Aguadulce

24^th April

Camping Roquetas

The motorhome was really rockin’ last night, no it wasn’t my birthday or xmas it was a really strong wind. Woke this morning and the van was covered in sand. We arrived at the site yesterday and walked into Roquetas de Mar, wasn’t all that impressed looked too urban. Strange as this was a resort that was described in the early 80’s as a Moorish town of quaint old houses?

Although its windy its still hot so today we walked into the nearer town of Aguadulce, a much nicer place that’s more up market with good bars and restaurants and an attractive waterfront. We found a bar to watch tonights Liverpool v Roma match and its only 800 metres from the site.

The site is ok but unfortunately its surrounded by all of the plastic greenhouses that blight this part of Spain. This ‘plastic’ covers hundreds of square miles and makes the countryside unattractive. Still the farmers need the money and we need our tomato’s. Getting ready to be off t’ match tonight. “Up for Cup”.

San Jose

22nd^d April

Dionne Warwick had to ask the way to find it and she “was born and raised” there, but we found San Jose quite easily as we’ve had a couple of short visits here. Its tucked away in the Cabo de Gata desert area where they made many of the spaghetti westerns of the late 60’s early 70’s. A real Spanish resort that has kept most of its original fishing village charms. All of the buildings are painted white. We intended to stay a couple of nights and driving here with the temps hitting 28c I thought I might get my first sea swim in, but a steady wind became stronger and it stated to cool. So after a tasty meal overlooking the sea we thought we might push on tomorrow if the wind remains.

The actual campsite was quite small with good facilities. The price per night was about 26 euros but if you used it as a camper stop and arrived after 7pm and departed by 10 the next day it was only 18 euros and that's what we chose to do. There were a  lot of vans wild camping in various parts of the town. The large car park that actually had caravan signs up in one section looked the best bet. I like San Jose but its questionable whether you could stay for long there so after one night especially with the weather looking hot, dull and windy we moved on the next day to Roquetas de Mar.

Mazarron ( Bolnuevo)

Mazarron

We’d previously visited the site at Bolnuevo in 2013, we liked it then but we like it even more on this visit. It’s an exceptionally good site right next to a beach with a separate part for dogs. The entrance is adorned with flowers and a large water feature. In fact everywhere you go there are flowers and water features at this site. The main toilet block is almost a homage to a Busby Berkeley musical with a long water pool running through the middle with dancing water fountains that flicker with the sunlight, at times you half expect the leg of a synchronised swimmer to emerge from the waters.. To get to the shower section you walk up a majestic wide staircase full of cascading plants and flowers. A unique facility.

The site entrance is also just 100 metres from the area where you’ll find most of the bars and restaurants. Mazarron itself is about 3-4 miles away. A clean and tidy town with lots of large supermarkets.

We also like the fact that a 15 minute walk takes you into a national park with quiet beaches and bays, vehicles are not permitted here so its relatively quiet. We’ve been here about a week and intend to stay another 4 nights. Its nice to have our awning up with the chairs and table permanently in place.

This is also an interesting time as some of the Spanish arrive to set up there units for the rest of the summer. We’ve been observing a few over the last few days but our next door elderly Spanish neighbours have really ‘gone to town’. They arrived about 3 days ago with a large older Hobby van. They positioned this and then put up an awning. Then the next day a large fridge was delivered with a cooker. Then the proverbial ‘kitchen sink’ arrived and was plumbed in to the mains. The best bit was when they fitted a full pvc door frame and metal door to the front of the awning, no zipping in and out for these guys!

The sun going down on Bolnuevo beach.

La Manga

Wednesday 11^th April

Great result last night, a 2-1 win against city in the champions league gave us a 5 -1 aggregate result and a place in the semi's.

La Manga. 

