Week 30: The rain in Spain...
- Mar 30, 2022
- 4 min read
Our stops this week:
2 nights at Mar Menor Camping
3 nights at La Manga Camping
1 nights at Lo Monte Camping (only six nights this week... I think we got out of sync last week but this takes us up until last Sunday)
Apologies this weeks blog is a bit late and thank you to everyone that got in touch to check we are ok... everything is fine and thankfully we've had a much less eventful week.
After spending Monday in Cartagena while Gordon got the adblue sensor replaced, we made the short trip back to Mar Menor Camping for a night to regroup and make our next plan. We didn't realise the weather was about to turn, with lots of heavy and muddy rain coming our way, the mud coming from the red Saharan dust. The approach road to the campsite is a single track lane that runs around the perimeter of San Javier airfield, with just one way in and one way out... whilst out walking Bear during a slightly lighter spell of rain, we discovered that the road in (and more importantly, the only way out) was flooded... that settled it we were staying another night, there was no way we wanted to take a chance driving through flood water after last weeks adventures!
Cabin fever was starting to set in, after 48 hours stuck in the van, with just a few short and very wet walks to let Bear do, what Bear does. Panic started to take a grip on Wednesday night, when I realised I was down to my last beer... we had to find a way out!
Thankfully by Thursday morning the rain had stopped, the flooded road was now less flooded and we decided to make a break for it. We only had three nights before we needed to arrive at Camping Lo Monte which we had pre-booked a few weeks ago (I'll leave this for Yvette to explain next week)...
La Manga camping is a funny place but there are very few campsites in the area so we decided to give it a go... it was one of the most expensive campsites we have stayed at so far at €25 per night and it is also the biggest campsite I have ever seen. The campsite is one kilometre from the front to the back, with several long straight roads running the length of it... I would guess there are at least 1,000 pitches, with around half of these taken up by permanent(ish) holiday homes and static caravans, many of them have DIY roof terraces and strange and elaborate extensions using up every spare inch of space on the pitch. In addition to the usual campsite facilities, there is a large supermarket, a swimming pool, several play parks, football pitches, basketball courts... plus a dog wash station and a church! Really everything you could need and a lot that you don't!
Sorry about the wonky photos... Yvette was trying to take them without being too obvious! Some of the plots were immaculate, others less so.
We popped into the campsite restaurant for a drink (and some disgusting tapas) but they had amazingly fast broadband (over 100 mbps) and in about half an hour we managed to download over 60 programmes on Netflix and iPlayer... that should keep us going for a while!
We opted for a pitch towards the very back of the campsite as this meant we could walk straight out on to the beach. The weather was better but still quite cool and cloudy, but after several days of rain we were grateful to be able to spend more time out and about, exploring the area.
We had a few walks along the beach and into the local town. Unfortunately just a few minutes along the beach there was a really nasty pong... something in between stagnant pond water and rotten fish... it literally made me gag but luckily I had a facemask in my pocket, which helped to walk the few hundred meters until the smell disappeared. The local authority had a team of people raking up green gunk from the beach and filling up skips. As this is at the very southern end of the Mar Menor (a massive saltwater lagoon), I think the wind pushes all the algae and rubbish down to the end of the lagoon where it collects and stinks... not great for the poor locals!
Then on Sunday, the sun made finally an appearance! It really changes everything, the whole place looked cleaner, brighter and happier... people were back out walking, chatting and smiling.
On the way to Camping Lo Monte we took a de-tour to drive up the far side of La Manga, along the thin strip of land that separates the lagoon from the Mediterranean Sea, it was strange to drive along the road and on one side see the calm and still (but smelly) waters of the Mar Menor, and on the other side the wild, choppy sea and breaking surf (not how I imagined the Med).
The calm waters of the Mar Menor.
Ok, so it doesn't look so wild in this pic... but the water (in the Med) was pretty choppy!
We stopped a few times to walk around and explore La Manga, once at a marina and another to park up by the water for lunch, before setting back all the way around the water to our final stop of the week. Although we've had a less busy week, it feels great to be back on the move and seeing some new places.
We're nearing the end of our stay in Spain and our current plan, is to leave Spain at the beginning of April and drive through France, Italy and Slovenia to reach Croatia, where we hope to find some beaches and islands to explore... plus Croatia is outside of the Schengen zone, which means it won't count towards our 90 day limit in Europe and it will help to extend this part of the trip. That said, our plans change frequently, so we'll keep everyone posted!
I hope everyone has been enjoying the sunshine at home!
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