Looking for Some Sun

Area Malaga Beach turned out to be quite popular and with a high turnover too. Yes, there were quite a few who were obviously staying for a while, but every morning many vans departed and then shortly after lunch the place filled up again with a new set of motorhomes. The weather was generally fine until Sunday when rain showers started rolling in from the east and quite suddenly a strong wind got up, increasing over quite a short time to gale force, enough to cause us to add some tiedowns to the front insulating screens. The sea state also picked up quite quickly too until there some serious breakers hitting the beach – no danger to us as we were a few rows back and anyway the site was reasonably elevated. Looked impressive though.

But we were now getting itchy feet again and as we were getting a bit low on gas decided on a change of scenery so Monday saw us on the road to Malaga. The gas station we were headed for wasn't there but Bren spotted another close by and we filled up before getting lost (again) trying to find our way back to the main road. TomTom to the rescue and we were on the A7 – Autovia de la Mediterrane – following the coast and watching the still heavy seas breaking on the beaches, rocks, harbours etc. etc. This made us think of perhaps heading inland so after a quick lunch stop we chose an aire we had used before at Castellar de la Frontera.

Castellar is really just a dormitory town, about 10km inland from Algeciras, all painted white as in the Pueblas Blancas - “white villages” which abound in this area. However this particular large village is quite modern but with few facilities, although it does have a sizeable aire with water and waste disposal for free.Really can't think what advantage to the village it is but happy nevertheless to take advantage. We did buy a couple of baguettes though.

Our intention was to stay a couple of days and wait for the weather to settle down, it being quite sheltered here. So we stayed put for 3 nights doing very little, just watching the comings and goings while checking the progress of some old friends who we learned were approaching the area. After 3 nights they were not yet nearby so needing some shopping we headed down to Palomes Centre Commerciale near Algeciras, our usual jumping off spot for Morocco.

Once done we thought we'd try the campsite just outside La Linea and close to Gibraltar for a couple of days. Unfortunately they do not accept dogs so a rethink found us back at Palomes for an overnight stop, simply because we couldn't be bothered to go anywhere else! There has been a number of changes but the place is still full of motorhomes overnighting so we joined them.

The weather was now starting to recover so we went back to Castellar to await our friends. However once there we learned they were still some way away and wouldn't be arriving until after we needed to be heading home. So after one very cold and frosty night we continued along the coast in now glorious sunshine with superb views of the Straights of Gibraltar and Morocco.

Discussing our plans for heading home we thought a few days on a good site before making serious progress would be nice and as the weather seemed to be holding we elected to try our old favourite, Las Dunas, at El Puerto de Santa Maria just north of Cadiz. TomTom took us round the back of Cadiz but then straight through the middle of El Puerto, not really the best approach but we managed without causing too much mayhem!

The receptionist could accommodate us so we booked for 3 nights and were allocated a spacious pitch with plenty of sunshine, albeit right in a corner. We later met a Brit couple who must have arrived just after us and had been given, basically, a bit of grass by the side of the road. Personally I would have rejected it and I think that's what they were going to do.

But the real positive was that the sun was out, there was little breeze and we could get the chairs out for a couple of hours rays at last! Then later the closeby sandy beach was just made for Jamie to run about on, wearing himself out!