The forecast was very contradictory today. Meteocat was forecasting for the holiday (talking the weather up), and promised sunshine during the afternoon. However, the synoptic promised a warm front during the day. Mike was keen to give it a try, and also wanted to pass on a glider to me, so we decided to give it a go. Plan A was to go to Sant Pere de Rodes, which was sunny in the morning, but an 11am look at the web cams showed grey cloud and not even a single shadow on the ground. No shadow = no thermals. El Mont had some low cloud sitting at its base, but we were confident it would burn off. Contrary to the forecast, there was blue sky from here to the high Pyrenees. Mike crossed the border from France (which was in fog), and said the coast was brightish. At that point the top of El Mont became visible, so we decided to go there.

As we drove up, it became increasingly cloudy and we drove through a layer of the stuff. On reaching the summit, the launch was clagged in, but over on the north side it was mostly clear, with the cloud lying beneath us. The mountains to the north were visible, with Canigó, at the base of which Mike lives, looking only a few km away.

It looked like it could clear, so a walk around, bit of weeding the launch and a pomegranate later, we were still waiting. At 2.30pm the wind was picking up, the cloud was getting thicker and we got hungry, so we decided to bin the day and have a sandwich in sunny Besalú. What we didn’t realise was that the cloud had filled in below us and far from being sunny, it had developed into a grey, murky day.

Mike’s never been to Besalú and we nearly got him to attempt the climb up to the high chairs on the wall, but then we chickened out and got him to stop. A nice sandwich later we said our farewells, hoping for a better day soon.

It’s Reyes Magos here today, so in the evening the three wise men came on horseback in a procession to our village, followed by a truck full of presents for the kids. It’s the Spanish Christmas, so all the kids go crazy. And actually it’s quite nice for the big kids too…

See photos of today.

No comments yet - please add one »