Retracing our steps for the first time with a return to Calpe as Christmas approaches
Tuesday, November 28
Camperstop, Sol de Calpe Boreal, Calpe Best laid plans and all that... We really did plan to spend a few days with Christian and his cheap bar at Camping Mediterraneo in Calpe but when we arrived at around 3.50 after a busy morning’s shopping at IKEA in Valencia, it was a little early for our German friend, who didn’t open up until 4pm. Nevertheless, we used the spare 10 minutes to find a nice pitch that we planned to move on to. Back at the reception, still no sign of Christian but there was a queue forming, with people in it muttering that as it was now 4.25 he must have adopted Spanish time. Hmm. We decided to take our business elsewhere and from previous visit to Calpe in June we knew there were other camperstops nearby and so, after a quick run around the nearby Lidl we checked out the newest of them, Boreal, and found it very welcoming. Open for just three weeks, it was extremely shiny, as you’d expect, and had a great opening offer if you stayed for seven days – a 45% discount bringing the nightly fee down to €12.65. Free WiFi seemed like an added bonus but it didn’t get on with our iPads, for some unfathomable reason. Over the course of the next week, we fell in love with Calpe all over again. We enjoyed great walks along the headland in both directions, discovering a lovely cliff top path north past the marina and around to the next village, Penyal, where we had a drink in the Unexpected Beach Bar. Through other campers we checked out Grizzly’s restaurant (not for us), a lovely bikers’ bar near the camperstop, and a wonderful Punjabi restaurant on the edge of Calpe where had one of the best meals of the entire trip, made all the better by two cheeky waiters and four very friendly Belgians at the next table. One inadvertent benefit of the poor WiFi/iPad situation was that we had to revert to our old Kindle Fire for our internet service. Through that we managed to get decent British TV via Hoola and we also had the bright idea of buying an HD cable to link it to the TV in the van, letting us see the bigger picture for the first time, so to speak. Other highlights: we had a nice night at the bingo put on by the camperstop staff, had an even better night at the quiz, hosted by its sister site, Australis, where we came first thanks to Phil’ and Andy, our team-mates in ‘The Annuals’. We also watched the switching on of the Christmas lights in Calpe from the comfort of an Irish bar and reacquainted ourselves with the great circular walk around the headland of Calpe, past the impressive rock ‘Ifach’ and skirting around the inner salt lake featuring its colony of flamingos. Without the admittedly lovely opportunity of revisiting our friend Sarah in Marbella at Christmas, we could easily have stayed around Calpe for a few more weeks but on Tuesday it was time to move on and head south. We had our eye on a free wild spot in Benidorm, which would give us the chance to have a close look at this notorious Costa Blanca resort. Alas, the spot never materialised but we drove through the town anyway. Among the mobility scooter hire shops, happy hour bars, kebab takeaways and high-rise hotels, there’s probably a lovely suburb of the town which would appeal to us. Maybe we’ll find it on the way back up through Spain in February. Tuesday, December 5 Camping Los Madriles, Isla Plana Undeterred, we headed for our plan B, 130 miles south of Benidorm. Here, we found Isla Plana, a sleepy seaside village near Cartagena where there’s an all-year campsite called Los Madriles that is well recommended in the ACSI book. We pulled in to the site in late afternoon and found ourselves a tight spot close to the shower block and the very impressive outdoor pool. Fed by the sea (really? The sea is about half a mile away), it has the warmest water of any pool we’ve come across so far, apart from the positively steamy one at La Palmyre. Unlike most of the previous Spanish sites we’ve visited since the end of the summer, Los Madriles has a large population of British pensioners who seem to winter here every year and have made the place quite their home from home, organising social events, keep-fit sessions, glee club singing nights and the occasional quiz. They are just as friendly as the Germans and Dutch we’ve met over the past few weeks but the campsite has none of the real charm and vibrancy of, say, Torre La Sal, with its three bar-restaurants, well-stocked supermarket and proximity to a busy town. Still, it has a tennis court (a bit cracked in places but free) and WiFi (even flakier than the tennis court and €3.50 a day!). After getting our bearings on the first day, we spent the second walking through the farmland to the shore, then along the beach to Isla Plana, an authentic Spanish village with a beautiful church on the headland overlooking the little Sully-style island that has given the place its name. When we arrived in the heart of the village, a little market was just wrapping up but it was clear there had been an event going on which coincided with Spanish Constitution Day. Billed, in Spanish, as a ‘neighbours’ picnic’, it had drawn expats and locals alike to the little village square where the stragglers were just finishing up their food and drink while a group of willing volunteers were selling cheap beer to anyone who happened to wander in, like us. Posters were advertising other similar events over the holiday weekend and as we wandered back to the campsite, past a number of decent-looking bars, cafes and restaurants, we decided that our first impressions of the place might be misplaced and our plan to clear off after a couple of nights would have to be revised. This was reinforced when we met