Month: January 2025

Week 4. 4th – 10th of January 2025. Cabo de Gata to Nerja – 116 miles

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Saturday 4th of January 2025 (Cabo de Gata day 3)

It’s still the Christmas season here in Spain. Yes, it’s not over yet. We have had Christmas, and New Year, this week it’s King’s Day which is on the 6th of January. This is the day when the three kings turn up if you believe in that kind of thing. (Thought it was the 25th?)

It’s our last day today here at the Cabo. We like it here, it’s very peaceful and quiet. There is not a great deal to do here, you can walk and bike ride, but that’s about it. There isn’t much to see as the campsite is set in a national park which is very flat and arid. It’s not stopped this place from being a very popular campsite with many Europeans and we are sure that we will come again in the future.

A bit cool this morning, so it’s breakfast inside. The weather does improve though and we have a lovely sunny wind-free afternoon outside reading and just taking it easy. A very nice day.

Dinner is at the campsite restaurant, a very simple dinner… Pizza!!

Back at the van, we watch the last episode of Squid Game 2, we think it’s not as good as the first series… Very slow, and very laboured.

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Sunday 5th of January 2025 (Cabo de Gata to Adra – 54 miles.)

The drives for the next week or so are quite short. We leave the Cabo de Gata campsite having spent a very nice few days there. Today we are going to a campsite that is buried deep amongst the plastic-covered greenhouses that cover most of Almeria. Called Camping Las Vegas, it’s supposed to be a very popular campsite, but unusual for its setting and location. We are staying two nights, tonight and tomorrow, King’s Day or Epiphany.

But first a breakfast of tortilla and Hayley’s tomato bread. According to Del, this is the best van breakfast he has ever had! A warm chunk of potato and onion tortilla. Hayley’s tomato mix; a traditional Spanish dish of grated tomatoes mixed with olive oil and salt and warm toast.

Put a generous dollop of the tomato mix on your toast, leave it to soak through a bit and eat with some tortilla and fresh coffee… Whoo… heeee!!! The best…

It’s just over a 1-hour drive during which we will stop at an Aldi and do a small shop. The drive is thankfully uneventful but the scenery is changing to a plastic city.

We find the campsite after driving through the greenhouses on not very well-kept roads, and are greeted by a lovely Spanish lady who just tells us to park wherever we like and make ourselves comfortable, pay when we leave. She even gives us a one-day out-of-date stick of bread… It’s the thought that counts.

We get settled in and yes it is very charming, like a little oasis, we can see the attraction.

There are plenty of campers here and we can imagine that in the height of summer, it will be packed.

We sit outside in the afternoon sun with a tea and some King’s Day cake, a roscon.

It’s a short walk to the beach which is mainly gravel and rock.

It’s a cool day today with a slight wind, but very nice all the same.

Better than the snow that is, according to the news, that’s bringing armageddon to the UK.

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Monday 6th of January 2025 (Happy King’s Day!) (Camping Las Vegas day 2)

We had some very heavy rain last night from about 3 am until daybreak. It’s very noisy on the roof of the van in rainstorms.

We are up late today, the latest ever… We have a good, hearty breakfast while we are waiting for the weather to clear, which is expected later this afternoon. We stay in the van and read, Del gets on with some homework. It is very grey outside. We celebrate King’s Day with a tea and the remainder of the roscon from yesterday.

Inside the cake is a figure, of course, you are supposed to collect all three kings. We have two. Clearly, we have not eaten enough cake!

By 2 pm the clouds have gone and we get our bikes off the back of Jess and set off. It’s warm enough but the wind is building as we cycle through a lot of localised flooding. Our bike ride is nothing spectacular as the campsite is set among the largest collection of greenhouses in Europe, but we are glad for the exercise and the fresh air all the same.

We don’t go very far, but we have been out for over an hour and done a good few miles. Once back at Jess, despite the strong wind, the sun is out and it’s nice outside so we take advantage of it and sit and have a beer until the wind gets too much.

We pack away and cover the bikes ready for leaving tomorrow, and take a quick walk to the beach to see how rough the sea is. Compared to yesterday it’s rough!

Dinner is on board tonight after which we tackle one of our escape room games.

