Friday 28 February - Salir to Armicao de Pera

We decided to use all the allowed 3 days at Salir, mainly because it was free (including electric!) but also because there was some rain forecast and we thought we'd be better off staying here rather than take a chance on finding somewhere suitable, knowing just how crowded with motorhomes Portugal (and Spain) is. As mentioned we enjoyed a nice lunch with John and his wife at a quite busy restaurant in the village on Wednesday, leaving Jamie to his own devices in a well-ventilated and shaded Bertie. This has never been a problem before and wasn't now, we don't make any fuss when we leave, just make sure he has water and a couple of treats. He gets attention on our return, of course, and he seems to be quite happy with that.

The forecast rain arrived bang on time according to Ventusky, our reliable weather app, however we'd already packed away everything we didn't need. So it was a rather wet start to Friday but we managed to do all the chores between the gradually reducing showers and with the van fully serviced we departed this excellent camperstop. We had debated which direction to go and the weather forecast suggested we'd probably be better off heading down to and along the south coast so we started towards Loule, the regional market town and of course without satnav we got a bit tied up in the centre although eventually we found our way out and down to the coast, the rain now slowly being replaced with sunshine.

We began a look at Villamoura but then remembered this was a very modern holiday resort with mostly apartments and nothing for us so turned around and headed for Albufeira, looking out for reasonably priced fuel along the way. We have been here before and had forgotten how spread out the town was but nevertheless continued to wander through on a mainish road, stopping off at a Galp fuel station and paying a lot more than in Spain, the best we saw was €1.86 (£1.51) per litre. We did recall reading somewhere that Spain has been censured by the EU as it hasn't implemented the taxes proscribed, making fuel a lot cheaper than elsewhere, as we've found.

We had a look at a motorhome stopover that showed up in one of our apps but it was, as expected, ram jam full, so just meandered on, also discarding a beach parking area that definitely wasn't suitable (nobody there either!). Deciding to rejoin the N125, the main coastal road, we spotted a campsite that looked okay so, on a whim, thought we'd go and check. Yes, they did have room and it turned out to be much larger than was apparent from the road and not at all expensive at €18.50 p.n. including electricity so we booked in for 3 nights to take us over the weekend. We've found it's better to be parked up earlier on a Friday and stay put as, especially in Spain, the locals come out in force at the weekend!

We found plenty of pitches, about half in hedged spaces with the rest spread out over a wider area. As is often the case there were many semi-permanent caravans and a few motorhomes, all with awnings, extra tents etc but we found ourselves a spot on the edge of the site in one of the closed off pitches which looked to get quite a lot of sunshine throughout the day. After lunch we took Jamie for a walk around the site, noting the well-placed sanitation facilities, restaurant, bar, swimming pools and a well-stocked mini-market where we bought ice creams. Then back to the van for some sunshine although it wasn't as warm as we'd become used to.

The weather forecast is becoming our planner and it looks like it's going to be a bit unsettled for the next few days but we have everything we need so this'll do us for now.

Tuesday 25 February - Huelva to Salir

The traffic didn't stop until very late and restarted early in the morning. But that didn't matter because we were both up at various times during the night to see to a somewhat poorly puppy with a dicky tummy, needing to poo every hour or so. Or, well, trying to. He'd had very little to eat over the last 24 hours, not we hasten to say, an unusual occurrence, but maybe travelling again after a couple of weeks upset him. But he did eventually give us a couple of hours respite so that it was close to our normal surfacing time when we could no longer ignore the traffic noise.

No rush today as we haven't very far to travel so as there was nothing to hold us up we engaged TomTom and headed towards Portugal. But now, as forecast, the previously fine weather faltered and as we proceeded west it started to rain. We were also reminded yesterday that the roads in this part of Spain seemed to be suffering from some neglect as, although they obviously started out to be very good, many surfaces were starting to break up and we spent a lot of attention on avoiding the worst of the potholes, not all of them successfully, but we don't seem to have sustained any damage. Before long we crossed the huge bridge into Portugal, stopping to register with the automatic road toll system (though we have no intention of using toll roads, it's a legal requirement) then turned off towards the N125 coast road, well known to us from previous visits. With the weather unable to make its mind up we later turned north into the hills, climbing as far as the cloud base before dropping down again, our maps pointing out that this was a scenic route, with which we could not disagree. The rain eventually stopped with signs of the clouds clearing away.

