Thursday 12th November.
Apologies to the thousands of folk from all over the world who follow this blog for not updating recently (Hello Catherine!), I know you've been waiting for news and exciting tales. Truth is we've stopped travelling for a while and been lazing around enjoying the best that the Costa Calida has to offer.
We arrived at Camping Playa de Mazarron 37.56316 -1.30268 ten days ago where they kindly kept for us the same pitch we had last winter. A few days were spent laying our green carpet, erecting our single story extension, a bit of plumbing work and generally setting things up for a long stay. Whilst we love touring in the Motorhome we also enjoy spending the winter in Spain enjoying the warm weather and the hospitality of the folk here in the village of Bolnuevo and the town of Puerto de Mazarron. The campsite here is large, there are over 400 pitches! This of course is anathema to many motorhomers who prefer more secluded ( not to say free) locations but it suits us perfectly. Despite the size of the site the facilities are outstanding and spotlessly clean and the landscaping, flower borders, fountains and topiary are delightful. Our immediate neighbours are from France, Switzerland and Holland and since arriving we've met old friends and made some new ones. There are folk here from all over Europe, many who have been coming here for the winter for many years. When we are travelling we look out for free or inexpensive places to stop and only use campsites when we need a washing machine or a couple of days to relax so our experience of campsites is not extensive but this is, by far, the best campsite we have ever stopped at. The hospitality here extends well beyond just providing the usual facilities at a reasonable price, there are also free tennis, pelote and pétanque courts. Last week there were two sardine and sangria days where everybody on the site was served with the aforementioned by the maintenance and the gardening staff - at no charge. Over the Christmas and New Year period there will be free parties with food and drink supplied by the owners here. I don't know of any other campsites that offer this level of hospitality.
The village here is pretty much dependant on tourism. During the summer the site here and local apartments are busy with Spanish folk taking their vacations (it's too hot for us Northern & Western Europeans) and then during the winter there must be at least 1,000, if not more, people from further afield enjoying the micro climate that this part of the coast enjoys. Just in the village we have a choice of ten restaurants and a few more bars, the food is generally fresh, excellent and inexpensive by English standards. A ten minute bus ride or a forty minute walk takes us to the nearest large town with supermarkets, a further host of bars and restaurants and all the other shops we might need. So, it's a bit of a no-brainer for us to spend the winter here. We get plenty of exercise walking, cycling, dancing (!) a great social life and pleasant weather.
So, there won't be too much blogwise over the next few months - I'm sure nobody wants to read our diary (yesterday we went to town and did some shopping then had a coffee, today we are going to cook some sardines etc etc). But if anything really exciting should happen I'll be sure to let you all know.
Meanwhile, thanks for following the blog so far, especially the person from Bermuda who I noticed from our stats has had the perseverance and, I suspect, nothing better to do and has read 36 pages. Post a comment Mr or Ms Bermudian, we're always looking to meet people from far away places.
Mustn't forget a photo eh? This is the bay a mile round the coast.
Pat.
Posted with Blogsy