Des res, some renovation required

When we woke this morning, everything in Morella and the surrounding countryside was covered in a thick layer of frost. After breakfast and a completely failed attempt to find suitable houses to rent, we drove another hour and a half for another complete change of scene. Today we are in Sant Carles de la Rápita, on the Ebro Delta, so zero metres above sea level, and a comfortable 18 degrees.

We've been to the Delta before, many years ago -- on our first trip to Spain in fact. It's nicer than I remember it -- a real waterland with long straight roads just inches above water-filled, sky-reflecting fields on either side, with thousands of water birds to be seen, including flamingos, cormorants, herons and egrets (those being the only ones I can reliably name).

Despite the beautiful scenery, I took no photos that I was really happy with. I'm not cut out to be a bird photographer. There are many of these little huts on little plots of earth raised slightly above the fields. I don't think any of them are really suitable for our needs. However, by the end of the day we'd found a couple of possibilities, so we are slightly more optimistic than we were this morning.