Bolnuevo - still

I've had hundreds of enquiries asking why the blog hasn't been updated for a few weeks, well one enquiry actually - thanks Catherine.

It's true I haven't posted anything for a while but the thing is I feel a bit of a fraud maintaining what is essentially a travel blog when we are not actually travelling. We arrived here in Bolnuevo just over a fortnight ago and will probably stay here until some time in January and whilst we are not technically Motorhoming we are having a great time. The site is large but so are the individual pitches, we have unlimited electricity, spotlessly clean toilets and showers and all for €12 a day. We are a hundred metres from the beach and the same distance from the village with half a dozen bars, restaurants and a couple of supermarkets. There is a large social room with events most days which we haven't as yet taken advantage of not being big bingo players or fans of what I would call oompah music. There is a great bar/restaurant/club at the far end of the village and we went there last Saturday and danced the night away to a live band and that looks like our regular Saturday night venue.

Last weekend was the village festival where the Madonna, who was apparently stolen many years ago, is returned to the village from the church in Mazarron, accompanied by a parade and plenty of caballeros. A big funfair ran for a couple of days on the beach together with lots of food stalls and other stalls selling the usual festival wares. Lots of impromptu tents and sound systems sprung up and the village was absolutely packed during the weekend of activities. The beach currently looks like a bombsite but I'm sure a clean up team will be along shortly.

We've made a few friends here, especially my NBF Clive, who is an accomplished ukulele player!! I spent the afternoon with him yesterday and he's lent me a couple of books and one of his nice ukuleles to practise with and the fingertips of my left hand are now pretty sore. Clive mentioned on Saturday night that he played tennis and table tennis and I said that I could do that too if he fancied a game sometime. The following day, after I learnt that he played both to a very, very high standard, I had to admit that I was rubbish at table tennis and hadn't held a tennis racquet for the best part of forty years. This has not discouraged Clive and today he called with racquets and balls and off we went to the courts. Fortunately there are a couple of outdoor squash type courts here and he was happy enough to knock up on one of them while I did the same next door, a good hour of cardio-vascular exercise for me. Then when the tennis courts were empty he gave me a thirty minute coaching session which was really enjoyable. I suspect they're looking for new blood amongst the tennis players here and Clive is attempting to get me up to a half decent standard before he unleashes me on the unsuspecting German team. What can possibly go wrong I ask myself. Clive has loaned me a racket and a few balls so I'll be getting some exercise and practice in the mornings before it gets too hot.

So life here is developing quite nicely, Phil has begun playing cards on a Monday afternoon with a group of women from the site and some local ex pats, of which there are plenty around here. In fact a village not so far away, Campasol, is, apparently almost exclusively occupied by folk from the UK. We catch the bus into Puerto de Mazarron a couple of days a week and have a mooch around and do a bit of shopping. Lunching or dining out is not expensive. Today we had three courses with coffee for €9.50 each and could hardly move from the table as the portions were so generous. Of course I deserved a hearty meal after all my exertions.

Whilst we miss the travelling and visiting new places we enjoy the life here for the time being. The weather has been glorious (24deg today) and if we do fancy a change it won't take long to pack the van and head for pastures new.

Pat.

 

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Bolnuevo 37.562918 -1.302927

Monday 10th November.

We are parked up tonight at Camping Playa De Mazarron in Bolnuevo, about twenty miles south west of Categena. We've stayed here a couple of times before and it's a lovely campsite with a couple of pathways to a broad sandy beach. The facilities here are spotlessly clean and there's a small village with a few shops, bars and restaurants. There's not much more we need really. The regular bus service will take us to Port Mazarron, about ten minutes away, where there are all the shops and services we could need. So I think we'll stay here a while. They have good deals for stays of a month or longer so I think we'll stay and see how we like stopping on one spot for a while rather than constantly travelling.

Of course this will be anathema to our friends at www.wildcamping.co.uk but we came to Spain to escape the English weather and whilst we've had great times recently travelling and exploring different countries and locations I think we'll put down roots for a month or so now. So, the awning is out, the carpets are down and the screens are up. It's looking good. All the places we want to visit in Spain and Portugal will still be there for us in a month or so.