As a child I was frequently told by adults not to poke the fire, scribble on the front of a new school exercise book and not to alight from a moving bus. Like most kids I let dogged determination and curiosity get the better of me and ignored these introjects. So when we were told by various other motorhomers never to go to Camping La Manga we felt we had to go despite the warnings that we would be robbed, abducted by marauding Berbers in their longboats or even worse conscripted into the almost ever present Camping and Caravan Club Rally. The latter would see us subjected to weeks of scrabble, dominoes, boules and a weekly quiz. All at the premium rate of £30 a night.  However avoiding all of these we spent a safe night at La Manga. It wasn’t as bad as people told us but it wasn’t great. It’s a huge sight of over a 1000 places. The distance from the front gate to the back gate is over a kilometre. There are swimming pools, tennis courts and lots of other activities to keep you amused a bit like a run down Butlins. The pitches were large with taps and drainage on each one and the showers and toilets were ok but a little dated. Its price at 17 euros a night seemed reasonable. However it was its isolation, quite a distance from the actual La Manga strip/town, that really made us want to stay no longer than one night. Also the evidence of quite a few uniformed security guys and frequent visits by the police did little to reassure us but instead left us wondering why such security was needed. So we said goodbye to La Manga and headed for Mazarron.

The sites beach looking towards La Manga

Looking down the main 1 kilometre drive to the front gate

Monday 9^th April

Arrived in San Javier yesterday, Sunday. Its on the Mar Menor, a large lagoon off the Med. just north of La Manga. Had a quick look around looks fab. Here's the news for my camping, caravan and motorhome friends. ..we are on Camper Park La Ribera, its a 200 pitch camper stop with 3 toilet/shower/washing machine blocks, a cheap but good value bar/restaurant. Pitches of a good size with electric hook up, All the usual water points and drop off points..price 10 euros a night with 'lecky'. If you stay for 7 days or more its 7 euros a night. Definitely no mud (How's that Norma)?

Tuesday 10^th April

Another gorgeous day down at Santiago De La Ribera, sat and had a 2nd breakfast at the Hotel Ribera. Beautiful and sunny. There is a military air training base nearby so as we sat in the sun we were treated to a free display by the Spanish equivalent of the Red Arrows. Probably moving on tomorrow off T'match tonight. "Up for Cup"!

April 8^th

We spent two really enjoyable nights at Camping Imperivm, Villajoyosa. What a site, built in 2016 they've really put some thought into it. Wide avenues for turning, water and drainage on each pitch along with tv hookup which gave you the main uk tv stations. Spotless toilet block but the jewel in the crown was the restaurant. We ate both nights there with the quality of the food first class. Only drawback was the Camping and Caravan club rally. Loads of English. All ok apart from a group of about 10 who went into the bar and made their way through a repertoire of about 70 songs, they were banging on tables and were that drunk they could only remember the first two lines of every song. We just moved and sat in a quiet part of the restaurant. So sad to see 70+ year olds behaving like that.

Alcossebre

April 6^th

Just about to leave Alcossebre after 3 great nights. Its now getting warmer especially of a morning can't complain about weather its been really good . Not sure where we'll go but looking at maybe staying a couple of nights in Calpe. Photos of some of the many beaches in or around Alcossebre.

Monday 3 rd April 2018 Alcossebre

Mon. 3^rd April.

We leave Torre De La Mora and head to Alcossebre where there is a new Camper Park in the town. We really like Alcossebre and have visited it several times. Both the main campsites here are positioned a couple of miles outside of the town and as our main aim is to drink some San Miguel Pemium Selecta on draught and watch the Liverpool v Man City Champions league match in a town centre bar we envisage some difficulty returning to either site. So Camper Park Las Morelas positioned 300 metres from the bar screening the match ticks all of the boxes. When we arrive we get the very last pitch available. I am discussing something to the reception guy when a dutch woman arrives, with my limited Spanish we are struggling to understand each other, but we’ll get there. However the dutch woman takes over translating everything for me. I thank her for that but she looks down her nose at me in disgust and just says “A few words of Spanish”? For some reason I apologise and state that I do struggle a little with the Spanish language. However what I really want to say is that I never found the time to study languages in any great depth as I was too busy studying Conceptual Pragmatism and its role in saving humanity. Anyway she’s probably a worker from a cheese factory or a tulip picker from Amsterdam …she’d never get irony.

