Landed

News No 6

We followed the coast west for a few miles, and when we had been about 20 miles in the whole day we stopped beside the sea again at a 'freecamp', along with about 15-20 other motorhomes, well spread out on the sand. As you can see, this is not the best of sand, and it packs down quite hard, so is fine to drive on.

We had a walk into the small town (St Juan de los Terreros) along a beautifully paved promenade which ran for about 2 miles from just beyond where we were parked to the centre (such as it was!). For a country which is short of money they do spend well on their pavements and promenades – and you don't find many trips in the pavements. The whole place was all but deserted out of season, existing only for the sake of the sun and the beach (which was nice white sand, unlike the grey stuff where we were parked).

Then to Cartagena to stock up before going to the campsite at La Manga in a couple of days time. Somehow the day wore on so when, quite late in the day, we were off to our planned overnight stop, we spotted a most rare thing in Spain – a carpark wih spaces in it – and free too. Just to show that not everywhere we stop is glamorous, this was our view for a while whilst it was still light.

Next morning we left early (for us!) and were rewarded with a quiet bay and sunshine for breakfast - the next 36 hours.

This second picture was taken at rush hour!

So now we are at our campsite for the next month, where camping and caravanning takes on a different meaning to any we have seen before. It seems that the typical person here will be staying for anything fom 3 to 6 months, will fly home 2-3 times during that period, and has been here 4-5 or maybe 10 times before. Consequently our pitch, with just the motorhome on it, looks rather bare in relation to our long-stay neighbours.

It's raining today, (but hey, not to worry, the forecast for the next week is all sunshine) so they have the Smart car under cover. 'Fully carpeted' pitches, large awnings, 'garden sheds' and cars are the norm. There are just a few other poor souls who, like us, have only bikes to get around on.

We've got the tree and the decorations up so we're ready for Christmas – and our supper!