Globetrotting Crates

  7th November found us back in Toledo for another 2 night stay at Camping El Greco. We ate at the restaurant next to the campsite amazing location with a view of the city (pictured) but a rather dour experience. Jeff had Bambi in mushroom sauce. I had salmon teriyaki (served with couscous).  Glorious sunshine the following day when we  went into the city, but much cooler than the last time we were there in October and far fewer tourists too. 9th November we headed for Palencia and stayed at an Aire - Area de autocaravanas E.S Suances, where we had stayed last year. It’s free, the owner just asks you to buy fuel at his petrol station.  Later in the afternoon we had fun counting storks flying over us on their way to their nests in the city. We saw lots of them roosting on rooftops. The following morning they were back over again headed for their feeding ground. In the evening we walked into Palencia looking for a restaurant. As usual it took ages to find one with a su...

  5th November: And so we said goodbye to Bolnuevo and headed off to Granada which means pomegranate in Spanish. We hadn’t travelled far when we made a stop on the hard shoulder to make an adjustment to one of the water vents. Whoa! I thought, I recognise the Motorhome that just went past us! We gave chase until we were behind it sure enough it was Cliff! Well he must have thought we were determined stalkers and with a quick hasta la vista, swerved off at the next junction towards Murcia. That’s the last we’ve seen of them. Onwards we went, to a campsite close to Granada. The views with the Sierra Nevada in the distance are stunning, but the campsite is a bit rustic to say the least. It has a restaurant but the receptionist said “we don’t recommend it” oh well, omelette for dinner.  The next day we caught the bus to Granada which is 18km away. €3.70 for  two of us. “How much” Mr C said, thinking it was a mistake because it was too cheap! It was a lovely sunny day but so m...

  4th November, our last day in Bolnuevo so we made the most of the fine weather before we headed back up north. We had 13 days of mainly beautiful weather a couple of windy days but luckily no rain in the daytime. We’ve loved our stay, the location is great with the backdrop of the mountains and the beach so close. It is incredibly good value at €19 per night. November 1st is another Spanish public holiday, “All Saints Day” and we didn’t dare risk taking a bus!  We had a birthday this week, Mr C on the 2nd November (birthday boy pictured) and we went for a celebratory lunch which turned out to be mediocre and expensive with surly service thrown in. Cliff and Irene left us on the 2nd too, heading for another nearby campsite. We thought that was the last we would see of them this trip, but there was another unexpected sighting however, you’ll have to read the next instalment to see what happened.

  Monday 30th October: we’ve been at Camping Playa Mazarron at Bolnuevo for a week now and we like the site so much we’re staying here until 5th November, we’ve been very lucky to keep the same pitch as the site is very busy. The campsite is right beside the beach and there are numerous restaurants and bars within walking distance. Mazarron is in the region of Murcia. We’re close to the Bolnuevo Erosions (pictured) sandstone monuments sculpted by water and wind.  The weather has been lovely we haven’t ventured far, only to the lovely port on the local bus a couple of times. We’ve got into a bit of a routine of going to the pool bar with Cliff and Irene for a couple of drinks around 5pm.  Today we joined in an international pétanque competition arranged by the campsite and I’m pleased  to say neither of us embarrassed ourselves in front of our European friends, both of us were in separate teams and we both had good wins.

Monday 23rd October: We had had the worse weather the previous day, rain and wind so our plans to travel west fell into disarray. After a lot of ruminating we decided to deploy plan B and head east.  This is where Cliff our friend came into the frame so to speak. We knew that Cliff and Irene were at a good site at Mazarron basking in sunshine with a bright outlook forecasted for the next week or so. We had emailed the site to book a pitch, but got a fairly negative response so we then emailed Cliff asking a big favour of him to speak to reception and try and book us a pitch for a week. BINGO! Cliff came up trumps. A pitch had become available opposite our friends. Now I’m not sure that they were delighted by this, however they could have told us there were no vacancies to be had. It was a long drive from Estepona to Mazarron around four and a half hours on toll roads around Granada and back down to the coast we had a couple of comfort stops on the way. When we left Estepona the tem...

  Friday 20th October a beautiful sunny, day we set off from the campsites with high hopes of a splendid day out to Marbella. As we walked to the bus stop at Hospiten to take the No 79 (take note) we just missed the bus we waited 45 mins for the next one. One hour later we reached our destination. We had a lovely wander around the old town and a nice meal before making our way back to the bus station.  This is where things took a turn for the worse. We waited around 30 minutes until the bus arrived and went to board, the Driver started shouting at us that we needed tickets. This was a first as we’ve always paid on the bus. So over to the long queue at the ticket booth. Guess what? by the time we got the ticket to Hospiten the bus had gone. Another 45 minutes went by and we were back on the bus. We were annoyed to see that people were paying as they got on at the very next stop! Anyway, the pleasure we felt that we were finally near our destination didn’t last as the driver wen...