Peter and Paula, the organisers of the Thursday night quiz, who took our entry money off us, gave us a table for the do and said it was going to be “serious” quiz. Is there any other kind? Only the flaky WiFi was proving to be Los Madriles’ Achilles heel so I made my concerns known to the park manager. “It’s working okay for everyone else,” he said, very confrontationally. “Just turn your iPad off and on again!” “I’ve tried that and it’s still not working,” I said. “Oh, well you know better than me,” he scoffed, like a nightmare hybrid of Basil Fawlty and Manuel, before repeating: “No-one else has complained.” Twat! Mercifully, order was restored at the quiz on Thursday night when our ‘griswellsontour’ team took the last table in a typical GK quiz, full of your standard pub quiz questions (dryest desert; highest capital city, etc). The music round was a pip, though – 10 intros, including “all the leaves are brown...” by the Mamas and the Papas. When the answers came in, the QM insisted it was ‘Monday, Monday’. Cue uproar. So, to settle the argument, he plays the piece in full, accompanied by community singing, all the way to the part when they sing “California dreaming... on such a winter’s day.” Priceless. Oh, and before you ask, we won, mainly thanks to a film round on famous quotes and directors, like “we’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Easy, right. All this excitement, of course, only made us love this place a little more. They invited us back to the next quiz night, on January 13, just when we’re probably passing this way again, and to join in with their tennis mornings at a nearby club, so we may take them up on their offer. Friday, December 8 Camperstop, Camping Indalo, Vera Time marches on, doesn’t wait for anyone and is also a great healer. All that aside, we’ve got a date with destiny and have to be in Marbella for Christmas. Actually, we have to be in San Pedro on December 16 when Jane has a date with a hairdresser who is going to cut off the last of her colour, allowing her to embrace the grey! So, we cleared off from Isla Plana, but vowed to be back. Maybe next year. We headed to a site near Almeria that seemed to tick all our boxes – it was inexpensive, had good reviews and more tennis courts than you could shake a stick at. Perfect for our new joint passion. We saw it a long time before we actually got there. From the peage, before leaving at the junction, it loomed over the landscape, perched on top of a huge escarpment. I said: “I bet that’s it,” and it was. First, though, we had to find it and when we started following the satnav from the town of Vera it kept trying to lead us down a blind alley. Eventually, we simply followed the makeshift signs from the centre of town and, once we’d followed the dirt road through the barren landscape, we found it. Camping Indalo is basically a huge tennis and panel centre that has levelled and tarmaced some areas on the adjacent hillside to create an exposed camperstop. For about €13, you get electricity, access to rough showers and a bar and, in the summer, there’s a little pool complex. If you’re of a mind, there’s also an adjacent microlight club. Mainly, though, there are lots of tennis and pastel courts but, as the rates started at €8 an hour, we kept our racquets in the van and left after one night. Saturday, December 9 Wild camping, Carchuna Not much further south, we found Carchuna where there was an ACSI site right by the beach, with all the facilities but miles from anywhere. It was a bit nearer to Marbella, though. Just off the N340, it is right in the middle of what we like to call poly tunnel country. As far as you can see, there isn’t a patch of land that isn’t covered by huge sheets of plastic where the farmers grow vegetables like cucumbers all year round. The campsite is about the only non-agricultural land along this stretch of the coast, although we did find a little urbanisation at one end with a nice little bar, adjacent to a beach car park where we decided to spend the night... on the cheap. It was a little breezy but it was safe and it also gave us a fantastic view of an amazing sunset. Earlier in the day, we cycled the mile and a half back along the coast to Camping Don Cactus to inspect it. It was clean, well equipped and was about to become very quiet, with all the weekending Spanish campers going home the following day. So, on the Sunday, we took the short hop back down the coast and pitched up for a few days. In essence, this was an exercise in killing time so, when the rains came on Sunday night, we hunkered down and took advantage of the free Wi-Fi to watch a bit of telly The following day, with the wind and the rain threatening to keep us confined to barracks, we decided to brave the weather and take a walk into the town, about a mile back from the beach. I think we made about 200 yards before we gave up and took shelter in the campsite bar-cafe, where we had a very dull lunch. If we needed any more persuasion to get gone, this was it and we decided to leave on the Tuesday. There was time, though, to get to know Jenny and Richard, from Wiltshire, who were also moving in our direction, albeit to the far side of Estepona. They are in much the same situation as us, having rented out their house and given up their jobs. They have also secured themselves a nice little job as wardens on a campsite in Devon from March. Although Richard is a builder, he says they didn’t need to have DIY skills to get the job, just a willingness to clean toilets. I can do that. Tuesday, December 12 Camping Cabopino, Costa del Sol It was in October 2016 that we first had a look at this all-year campsite midway between Malaga and Marbella. Back then, it was just starting to fill up with British campers looking