an hour before! Right round the supermarket and finally in to the campervan bit... then we got lost in the lift system ... the escalator didn't work, the stairs seemed blocked - for seasoned travellers who just wanted cheap gin life was starting to be difficult. 

It was actually a nice supermarket... gin was very cheap... we stocked up - we found a completely stress free way back to the van and drove through Andorra to a spot where we could stay the night. 

Andorra was a surprise. It was a huge busy building site with concrete blocks masquarding as dwellings.. some more ornate then others. Some attempts at joy with window boxes but mostly high cranes and roadworks for quite a distance. It petered off as we got further in but it was obvious that eventually the buildings would just continue until they hit France on the northern border.

We parked up on the view point at El Pas de la Casa... fabulous big space - quite a lot of other vans and the 360 view was pretty magnificent and right below where we parked were some alpine cows with very tinkly cow bells on.

We watched the clouds spill over mountains behind us. We didnt have data here its a non EU country so we had no idea what the weather might bring... the cloud drifted away.. the carpark filled upand the sun did a glorious sunset.

The car park filled - overflowing to the wasteland - we've never parked with so many vans before on a public space - somebody will start charging soon...

Tomorrow we enter France...