Author: Helen Miller

Well it’s not a destination I would have actually chosen but it WAS on the way to Nerja AND on the coast road so we came…

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Dave got itchy feet last night about 9pm so we went for a walk – past the port and into the city centre (which was very nice, very clean with marble floors throughout the pedestrian areas and the centre was still buzzing at 10pm with families eating, peeps drinking in bars and shops still open, etc.).

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Below is a photo of a building with nice architecture that Dave took last night – but we now realise ALL the buildings have lovely architecture…

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Also we went into this huge bazaar / tat shop last night & suddenly I realised (when I looked down) that I was standing on glass and there were ruins illuminated below – hence the second & third photos below…

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We came back just after 10pm, I had a cuppa ☕️, Dave had a port (see a pattern emerging ?) then I watched a Coro…

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We had just turned the lights off (gone midnight) when suddenly (I would like to say a rave started) but Dave said it was just a load of kids with a speaker (more like a sub-woofer like Marcus has !!!)

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We wondered if we could sleep through it (but we couldn’t) so had to quickly secure everything & move The Van close by into a side street where we had noticed (on our walk) that another motor home had parked up.

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THEN we turned the light off for a second time but a few minutes later Dave shot up as he had heard a mosquito 🦟 buzz past his ear 😳

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Whilst he bumbled off to get his electric zapper lantern out, I saw it on the ceiling & it was MASSIVE 🦟 !!!

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I asked Dave to pass me some tissue to squash it but then it disappeared… 😞

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We tentatively lay down again (with the distant drone of “the rave” in the background) and a few minutes later, Dave shot up saying it had buzzed past his ear again 😐

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Lights back on & I noticed it on the window covering but it disappeared AGAIN so Dave then started spraying some insect killer stuff (whilst I tried not to breathe it in)…

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I was then really paranoid and kept my teddy zippy hoody on (as in the last couple of days I had already been bitten on my forearm, my shoulder and my face !!!)

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I eventually got to sleep (at God knows what time) but then I woke and could hear a noise outside as though The Van was being lightly scraped…

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The alarm was set so in theory we would get warning if anything awry happened but I’m not used to this “wild camping” – we usually have the security of being on a campsite (but there weren’t ANY remotely in the area) – and I was awake for AGES… 😳

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So you can keep your Cartagena, thank you very much 😐

I couldn’t BELIEVE how busy the campsite was – it’s huge (for a town anyway) with a supermarket, club house & pool (see piccie below) and there were hardly any pitches left…

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We dumped The Van, had a cuppa ☕️ and then bibbed off on the bikes. Had one 🍺🍷 in the club house (which was filled with lots of old dears that had spent Christmas 🎅 there & some who even LIVED on-site permanently !!!)

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Then (slightly apprehensively – well me anyway) we cycled down to the front – which looked pretty quiet… There WERE bars, restaurants & the odd shop open but we carried on into town – which – at 7:30pm at night – was still HEAVING !!!

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Most of the shops were open until at least 9pm and you can buy everything from a Benidorm fridge magnet to a duck 🐥 from Duck World (WHY ???) plus full-on clothes shopping 🛍️ and (of course) lots of places to eat… 🥘

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We weren’t that hungry & ended up in the Old Town with a beer 🍺, a wine 🍷 and 2 free tapas for €5.70 !!!

We set got up, said our farewells to Jacky & Donal & set off on Tuesday about 12:30 with Dave asking me to pop “Alicante” into the Sat Navs.

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I then grabbed the camping books & looked at the map and realised BENIDORM was on the way !!! . And I’ve never been…. And I KNOW it’s January but I didn’t fancy visiting another closed town…

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Dave wasn’t super-keen but we did end up at Camping Villasol which is about a 10 minute cycle ride into town & the beach…

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On the way Dave wanted to detour into València as he’s been there a few times with MotoGP and he said it was a lovely city.

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We had a drive around & it IS lovely and huge – just (as with most cities) no easy place to dump a motor home & go for a coffee…

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Few piccies below – check out the City of Arts & Sciences which is a tremendous building but as my piccie from The Van doesn’t do it justice – also see the “proper” photo from t’internet !!!

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Also they like to build things on their roundabouts – nice fountains, sparkly navy huge round things 😂

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And Dave was impressed that they had Astro-turfed the tramline so there’s a piccie of that too…

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And I was impressed with the orange trees that were growing at the side of the road !!!

Benidorm update to follow 😎

So we set off and headed south and ended up at a free motorhome site 100m from the beach in a place called El Grao De Castellón by just after 2pm yesterday (Monday) – piccie of the route below.

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We were really lucky – there were 50 spaces; all of them were taken but as we drove into the compound – another motor home was just leaving so we snook in & got the last pitch !!!
We took a wander across the road to the beach and it’s the first time that I wasn’t in a massive jumper & freezing 🥶 !!!

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I knocked up some lunch & Dave started chatting to the peeps next door (Jacky & Donal – a lovely couple from West Yorkshire who now live in Hornsea) and we agreed to catch up with them later…

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We then bibbed off on the electric bikes as there was a fab wide cycleway all along the promenade. But after 20 minutes or so, my bike felt “heavy” & it looked as though it had a flat battery but it was flat terrain so I cycled “normally” for about another half an hour…

Luckily (as the bikes are heavy & it was a bit of a slog even on the flat) Dave stopped & was going to swap bikes with me but then suddenly mine started working again so we carried on but – although it was lovely weather – nearly all of the beach front bars were “Cerrada”…

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We cycled into the next city – Benicassim – but again not a lot going on – so just enjoyed the beach view & headed back; we did find one bar open on the front and had a little drinkie before taking a fab photo of the sunset 🌅 then a quick pop into a Mercadona (supermarket) for supplies & got back around 7pm…

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Knocked up some chorizo & tuna pasta to go with the remains of yesterday’s pizza & then Jacky & Donal came round for drinks & a chat 🍺🍷

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Tucked up in bed with a cup of tea & then fell asleep watching Coronation Street 😴 (like a couple of old people – oops perhaps we are !!!).

P.S. Some other “Van-ers” (like Jacky & Donal) were sitting out in the sun as there was space at the back but check out the Spanish set of “CamperVan Rules” – punished – ooerrr missus !!! 😂