To my shame it was once again after 9:00 when I was roused by the sound of someone depositing their waste in a nearby dustbin, and I spent the next 10 minutes drifting in and out of reverie until Val deposited a cup of the finest English breakfast tea besides my bed. What a woman.
We both seemed adverse to getting a move on so it was almost the stroke of noon before we had packed up the van and pulled out of our site for of last couple of nights.
We didn't get to say adios to our newly made friend Dave and Joan as they had already departed for an appointment with the vet back in Campersol.
We headed back towards Cartagena via a Mercadona on the edge of the city to stock up with some essentials. It wasn't until we left there that I gave Sean our sat navigator a severe dressing down for some poor directions. At one point I threatened him with changing him for Star Wars character and that seemed to do the trick as he pulled his socks up and got us to our destination without any further drama.
We pitched up at Camperpark Cartagena and were met by the lovely Teresa who showed us too our pitch with such exuberance that we took her our bosom's instantaneously, especially after she commented it was only €10 per night. We were set up and sat out in the sunshine, books at the ready in world record time. We were sited about 30 metres from a couple who were on the same rally as us in Clacton. In the motorhome fraternity it's a small world and even though we are a long way from our Sceptre'd Isle we are surrounded by our fellow countrymen.
One of said countrymen was a chap called Martin with accompanying partner Jane. We got chatting as they had the same make and model of van as ours. The two vans were almost identical apart from ours being a two berth and theirs being a four. They were worried about their calor gas running out and I told them what they needed to do to acquire a Spanish bottle of propano and showed them how to back fill from the barbecue point and what kind of adapter they would need and in return Martin supplied me with some industrial strength cleaner called "truck wash" that is only available in the trade. Their van was gleaming white compared to our recently washed for hours shade of mucky off white. The aforementioned cleaning product will soon be put to the test.
As the sun went down below the high trees the temperature plummeted as seems to be the norm at this time of year. First of all jumpers and cardigans were donned but then inevitably everyone returned to the comfort of their vans. Earlier in the day when the wifi signal was strong I took a rather sneaky advantage and downloaded a couple of Netflix films onto the iPad. We got approximately halfway through "The Theory of Everything" which is about the early life of Professor Stephen Hawking and his time at Cambridge before tiredness got the better of us and we called it a night. Not before making a date to watch the other half tomorrow. Brilliant.
10 January 2017
Another throng of dogs seemed to congregate for an hour of harmony at about three in the morning. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing as it broke a dream. Sean had somehow managed to get on the outside of the windscreen and I was trying to deal with numerous complex roundabouts whilst shouting at him for directions. I managed to pull up, grabbed a leafy branch from the ground and was giving him a sound beating in true Basil Fawlty style when the dream was broken.
When we woke in the light of morning it was relatively cold made even more chilly with the westerly wind. Val was not her usual vivacious self do to the effects of a nasty migraine from the night before. We abandoned our plans to get the number 7 bus into the city and had a comparatively lazy day.
It gave me the chance to boot up the lap top and load all the updates that had built up over the three months since it's last use. We have been getting messages fro the Tom Tom telling that it has not been updated for seven months and when I plugged it into the laptop it took the best part of two and a half hours to sort itself out. Perhaps Sean could see into the ether and was on a go slow after my dream in the night.
The New York trips planning necessitated Lisa and Val having to Face Time for what felt like the whole afternoon. The activities they discussed would need five trips to achieve never mind five days. The discussion had lots of positive outcomes as they seemed to get clear in their minds some of the priorities and more importantly it spared us any exposure to the elements as it was still cold outside the van and gave me the chance to get stock into season two of a Netflix series I'd been watching.
As darkness started to descend we were going stir crazy with lack of physical activity so we donned some apt garments to keep us warm and headed out for a walk. We got all the way through the sites gate and about ten yards onto the road with no footpath with speeding drivers on their way home from work before we returned to the safety of our enclosure. Plan be was to head off into the olive grove behind the site. It was pretty dark but not dark enough to hide the fence surrounding the orchard. Still we did get about fifteen minutes exercise and could save our reserves of energy for tomorrow's trip into the city.
After a gargantuan chilly-con-carne we started to watch the series "The Crown". Not being a royalist myself it's beyond my comprehension why people get it such an excessive state of perturbation. It's not as if any one of them had the silky skills of say, Eric Cantona. The show however, was entertaining and the ex Dr Who, who portrayed Prince Phillip's cheeky character to a tee played an exceptional part. I suppose it was to be expected from a previous time lord.
