Camping with Bonfires & Lake Views

The Camping Season has official begun with the warm wether and the summer solctice officially announcing Summer!

Our home for the weekend

We inaugurated the season with a lovely birthday weekend trip for R's birthday, to the province of Lleida in the far west corner of Catalonia bordering with Huesca. We found a lovely campsite by the lake called Camping La Noguera and made our home there for 2 nights arriving Friday evening and leaving Sunday afternoon.

The weekend coincded with the Festival of San Joan celebrated all over Catalunya and Valencia, involving the burning of old furniture and wooden debris as a way of warding away the winter spirits and welcoming the summer ones. We saw a lovely display in the nearest village where a float, packed with people holding burning torches, sailing along the lake to a meeting point where they offically lit the mound of old furniture and wood, and cheered as they watched them burn, and set off fireworks in celebration. Having been brought up in Ireland to think that firecrackers and fire works were an illegal contraband, it came as a surprise to see mothers, dispensing small firecrackres to their 3-4 year olds and showing them how to set them off. But it was a lovely evening whith a celebratory atmosphere and all the kids were excited to be allowed to stay up late past midnight, and what better way to welcome the summer, than with a huge celebration.

Bonfire by the lake at Sant Llorenç de Montgai

The scenery here is truly spectacular with canyons, rivers and lakes reminiscent of a movie set in the wild west. We got to see some of this lovely scenery on a short train ride along the lake from Sant Llorenç de Montgai all the way to La Poble de Segur, home of Barcelona FC's star defender Carles Puyol

Checking out the view

We finished off the weekend with a dip in the fresh pool at the Campsite and lazed around for a while until it was time to pack up camp and head back to BCN. It felt like had been on holidays for 2 weeks!

Poolside back at the campsite

🍃 TIP: The Tren dels Llacs is absolutely worth doing, leaving you with the memory of incredible views of the various lakes along the route!