Tomorrow we are moving on to Nerja which is about an hour’s drive. Nice and easy.

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Tuesday 7th of January 2025 (Adra to Nerja – 64 miles)

Today we are halfway through our trip. So far we have come through France, trundled down the east coast of Spain, around the corner and headed west along the south coast. The remainder of the trip is not set in stone, but the plan is to carry on along the south coast of Spain up into Portugal, head north then pop back into Spain heading for Salamanca and Valladollid before running north to Santander for the ferry back to Portsmouth on the 1st of February.

We have had a good trip so far. The weather hasn’t been exactly stable, but it’s been pleasant and we have enjoyed the trip so far.

This morning, we wake up to a beautiful, fresh day, with the bluest of blue skies and sunshine. We are not going far today, 50 to 60 miles to Nerja and a regular campsite that we like. First, we need to do a spot of shopping.

Despite being short, the drive today seems to take ages to get to Nerja. The scenery is fabulous though, very mountainous and surprisingly green, it just feels long. Eventually we arrive to do a shop, fill up with diesel and even give Jess a wash. We are all set for a 4 day stay in Nerja.

The campsite have been expecting us so we are checked in quicky and given pitch. It’s nice here, lots of cacti, exotic flowers and avocado trees. We are parked right under one, tucked in out of the way.

It’s time for Jess’s internal cleaning. We get to work and air the van sweep her out wash her down and freshen everything up. She is now shiny and sparkling inside and out.

If you ever see an old fire engine, ambulance, military truck or just a truck that is being used as a campervan, the odds are that it will be German.

They love it! They buy and convert old utility vehicles into campervans. Some are basic looking and some are very slick and well done. We happen to have an ambulance on the opposite side of us. Brilliant.

We set off for a walk to the beach which is just 10-minutes away. We say ‘hello’ to a friend of ours who has been here for a while, a green parrot who is at the entrance of the site.

She’s very cute and likes a head scratch. It’s a lovely day. The sky has stayed clear, no clouds light wind, perfect. There is a small beach bar/restaurant where we take a table and have a cold glass of cava and some calamares fritos. Very very nice. We just sit and take it all in. A Tuesday afternoon in January.

After the lovely afternoon we walk back, and as usual at this time, late afternoon it starts to cool over so we get back and warm up Jess and have a fab tapas dinner of Spanish Jamon, potato salad, prawns and ali oli… Whew! It was fantastic. After a clean up we get stuck into one of our escape room games. We tried an old game that we did at the start of the trip three weeks ago. We still got a bad score!

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Wednesday 8th of January 2025 (Nerja day 2)

Bit of a grey start today, but still pleasant. Today we are off for a walk along the beach towards the town of Nerja and stopping for lunch at a restaurant called Torrecilla. We have had lunch here before and it has always been very pleasant.

We start with a traditional red vermouth, aubergine rolls and a salad. Hayley goes for the Secreto Iberico and Del a Wagyu burger. All very good and all helped along with a glass of wine each. The view, like the food is tremendous.

Our German ambulance is leaving today…

Thoughts of going for a longer walk are put to one side, so we decide to take a slow walk home as the weather has changed to a cooler, fresher feel. Back at Jess we just take it easy and settle in for the night. Another good day.

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Thursday 9th of January 2025 (Nerja day 3)

It started grey, but it soon clears up to be a lovely warm but breezy day. We had planned to walk today into the town of Nerja, but it’s so nice on the site with the van that we decide to just stay where we are for a couple of hours, sit in the sun, read, and chat.

It’s early afternoon, and we decide that maybe we should go for a walk now, so we get ourselves sorted out and take a long walk into the town.

Nerja is a lovely town, clean and very vibrant. It’s a busy place, very popular with the Britsh. There is a large contingent of them that live here.

On the walk back we stop at our favourite beach side bar/restaurant and have a cocktail in the sun with some patatas brava. The walk back is fabulous, bright and sunny with a very nice breeze.

Dinner tonight is Hayley’s Paella with some Spanish music to add to the ambiance.

A lovely day today. Tomorrow is the last day before Del flies off to Lisbon for a week and Hayley carries on along the coast towards Manilva just past Marbella.