for somewhere to spend the winter. This week, we decided to join them. For a few days at least. We’ve been on cleaner campsites, campsites that had better facilities and better locations. But never one with such a high proportion of British people. We pitched up next to a couple who greeted Jane with the endearment “Duck”, Which thrilled her no end. On the other side, a Scottish couple seemed friendly enough, until on the second day he took a phone call and spent the next 10 minutes effing and jeffing to the person on the other end, so loudly that half the campsite could hear him. On the first night, after we’d explored the site and had a long walk along the immaculate new boardwalk which protects the sand dunes to the east, we wandered over to the ‘social room’ for the weekly quiz, organised by some of the over-wintering expats. A nice couple took us under their wing and insisted we join their team, which we did. Two hours later, after a really tough quiz (well, do you know the real meaning of ‘Three Blond Mice’?), we lost by a point. If only we’d gone with our first answer to the question ‘Which country’s soldiers wear white kilts?’. With a lovely indoor pool and reasonable access to public transport, there is probably enough here to keep everyone occupied for the tough winter months, especially when you factor in the lovely climate. Mario’s bar is nice enough, and the food looked fine; there’s an expensive Italian restaurant, too, and an Indian just outside the perimeter, plus the port at Cabopino is just a five-minute walk away. But you really need a car and a lot of the British campers hire cars for the season, to give them an outlet and keep cabin fever at bay. For entertainment, though, there’s usually something going on. On the Thursday afternoon, after another walk along the beach, we had a look at the fundraising fete in the social room, where the ‘Friends of Cabopino Cats’ were selling pea soup, coffee, beer and wine, and running a raffle and tombola to raise money for their good work, feeding, neutering and worming the various moggies that roam the site. Then, in the evening (the fun never stops) we repaired to the bar and shared a bottle of wine. Just as we were leaving, a singer turned up so we stuck around to hear his classic pub singer routine, performed with a certain panache, his lovely South Wales tones managing to bring new life to a selection of Tom Jones and Drifters’ classics. By the end, we were loving it, palling up with a lovely local and vowing to return on our way back up the coast. Friday, December 15 Apartment, Altos de la Quinta II, San Pedro We made an early getaway from Cabopino because we wanted to do some shopping at La Cañada, the huge shopping mall just to the west of Marbella. Incredibly, we didn’t spend any money. Instead, we decided to head for a little beach near Estepona for lunch. When we missed the turnoff and found ourselves heading back towards San Pedro we knew it wasn’t going to be our day so we cut our losses, pulled into a cheap petrol station to fill the van up and then had lunch while the first real rain we’d seen for weeks gave the van a good wash. By seven, we were sipping gin and tonics on Sarah’s balcony and ordering an Indian takeaway. The van, parked up behind the urbanisation, was getting a well-earned rest. Over the course of the next few days, we mooched around the area, rediscovering San Pedro and appreciating what life is like when you’ve got space. And a dishwasher. And a microwave. And a telly. Oh, and my old friend Georgie the Portuguese Water Dog. On our first day left alone with her, we made the schoolboy error of leaving the kitchen door open and a bag of rubbish on the floor. Earlier in the day, Jane had spilled fuchsia emulsion on the utility floor and wiped it up with kitchen towels, putting them in the bin. Of course, when we got home later in the day, Georgie had emptied the entire bag and while rooting around for a tasty treat had shoved her nose into the paint. Waiting for us at the door was our Christmas fairy! Luckily, she hadn’t spread any of the paint around the apartment and, as it was water-based, it wasn’t too difficult to wipe most of it off. She still has a pink hue to her snout, though (see picture below) and we were red-faced when we admitted to Sarah what we’d done. Nevertheless, in the run-up to Christmas we shopped like heroes in the nearby Mercadona and, on the Tuesday before we treated ourselves to a night in Malaga where we joined my brother Steve and his wife Pat, over here for a pre-Christmas break, for a meal. We took the bus into the city early in the morning and explored the shops and bars, checking into our hostel in early afternoon. At six, we met up with Steve and Pat and took in Malaga’s amazing Christmas light show which stretched the length of the Calle Larios to form a cathedral of stars which lit up the night sky to create daylight. Twice a night, at 6.30 and 9.00, the lights combine with a hi-tech sound system to form a festive son-et-lumiere show that really pulls in the crowds. As Christmas Day approaches, we’re contemplating what to do and we’ll probably stock up on goodies and have a slap-up feed with Lidl’s finest, put the fire on and watch the Call the Midwife special. Pictured, from top: sunset behind the impressive Ifach rock in Calpe; the entrance to the marina, as seen from the cliff top walk to the north of the town; Jane pausing for breath during the walk; the salt lake which formed part of the camperstop border; the cove at Penyal; Jane’s custom-made Christmas decorations; the impressive tree in Calpe; the pool area in Los Madriles, Jane takes the waters; another view of Ifach, and the flyer advertising the quiz night.
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