We are parked up at Los Escullos campsite near San Jose in the Gata-Nijar national park. I'm sure that sounds very exotic and it probably would be if it wasn't cold, wet and windy. This site was recommended by a guy at the last campsite we stayed on but we feared the worst as we approached the site over the last 20miles or so. We turned a corner coming over the Sierra Cabrera and saw what we thought was a bay or large lake with the sun glinting in our eyes. Another couple of hundred metres and we realised it was a sea of poly tunnels. A few miles further on and a whole plain as far as we could see on either side of the road was just mile upon mile of poly tunnels. In a "Parque Natural" no less. The most disturbing feature is the plastic just lying about where the tunnels have been ripped by the wind. That stuff is never going away.

One of the fascinating things about this blog is we can see where the viewing traffic comes from. Mostly UK, obviously, some from Spain, France, N America even. And someone from South Korea!
So Sir or Madam, this is for you,

안녕하세요, 좋은 하루 되세요

Pat

Classy lady and a lack of buses

Did I mention Phil was painting her toenails while I was cooking the tea yesterday?
Anyway, I took a cheeky picture.

Today we thought we'd get the bus into Mazarron and have a look around. We went for the 11.20am bus and got chatting to a couple at the bus stop waiting for the 11.30 to Murcia. At noon we went for a coffee thinking we'd get the 12.20. At half past twelve we sacked the idea and went for a beer instead in the bar opposite the bus stop. We asked the barmaid "Is there a bus strike today?"  She thought for a moment and said that although she didn't know if there was a strike or not, now we mentioned it she hadn't seen a bus all day.

Anyway, it's time for us to move on now, this has been the longest we've stayed in one place since we set off and I think we'll head to Almeria tomorrow with a Lidl shop on the way. The weather's changed a bit, in fact it's raining now and we're not due much sun until Saturday by which time we should be in Malaga or maybe even Marbella. We've enjoyed it here, 100m from the sea and a couple of shops and bars and of course, a bus stop right outside.

And yes, I've posted a picture.

A bit about us

Philomena and I started this blog as a way for friends and family to follow us and keep in touch as we travelled across Europe and, hopefully, beyond in our motorhome. We thought it would be easier than us sending multiple emails every day or so. So far it's worked out ok although my inability to post pictures is still an irritant. I know if I want to store all my pictures on Picasso I can then access them for the blog but I don't really want to go down that route. If anyone has any other suggestions or has experience of this problem I'd be pleased to hear from you, especially if your name is Page, Brin or Schmidt.

We've noticed, however, that our blog is reaching a wider audience; not that we're becoming famous or anything but the stats tell us that that folk are having a look at the blog from some far flung places, no jokes about Middlesborough please. So I thought it might be an idea to fill in a bit of background about who we are and what we're doing.

It's been a dream of ours to travel in a motorhome for as long as we can remember; the dream nearly became a reality over 30 years ago when we were pretty much all set to travel overland to India with our daughters (No, we're not hippies although we maybe had a hippy sensibility) but events conspired to prevent us realising our dream. Pregnancy, Russian invasion of Afghanistan, you know, the usual things.

Anyway, fast forward a few decades and we're both looking at retirement. With big smiles on our faces, natch. So, we do the sums and then we're off to the dealers looking at second hand motorhomes which, incidentally, cost more than we paid for our house! We saw one we liked and went away to think about it and then saw the same model for sale privately for a lot less money. Bought it, used it for one weekend and realised that putting the bed up every night and taking it down every morning was a big problem and not for us. First mistake and first lesson learnt. Back to the dealers, found what we wanted with a fixed bed and after some masterly haggling got what we wanted for more than we wanted to pay. But hey, it's only the kid's inheritance we're spending, right?

Meanwhile we'd read a few blogs and books by folk who had travelled across Europe for a year or more so we were picking up loads of tips. We subscribed to an excellent forum www.wildcamping.co.uk and the folk on there gave us so much invaluable advice. We had a few trial weekends away and now we're in Spain and we've been on the road for 3 weeks and we're experts. We define experts as people who make no more than 2 catastrophic mistakes each day.

So if you didn't know us before you have a bit more of an idea now of who we are. This gives you license to laugh at us and insult us in the comments section. We hope you do, it gets a bit lonely out here sometimes you know. 

Lazy, lazy day.

