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Published: January 14th 2010
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Crossing the eastern side of the Pyrenees we dropped down into Spain again, this time to follow the coast all the way round eventually ending up at Portugal. Travelling this route out of season, we’d hoped to be able to wildcamp all the way and armed with plenty of information about suitable beaches for motorhomes to park at, we started down the Costa Brava. Unfortunately we were either not looking in the right places or there just isn’t anywhere for motorhome’s along this stretch of coastline to wildcamp. Parking prohibition signs and a lack of wildcampers at each place we tried, meant that we were soon fed up and after being waved on simply for driving through Lloret de Mar, we ended up reluctantly staying on campsites for our first few of nights in Spain.
Despite having visited Barcelona during our first year away in 2007, we wanted a second visit to this city and we found that we were now able to park overnight at the Park & Ride facilities close to the city centre - although at 25 euros per 24 hours for a very noisy and not particularly secure car park, this seemed quite extortionate. We revisited
the ramblas, wandered around the redeveloped marina frontage stopping off to look at Gerhy’s huge fish sculpture and finally sought out some of the Modernista architecture dotted around the city. Having seen the unfinished Sagrada familia on our first visit, we gave this a miss figuring that probably not much has changed in the last couple of years considering how long they have taken to build it so far.
We left Barcelona and headed down the Costa Daurada coastline, trying to find more wildcamping spots and yet again drew blanks, with motorhome parking restrictions at every place we tried. Confident that we would be able to tuck ourselves away somewhere for the night, we headed out onto the Ebro Delta, a huge area of salt flats but with the light fading, yet again we couldn’t find anywhere to park up. Just as we had pulled off on the side of the road debating what to do, another motorhome passed us and we quickly followed them to pull up in front of an out-of-season holiday village and spent the night in their carpark.
At Peniscola, our next stop, an official motorhome stop made our lives easier and we spend
a couple of days here in what turned out to be quite a nice town, topped off with some spectacular sunsets as you can see from the pictures. Our next stop was Benicassim on the Costa del Azahar and we decided to check into a campsite to catch up on chores for a few days. Deciding to give the wildcamping yet another crack, we left Benicassim on the lookout but yet again, town after town failed to reveal any wildcamping spots and late in the afternoon we reluctantly checked into a campsite. Due to the size of the van and the tiny pitch sizes, we changed pitches twice before finally finding one that we could squeeze onto and spent the evening moaning about Spain, campsite prices and wondering whether we should push on quickly into Portugal.
We left early the next morning and gave wildcamping one final chance, semi-confident as the next place had been recommended by a couple we had met in Marrakech last winter. To our relief as we drove down the road to the beach at La Marina on the Costa Blanca, we discovered 30 or more other campervans parked behind the dunes. We befriended an
English couple parked in front of us and enjoyed ourselves so much that we ended up parked here for three weeks. With the temperatures in the high 80’s, we slipped into a routine of morning coffee in the village before returning to the vans at the beach to spend the afternoon chatting away to the small UK contingency parked here. We visited some of the local markets and what must be the most pitiful Sunday car boot sale that we have ever been to. After three weeks though, we got itchy feet again and having arranged to meet up with another couple who we had met a year ago in France, we headed a couple of hours down the coast to San Juan de los Terreros. Planning to head in roughly the same direction, we spent the next couple of weeks travelling the Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol with them. Otherwise known as the Costa del Plastico due to the huge expanses of plastic greenhouses covering them, this coastline had some interesting towns that had escaped the otherwise rampant development and we were able to wildcamp the entire southern coastline of Spain.
A couple of weeks before Christmas,
the weather changed for the worst and in torrential rains, gusting winds and dodging flooded roads, we made a pit-stop in Gibraltar to stock up on English fayre at Morrisons. The weather broke long enough for us to take the cable car up the rock, see the Barbary ape colonies and partake of some good ole English Fish and Chips before descending into the nightmare before Christmas playing out at Morrisons. Completely stressed out, we headed back to the Vans with our goodies and the next morning left Gibraltar in the unceasing torrential rain and headed to El Rocio in the middle of the Donana national park where we had planned to spend Christmas and New Year on a Camping and Caravanning club rally.
With the town’s sandy streets awash with deepening gully’s of water, we got soaked trying to find somewhere to overnight before we can access the campsite the next morning having arrived a day early. We pulled up in one of the town’s squares and figured that only the foolhardy will be out in weather like this so we’d probably be alright parked here for the night. The next day having checked onto the campsite, the
weather improved temporarily but later that night, more high winds and rain made mincemeat of badly tied down awnings and we were woken in the middle of the night by a bell ringing to watch people frantically trying to keep hold of their camping gear in the gusts. The next morning, battle wounds were compared and ropes appeared to tie down what remained. The bad weather continued on and off for the next couple of days with enough sun breaking through on Christmas Eve to see the rally commiserating together and enjoying some of the other campers entertaining attempts to lift our spirits. Christmas Day saw us cooking the dinner with our friends in both van's ovens.
With the weather unseasonably dire until New Year, the week between passed quickly and New Years eve saw us celebrating twice, once at Spanish midnight and then again at English midnight with the Spanish fireworks going on for many hours into the new year.
Having avoided the rally Bingo, whist drives and tea dances for as long as possible, we hit the road, leaving little Britain behind and back into Spanish Spain and on our way to Portugal.
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Katrina
non-member comment
Happy New Year
Just caught up with your latest updates, now that Christmas is out of the way. I cannot believe it was 2007 when you set out. Reading about your 'adventure' in France near Narbonne reminds us of the holiday we had 3 years ago, having to sort out 4 new tyres for our trailer whilst staying near La Palme. Narbonne was the only place we could get them. Yes a very windy area and wind surfers travel for miles for this. 'The only place where the wind blows the soup from your spoon', as told to us by a dutchman. Hope Spain is getting warmer now, but I expect you are now in Portugal. (This was where we were heading 3 years ago, when the tyes 'gave up'. Still I am sure we will be back in a few years time. 3 1/2 years and time to retire. Safe adventures to you both. Hope the year gets better. Katrina and Jim xxx