John, Eds brother, lives in the town (well big village really) of Salir, well inland and north of Loule, itself north of Faro. A check of our camping apps showed a motorhome parking area there which turned out to be very smart and have all facilities, including electrical hookup, and very unusually was totally free! It even has a very helpful and laid-back, multi-lingual guardian who made us very welcome. The only restriction was that a visit was limited to 3 nights, plenty enough for us. It's difficult to see what the town gets from providing such generosity as it doesn't seem to have anything particularly going for it and is well off the beaten track. It is quite pretty however and the surrounding countryside very picturesque. Whatever, our thanks go out to the community and we'll try to put something back in. Meanwhile we selected a nice pitch and settled in, noticing that most of the 36 pitches were occupied - the guardian did say that it was a lot busier than yesterday, another good reason for arriving early in the day, it being around 12.30.

Lunch then a quick call to John telling him of our arrival and arranging to meet up for lunch tomorrow before getting the chairs out and once more soaking up some sunshine. The forecast is good for a few days so we'll make the most of it before deciding what to do next.

Monday 24 February - El Puerto de Santa Maria to Huelva

We've been at Camping Las Dunas for two weeks now, probably the longest we've stayed anywhere, so it's time to move on. Much of our gear was packed away yesterday leaving the basics to be finished off today. However Jamie decided that he needed to go out a couple of times which saw Terry wandering around the campsite in the dead of night with a poo bag! 7.30am saw us both up, cleaning him up after a particularly messy episode, so we just gave up and made a cuppa before getting the day started properly. We had decided on an early start anyway but.......

After breakfast we packed away the final bits of equipment, refilled the water tank and pumped the suspension back up. On the rear springs we have air-assist but when we stop it tends to stretch a bit so we let most of the air out which keeps the van level, just have to remember to pump it back up again or we get a very odd ride! Then after watching an inept Belgian almost reverse into another motorhome, despite screams and shouts from  other onlookers, we followed said Belgian round to the waste dump station where he couldn't seem to make his mind up which of the two to use. So we made it up for him and did ours first. He seemed a bit miffed!

Then with all the formalities already completed we simply drove out of the campsite and headed for our first stop, a large Mercadona supermarket on the edge of town. On this occasion we were following Google Maps on the phone but it sent us around in circles so, as TomTom wasn't doing any better, we found our own way out of the town until Google sorted itself out. Then with the larder fully replenished we headed out onto the A4 autovia to Cadiz. Cadiz? We wanted Seville which is the other way. So Terry switched his brain back on and 15km later we were on the right road in beautiful sunshine. Until once again a moment of inattention resulted in us missing the turn TomTom was giving us, but not to worry, we did exactly the same thing last year so carried on the N4 until we eventually got back onto our route.

Not unexpectedly, as it was lunchtime, it got busier the closer we got to Seville but we picked up signs showing an alternative route which avoided the inner ring road and ongoing roadworks on and around the big bridge then took us through the docks area, which we recalled we also did last year, before joining the autovia west towards Portugal. We paused at a service area for a latish lunch and also to review our plans for overnighting. We had agreed to meet up with our friend Eds brother who lives on the Algarve and had selected a motorhome parking place near his home. However we felt that it was now a bit far to go, bearing in mind trying to find a place late in the day in our experience wasn't a good idea. So Bren got busy with our campsite apps and found a couple in the port city of Huelva, just short of the Portuguese border. Google Maps seemed to be having a bad day so we pulled over to programme TomTom who took us to a very pleasant street parking area alongside the river where we joined a couple of other motorhomes, just squeezing into the only available space, although of course later in the day many of the parked cars left.