The rest of the evening was spent keeping up to date with Manchester United's semi final. The strength of our wifi signal which had fortunately curtailed the watching of "The Crown" had returned to enable me to listen to the second half of the match on Talk Sport. I put it down to the Rowan luck. With that it was time to hit the sack and hopefully get a solid nights sleep without being woken by the hound of the Baskerville's.
11 January 2017
We woke to glorious sunshine after a solid nights sleep, ready to get underway for a day of glorious sightseeing. We followed our host Teresa's directions and diagrammatic map to the bus stop where I asked a young Spanish señorita for directions. Her English was at about the same level as my Spanish and I have absolutely no doubt that she could fluently order two beers in any pub in the UK but I knew we were at the right stop when she held up seven fingers. We boarded the number seven bus for a €1.20 ride into the city alighting at Plaza de Esplana. The nice señorita had smiled and waived at us when she got off a few steps earlier.
We had been given a map of by our new found friends Martin & Clare before they departed for pastures new. It wasn't until we started to look round the sights that we realised the map was in French. Val was undeterred and embraced the task of map reading like an erudite professor and guided us round the sights with unerring accuracy. The spot she selected on the map to stop for tapas and cania had magnificent meatballs in a delicious sauce. Mmmmm.
At the end of our tour she even guided us back to the bus stop with military precision and within minutes we were making the return journey. Our first problem of the day arose when the bus reached the terminus and we hadn't recognised where to get off. Cometh the hour cometh the man. Yours truly with the help of a little app called maps.me guided us back to site.
With the sun well below its zenith and getting lower by the minute we moved to the communal table at the far end of the site. First we were joined by some Belgians and then by a couple of Scot's named SGlen& Kate. No sooner had they sat down than I was pondering possible escape options. They could both talk the hind legs off a donkey and had no problem with talking at the same time. You know what it's like when you only concentrate for the first few sentences and then you allow yourself to become distracted and then when the couple who are doing all the talking suddenly pause waiting for a response, fear sets in as you realise you haven't the faintest idea of what's been said. All that nodding the head whilst thinking about what Val's making for dinner suddenly leaves you with the imponderable question of what to say. A good coughing fit always does the trick. Sandy and Kate obviously had never had to wait so long before leading the conversation that they were off and running again so I was saved the need for a reply.
We sloped off as soon as we felt it would not be rude to leave, standing at the next pause and making the excuse that we hadn't eaten since last Thursday we quickly retired to the safety of the van.
After a feast of prawns, salad and fried potatoes washed down with a glass or two of vino tinto we watched the second half of the film about humorous and brilliant, professor Stephen Hawking and then as the wifi was flowing freely the last part of episode one of The Crown. Not a bad day on planet earth.
12 January 2017
We said goodbye to the lovely Teresa promising to return. Well we wanted to make her happy. We set Sean's coordinates for an aire at Calla Reona and he did his best to get us there. He did his usual trick of failing to notice something fundamental and tried to send us through a no entry sign so I threatened him with Darth Vader and he pulled out all the stops to get us to our destination without any more hiccups. Unfortunately, our potential camping spot was fenced off through no fault of Sean's.
We adopted plan B and set sail for a lighthouse in Cabo de Palos with a large car park. There were a few other vans there and a Swedish couple we chatted with had spent the previous night. We had a walk up to the lighthouse and a stroll round the village which felt deserted. The car park wasn't flat so we decided to move on.
There was a wild camping spot about 20 km away, up the peninsula through La Manga and at the far end of San Javier. The whole place felt like a concrete wilderness that had closed for winter. Every cloud has a silver lining so they say and ours was no exception. Our stop for the night had a fantastic view of the Mediterranean and was in walking of a bar that was well and truly open. The normally extortion price of €3.50 for a cerveza grande felt as cheap as chips for the warm euphoric feeling that first sip generated. We only stayed for one though at those prices.
We returned to the van to make a refreshing cup of tea. Once the decision had been made to stay the night it was only a matter of time before we took part in the ritual of afternoon tea. After all it's an Englishman's heritage and the only true way to announce that you have arrived. I was in that kind of mood I even made a second cup. Earl grey, just to be totally civilised. Bliss.