Still in Bolnuevo , having a very lazy day today.  Another lovely sunny day and I took the opportunity to catch up on a weeks washing while Pat made one of his famous curries ( chicken and chickpea) . I spent some considerable time sat in a chair doing nothing which was a novelty . We went for a very short walk around the site this afternoon so we could look at everyone else's vans and encampments - some of them are amazing. We spotted outdoor washing machines, gardens , seedlings growing etc. The great excitement of the day was half the campsite attempting to park a Brit  in one of the bays - unsuccessfully - he's now parked on the road ! In the spirit of research we are now sampling the local Cava, - it has to be done.
Buenos Noches
Phil.

The Brit Phil mentioned was a real charmer. He rocked up and looked around, saw I had UK plates and asked about the location. I said it was ok and he'd get the sun all day on the pitch behind ours. "Are you noisy?" he asked. Err no, not really. "Wot's the tv reception like?" Dunno, haven't got a tv. End of conversation. First thing he did was pop up his ariel and spin it round for about 45mins before packing it away again. Different folks for different strokes eh? If I'd been him on a new site I'd have asked "Any wifi?" By the way I'm still tapping in to the guy next door's. He doesn't seem bothered.

Ok, time for that curry,

Buenos Noches,

Pat

Still in Bolnuevo

Yes, we're still here. No reason to move really. Today we caught the bus to Puerto de Mazarron, ten minutes down the road. It was strange to be walking around a town with shops, banks, restaurants etc..  We haven't done that for a while so we celebrated by buying 2litres of wine for €2.60 from the friendly wine merchant, had a coffee and caught the bus back!

After a leisurely lunch in the sunshine (you're getting sick of this aren't you?) we walked along the beach to a tiny cove with a couple of small fishing boats and a small sandy beach. There's 18km of continuous unspoilt beach here, where we are there is a boardwalk with a mix of houses, bars and restaurants, mostly closed at this time of year. Palm and tall Eucalyptus trees line the pavement and there is a sandstone cliff about 200m inland which has been eroded into some weird, bizarre shapes. It's a lovely spot with none of the massive high rise hotels further up the coast. On the way back we watched the sunset behind the mountains over the bay. It really doesn't get much better than this so we'll probably stop for another couple of days and then move down the coast to Los Escullos to a campsite recommended by the only other English guy we've found on this site. It's interesting here, it's a large campsite with enclaves housing French, German, Dutch and Scandinavian folk with massive motorhomes. You can tell the Dutch 'cos they all have potted plants round their pitches!
Pat

The wind, the wind

We are still in Bolnuevo. Last night we were woken by the awning flapping and rattling in the wind, it was getting a right battering. Although it was pitch black I should have got out of bed and wound it back in to avoid any damage, it was damaged once before when we were in North Yorkshire and the price of spare parts is crazy. But it was warm in bed so I lay there with my fingers crossed and fell asleep again. This morning I feared the worse but I had secured it well enough the previous day and all was well, phew! I did wonder yesterday though why hardly anybody else on the site had an awning out. Another lesson learnt.

Some kind soul nearby has left his wifi unsecured so I'm pinching a bit while he leaves it on. A couple of people have said it's difficult to post comments on the blog so I've had a good look at the preferences and now there should not be a problem. Please, please let me know if you are unable to post comments.

Pat

It's getting warmer

We are parked up at Camping "Playa De Mazzarron" at Bolnuevo, about 25k west of Cartagena. We're next to a long sandy beach and a "lively" village which is not too lively in November but which has a Spar shop stocking everything you could possibly need and a lot of stuff you wouldn't know what to do with.

Yesterday we spent the day with our Daughter's parents-in-law in La Coveta Fuma just north of Alicante. They have a lovely house overlooking the sea and after a lazy lunch on the terrace they showed us around the area and found for us the elusive euro pin adaptor we've needed on the sites we have stopped at lately. They have a motorhome too, about twice the size of ours and have been far further afield than we have and it was good to pick up tips and advice from them. The night before that we stayed at a pretty scuzzy campsite at Gandia.

The site we are at now is full with over-winterers, mostly Dutch and German but we've just had an interesting chat with an English couple who have spent the last 9 years traveling around Spain and Portugal. They are now semi- permanent here and gave us a few more tips on the climate in different parts of Spain during the winter months. Today was very hot and sunny with a breeze from the mountains behind us but as soon as the sun drops down so does the temperature and it's quite chilly now.

Oh yes, we saw the flamingos today on the inland saline lakes near Torrevieja. Flamingos on one side of the road and enormous piles of salt on the other.

The only place I can find wi fi on this site is in the social room and I have 20 mins free. I am sharing the room with 4 tables of Dutch women playing some serious games of dominoes but very quietly. I don't think it's fives and threes they're playing!