It's probably worth commenting that it is quite permissible to park a motorhome almost anywhere in Spain, even overnight, provided it is not causing an obstruction and, obviously, there are no local regulations prohibiting it. The main rule is that there must be no "camping behaviour", for example putting out tables and chairs, barbeques or erecting awnings, or discharging waste. However there is no rule forbidding sleeping inside. So provided you are careful and considerate you will usually be left alone, unless a number of campers all congregate and turn it into a makeshift campsite. It then only takes one complaint and the local police will come along and move you on. However one or two isolated motorhomes are most often left alone by patrolling police.

But I digress. The only problem with this spot was that it was on a fairly busy road and it continued to be so well into the evening, not helped by being located next to a "sleeping policeman" where every vehicle slowed right down and then accelerated away again! But it did quieten down, but as for it being an undisturbed night..............

Some Photos

To be honest most of the places we've been to on this trip we've visited, and photographed, before so haven't really bothered much.

So in response to popular demand a small collage of odd photos we've taken at El Puerto de Santa Maria.

 

Camping Las Dunas

0

The "new" roadbridge into Cadiz

Wild camping area along the way

Jamie and ball

Beach at El Puerto de Santa Maria

Beach at El Puerto de Santa Maria

Guardian

Nice sunshiny pitch

Beach at El Puerto de Santa Maria

 

Monday 17 February

An update just so you know we're still alive!

As we said in the last post we did not have any plans to do anything more than enjoy the sunshine and happily that's what we've been doing. We have been blessed with lovely weather with temperatures up to 19C during the day, although it has been quite low overnight. We have an excellent pitch giving us full sunshine almost all day and as there has been nothing more than a very light breeze the sun loungers have been well utilised!

There is a beautiful beach just across the road from the campsite and Jamie has enjoyed several romps, chasing a ball and paddling in the sea, usually with Terry close behind as he has a tendency to leave the ball in the water......

We have made a couple of forays into the edge of the town, firstly to find a hairdresser for Bren and today to the local Mercadonna supermarket to restock the fridge. As both were within walking distance there's been no need to move Bertie. There was also a flea market ouside the campsite yesterday which we went and had a look at but it was nothing more than a Spanish car boot sale. In the past when we've visited here we know there has been a nearby street market so we'll ask at Reception next time we're that way.

This is a very busy and popular site and we've seen lots of comings and goings with vans from almost all of Europe, although Germans and Dutch are the clear majority. There are a few "long-termers" around as well.

So we're just going to continue our present regime until it is time to leave. We're booked until next Monday so unless anything of note arises, we'll see you then.

Monday 10 February - Castellar de la Frontera to El Puerto de Santa Maria

Not much happened yesterday apart from noisy Spaniards enjoying their Sunday - there appeared to be a group of them in motorhomes plus a caravan but thankfully they all cleared off during the afternoon and peace descended once again.

So today we move up to our reserved pitch at Camping Las Dunas in El Puerto de Santa Maria (just going to be called El Puerto from now on!). Breakfast, and we ran out of water but no matter, we managed to do the washing up, before setting off back to Algeciras where we needed to get a new leash for Jamie as the buckle broke. A quick call inevitably into Mercadonna as there's always something we need.

That done we headed back onto the A7 then shortly the A381 north to Los Barrios where we refilled the gas bottles and then settled down to a steady hour and a half drive north. Road was quite quiet but they haven't done any repairs to it so a lot of the time was dodging broken surfaces, some of which looked to have been "repaired" more than once. We could have taken the coastal road but it is much slower so we let TomTom make the decisions. Eventually we turned off towards El Puerto, picking up a Guardia (police) tail until well into the town, then worked our way round to the campsite.

As we had already made, and paid, our reservation checkin was very quick and we were soon escorted to our pitch in the main centre of the site. We were lucky to be given a place in full sun with few trees to obstruct it and settled in. It was soon pullovers off, mat down, chairs out and fill the water tank then lunch and that's it! 

We have no plans to do much of anything for the next two weeks, apart from the usual domestics (we've a big pile of laundry to do), a visit to the Mercadonna supermarket next weekend and taking Jamie onto the fabulous beach just outside the campsite gates. So for the moment we won't be publishing a daily blog, just update as and when we think there's something to report.

