Beach walking in the sunshine

There are so many wide sandy beaches along from

Dones Remendadores by Maria Dolores Ortuno 

Cambrils that it is easy to see how the many holiday apartments and campsites around the area will fill up during the hot summer months. It's fantastic having everything practically to ourselves at this time of year though! Admittedly a good proportion of the bars and restaurants are closed on weekdays - far more open up for the weekends - and we have only braved sea paddling - although we have seen other people swimming - but to be able to wander and gaze out at yellow sand, blue sea and huge blue skies feels wonderfully privileged.

Yesterday we cycled along the promenade and a bumpy dirt track for about half an hour before chaining our bikes up and walking for an hour along the sands. It was so peaceful and pretty. We could see built up areas in the distance, but once we were clear of Cambrils itself, there was surprisingly little construction along this coastline and most of what does exist is low level one- or two-storey buildings.

Returning back to our bicycles via an inland route wasn't

always quite so picturesque especially here where the footpath goes through a drainage tunnel! Fortunately it was dry - in comparison with the motorway underpasses a couple of days ago which were several inches deep in water.

I enjoyed walking past fields of agricultural land. Yesterday's crops appeared to be mostly almond and olive trees and we are seeing the first of the Spring blossoms beginning to flower. This reminded me that I hadn't yet posted the beautiful bluebell-like flowers we saw earlier in the week. When we were at Foxley Wood in Norfolk, we learned that they call a pale mauve bluebell variety Spanish Bluebells. I wonder if these red-pink flowering plants are remotely related? The bloom shapes are similar but the overall plant shape is quite different.

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