Our sunset for the day was stunning, it descended over the lagoon to our rear. It almost matched watching the sun go down over Morecambe Bay. It was shortly followed by the moon appearing on the horizon in front of us which cast a bright light on the ocean. We tried to take photographs of both events but the iPad didn't do them justice.
After a delicious three course meal I had another cup of tea. It was just that kind day. Our evenings entertainment was another Netflix movie that I had downloaded before we left Cartagena this morning. It was a frightening film about Genetically Modified Foods called Consumed. It left one concerned about what we eat and the scant regard for regulation. Too serious a topic just before bedtime. A bit of light reading of a humorous works wonders to help one relax.
San Javier Wild Camping: 37°46′35.88″N 00°44′36.67″W
13 January 2017
We switched the fridge onto 12 volt and left our spot with the beautiful vista's and programmed Sean to take us back along the 20 km peninsula, surely he couldn't get that wrong, after all it's a straight road. Any mistakes this morning and replace him I must. Yoda, I will download.
Our first stop was at La Manga Camping for a good nosey around. It's a popular spot with Camping & Caravan Club members and we wanted to see what all the hullabaloo was about. It was a big site with lots of facilities and might be a good spot to have the grandchildren, although not this year as the rally is already booked up until the back end of March. We liked the look of the site though and it will be a contender for next year if we end up visiting this area.
Our next port of call was at the Lidl in Los Alcazarez. Thankfully the supermarkets don't break for a siesta and we managed to do a big shop. I'm quite happy with the concept of having a lie down after lunch and as soon as we pitched up at the campsite up the road I did just that. No sooner had we stopped than the recliners were out and as it was a bit early for afternoon tea I embraced the concept of being a European and reclined. Zzzzzzzz
The actual site was full but it had an overflow area. €7.90 for a spot with no electricity but you could use all the facilities of the site. We will make full use of them in the morning before either moving on or staying another day. Comme se comme sa.
Camping Car Area Narejos: €11.90 + €3 for electricity. To stay on the overflow area: €7.90 - 37°45′48.79″N 00°49′54.15″W
We managed to wake up and get a bit of reading in and caught plenty of rays before the sun went down on another day. We retired to the van for some dinner and an evenings entertainment but not before making use of the washing machines on site.
We did manage to watch Tom Hanks in the movie Captain Phillips. Somalia pirates with Navy Seals to the rescue. All that before drawing the curtains on another day in paradise.
14 January 2017
Another day dawned on two intrepid explorers seeking a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life back in Blighty, even if only for a few months. After making maximum use of the facilities available to us including the look warm showers we moved on to pastures new. Well, about a kilometre down to the beach where we had been told there were a few motorhomers wild camping with the generous approval of the local mayor. The bonus was we didn't even have to plug Sean in for any directions as we were confident we could find the place without listening to his Irish wit.
Plan B was soon implemented as we couldn't find the Wild camping spot. No sooner had we attached Sean to the windscreen than we happened upon a street market selling produce, clothing and assorted paraphernalia. Val wanted to have a butchers so we parked up and visited the market. Two cauliflowers, half a dozen oranges and a rake of tomatoes for for less than €3, what a bargain.
Santiago de la Rebira was our next port of call. We had a stroll along along the promenade which was not altogether an wholesome attraction owing to the cold breeze. We had a walk round the shops and then noticed a very modern looking Church. The inside of the building was just as attractive and if I was still a practicing Catholic I would have a wickedly strong attraction to attend mass there. One thing we have found strange about the churches we have looked round is their unwillingness to let go of Christmas. This was another place with its nativity scene still on display.
We moved on again in search of the mud baths at Lo Pagan. Sean did us proud and put us within 200 metres of our target. It was a lovely little village which seemed to be sheltered from the wind. There was a lovely windmill and an extremely long pier wide enough for cars, cyclist and pedestrians. There were short wooden boardwalks that let you access the healing waters and mud, not that anybody was bathing at this time of year.
We headed north staying as close to the sea as was possible. We were rewarded at a small village called El Mojo where we spotted a few vans congregated off the main drag, our home for the night was found. Wild Camping: 37°51′06.5″N 00°45′49.91″
We followed the old adage that there is safety in numbers and joined the congregation.