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Friday 10th of January 2025 (Nerja day 4)

Our last day here today. We have liked our stay, we have had some good weather, good food and a little exercise, not as much as we would have liked but what do you do?

We have a relaxed morning outside today. It’s so warm that we manage a light breakfast outside. The rest of the morning, into the early afternoon is just spent reading, Hayley starts to plan our next section of the trip.

At 2pm we set of for a short walk and to find something to eat. We end up at a beach bar restaurant where we have a shared salad and Secreto Iberico. It’s the best day yet, clear blue sky, no wind… Perfect!

Back to Jess, it’s late, we had no idea.

Del packs a few things as he is flying off to Lisbon tomorrow for a week to work while Hayley will set off for Manilva, about an hour from where we are now.

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Week 3. 28th of December 2024 – 3rd of January 2025. Mar Menor to Cabo de Gata – 130 miles.

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Saturday 28th of December 2024 (Mar Menor day 2)

Cloud, cloud, cloud everywhere, with a small rain shower this morning. Our first morning on the Mar Menor where the weather was forecast to be sunny, big sun though, 18 degrees…! What a letdown. No matter we are up and about and we have had what Hayley calls, “…the best breakfast of the trip so far!…“. Del does the breakfast and today it’s just a simple arrangement of the remainder of the fresh eggs from the other day, hash browns and bacon, toast and coffee… We have a small van but Hayley does some great dinners and Del does a good breakfast on board Jess, so we don’t see why things like good eating should change despite the size of the cooking area.

Today we are hoping to get out on our bikes and get some proper exercise. So far this trip has been a bit disappointing, we have done some walking, but that’s just local. We have been concentrating on getting as far south as possible so we have been arriving late and leaving early some days. We are also going out for dinner tonight to an excellent local restaurant called Kinita. It is attached, but independent, from the campsite. It’s highly regarded and we have been before and had a fabulous dinner. We are hoping for their tasting menu tonight.

We finally get the bikes off the back of Jess, two weeks after setting off.

We have a fabulous cycle along the front from the campsite to the town of Los Alcozares. A small, typical Spanish town that has the biggest nativity setup we’ve seen. The Spanish like to put a nativity scene in the town, either in the town square or church or both.

They keep them up until past the 6th of January (King’s Day or Epiphany). This one not only shows the nativity but the whole of Bethlehem and other places. It’s rather good. We cycle around the town some more, visiting a chemist and a hardware shop.

The cycle back is bright and sunny, beautiful. The view of the strip, (la Manga) of the Mar Menor is clear on the other side. We stop and have a coffee and a coke and soak up some of the sunshine.

What a lovely day. We clock up a modest 9 miles. Not much but it’s a start. More tomorrow.

Back at Jess we spend a couple of hours in the sun reading, a marathon read. Del finally finishes a book he’s had going for weeks now. He finishes just as the sun and the day is cooling off, around 5 pm. It’s been a lovely afternoon. We have a hot shower and get ready for dinner.

It’s a cool 3-minute walk from Jess to the restaurant, but inside it’s warm and inviting. We are looked after very well by the staff and we order the tasting menu, 2 snacks, 2 starters, 2 mains and 2 desserts for 50 euros each. Excellent value and excellent food all presented expertly in this lovely restaurant.

After many years of being associated with Spain, Del finally tries a vermouth as an aperitif and is hooked. Vermouth is regarded as a very typical Spanish drink and there are many bars specialising in it. Somehow it has escaped our notice until now.

Two hours later we leave the restaurant absolutely full, but satisfied. It has been our 4th visit there, 5th for Hayley as she came here last year when Del was working in Berlin.

We have been to a lot of eateries in Spain, and Kinita is, at the moment, our favourite.

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Sunday 29th of December 2024 (Mar Menor day 3)

It’s a sunny morning today, albeit a little cool. We manage a very simple, light breakfast outside and plan on doing a long cycle ride today.

As the morning wears on the clouds slowly disappear leaving behind clear blue skies. We don’t waste any time and get ready to go out for the day on the bikes. The plan is to cycle around the Mar Menor as far as we can. The boring bit is cycling around the military airport next door which is not operating today, the campsite is on the opposite side of the runway. It’s all nice and flat so we shouldn’t be moaning really.

