A Horse With No Name(America) - Mojacar to Torrevieja Through More 'Desert' - 3rd May 2016

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And we thought we were the only guests in this block of apartments. Wrong!

We had both been in a perfect sleep until noise coming from the footpath outside the apartments woke us both at a time that people should be tucked up in their beds asleep.

We thought that whoever it was going home from their celebrations would carry on somewhere else but no!

There must have been at least 4 or 5 people and they were coming into the apartment block. First fiddling with the locked gate as we had earlier when coming home from dinner at a more respectable hour. And then ‘bouncing off the walls’ as they came up to the first floor. We half expected them to knock or try something else with our door but thankfully they didn’t and the noise of the party goers gradually diminished down the hallway and into their own apartment.Again, thankfully they either fell asleep quickly (they sounded drunk enough too) or the walls of the apartments separating us from them were thick enough to drown out any continued partying they might have been doing.

This has been the first occasion in nearly two months that any fellow travellers or outside revellers have disturbed our sleep which we guess is not a bad achievement for us.

We were pretty sure that the sunrise from our terrace was going to be spectacular and we were not disappointed with first rays of sun in the sky on the horizon going through various shades of hues of red until suddenly the sun popped it’s head out of the sea. Just perfect!

It wasn’t long before it was too warm to be on the terrace without a bit of shade so a cap was in order for breakfast.

In bright sun and warm temperature we headed off north along the coast road towards Aguilas where we would have to turn inland for part of the drive to our next accommodation at Torrevieja.

It had been a while since Peggy had been washed so when we spotted a car wash when we filled with petrol we took the opportunity and as we drove away just hoped we wouldn’t be driving over any dusty roads today.

Along the coast we were travelling reminded us of Croatia where the hills or mountains rise immediately from the sea leaving little or no room for anyone to establish a place to live.

At one point it appeared as though the area had been mined for rock or minerals from the mountainside as there were a lot of tunnels back into the hillside and old abandoned buildings.

We took a stop to take in the coastline where we found a small piece of land that jutted out towards the sea so you could see both north and south from the same advantage point.

One of the rather unfortunate things about Spain is the rubbish that one finds almost everywhere outdoors and in the small pull off area that we had stopped at was no different with cans, paper and even a couple of plastic rubbish sacks dumped. It seems Europe has some way to go to pick its game up on keeping a tidier planet!

We stopped at Aguilas for lunch and found a park around from the beach in a slightly elevated position so we could have our boot lunch and look out over the beach.

We have often been joined by cats at lunchtime; they appear as in the musical stage show out of nowhere and today was just the same.

Although this time there was a clowder of them, some walking around near us and others in and on the breakwater below us.

As we were finishing our lunch we caught sight of one cat heading away from the others followed shortly by another couple. Then all was revealed! A young woman with a backpack was coming towards them from the town area and she carried on to the breakwater with the cats that had gone out to meet her following. It was lunchtime too for the clowder! There was no fuss or trouble from the clowder as many plates were laid out and food and water put in them and within 10 minutes all of them had been satisfied by a fulfilling lunch. After the rubbish situation earlier in the morning it was uplifting to see that someone in the community was looking after the cats.

We headed inland on the RM11 and then onto the N332 and drove through the foothills of the Sierra de la Almenara which like the area around Tabernas yesterday was as dry as you can imagine. Again there were signs people had tried to establish orchards but all that was left were the trunks of trees and withered branches with the farmhouses deserted and dilapidated. So much for global warming here if you think it would bring rain.

Then we were out onto a plain that stretched all the way to the coast at Cartagena and inland to another sierra. Here though there appeared to be irrigation as it was wall to wall market gardens with tomatoes and strawberries prominent being grown under cover perhaps hydroponically.

Our course took us so we managed to avoid the large city of Cartagena and we were soon on the run into home with a switch to a more northerly course but still on the N332.

As the road joined the coast the scenery around us changed from rural to residential and with the flat sandy beaches came tourist accommodations in apartment blocks.

Directions from the N332 to Torrevieja were straight forward and we were soon in the area we needed to be for our apartment.

We had arranged to meet the owner there at 5pm but we were running a bit late and they were out on the roadside looking for us. We weren’t helped as usual to find the exact street in one go by a one way street system that we didn’t get right the first time around and even Gina got it wrong too.

There were 2 women to greet us, both of Russian origin from St Petersburg, and we assume they owned the apartment which had been a booking.com find.

It was a bit of a ‘cave’ as it was on the lowest level of an apartment block that was built down a hillside but it had an open courtyard where the sunshine was making it desirable to sit and relax in once we got ourselves settled. There was a view between other apartment blocks to the sea which was about 500 metres away down the hill and we will explore that tomorrow.

The ladies explained that it was still a quiet time but building for the summer still a month or so away.

Torrevieja has a permanent population of about 100,000 but swells to 1 million for the 2 months of the summer. It has grown appreciably over the last 25 years from an influx of Brits looking for a place in the sun.

This was evidenced when we took a walk to a nearby supermarket to top up supplies and passed a number of restaurants all with a theme that would attract someone looking for standard British fare such as roast beef and Yorkshire pud or an all day full English breakfast for the staggering price of €3!

Anyway we will have a couple of days off sightseeing, other than a stroll along the beach tomorrow.

PS;enjoy America's song on Youtube and get the feel for the desert like conditions that prevail on this part of the coast in Spain.

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