Saturday 8 February

As forecast it rained overnight but had dried up when we surfaced and took Jamie for his early morning ablutions. Most of the vans had left earlier so the car park was now quite empty. After breakfast Bren checked out the row of shops for some bits and pieces, particularly some of Jamies favourite treats we had run out of.

There is a Plenoil station here so we took the opportunity of once again refilling with incredibly cheap fuel, £1.13 per litre, then across to Carrefour to top up the larder prior to our stay at El Puerto de Santa Maria near Cadiz from Monday. That done we drove 20mins up to the aire at Castellar de la Frontera and emptied the waste and loo before parking up in a corner in the sunshine. Seems the water had been disconnected, a shame as we could have done with a top up but we should be okay until Monday.We do  have a couple of large bottles of water as a backup.

Latish lunch then, as we were getting excellent input from the solar panels, Terry spent the afternoon catching up on this blog (which is why there's a sudden rash of posts!). There's plenty of room to exercise Jamie so we'll stay here until Monday. During the afternoon the already half full aire saw more arriving although it never actually filled up completely. Unfortunately most of the newcomers were Spanish who were obviously meeting up for the weekend so it got a bit noisy. We chased off a Spanish campervan who was trying to park in the narrow space between us and the wall despite there being a perfectly adequate parking bay literally right next to them albeit at 90 degrees. If we'd let her stay she would have blocked off access to two other spaces!

A lot warmer this evening than of late so we didn't bother with the screens.

We have been checking the current exchange rate, always making our purchases in Euros, and we are seeing €1.20 / £1.00. Excellent, wonder how long it will last?

Friday 7 February - Casabermeja to Algeciras

Yes, very cold! Even Jamie wasn't interested in getting up early! But the new heater is very efficient until the sun gets up and another lovely day beckons. We had no company overnight although a pair of Dutch vans arrived as we were getting ready to depart at 11.00ish.

Back onto the autovia and down to Malaga to rejoin the A7, this time our destination being Algeciras. Once again very busy, much the same as yesterday but when the sun is shining and you are passing through attractive scenery who cares? It was only a relatively short run today and we chose Algeciras as overnighting wouldn't be a problem and we coud take our pick of several large supermarkets to stock up from pending our arrival at El Puerto de Santa Maria on Monday. 

So we chose to use the Mercadonna end of the huge parking area, Bren calling in for a baguette for lunch and coming back with a full shopping bag! Lunch and then a lazy afternoon watching the parking fill up with dozens of motorhomes of all nationalities, type and condition - we're sure some of them have never seen a vehicle testing station! 

Took Jamie out for his final walkies for the evening and it looked like we were on the edge of a huge campsite, although strangely it was almost empty when we got up on Saturday. We put this down to Algeciras being the recognised jumping-off spot for Morocco with the vast majority of ferries leaving from the port. This means there are plenty of ticket agencies around but the favourite still seems to be Carlos at Voyages Normandie who we noticed has moved to a much bigger office.

Thursday 6 February - Palomares to Casabermeja

A lazy start, once Bren had sorted Jamie at 7.30, to another bright sunny day which had once again started off as rather cool. During breakfast we were approached by an Irish motorhomer, asking for assistance with a flat battery, which of course we were happy to do if he didn't mind waiting until we were leaving - no problem. Once we were all sorted we went across, got him started and had a brief chat during which we discovered his wife was responsible for naming The Wild Atlantic Way. He told us where they lived, which we noted, and told us we'd be very welcome if we were passing.

Our plan today was to head south west along the coast to somewhere around Malaga. Going inland via Granada would have been faster but the weather forecast was not good that way and we later saw that the Sierra Nevada, the mountain range close to that city, was covered in snow - it was plenty cold enough where we were thankyou!

Back onto the A7. From hereon the A7 meets and diverges several times with the AP7 autopista toll road so gets very busy, passing through many coastal towns. Tourism is of course the main occupation in this part of Spain with rows of apartments and all the supporting industry. Unfortunately some of the driving leaves much to be desired and half the time it's a matter of trying to work out just what they intend to do. Coupled with wildly varying speed limits this is an intensive driving experience.

