The start of 2023

We left our park up at La Azohia once I’d had a swim.

Mar Menor

We headed to a place called Mar Menor. It had been recommended by some English people we had met at our last park up. It was a peninsula. They said it was a great place and good for swimming.

As soon as we drove onto the peninsula we took an instant dislike to it! The park up they had recommended was actually at the furthest point of the peninsula so we kept hoping that maybe it would get better. There was lots of high rise buildings and hotels. It looked like it would be package holiday paradise in the summer.

It took about 45 minutes to drive to the park up. It was quite busy. To be fair the park up was away from all the hotels and high rise buildings but it still wasn’t really somewhere we liked! We decided to stay for the night.

I went for a swim. What a strange experience that was!

At the shoreline there was mounds of a strange sea plant which I found out is called Posidonia it is very common in the Mediterranean Sea. There was a plaque all about it. Apparently it protects against climate change by absorbing greenhouse gases! More than 1500 species live in it’s underwater meadows . The leaves act like a mop and make the water cleaner! It was very clear as you can see from the photos! Posidonia uses the sun’s energy to grow and releases the oxygen we breath.

As you can see from the photos it was in the sea as well as at the shoreline. It was very strange to walk on! It felt like a mixture of paper and plastic, I didn’t like it. When I put my head under there was loads of rocks and coral! It actually felt quite dangerous! I felt like I had to be so careful! This in mind I didn’t stay in very long!

After swimming we went for a walk and found something resembling the starship enterprise! I’m not a Star Trek fan but still had to get a photo! It was closed but surrounded by security cameras. It looked quite upmarket, I can only assume it was some kind of venue.

Mil Palmares

As you probably guessed in the morning we were definitely ready to leave Mar Menor. Not somewhere we would ever return to but can tick off the experience!

Our next park up was at Mil Palmares and we were now in Costa Blanca. The park up was a car park on the beach with a few other vans but not too overcrowded. We stayed for 3 nights.

I loved the beach and was once again in my element as there were buoys! More buoys than I could count!

In case you missed it in a previous post the love of buoys comes from my home town of Brighton in the summer when the swimming buoys come out! On good days we swim out to them and often do a circuit. At the end of the summer they are removed and we are always sad until they come back, as that’s a sign the summer is on its way!

Here’s some photos of the buoys and yes I was doing circuits, the sea was so calm too. It was great.

We had a relaxing few days here. We walked, I swam and we cycled. We also just chilled for a bit. We cycled to the next town further along and had a nice paella for lunch as you can see in the photos below.

We left Mil Pares on 6th Jan which is Three Kings Day in Spain. It’s the 12th Day of Christmas, a big celebration for the Spanish and also a Bank Holiday.

We went to around 3 park ups and weren’t happy with any of them for various reasons. In the end we just parked at one in the street, it wasn’t great but we decided that it would be ok for 1 night.

El Torres

The following day we found a good park up at El Torres which was in between La Vila Joiosa (Villajoyosa) and Benidorm.

Over the last couple of months I had been talking to some fellow van lifers , aka ‘Florry The Lorry’ on instagram and facebook. They were going to be travelling from Benidorm down through Alicante and onto Portugal. We had arranged to try and meet up with them. After letting them know where we were that said they would be at our park up around 2pm.

We set off on a bike ride to Villajoyosa which was about 20 minutes away by bike. I had a ‘bum bag’ on and it wasn’t until we were there that I realised the zip was open and my purse was missing! I remembered putting it in there before we left! We dashed back in the hope that it was in the van but sadly not! We followed our footsteps back again but no luck! We turned the van upside down looking but again nothing. Luckily I had only 2 cards in there and 70 Euros but also my driving licence. I had to put the cards on hold, order a new driving licence and also report to the Guardia Civil in Spain. An inconvenience but could have been worse!

In the middle of all the chaos ‘Florry the Lorry’ arrived with owners Chris, Cat and their dog Rolo!

It was really nice to meet them. We walked to the beach and Cat, Rolo and I went for a swim. We then walked back and hung out in Florry for a while before it was time for them to continue on their way..

The following day we ventured back into Villajoyosa. This time we thought we would walk. We left late afternoon. It was a great walk and took about an hour. We’d noticed when we cycled there that there was a lot of bars and restaurants on the promenade. It seemed a really lively place.

We completely forgot about the fact that it was Sunday and also early evening rather than lunch time! Most places were closing around the time we wanted to eat! Luckily we found somewhere as we did need to eat before the walk back. It wasn’t the best,but it turned out ok. We also got a lovely sunset.

Benidorm

The following day we cycled to Benidorm. We felt that we just had to go and see it whilst we were in the area.

The cycle ride was about half an hour. It was probably what we expected. Lots of high rise buildings, hotels and tourists, mainly British ones! And lots of people older than us which made us feel quite young. We had some food in the town which was cheap but not great. We spent a lot of time queuing in a very crowded bank! I had my nails done and then we left. Although it was as we expected I almost felt that we hadn’t properly seen Benidorm! At that time though we both had no desire to return!

The following day we decided to move on to Altea which is the other side of Benidorm and also the start of our next post. We did actually go back to Benidorm! It’s in our next post.

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