Spain – Near Valencia

Despite the warm sunshine during the day it's still pretty cool once the sun goes down so we're glad of the electricity hookup to provide comfortable heating during the evening. The van is pretty good at retaining warmth so we don't have the heating on during the night, just a quick boost first thing when we get up.

First day here (Thursday) was spent getting caught up with the domestics and giving Bertie a good clean, both inside and out. The poor weather had left him looking very sorry for himself so Terry treated him to a bucket of water whilst Bren tackled two weeks of laundry! Fortunately there are industrial-sized machines so only two loads were needed, the dryer took care of one whilst the breezy sunshine dried out the bedding.

Friday was another warm sunny day and with the breeze dropping it was time to get some serious rays before exploring the campsite. Apart from the parking pitches there are around 35 chalets for hire, none of which were actually occupied – must be the closed season. There is an attractive open-air swimming pool set in nice gardens (it was closed but you could ask for it to be opened) and a mini-zoo with miniature horses, emus, sheep, plus various birds and ducks. There are horses to ride, a nice looking (but closed) restaurant and a small supermarket with basic provisions. An ideal site if all you want to do is chill. The local bus to Valencia stops right outside the gate half-hourly but we decided not to take advantage. Dogs not allowed so it meant leaving Jamie in the van, although the site does also offer a dog-sitting service – but we don't do kennels.

Saturday and Sunday were dull and cloudy so, apart from walking Jamie every now and then, we relaxed inside with our various hobbies, listening to some of our music collection on our new super duper all-singing-all-dancing digital radio we had fitted last year, as well as a local radio station.

It did get a little busier over the weekend and we chatted with several British and Dutch couples. Quite a lot of dogs too so Jamie had to wear his stop-barking collar to give us a little peace. We were a little annoyed at one point when a large untethered dog ran out of one van and jumped on Jamie, giving him a bit of a fright – nobody hurt but dogs are supposed to be kept on a lead.

Lunch al fresco

Monday the sun returned and we both caught it a little bit whilst sitting out. After lunch we went in search of the beach, having been given directions by one of the Brits we met. There is no direct pathway, just a narrow trail through the woods, across an unmarked road and down the side of a golf course. This meant, however, that being difficult to access it was just about deserted. We had several miles of clean golden sand, gently washed by the Mediterranean Sea, to ourselves so Jamie had a wonderful hour chasing his ball then dropping it in the sea to clean it – which meant Terry got more than a bit damp when he was caught by a rogue wave! Never mind, it was warm so didn't take long to dry out. Jamie started to tire so we wandered back to the van for a cuppa and a slice of Christmas cake.

Tuesday seemed noticeably warmer once the sun had got up and once again we both caught it a little. Jamie was very quiet, we think we perhaps overdid it a bit yesterday as he hasn't had quite such energetic exercise for a while. Later we started packing up the van as we have decided to move on tomorrow, heading slowly down south to eventually hopefully meet up with our friends June and Derek before they go on to Morocco.