Nevertheless we survived, pausing at a signposted Aldi near Almerimar for lunch before starting to consider our overnight stop. We thought Malaga would be a good target distance so Bren spent a little time in researching our campsite apps. However, as we learned from a newspaper article, motorhoming has expanded out of all proportion in Spain and it soon became evident that we had little hope of finding anywhere on or near the coast.

Although the current news carries many reports of Spanish cities clamping down on tourists, they are mainly aimed at fixed letting accomodation, such as AirBNB, which means there is no reasonably priced housing for locals, and you can understand their anger. But nobody seems yet to have noticed that the country is also being swamped with motorhome and camper travellers for whom very little provision is being made, certainly not on any scale. There are a few enterprising individuals who have taken note and provide good quality "camperstops", places where you can stay short term with proper facilities, but we've not seen any new full campsites. As far as we can see it is necessary to make early prior reservation to have any hope of staying in a particular place. We forecast that it won't be too long before there is a national clampdown and Spain, certainly the Costas, will become a no-go area for the likes of us.

But I digress. In the past we have looked at places a little way from the popular coastal resorts and to this end Bren found a couple heading into the mountain area north of Malaga. We decided to take our chance on a likely candidate, although with no services, and programmed TomTom. It turned out to be the large parking area for a local sports facility on the edge of the village of Casabermeja with loads of room and no other motorhome so we picked a likely spot and planted ourselves for the night. Nothing there except fabulous scenery, it's only downside for us was the motorway in the valley below was very audible although once buttoned up we hardly could hear it.

But it's already pretty cold.........

Wednesday 5 February - San Fulgencio to Palomares

Walked Jamie early then breakfast followed by a chat with D & J. Intention is for them to return to the casa and we'll follow along before leaving them at the Tebar hotel to continue our holiday. A lot of messing about before we finally got on the road at 11.50, far later than we really wanted, but hey ho, we don't need to be anywhere soon.

With TomTom in charge we took a cross-country route back to the A7 heading for Murcia then Almeira, initially quite a busy road again. However we must have missed a turn or something because we found ourselves in serious roadworks, which we had not encountered northbound, going in circles before finally stopping and asking a policeman. Despite him only speaking Spanish we deduced which way to go and finally regained the A7 - Derek later told us he tried to warn us but we missed that.

So eventually we arrived in Lorca and refuelled at the Plenoil there (£1.13pl) before the quick run towards Aguilas. We stopped at the hotel as planned, said our farewells and pushed on, first to Aguilas where we paused for a very late lunch, then on to Anibels, the motorhome service station, where we emptied the waste and refilled with water, all for the princely sum of €3 - there ought to be more of these places!

It now being much later than we'd hoped we decided to return to Palomares and the wild camping area so set off, although again something went wrong with the directions. We came up behind a funeral cortege just before a turning to Palomares, which we took, but then so did the funeral and we were stuck behind them at 30kph all the way to the cemetery - in Palomares!

However we were now totally lost with no road signs, just small agricultural farm roads in every direction. Hoping for the best we headed generally tiowards the sea and unexpectedly came out right opposite the wild camping area we stayed at a few nights ago! We returned to the spot we had occupied, noting that our "neighbours" were still there and gratefully anchored down for the night.

Tuesday 4 February - San Fulgencio

A quiet night, Jamie lasting until a reasonable time for a change with a pleasant walk as yet another lovely day got under way. Derek and June appeared to have spent a pleasant night, only finding a couple of very minor niggles, so after breakfast we had a quick trip into the town itself to exchange some currency then returned to the local Mercadonna supermarket for supplies then the local China Shop for, well, whatever was needed. Returned to our parking spot but removed to the other side of the road as we had managed to park right next to the campsite toilet dump............

The afternoon was spent investigating things and planning our next move. J & D decided to return to Aguilas to collect some more things then close the place up ready to travel home. We decided to accompany them as far as the Tebar hotel where we would say byebye before continuing on our own trip.