We left Huerta de Alquerias this morning and set off for Cartegana, once again looking for a motorhome electrical engineer who could, hopefully, sort out our problem. No luck, we'll have to wait till we get back to the UK before we can have the problem resolved but we bought a few bits and pieces in the shop that we needed so it wasn't a completely wasted journey.

So now we're going to settle down for a bit so maybe the blog won't be too exciting (if it ever was eh?) but we'll still keep posting so friends and family know what we're up to. I think the plan after a day or so is to pop in to Port Mazarron and hire a couple of bikes. We did want to buy a motor scooter to stick on the back of the van to give us a bit of flexibility when we were parked up for a while but weight restrictions put an end to that plan but now I've found something even better! Have a look at this - http://www.flykly.com/smart-wheel . Or this - https://www.superpedestrian.com. There are some great reviews on you tube, have a look.

I promised some pics so here are a couple from the last few days.

Views from the citrus groves.

Pat.

 

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Huerta de Alquerias 38.0052 -1.04229

Thursday 6th November.

We're parked up tonight in a superb little commercial Aire just outside of Huerta de Alquerias, ten or fifteen miles east of Murcia. It's €12 a night with all facilities including electricity and WiFi, not bad really. Mind, it's €.50 for a four minute shower which is plenty of time for me but about a minute and a half short for Phil.

This place was recommended to us by a German guy we met in France earlier in the year, he said he has been stopping here for years all through the winter and we have noted that there is a pitch next to us reserved from 20/11 - 20/4 so I'm guessing that's his. Now, nice as this place is I couldn't imagine stopping here for six months. We walked into town this evening and we're saving the other road till tomorrow, I'm sure there is more than one horse, we just haven't seen it yet. But there's a market tomorrow, should be fun.

I've still got a small electrical problem with the van so we drove to Alcantarilla, the other side of Murcia, today to see if an auto electrician who specialises in motorhomes could help us out. He had been recommended by another motorhomer but when we arrived at the location we couldn't find the premises. I found a car mechanic and asked there if they knew the guy I was looking for. A lot of gesticulation and I gathered that he'd moved. The guy gave me directions to find the new premises, about 30 miles south and I nodded and said "si" in all the appropriate places. After a minute or so he asked if I understood and when I first said yes and then admitted no he put his arm round me and gave me a nice kiss. I went and got the map. I think I know where I'm going now.

It's Thursday today and I can't really be bothered to drive all the way to try and find this auto electrician on a Friday only to be told he can't do anything till Monday so I think we may stop here over the weekend. It's pretty enough here, we are surrounded by citrus groves and if I had a bottle of gin I wouldn't have any problems finding a lemon. However Phil says I can't have any gin until I've finished the pastis and ouzo in the drinks cabinet (wardrobe).

No pictures today but I'm going to to take lots tomorrow so that's something for you all to look forward to.

Pat

 

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A free night at last

Wednesday 5th November. 38.151168 -0.632396

We are parked up tonight in a car park in La Marina together with about forty other motorhomes! It's just 100 metres from a sandy beach and a nice bar/restaurant. We stopped last night at Santa Pola in a small Aire de Camping Car which was ok but miles from the town and the plan today was to check out a motorhome repair shop in Elche and a campsite not far from here. I'm having a few problems with the electrics in the van at the moment but the repair place we called at today wasn't much help. To the campsite then which,once again, was enormous. We parked up and asked if we could have a look around and the guy in the office said he couldn't tell us if we could stay until we told him how many nights we wanted to stop. We said we couldn't tell him that until we'd had a look around - stalemate. Anyway we did wander around the site which was more like a small village with bars, restaurants and clothes shops, not to our liking. As we drove through the town we had noticed a guy on a pushbike looking at us and he followed us onto the campsite and introduced himself. He was originally from Wallsend and had a house down in this area. He said he was interested in buying a motorhome and asked about our experiences. We chatted for a while and when we said we didn't much like the look of the campsite he suggested we drive back down the town and along to the beach where he had seen loads of motorhomes parked up and so here we are. If you're reading this Bill Brown, thanks for the tip.

