It was now March 2022, we drove north out of Almeria, up through the Sierra Cabrera on the A7 and through very varied landscapes, we drove through the town of Lorca with its massive medieval castle on the hill and headed towards Mazarron. Just outside Mazarron is a small seaside resort called Isla Plana and the campsite Los Madrilles. The reviews of the site said it was popular and usually busy in the winter months due to its heated indoor and outdoor pools, but we got a pitch and settled in.
We had a quiet morning then caught the bus from outside the campsite into Cartagena. This is a very historic place too, we visited the Alcazaba, the roman theatre, Colosseum and the castle, all free of charge and well worth a visit to a another very interesting town. We wandered around the old town and found a nice place for drinks and more tapas before finishing our sightseeing around the marina. Back into the old town for more drinks and food and it was back on the bus to Isla Plana.
outdoors as the weather had started to get a bit gloomy (the start of a bad spell) and it was nice to chill out and relax after all the walking and sightseeing wed done so far.
That bad weather had well and truly set in when we left Isla Plana, we drove north towards Murcia and the skies were black and the rain was lashing down. We drove into the mountains and to a small town called Banos de Fortuna. This place is famous for the Thermal Spa pools which are constantly at 36 degrees and it is usually fully booked in the winter months but we got a place. The cost of the site included access to the pools, but you can visit even if youre not staying on the site and it was very busy. The 4 pools are great and with the weather grey and wet it was nice to be in the warm water, thats why all the oldies visit, it was like a scene from the film Cocoon, we were the youngest by a long way!
get out on the bike into the hills. We walked into the small town on our last night and found a small bar run by an English it had a variety of nationalities drinking and putting the world to rights.
Next stop Alicante was back down on the coast, there are no campsites within walking distance of the town centre see we used the App ‘Park4night and found a few wild camping spots. The first two spots looked a bit dodgy so we moved on, the 3rd spot was by the beach at Playa Almadraba and looked good. There were 4 other vans parked up and it turned out that the Germans had been there for 4 days with no bother, so we parked up. On the short bus journey into the centre, we walked down to the trendy marina area and had a drink in the late afternoon sunshine. Walking back into the town there were lots of shops, bars and restaurants, we found a quiet place to share a massive Paella and afterwards had drinks in El Capitano Garden bar where the DJ played some cool tunes.
was on a street corner) we shrugged off our hangovers and set off up the coast to Benidorm. There are a lot of campsites in Benidorm and for some reason I drove into the wrong one (still hungover) but it turned out fine as it was a nice little site called Armanello and had brand new shower/toilet facilities (Mel was happy). Knackered we just chilled out for the rest of the day.
We did our chores the next morning, washing clothes, cleaning the van etc before we set off on a long walk from one end of the bay to the other. It was quiet with a small number of locals walking the promenades and it was a nice afternoon out. After a siesta we went out for a few drinks. The night was a lot more lively (Ive been a few times and although not as full as Ive seen before there were still a lot of people out), we ended up staying out until 3.45am visiting such delights as the Gold Dollar bar, Carnaby street, the Hotel California and many more, it was Mels first time sampling the madness of Benidorm.
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