It’s a great day for a bike ride. Soon, we arrive at Santiago de la Ribera, where a lot of the urban furniture is a nod to the Spanish Air Force. There is an air training centre here.

All the benches are aircraft wings, with statues of planes, plane parts, and helmets dotted along the bike and pedestrian route. It’s all very nice. We stop at a small cafe and enjoy a coffee and watch the world go by. We have full sunshine. It’s glorious.

Back on the bikes and it’s non-stop to Playas de la Llana which takes us past the salt pits and wading flamingos. Playas de la Llana is a beach with a great view of the Med and we remember passing here a few times on Stargazer our boat.

Indeed once we stopped at the Mar Menor at San Juan de Pinatar to visit Hayley’s Auntie and Uncle who once lived here in a beautiful house. Here are a few snaps from 20 years ago…!!!

The whole area is fabulous. It’s full of life with plenty to see and do. Great for walking, and as we found, cycling.

We stay at the beach for a while, gazing into the horizon and watching boats go back and forth.

It’s a lovely day, but we have to turn back if we want to be back before it gets too cold.

On the way back we can’t help ourselves, we have to stop for a Menu del dia (menu of the day).

For 15 euros we get a three-course lunch with a drink, we sit outside, it’s fantastic. We get back on the bikes and back to Jess. Today we have done an 18-mile cycle, better than yesterday, but we could do better.

We have an evening in tonight, no dinner. We settle in and watch two episodes of Squid Games 2. We were a bit confused for the first half an hour as to what was going on, but a quick google solved that.

It’s a cold night tonight. Nice warm days, but very cold by night!

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Monday 30th of December 2024 (Mar Menor day 4)

The weather has no idea what it’s doing today. We had a splash of rain last night and it’s a bit grey and cloudy first thing, but as the morning moves along it gets brighter. The local Airforce are busy today, planes are zooming about.

We take our chances and set out for a long walk. The weather has brightened up a lot, and it’s a lovely walk. We walk about 11,000 steps, or 4 and a bit miles.

We get back to Jess just in time, and the heavens open up. We get torrential rain, thunder, and lightning. It’s a massive storm. We stay for the rest of the day. Del does some homework for upcoming jobs in the new year, and Hayley reads and pesters Del!

We spend the evening in and have a fantastic dinner of chicken and long green peppers. Ace. We settle down and watch a movie—The Matrix. Del has never seen it, it’s a good film. We start thinking that we would take the red pill, but by the time the film finishes we’d rather have the blue one after all. Ignorance is bliss.

Despite the weather, we have had a good day. We’ve had a good long walk, witnessed a massive storm, had a good dinner and watched a movie. Not bad for a Monday…

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Tuesday 31st of December 2024 (Mar Menor day 5)

The last day of 2024. More rain today, but we will be going out to our favourite restaurant here again, Kinita. We had a fantastic dinner there the other night so we thought we would give them a try for lunch. We spend the morning indoors. Del gets some more homework done.

The rain and the thunder today are massive again and we are lucky to get a small break in the intensity of the rain and make it to the restaurant.

The lunch doesn’t disappoint. It is delicious and truly amazing, and as we are sitting there the rain stops and we got a good view of the bay and across to the strip on the opposite side. The visibility is crystal clear despite the cloud.

We are spending the night on Jess to bring in the New Year, along with all our other campers who will be doing similar. It’s a lovely afternoon back at Jess.

For the evening we have a very light snack of Spanish tapas and a glass of fizz and we settle down to watch some more Squid Game.

Midnight fast approaches and we celebrate the start of 2025 with another glass of fizz and reach out to friends and family to wish them a Happy New Year.

We stick our heads out of the van to see what’s happening at the campsite. There are a few sporadic cheers and giggling. We toast our immediate neighbours (in our best German) and retreat back inside.

It’s been a very good day today. We like it here…

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Wednesday 1st of January 2025 (HAPPY NEW YEAR…!) (Mar Menor to Palomares – 80 miles)

Happy New Year to you all. We hope and wish that you all have a good 2025, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Don’t let them grind you down!

