Globetrotting Crates

  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...

  Monday 16th October we left Manilva and headed for our next campsite about 20 mins away near Estepona, Camping Parque Tropical. Our home for a week is smaller more relaxed (and cheaper €21 per nt) not far from the beach, with a swimming pool and a good restaurant on site. Much more European in flavour if you know what I mean. Had a wander along the seafront and a Cava sangria at a local beach bar. Another mishap occurred. Somehow the blind over the driver cab got broken and is now permanently open which will result in another expensive trip to Marquise. I can hear them at the service desk now “you’ll never guess what the Crates have done this time, ha ha” I’m not claiming responsibility for this breakage. Just saying. On Wednesday we caught the bus into Estepona and had a seafood paella at a beach restaurant. After over 2 weeks of glorious weather, it started to change and was very windy. The beach was deserted.  Thursday was the first miserable day since we arrived on 1st O...

  Sunday 15th October: we took the long, slow, scenic  winding road from Ronda to Manilva which took about one and half hours, planning to stay at our next site Camping Belle Vista for 5 nights. To our dismay there was a sign at the entrance saying it was full! However we managed to get a booking for one night.  In actual fact that was a good result for I didn’t like the site at all. Mr C didn’t mind it, but it was full of long stayers with large vehicles, a lot of Brits with live musical entertainment designed to please them. It went on all afternoon and early evening, blaring out over the campsite.  The one good thing about the camp site is that it has a lovely beach location, downside apart from the aforementioned it’s very close to a busy road.  We went for a walk to the beach resort  and stopped for a Tintoretto de Verano a drink similar to Sangria. We sipped our drinks whilst watching fellow Brits eating their Sunday roast. Mr C was tempted but I said...

  Friday 13th October. We drove from Cordoba to Ronda, about two and a half hours. Stunning scenery. We stayed at Camping El Sur a beautiful location just outside Ronda. The campsite itself has a lovely swimming pool which was very welcome in the 32C heat. Nice restaurant on site which we took advantage of.  On Saturday we walked into Ronda about one and a half kilometres downhill. Ronda is known to be one of the oldest towns in Spain it is set atop a deep gorge and spanned by a stone bridge.  We wandered around the old city and took photos of the famous old bridge Puerto Viejo. Then we took a look at the bull ring from the outside, it’s one of the oldest stone constructed bull rings in Spain. Finally we headed back up the steep hill to the campsite and flopped out with a cold beer! Now we’re all citied out so we’re looking forward to  a few days R&R by the Mediterranean coast.

  Wednesday 11th October: we averted a bit of a disaster on leaving the campsite, Bev our new BF was running after us gesticulating wildly, we thought she was waving us off, however Mr C had left the electric hook up plugged in to the mains so there we were with lead trailing behind us. Luckily we were stopping to empty the grey water so we would have spotted it. Camping La Albolafia the next site is quite a distance from Cordoba but there is an infrequent bus service running from nearby Villafranca. So far so good. . . . , Thursday 12th October: We got up early to catch the 9am bus to Cordoba which takes 45 minutes, perfectly on time . We wandered around the old narrow streets and had intended to visit the Mezquita des Cordoba the Mosque Cathedral but it was closed for a service. We had lunch then took a slow walk back to the bus station.  This is when we found out that today was Spains National Day or Dia de La Hispanidad or Fiesta Nacional de Espana whatever you want to cal...

 Sunday 8th October: glad to leave the hustle and bustle of Camping Osuna, after circumnavigating the outskirts of Madrid,  we had a fairly short uneventful  journey to Toledo. El Greco campsite at Toledo is delightful and very peaceful just a short bus ride from the city. Toledo is an old walled city situated on a hill and is a UNESCO world heritage site. It  is famous for sword making and there are many shops selling swords and other ornamental metallic souvenirs. Monday 9th October we went to Toledo and took the hop on hop off tourist bus which was a chaotic experience! (More like the hop off, hop off again bus) At stop 2 we were told to get off the bus and herded on to another bus which Mr C spotted was having it’s engine looked at. Never mind, we still alighted and at stop 4 we had to get off as the bus had broken down. Finally another bus came along by this time the poor driver was getting harangued by angry passengers. We next visited the Cathedral, massive in...

Tuesday 3rd October we drove from Burgos to Riaza to our overnight stay at Camping Riaza. A quiet site with very clean facilities, good for just one overnight stay.  The Restaurant and shop were both closed, but we had enough provisions to see us through, we always carry emergency rations of wine! The only downside were the bothersome flies preventing us from sitting outside for too long in the evening. On Wednesday we set off for Madrid a short one hours drive and found Camping Osuna on the outskirts of Madrid easily. It is in a great location for visiting the city. The metro is 10 mins walk and 20 mins gets you right in the heart of Madrid. It is more expensive at £33 per night, due to its proximity to the city. The other downside is the noise being close to the airport and near a road and railway. Thursday we went to Madrid and took the hop on hop off bus and did the 2 full circles to see the major sites, it cost 11 euros each (concession for over 65s). We found a good tapas bar...

  We left home on 29th September to begin our 7 week road trip to Spain. A smooth 2 night crossing from Portsmouth saw us arrive in Santander early am on 1st October. We are heading firstly for Madrid, but stopping a few nights en route. There was little traffic on the road, so an easy 2 hour drive to our first campsite stop - Fuentes Blancas close to Burgos, which is a world heritage site in the Parque Natural de Fuentes Blancas. Soon after arrival we set off to walk to Burgos it takes about 50 mins from the campsite a very pleasant flat walk but was very hot,  so when we reached Burgos we flopped into the nearest bar for a blissful cold beer. The Camino de Santiago runs through Burgos and we saw quite a few pilgrims on our walk.  How did we know they were pilgrims? They wear scallop shells as a badge of honour for visiting Santiago de Compestela. So the greeting to them is buen Camino! We went in search of a tapas bar of which there are many, however as it was Sunday th...