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

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