Nights at the internet café

These are hot days at the campsite, with temperatures near 40 ºC at the peak of the day, so the evening is a good moment to stay outside and enjoy the fresh air. Yesterday night, at the internet café, there was a music group that I particularly enjoy very much.

Mistercamping 2010

This saturday night there was a big party at the Bar Amberes, Mistercamping 2010. The candidates had to perform many difficult tests, and finally... here is the proud winner with a beautiful part of the animation team, Anna and Alex.

New music equipment for aquagym

Aquagym instructors were using a portable music equipment that was too small, because of the increasing number of people in the swimming pool area and in the activities. So, we have been looking for alternatives, and now we are using a new, less portable but more powerful music player. While still far from perfect, at least we hope that it will be enough for this season.

The adhesive that never existed

We had planned a magenta-coloured adhesive for this year, in order to better control the entrance of vehicles in the campsite. The adhesive had to be the one you see in the above picture... Well, at the last minute, it was decided to stop using adhesives at all. Adhesives in the last years are being regarded as a primitive way of control, mainly for clients that are coming from hotels or other accomodations, or just young people that start going on holidays. Besides, as a control system, it opens many doors to failures.

Indeed, since some 6 years we are using, at the campsite entrance, a control system based on cameras that try to recognise the plate number. This is far from perfect, mainly because our entrance does not follow a straigh line, and vehicles sometimes are bad situated for the (dumb) cameras to read the plate number. Anyway, we think that this is the future and therefore this year we have also provided the night guards with a computer that helps them working with that system and ask for a plate number when the gate does not open.

So, we apologize for the lose of a campsite characteristic, hoping that in the long term it will help new clients accept more easily our campsite. What do you think about it? Would you like that we still put the adhesive in the vehicle? Do you like it as an option? We may also have them to give to anyone that asks for it.

Underwater reparations

As a novelty here, today Antonio is doing some underwater reparations, fixing some underwater lights using an air-powered drill. In this way, it is possible to repair without having to empty the pool.

Some underwater lights in the swimming pool were damaged because there is one or two vandals that pull them out, breaking their plastic fixations, talk about strange ways to have fun. Well, anyway, we now have to fix them hard with inox screws.

Refreshing in aquagym

Today is an extremely hot day, and the aquagym lesson is a good way to make some sport without becoming too tired.

Cleaning an area

We had a 'bad area' at the end of street 19, where some old caravans and mobilhomes were used as lodging for workers that had to sleep inside the campsite, mostly cleaning ladies that came from far away. This area was not giving a nice image to that part of the campsite, and in an effort to ammeliorate that image, we have removed all these old equipment, cleaned and made sure that the soil is flat and adecuate. As a result, we have now an empty area that looks enough good for parking and other uses, this area is going to be called 'Sector Dur' (in catalan, 'hard sector') because there is no grass.

New bicycle parkings

Vadim has just finished installing 2 new bicycle parkings at two entrances to the swimming pool: one beside the door near the river (see the picture), the other beside the petanca. As you can see, they are of the same type that we have been using in the last years.

Machine room now fully finished

As promised, here is how the machine room looks today, fully finished. Attached to he wall at the far end, you can see the devices that produce chlorine from salt, i.e., salt chlorinators. At the right side you see the pumps and filters. On the left side you see the light control system, more about that in the next weeks.

In order to desinfect the water, we add salt to it, and afterwards the water goes throught a salt chlorination process that uses electrical current to convert it to hypochlorous acid, a form of chlorine. Theoretically, it takes less of this purer, more effective chemical to sanitize the water and maintain a safe free chlorine level than with other forms of chlorine. It also eliminates the caustic acid that is present in liquid pool chlorine, or the inert ingredients that are a part of granular and tablet chlorine.

The salt level needed to produce chlorine is only about 3,000 ppm, which is less salt than is contained in the average human tear, and about 1/17 the salt found in sea water. A nice side effect is that the salt softens the water, giving it a smoother feel for swimmers.

This desinfection method has recently become popular in the private pools, also because of the easy of dealing with salt, avoiding dangerous chemicals. But it is not so popular among public swimming pools, althought the trend is towards it, as salt chlorinators are becoming more powerful.

One of the last signs

Vadim is fixing one of the last signs that were not yet positioned, this one is located in the south-east access to the new pool. You can see, farther in the picture, a garbage bin that is still waiting to be properly fixed.
Meanwhile, the machine room needs some signs and last touches, to be done during this next week.