Week 26: Six months on the road (give or take a few stops back home)
- Feb 28, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 1, 2022
Our stops this week:
· 5 nights at Camping Mar Menor (near San Javier)
· 2 nights at Camping Los Delfines (near Mazarron)
Firstly, in the interest of full disclosure, I should let you know that we’ve swapped turns to write the blog this week, so it’s Steve not Yvette writing this one… there’s nothing wrong, Yvette just has an assignment due in soon for her MA, so I’m doing this week’s blog so she can spend more time writing a research proposal, normal service will be resumed shortly.
Secondly, it’s just struck me that this is our 26th weekly blog, marking six months since we first set off on our travels! In some ways the time seems to have flown by, in others our new routine, or lack of routine feels so normal, it seems like we’ve been doing this forever. When I think back about all the places we’ve been and the experiences we’ve had good and bad (but mostly good), I feel so lucky to have had this chance to spend time with Yvette (and Bear) and to have travelled to so many incredible places. I can’t wait to see what the next six months brings.
As you can see, we haven’t moved about as much this last week. After the leaving the 'middle of nowhere', we ventured back down to the coast, stopping off in Murcia for a few hours to look round the city and enjoy an icecream, before moving on to a campsite on the coast of the Mar Menor.
The Mar Menor is a big saltwater lagoon, separated from the Mediterranean by a tiny slither of land called La Manga, although when you’re stood next to it you can’t tell it’s a lagoon, it just looks like the sea. Sadly the water quality of the Mar Menor is infamous, the use of pesticides in the surrounding farmlands has contaminated the water, resulting in lots of foam and algae on the surface, which has at times caused the oxygen level in the water to drop, resulting in thousands of fish suffocating and washing up on the shores… whilst it looked beautiful, we decided not to get the paddle boards out here, or to let Bear go for a swim.
Pictures of the Mar Menor campsite and local area.
We arrived on a warm and sunny afternoon, given how busy it had been further up the coast, we had called ahead and booked a pitch for a couple of nights. Within half an hour of arriving, I was heading back to reception to ask if we could extend our stay… with warm sunshine and the beach just a few meters away, it felt like the perfect place to stay a while. My mum and dad were also driving down through France in their motorhome and heading in our direction, enroute to Portugal, so I called them and asked how they were going and if they wanted to join us for a few days… it was also my mum’s Birthday on Friday, so it was perfect timing to see them.
Literally ten minutes after I had extended our stay and booked an extra pitch for my parents, we heard an incredible roaring sound… Bear stared at the roof of the van in total shock! When we arrived, we realised that the campsite was adjacent to a military airport, however we didn’t realise that this is the home of the Aguila’s, the Spanish equivalent of the Red Arrows. We soon got used to the noise, they were actually pretty considerate and didn’t start flying until around 8.30am and usually finished by 9pm, of course they also took a long siesta in the afternoon and had the weekends off. After the first day Bear didn’t bother to look up at the noise, even when the jets were right overhead, and the van was rattling from the sound… ironically Aguila means Eagle in Spanish, so it seemed appropriate!
My mum and dad arrived on the Thursday and quickly settled into the pitch just opposite from us. Bear was more than excited to greet them and their two dogs (Maya and Martha), although their dogs didn’t seem quite as keen to see Bear, as you can see in the video below… in fairness after some time together and some nice walks along the beach the dogs all seemed to get on great. We even left Bear with my parents for a few hours, whilst Yvette and I went out for a bike ride, apparently, he was well behaved apart from stealing a bungy cord and a mini spirit level (used for levelling the van when parking up).
On Friday lunchtime the four of us walked about a mile along the seafront (leaving the dogs behind) to celebrate mum’s birthday at a local restaurant, we had a great lunch and a few drinks, watching the kite boarders whizzing along the water and occasionally jumping great heights, I definitely want to have a go at this…(hint hint, it would be a great birthday present!)
On Sunday we said goodbye to my parents and drove along to Cartagena, this didn’t quite go to plan. We had intended to spend a few hours exploring the city (I really wanted to visit the Roman amphitheatre), when we arrived in the city centre every street seemed to have an unofficial bloke helping drivers to park and offering to keep their vehicles safe for a few euros (which felt a little like a protection racket but I’m sure it’s well intended). After driving down a few streets being yelled at in Spanish with instructions about where to park, we decided to move on, it just didn’t feel right and sometimes you just have to trust your gut.
We headed for my plan B parking spot, about 30 minutes’ walk out of the city centre at the football stadium. We had just made the final turn into the road for the Stadium, when we saw the road ahead had been closed and we got diverted down a series of very narrow residential streets, having eventually escaped these narrow streets we decided to call it a day, leave Cartagena, and to head straight to our next campsite. This was when SatNav decided to take us on the scenic route, what should have been a straight forwards 20 minute drive, turned into a slightly stressful 40 minute drive along some really tight gravel tracks, before we eventually made it back to a ‘proper’ road… but what a great road it was, it took us up over the mountains and round some incredible hairpin turns. I just wished I was driving something a little sportier than a 3.5 ton Ford Transit van!
Our last two nights have been at Camping Los Delfines (means the Dolphins, although we haven’t seen any yet), it’s just a hundred meters from the beach with a backdrop of the mountains. The coast is rocky and very beautiful but the place feels quite strange, with several half built developments, which look like they haven’t been worked on for a few years, and sadly lots of litter strewn along the roads and beach.
Some pictures from Los Delfines, Mazarron and the surrounding area.
As Yvette has quite a lot of study work on this week, I took the chance to head out for a few bike rides on my own, doing some great routes along the coast and up into the hills. Bear has also enjoyed some time walking along the coast and out into the wilderness.
The local town of Marrazon is really nice, lots of cafés and bars along the seafront and marina… more importantly we found a local version of Tesco’s, a supermarket which has exactly the same stuff as a Tesco’s at home, Yvette was more than happy that we found some Chili-Jam, Chipotle sauce and coconut cream… apparently these are vital ingredients for us, which the Spanish don’t seem to embrace or appreciate.
Although we’re a long way from the Ukraine, we’re keeping a close eye on the news. It’s devastating to see the pictures and read the stories coming from there, it seems unreal that this could happen. It just shows what can happen when a despotic tyrant is in charge of nuclear country. As it stands we plan to keep travelling but the next leg of our trip is likely to take us further east in to the Balkans, so we’ll keep reading the news, hoping for the best for the people of the Ukraine, and re-jigging our travel plan as and when we need to.
Thought you might like to see some of the different 'campervans' around here!
Looking like another amazing week. Really great to follow your adventures, they are very uplifting!! Must have been great to see your Mum for her birthday. Looking forward to reading next weeks blog.
Black beans outrageous !!!!!
Love that part of Spain xx
Yes we are ok thanks and we are still waiting for you 👍
Thanks for the update - as always great pictures - looks so much like summer - we just came back home from skiing - have a great time Robert&family&Charly