Camper Park Las Moreras, Alcossebre. Right in the town 300 metres from Consum supermarket and bar showing English footy. Electricity, showers, toilets etc 12 euros a night. Very safe but popular we must have got the last spot. Has an overspill field but no electricity in there.

San Miguel Selecta on draught. Lovely beer but not widely available in Spain.

24^th April 2018

We left home around 9am aiming for our 5:40pm Eurotunnel. Even with a 2 hour delay due to an accident before the Dartford Bridge we managed to make it with plenty of time.  After leaving the train a fast one hour drive got us to Montreuil Sur Mer where we found the main town was under redevelopment and plagued by diversions. The sat nav went crazy with this and took us down the narrowest of avenues. We managed to gauge our way around a parked van but were then confronted by the tightest of corners. Barbara assessed this and decided we wouldn’t make it. Now we had to reverse past the van and down the narrow street. Fortunately the vans owner came out and guided us around the unpassable corner. Eventually we made it to the Aire about 400yds outside of the town square. All the places were full but it has a large carpark next to it where the toilet is. We parked here overnight. Would recommend this place. The town is nice and it was safe and secure with a good toilet.

25^th April

We drove to Chartres and settled onto the ACSI site there. A delightful walk into the city along the river led us to several good car boot sales. Had a good look around then headed to the Cathedral area where we had a beer. It was sad to see that on every corner of the cathedral French armed soldiers where patrolling in pairs. It was a pleasant 18c.

26^th April

We headed south and eventually decided on the Aire at Objat. We had visited this place about 4 years ago and were impressed with the aire. The cost was £9 a night and that gave us free internet, toilet , shower, EHU and a good hardstanding pitch. There is a decent riverside walk into the unimpressive town centre and the actual aire is sited along the rivers edge. Excellent value.

27^th April

A dreary day, dull with that drizzle that soaks you to the skin in minutes. So we headed off and as we progressed down the motorway we decided to head to the sun. A successful target for as we saw the Mediterranean sea in the distance the sun came out. Not content with this we decided to head for sunny spain and camping Salata in Roses. A good decision it was half full and the weather was getting warmer. After parking up we walked into town and stopped in one of our favourite bars in the sun where the temperature crept up to 19c.We ate out in the nearby Italian restaurant on the promenade with an exceptionally well behaved Jonesy laying peacefully at our feet.

Roses

28^th April

The attraction of Roses is undoubtedly the promenade and we took full advantage of this and the sun by walking along it several times. Along the way we heard shouts from a nearby apartment it was from Lou’s staff. Lou is the welsh terrier we met on the promenade about 18 months ago. Jonesy and Lou got on fabulously and had a little dance together. Lou’s staff made a big fuss of Jonesy describing him in French as Beautiful and Magnificent. So much for my recent hand stripping  attempt. Later that evening we bumped into Lou and his mum again on the prom. Our two nights in Roses were really good the weather had been improving with each day but it was time to move on.

28^th April

After stocking up with Campo Rioja (£3.80 a bottle) , Mascaro Brandy (11.95 euros) and San Miguel beer (1 euro a litre) we took the short 20 mile drive to L’escala , again major road works in the town with diversions. Eventually we settle for Camping Illa Mateua in the Montgo area. The site is split in two parts with one seemingly allocated to long stay Spanish, the other for us tourists in motorhomes. A good site about a 100 yd walk away from a charming quiet bay with a handful of restaurants/bars. The temp. was again sliding up the scale and so we walked into L’Escala with temps now peaking at 22c. It’s a good 40 minute walk into L’Escala and another 15 minutes if you carry north out of the town to a lovely bay area with bars and restaurants mainly habituated by Spanish, well worth the walk. The next few days we spent walking the clifftops, walking into L’escala and beyond and on the Saturday we got the match on the laptop. (Crystal Palace 1 Liverpool 2). An enjoyable stay but doubt if we could stay longer than the planned 4 nights.

Montgo Beach

Main beach area at L'escala

Cliff top walk from the Marina

Cliff top walk from the Marina

Jonesy the tax exile on his own island

cliff top walk from Montgo

Looking towards Montgo