We are up late and take our time packing up after our five-night stay. The outside stuff is all wet and gritty after the huge amounts of rain that we have had here. We have been parked on ramps to level Jess up and when Hayley rolls back off them a torrent of water pours from off the roof and into the open side window, whoops. A hasty mop-up is done before it can get into the battery compartment, then we set off on our way south. It’s a nice day today, with a few clouds, but it’s sunny and warm. The roads are empty, we drive for miles and miles without seeing a car.

We are heading to a free overnight spot, a regular place in the town of Palomares, right on the beach. When we eventually arrive it’s busy. New Year’s Day here is very popular with people from all over Europe, and why not… We slowly drive along the beach and find somewhere, side on to the sea. It’s fantastic. The sun is out and the sea is blue. We get settled in and just sit outside Jess looking at the sea reading our books. A great way to spend the first day of the year. We love it.

By 4 pm the temperature is cooling off a little so we take our chairs in, turn on the hot water and have showers and settle in. The sun is setting and tonight we are having ‘Spanish Night’ on board. We have some Spanish goodies to eat with some music and dancing. Tricky in a 6m van!

Bedtime, as we settle down all we can hear is the sea breaking on the beach, fabulous (oh and Del snoring).

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Thursday 2nd of January 2025 (Palomares to Cabo de Gata – 51 miles)

We have had some good weather so far on the trip, but we have had some unbelievable storms, it seems that the whole of Europe is suffering from terrible weather at this time. Back home in the UK, there have been some strong winds and heavy rain, with snow on the way.

We had a lovely night in Palomares, very, very chilled.

We have a light breakfast and set off. There’s nothing to decamp today as we have been wild camping so it’s just a tidy-up and we are done. We need to do some shopping so we stop at the Consum Supermarket in the town of Palomares. Another of Hayley’s favourite supermarkets. Sad innit?

We are fully loaded and it will be just over an hour to our next stop which is the southeastern tip of Spain, (that’s the bottom right of Spain as it goes around the corner.) We are going to a regular place Camping Cabo de Gata. Which is in Andalucia, considered the poorest region of Spain, it’s very dry and arid but covered in greenhouses made from plastic sheeting. This area provides the bulk of the fruit and veg in Europe.

It’s a beautiful warm day. 18 degrees… The drive is fantastic, the scenery has changed. It’s more mountainous, dry and brown.

Finally, we arrive at Cabo de Gata and we are given a very nice pitch for our 3-night stay. First things first.

We have lunch, a fine salad and some ‘Chiperones’ (baby squid) Fantastic…! It’s time for Jess’s weekly clean and we have a bit of cleaning up to do after the soggy stay at the Mar Menor, so everything is pulled out of the storage locker, known as the garage, and the inside of the van is clean and swept out to within an inch of it’s life!

The rest of the afternoon is spent reading in the waning afternoon sunshine. At around 5 pm the birds, including some green parrots, get quite chatty as they settle into their nests, which are the numerous palm trees around the site.

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Friday 3rd of January 2025 (Cabo de Gata day 2)

A bright sunny morning this morning, with the sun on our pitch. It’s warm enough to have breakfast outside today. Without wasting any time, Del springs into action and prepares a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns, toast and fresh coffee. Lovely.

We need to get some laundry done and there is a good facility for doing it. Hayley sets off while Del is sorting out breakfast. After putting our laundry in a queue earlier and then having two German ladies push in at the washing machines Hayley puts her foot down and gets stroppy, our washing is soon loaded in.

The rest of the morning is spent reading and enjoying the warm sunshine while drying our washing on a line between our trees. Very handy. Once the clothes are dried and put away, we get our walking boots on and set off for a good walk towards the beach.

There used to be lakes and a small river that ran through her but it’s all dried up. There is one small lake left where there is some wildlife pecking about; ducks, cormorants and 4 white flamingos.

The wind is building and it’s supposed to be very windy this afternoon. We have a good walk and make our way back to Jess to do some more reading outside which goes well until the clouds come along and take away the sun…

Not to be defeated we just get in Jess close the door and carry on…

French night tonight for dinner. Steak, dauphinoise potatoes and green beans with a splash of red wine.

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