Day 87. Monday 2 June.

There’s something wonderful, marvellous, different about being in a ‘working town’ rather than in a tourist destination. The delta is a fascinating complex of lagoons, canals, cottages and slightly larger ‘island’ homes in the middle of rice paddies (obviously not affected by the surrounding cycles of flooding). We think the cottage we are in was previously a working rice home. Thankfully the warm day was tempered by a strong breeze and we weren’t bothered overnight by mosquitoes.

Into town for Tourist Information and Doris didn’t disappoint: there was nothing that looked anything like an information centre where she took us. 

Found an ‘i’ spot on a paper map, punched that in, and arrived at what turned out to be an Ecomuseu, covering the history of the delta: its geography, including changing structure, development from a duck hunting ground to a rice growing area, the rice growing process, ecological protection, and its population. A simple but very effective display, spread over a large area and several buildings. What a tough life before mechanical processes! T still has some questions to ask. And no mention of the ravages of malaria that must have been a feature in days gone by, although the development was opposed (unsuccessfully, obviously) because of the mosquito risk.

Something of interest for our fisher folk – how would they cope?

Coffee time – not easy to find a venue. Having scoured the streets of Deltebre, we headed more or less accidentally to Riumar, a seaside ‘resort’ town of very modest single-storey villas about 10 kms away on the Mediterranean. No luck there either (although there were several beachfront restaurants offering a lunch menu) so headed for home to make our own, with sweet treats and pastry lunch from Lidl. It has come to that!

In the afternoon, while T stitched, D snuck out to be shorn.

Late afternoon we set off to find the flamingos at Cemitiri de Barques, near Badia del Fangar (Fangar Bay) recommended by our hosts. A bit of a daunting drive along very narrow pathways between canals and rice paddies, but we didn’t encounter oncoming traffic. Got to within 800 metres, at a reasonably spacious fishing wharf area, so decided reverse back a bit and walk the rest rather than take the potholed dirt track.

In the distance we could see some Great Egrets, and as we got closer picked up a flock of Flamingos in the distance with the binos, then spotted four much closer – but not close enough for good photos. We also saw (again) glossy ibis, grey heron, black winged stilt, tern, yellow legged gull, and silver gulls. As we walked we frequently disturbed big carp feeding in the lagoon shallows. The late afternoon colours were fantastic: silver waterways, grey skies, green rice paddies.

Dinner.  After 10pm Turkey curry (time to give that fowl a try)…with brown rice of course (conserving that vitamin B, which scares off the mosquitos and lets the neighbouring rooster have another day/ night of crowing).