After parking up Val suggested we went for a walk along the beach. I took her hand along the sand (there's a song in there somewhere) and we ended up at Torre de la Horadada about 2.5 km up the coast. We took some snaps of the Tower and the beautiful Marina and had a walk round the village which seemed to be shut for the winter. The only actively was around the square where there were two or three watering holes still open. On the walk back we witnessed the fish jumping with a swarm of birds trying to have a feeding frenzy. It must be the fish equivalent of running the bulls at Pamplona, risking life and limb for some strange ritual. It's only the second time in our lives we have seen the phenomenon, the first was in New Zealand when we were sat outside a beach bar. We wouldn't have known what was happening but for one of the locals explaining what was taking place.
When we got back to the van I got some of the devices on charge to ensure we had something in the locker for for the evenings entertainment. I've become ridiculously obsessed with preserving our leisure batteries and try to plug in what needs charging whilst the sun is still topping them up via the solar panel. When the sun goes down I become vampire like in my desire to bite if someone leaves a light on unnecessarily. I don't go for the neck I bite the whole head off.
Talking of bites. We went out for a bite to eat to a bar restaurant that we'd spotted on our walk, unfortunately when we got there it was closed. So it was back to the van and as it was too late too cook a proper meal Val managed to rustle up a gastronomic delight, well a delicious omelette at least. We then got stuck in to our final downloaded film The Hunger Games, but we were dozing off not even half way through so we pressed the pause and will have a bit of a rewind tomorrow night when we hopefully have a bit more vigour and vim. Zzzzzzzzz
15 January 2017
I've been predicting for days that our calor bottle wound run out and this morning my astrological forecasting skills were confirmed. We were salivating after just putting the pan on to boil some water for our second cup of tea when, as I predicted, the gas ran out.
We packed up in good time and programmed Sean with the coordinates for La Zenia choosing the shortest route. He pulled out a sterling performance and we were parked up and were enjoying a seaside walk along a series of boardwalks and concrete paths, taking in the lovely coastal vistas in no time at all.
La Mata was our next stop at a wild camping spot: 38°01′02.6″N 00°39′18.3″W. The Motorhome's that were already there were all parked down one side of the car park with not a space left. We felt uncomfortable parking at the other side as there were cars dotted around so we made the unanimous decision to hang around for five minutes to see if anybody moved off and low and behold our luck was in. Just as we were about to leave one of the vans moved. It was like showing a red rag to a bull. I was out of the proverbial traps and into the space before you could say Jack Robinson, which was a feat in itself as I had to turn the van round so that the cabin door was facing the sun. You can always tell a British van because it's always parked in the opposite direction to the European ones.
Once we set up we went in search of a restaurant to have Sunday lunch, preferably with two or three musicians to serenade us as we ate. There were two restaurants just round the corner on the promenade but Val deemed them not suitable so we set off on foot along the boardwalks back in the direction of Torrevieja. We marched as fast as two hungry sexagenarians could but after about forty five minutes and two more restaurants later (menu del dia €39) we turned round and headed back to the van. Sunday lunch out would have to wait another week.
Once back, Val created more than an omelette, it really was a gastronomic sensation of pork chops in a mushroom sauce served with cauliflower, carrots and sautéed potatoes washed down with a bottle of Arestel Cava. There were no musicians to serenade us so we improvised with Heart Radio Berkshire.
We followed the United vs Liverpool on the Sky Sports app with an update every two minutes as the wifi we have purchased with "3" is either 3, 4 or 5G and not fast enough to deliver TV or radio. Watching wouldn't have been enjoyable as we trailed for most of the game. It was bite your fingernails excruciating even with the two minute updates.
When the game was over and Val had caught up with some admin we settled in for a rerun of last nights movie as we couldn't keep our eyes open to see it through. We watched Katniss Everdeen ably supporting the districts battle against the Capital, where Donald Sutherland played the evil President Snow. It could just as easily been Star Wars and Luke Skywalker battling Darth Vader and the forces of the Dark Side. It was a pain free experience and kept us amused for a couple of hours and we can look forward to Mockingjay Part II with the same eager anticipation as we did with Part I. It might be a year or two after its release that we get to watch it but that won't take anything away from our satisfaction and pleasure. One sad thing is that Phillip Seymour is no longer with us. He played the part of the disc jockey "The Count" so magnificently well in The Boat The Rocked. With that, another day drew to a close and it was time to enter the dream zone.
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