De-luxe Campsite at Oliva

Tonight we are parked up in Oliva, a little south of Valencia and we are back in orange country. From north of Valencia and away past Alicante and beyond you drive past mile upon mile of orange groves. Some have been harvested now, some are being harvested as we drive past and some are, you guessed it, waiting to be harvested. Of course they're not all oranges; there are Satsumas, Clementines, Mandarins and a fruit that is, apparently, unique to the Valencia district that I've forgotten the name of. The remarkable thing,and we noticed this last year, is the amount of fruit lying in the ground. We reckon 10/15% of the crop drops to the ground and rots. However I'm not an orange farmer and I guess these guys know what they're doing. We went for a stroll this evening and managed to catch a Satsuma or Mandarin JUST as it was falling from the tree. Very sweet and juicy it was too.

We didn't shake the tree, honest!

 

It's a de-luxe campsite we are staying on. We know this 'cos the receptionist had an attitude, they're charging us €18.00 a night and the electricity is metered. If we go over 4Kw they'll charge us extra. It's also pretty de-luxe because it has a beach to die for. Mile after mile of really clean soft sand. Even at the height of the holiday season I reckon you would still find a nice spot here and have room for a game of rounders. A bit like Bamburgh really. But with warm sunshine in January.

 

There's a small shop outside the campsite and we called there this evening to buy some veg.

"Where you from?" asked the owner.

"England" we said.

"Where in England?" he enquired.

"Bingley". Blank look. "Bradford" furrowed brow. "Leeds".

"Ahhh LEEDS" followed by some arm waving and foot shuffling suggesting that LUFC was his favorite English football club. Turned out that in a former life he had been a long distance lorry driver delivering all over England. "I deliver Oranges - Birmingham, Manchester, London, Brighton, Leeds, Edinburgh, everywhere." Having tasted the fruit here and in England I reckon he used to deliver the 10/15% that drops to the floor 'cos I never tasted an orange in England that tasted as sweet as that one we caught falling to the ground this evening.

Another reason this is a de-luxe site is the quality of motorhomes parked up here. The guy opposite is never going to miss an episode of anything. Check out the TWO sat dishes.

 

We used the toll roads again today and I have to say it's pretty boring. Tomorrow we are heading for Bolnuevo, near Mazarron and the journey time is not much longer if we avoid the tolls so that's the way we will go tomorrow. We need a supermarket top up and they're easy to find if we're not on the motorway. We have a bit of a routine when we are travelling, leave the campsite or parking place, find a bread shop, buy a baguette and two croissant and head off. After an hour we stop, brew a pot of coffee and have that with the croissant. The days when we can't find a bread shop are a disaster! Anyway we can usually find more scenic places to stop than a motorway service station car park and we avoid the tolls too.

Finally, for you folk showing concern - we've stopped cleaning the van! I know it was spick and span in St Etienne but we had two days of rain and a dust storm so it really needed a spruce up and we need to keep it clean. It's our HOME!

 

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