Delta De L'Ebre

Hola,

We ended our week at Camping Ole in Oliva with 3 days of great kitesurfing, the first time we have ever kited in the med, although it seemed no different to Tarifa really where we were on the Atlantic side not the med side.   The water was a clearer blue I guess, warmer and the waves were smaller which was nice.  We met an English family on the site that lived in Calpe about half an hour away but kept their caravan at the site in May/June and came every w/e, they were mainly windsurfers but their son was a kiter so it was nice to have a bit of company out on the water and to chat to on the beach.

We moved on at the beginning of this week another 180 miles North up the coast towards Barcelona South of Tarragona to a place called Delta De L’Ebre one of the biggest wetlands in Catalonia, Spain and Europe (320 square km) which is a natural park which was declared a world heritage site in 1983.  It was very similar to the Camargue region in France and Beauduc that we visited back in April but much bigger and had a much nicer feel to it.  Rice fields occupy much of the land in the Delta with about 15 different varieties which we guess are used for Paella amongst other things and there are also many lagoons which are home to lots of flora & fauna with about 300 different species of birds so great for twitchers!!!   There were just acres & acres of rice fields dissected by miles of single track roads and drainage ditches and even the houses were surrounded by rice fields.

The first afternoon we arrived we set the van up as usual and then went for a walk out onto the beach direct from the back of the campsite which again was more or less deserted so we thought, but as we started walking we just couldn’t believe our eyes, there was a couple mating on the beach at the waters edge, and we are not talking of the feathered variety…….we just looked the other way and kept walking!!!!  

We spotted some kites in the distance so went back to camp and jumped on the mountain bikes, it is a perfect place for cycling as it’s so flat and there are even natural sand ways along the beach that are great, you can even drive your car onto them as they are very solid.  We kept cycling until we came to a car park & small kite centre and cafe, there were about half a dozen kites out in the lagoon.   

It’s on a spit of land only about 100 metres wide and approx 10 kilometres long with the sea one side and the lagoon the other that leads out to another nature reserve called the Punta De La Banya.  We had a quick chat to the owner of the kite centre who said it was super safe and anyone can kite there but we never got the chance as the wind didn’t play ball which is a shame but we did take the van out onto the beach to get a picture.

We had a day of thunder storms & rain which felt quite strange as we haven’t heard that sound on the roof of the van for a long while now, infact the last time we had rain was one day over Easter when we were in Tarifa.  Back home I have to remove all sharp objects from the house if it rains as Julie hates it and gets cabin fever so I thought she would be even worse in the van but we did manage to get out on the bike in the morning and then in the afternoon we watched a film and also Julie got her colouring book and felt pens out which kept her quiet for a couple of hours - here’s one of her masterpieces!!!  She even said it was quite refreshing to have a bit of rain :-)

We have moved on today another 70 miles North and are at a beautiful site again right on the beach just past Tarragona and are only 28 miles from our next site at Vilanova which is just outside Barcelona where we will be staying while Julie’s mum & dad and some friends Elaine & Stuart are in Barcelona.

That’s about it for this week, so a bit of a short one, thank god I hear you say…….!

Adios for now.

J&J

x

Back On The Coast

Hi Bloggers,

Still really pleased that friends & family and probably a few random strangers are still interested in our travels with well over 5000 views and a steady stream of views every week.

Bit of a short Blog this week (thank god I hear you say) so if your sitting comfortably I shall begin. We left Granada & Sierra Nevada and headed back down onto the coast and opted to go to Mazarron just south of Murcia which a fellow traveller had recommended so we found it in the ACSI book which said that it was a flower filled campsite within walking distance of a village and also right on the beach so after the 180 mile drive again through some amazing and contrasting landscapes from flat plains to mountain passes and with some areas looking like huge termite mounds we pulled into the site and true enough there were flowers and lovely shaped trees/bushes and a warm welcome. The lady in reception said park round there go and pick a pitch, come back and do the paperwork and your done, so off we walked into the site well the flowers soon stopped and it just resembled a huge very dusty gravel beach side car park with what looked like market stall frames left up but these were actually frames to hold the netting for shade above your motorhome/caravan as there were no trees/bushes at all. One fella in a camper came out and wisely advised us to watch the height of the frames as some are lower than others and he had seen a few people catch the top of their vans so after a thank you we picked a space and got the van in.  One thing we have discovered is that it’s always compromise with most sites i.e. good pitches but average/poor shower/toilet blocks or like this one average/poor pitches but lovely showers/toilet facilities.  The lady that recommended this site said she loved it that much that she stayed here for 2 months (god knows how) but as we had only planned on staying here 2 nights we would make the most of it so the next couple of days we did some walking along the beachfront paths.  