To finish off we went to the San Fulgencio Fish and Chip shop; at first Terry was a little dubious but on arrival it looked as the food was as traditionally UK as it could be so we all enjoyed cod, chips and garden peas with of course bread and butter. A bit expensive but we did also have drinks and a very nice pudding each! Then back to the parking area for an earlyish night.

Monday 3 February - Aguilas to San Fulgencio

Early wake up call but as it was only just starting to get light put the heating on and went back to bed! At a much more civilised time emerged into another sunny and rapidly warming up day to get ready for our main purpose we've been hanging around the area, to take our friends to collect their new motorhome. So after breakfast we loaded up a few things they'd need then all aboard for the 2 hour run tio Elche. There was no rush as the appointment wasn't until 4.00pm so we had an unhurried drive along a very busy A7 autovia, arriving around 1.30pm. As expected it was closed so we went off in search of lunch.

It appears that Caravanas Cruze is a large dealer who are currently hosting a large exhibition in another locality and all of their staff are there so everything is by appointment.

"I know a good place" quoth he - but it was closed on Monday so frartther than scratch around looking for somewhere we just parked up and raided our plentiful supplies to kill time. As we arrived back to the dealer they were just opening up for us and we spent the next hour or so doing the handover of a very nice French built A-Class, not our particular cup of tea but what our friends wanted.

Once done the plan was to spend a couple of nights not too far away as a "shakedown" in case there were any problems. It is their intention to return to the UK almost immdeiately to collect all their "gear" as well as a medical appontment, so they wanted to make sure all was okay before they left. So we decided to head for an old haunt at San Fulgencio where, if we couldn't get on a site of some sort, we could wild camp around there. Only about 20 minutes and, as expected, everywhere was full so we chose a quiet spot on a side street and settled down. Bren provided an evening meal for all four of us as obviously they had no equipment as such.

Sunday 2 February - Aguilas

 2.15 callout but peace thereafter until a latish start as it's Sunday. Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs again.

Once again a cool start but warming up quickly with the sun. After breakfast we were taken to Aguilas for a looksee and to get some cash. Parked on a very bust harbour and a short walk into the central plaza, noting that all the restaurants were full of Spanish families doing what they do on Sundays. We'd heard bells, trumpets and drums and upon entering the square we walked into a celebration of the local saint, who had been paraded around the town in/on/whatever a huge silver coffin carried by a dozen men. Carried back into the church the crowd dispersed and we managed to get cash from an ATM, for a change being offered our selection of notes rather than all €50 - have you ever tried to buy a coffee with a £50 note?

Speaking of coffee, we found a cafe in a nice sunny spot for cafe con leche and watched the world go by before strolling back to the car and returning to base where Jamie was patiently waiting - we left him because there was no room for his cage and he would not travel otherwise. No matter because it doesn't seem to bother him.

Aguilas is not a big town although it does have quite a lot of commercial and industrial devlopment around it together with, of course, areas of holiday accomodation.

More chat then an earlyish night. We've been so lucky with the weather, almost continuous bright sunshine with light breezes giving temperatures up to around 18C during the day, if closer to freezing overnight.

Saturday 1 February - Palomares to Aguilas

No disturbances and up to another lovely day although still quite cool until the sun gets up. Nice long walk, accidentally 'cos we got sort of lost, then later after breakfast we went onto the beach, such as it was, to let his lordsahip have a paddle and run around.

Our plan is to meet up with our friends for lunch at the Tebar Hotel so once everything was cleared away we set off, initially into Palomares itself in search of an ATM. However the machine didn't seem to want to know any of our cards so we left it for now. A lovely run along the coast to Aguilas with lots of motorhomes parked up in every available space.

Arrived at the hotel bang on time for a leisurely lunch then up to "the tin shed" as Derek so fondly puts it, taking every care whilst reersing in not to take the water drain tap off again! The rest of the afternoon was just enjoying the sunshine, the beautiful view and good company until the sun dropped behind a cloud and it suddenly went distinctly cool. A light tea then more chat finished the day off perfectly.