It's amusing the folk you meet travelling about. A few days ago we came out of Lidl and as we got back to the van with the trolley noticed a couple having a good look around. They said they were interested because they had the same model van a few years ago and were surprised to see another one. We got chatting and they said they had bought the van with a view to driving around looking for a place to buy in Southern Europe. They had driven through France and Spain along the Mediterranean coast, up the Atlantic Coast of Portugal and then went back to the UK and bought a bungalow in Filey! Now they've bought another motorhome and were doing pretty much the same thing we are doing.

Tomorrow we are going to check out a couple of inland campsites, have a look around Murcia and then seek out an electrician in Alcantarilla who has been recommended and see if he can have a look at the van electrics. We've been disappointed with all the campsites we've looked at or stayed on so far it hopefully we may have better luck tomorrow. Haven't taken many photos lately but everyone loves a sunset eh?

 

Pat.

ps I'm starting to put gps co-ordinates on the blog now, I should have done it from the start but better late than never.

 

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It's MASSIVE!

Monday 3rd November.

 

We're parked up tonight on a campsite in Altea. Just a bit further south actually, it's called Camping CAP-BLANCH and from the air it would look like a refugee camp but with big, big, big motorhomes, caravans and awnings. There is a kind of main street where people have set up pitches with a ground area larger than my house at home. There are 6ft satellite dishes, shrubs, enough solar lights for a small town, fridges, washing machines and, probably, small gymnasiums hidden under the awnings. I've never seen anything like it in my life. When we arrived we were given a site plan with the few available pitches highlighted and told to find a pitch and then come back to reception. We got lost. Seriously, we got lost. Eventually we chose a pitch, found our way back to reception and went through the long drawn out registration process and then parked up. There is one toilet and shower block and next time I go I'm taking sandwiches and a drink. And a compass. It's that far away. There are signs up asking that should we see any suspicious people we should report them to reception. How would we know? There must be best part of 1,000 people here! They all look suspicious to me.

Anyway, it's only for a night. Well, it's only for a night if we can find our way out again, if not we're here forever.

Last night we stayed on a small campsite in Calp, probably the tidiest, cleanest campsite we've ever seen. Unfortunately we didn't think too much of Calp. I'm not sure where we are going tomorrow. The plan was to keep following the coast, stopping at campsites that have been recommended by various people but that plan doesn't seem to be working quite well. Maybe we'll go back inland for a bit for some peace and quiet, we'll decide in the morning.

Meanwhile I've discovered why I couldn't upload pictures - IOS 8.bloody1 - that's why! Anyway, there's a way round it so here's a few pics from the last few days.

 

The view from the road on our way to Javia/Xabia.

 

Calp.

 

Pat.

 

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Xabia & Calp

We are parked up tonight on a campsite in Calp. It's a nice campsite, in fact it's a very nice campsite with all amenities, very, very clean and tidy. But it's not for us. The view from the campsite, which is 400 metres from the beach, is of massive apartment blocks and hotels. The site we stayed on yesterday and Friday in Xabia (or Javia) was also well maintained and spotlessly clean but again it wasn't our kind of town. They've both got clean sandy beaches and all the bars and restaurants that you could want but coming down to the coast is a bit of a culture shock. We've enjoyed some fantastic scenery on the way down and now, as we drive along the coast it's all high rise blocks. It's not as if we didn't know from experience that this part of Spain is like this, it's just......... a bit overwhelming I guess.

Anyway, we have a few more spots to try out on the way as we head toward Port Mazarron. We've stayed on the campsite there before and although the site itself is massive the town itself is comparatively small and low key. We said before we set off that we didn't know whether or not we would like staying in one place for an extended period; we've been used to travelling from place to place, never stopping long at one location. We could do that here on the Costa del Sol but we both want to find somewhere where we can put down roots for a little while, get the chairs and table out and just chill, something you can't do stopping in car parks or motorhome service points. I'm sure there is a campsite out there somewhere with our name on it that is just what we're looking for. We just haven't found it yet.

I have taken some photos but either IOS 8.1 or Blogsy are playing up so I'll have to post them another day.

Pat

 

 

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