So the time came to move on and guess what we headed for a site in Mar Menor (La Manga) only 30 miles up the coast again recommended to us this time by a kiter in Tarifa so sat nav took us on our way with the final mile or so going round the end of the runway of San Javier airport until we were greeted by a very derelict overgrown site which looked as if it had been shut a while but  thinking back the couple did say they hadn’t been there for a couple of years and it wasn’t a very well known site but when we looked on google maps it still looked up and running with even kites on the beach, so we are now taking recommendations with a pinch of salt if you know what I mean !!!!!! and we might even just give out a dodgy recommendation to someone else to even things up a bit !!!!!! but hey ho it’s all part of the adventure.  We think we know why it closed as this is how close the planes were…….!

Our next choice was a bit further north up the coast past Alicante, 3 or 4 sites around Oliva about 30 miles north of Benidorm and south of Valencia, the first on the list was Rio Mar so we headed there pulled into reception asked for a pitch and the lady circled a few pitches which she thought would be suitable for our van which sort of rang alarm bells straight away so we walked round and came to the conclusion it was going to be tight but OK so we got the van in and sorted.  It was a small site full of Dutch and Germans who obviously don’t like too much sun as the site was almost blanketed in trees, I could have done with my chainsaw, so there wasn’t much sun about but the beach was stumbling distance and beautiful.  The next day it was on the mountain bikes and off through the orange groves to check out the other sites nearby and after looking around a few we decided that Camping Ole was perfect with huge pitches with shade if you wanted it and a nice feel to it and again the beautiful beach a stones throw away and for a little extra you could have a pitch right in the dunes on the beach but we opted for a nice pitch just back from the dunes so we put our names down and said see you tomorrow .

Once again we set the van up and Julie did a bit of washing & housework i.e. dusting and carpets out and I cleaned the windows and most of the dust off the van from the Mazarron site and then we went for a walk along the lovely beach.  As we walked along I  said to Julie there’s a digger in the med up there and as we got closer sure enough there was a bloke with a snorkel on diving down putting a strap round large bits of what looked like the remains of a boat and then the digger pulling and grabbing it and loading it away, so funny as my last job before leaving it all behind was working on the water down at Northfleet on the Thames.  We later found out in the local Spanish/English paper that a 40ft boat owned by a Norwegian bloke caught fire for some unknown reason a couple of weeks ago some 800 metres off shore and just burnt until it sank and got washed up on the beach and this was the tidy up but luckily no-one was hurt.

We have been out on the bike exploring along the coast road through Denia, Gata De Gorgos, Benissa, Calpe and up into Altea where the views across the bay are beautiful with the sea a turquoise blue below.  In the distance the other side of Altea we could see the big high rises of Benidorm which wasn’t that far at all so we decided to go and have a look to see if for ourselves and see whether it really was like the TV show Benidorm!!!   We drove in amongst the high rises hotels, apartment blocks, shops, more shops, English bars and restaurants and couldn’t help but notice that pedestrians were outnumbered by mobility scooters ridden by all ages & abilities which you can hire almost everywhere, even tandem ones!!  We walked down to the Levante Beach which was packed as you can see from the picture.

Whilst here we wondered which one of the many hotels was where they filmed the TV show and went and asked in the tourist info office and the lady gave us a map and pointed just across the road, it wasn’t called the Solana but the Sol Pelicanos so we just couldn’t resist going and having a nose and a drink around the pool.  We found a table and then noticed that the other half of the swimming pool area the other side of the pool bar was screened off and we could see cameras and lots of filming equipment and people milling about.  One member of the cast a young lad came through the screens and was immediately mobbed by bikini clad young girls wanting selfie pictures with him so we finished our drinks, found the bike and headed back to our quiet campsite.

Funny thing this week was that we asked our neighbours where the nearest supermarket was and they said there was a Lidl’s just up the road, the directions they gave us was go past the 3rd “lady of the night” on the main road and hang a left, sure enough they were spot - sorry no pictures lol!!

I know at the beginning I said it was only a short blog I lied…..

Adios amigos, I’m off to Lidl’s again :-) !!!!!

J&J

x

Granada & Sierra Nevada

Hola,

So we left Tarifa a week ago and to be honest we were gutted to be leaving such a beautiful unspoilt place and knew that the next stop would be totally different especially as we passed through Marbella & Malaga towards Motril as the landscape was filled with motorways and high rise hotels/apartments and became more obviously touristy but we both knew that we had to move on, a bit like when we left the snow & Meribel.  We arrived at Motril and were pleasantly surprised as the campsite Playa De Poniente (funnily the name of one of the winds we had left behind in Tarifa) was basic but right on the beach and had good facilities although rather small pitches but we found one big enough for our van & trailer.  We only planned to stay a couple of nights here as had decided to head North into the Sierra Nevada region which was only 50 miles away.  Once set up we went for the usual explore on foot and by bike along the lovely beachside cycle paths.  The beach was totally different from Tarifa with grey sand and polished pebbles and of course this time it was the med not the Atlantic and it was nice to sit on the beach throwing stones into the water without being sand blasted by the wind!!!  Whilst sat on the beach Julie & I were casually throwing stones over our shoulders into the sea while chatting, we had been doing this for 10 minutes or so and then just as I launched another stone I glanced over my shoulder and to my shock there was a Spanish bloke walking along the waters edge with a stone heading straight for him but luckily it just brushed his shoulder so after a pathetic English apology and some arm waving I think he understood it was an accident!!  Thank god as he was a lot bigger than me!!

After 2 nights at Motril we headed the 50 miles north towards Granada & the Sierra Nevada not knowing what to expect but the campsite had good reviews.  We knew nothing about the area or surroundings but not long after we left Motril and began the climb up towards Granada we knew it was going to be somewhere special as the scenery and roads got better and better.  Once off the small ring road around Granada we continued to climb up and then we got our first glimpse of the Sierra Nevada mountain range with it’s snow capped peaks.  The road resembled the road up to Meribel in the Alps with it’s hairpin bends and mountains either side the only difference being the sun was out and it was 30 degrees.  The sat nav then said that we were close to our destination, with that round the next hairpin we were confronted by a huge reservoir called EMBALSE DE CANALES which covers an area of 176 square kilometres and to a depth of 156 metres with aqua blue crystal clear water which is fed from the Rio Genil which is basically snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada mountains.  We couldn’t believe it as the campsite, just outside a little village called Guejar Sierra, was perched 200m above the reservoir so once at reception we were asked to go and pick a pitch we could’t believe our luck as there was a empty pitch on the very edge looking down into the reservoir and mountains beyond, words can’t describe the scenery, just breathtaking, hopefully the pictures give you some idea.  

One thing we just had to do was go up and visit the ski resort which was only about 20 miles away but at an altitude of 3,500 metres at the summit.   There are two ways to get to the resort either back to Granada and up on a main road or through our village and across the end of the reservoir then up a single track windy, steep road which doesn’t see much traffic and we found out why as it was steep and windy enough on the bike but amazing.  Once at the top we joined the main road into the resort and headed for the top, it was quite spooky as the roads in the resort were deserted as were all the shops, hotels & restaurants and even the chairlifts were hanging idle above the streets, just like a ghost town.  We kept going up and until we could go no further but to our surprise there were 2 small car parks and a couple of cafes and a surprising number of people walking around, there were even children with toboggans heading for what snow was left.  There must have been some sort of competition on as there were people walking back to the car park with skis over there shoulders clad in lycra with numbers pinned to their backs, god only knows how they got up to the snow to ski down as all the lifts we closed, sod walking back down the rocks where the snow line finished with ski boots on let alone walking up!!  We made our way to one of the runs and took a couple of photos it was strange being back on snow and being at altitude but fun and great to see.

One thing we wanted to do was paddle board the length of the reservoir so we sussed out a place to park the motorhome whilst out on the bike which we thought would be OK so the next day we set off but disaster struck……all was going well with Julie getting out and checking the clearance under the back of the van on the tight bends down to the reservoir but as we were nearly there and on one of the last bends we heard an almighty scrape which we thought was just the tow bar grounding out but we immediately stopped & got out but were horrified to see both rear plastic corner panels had caught the road and broke away from their clips cracking the plastic on each bottom corner, it looked horrific but on closer inspection we had had a lucky escape so after some careful manoeuvring we managed to free the van without any further damage and decided to give it up as a bad job and head back to camp to make some repairs!!!  Luckily I had sikaflex adhesive and super glue so removed the damaged panels re-applied the clips and put the van back together and to be honest you would never know, however we have decided to get the panels replaced when we get back to the UK but will claim on our insurance as believe it or not 2 bits of plastic are £800 each……ouch but that’s what you have insurance for!!  It’s funny really as in a book that we have read about a family that did exactly what we are doing they also had some disasters too but after a couple of days it was all forgotten about as it’s all just part of the adventure.  The day was not lost as later that afternoon we found a secluded spot on the reservoir and had a lovely swim and surprisingly the water was warm for melted snow and very refreshing as it was so hot.

We were not to be beaten on the paddle board front so the next day found somewhere better to take the van but didn’t want to leave the van there as it was a bit remote so I dropped Julie and the paddle boards off and took the van back to camp and went back on the bike which took all of 10 minutes, why we didn’t do it that way the day before heaven knows but you live & learn.  It was well worth the effort as the paddle board up the reservoir through the valley and back was EPIC with the crysta clear waters, rocks below and steep mountains either side, we had the whole place to ourselves I mean absolutely nobody, quite spooky.  Julie was a bit concerned what would happen if the dam burst so I just told her we would be giblets….!!! After a couple of hours we went back to camp for lunch.

Our pitch is right at the top of that hill where Julie is pointing.

After lunch we headed into Alhambra to see the Islamic city, palaces & gardens dating back to 1237 when construction began and continued over many centuries. WOW once again we hope the pictures give you some idea, absolutely fantastic, apparently it is one of the most photographed and visited spectacles in Europe and we could see why.

After 5 nights here we are continuing our journey towards Barcelona but have been totally blown away with Granada & Sierra Nevada so if you ever get the chance it’s well worth a visit.

That’s all folks.

J&J

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