Motorhome parking – turnrightoutofportsmouth

Santander to the Costa del Sol in a motorhome – how to enjoy this journey :)

Parked up at Area de Autocarvannas in La Guardia de Jaen

Last time we took the ferry to Spain in January 2017 we went into Bilbao and had to then spend 5 nights at our 1st site in Zaurutz whilst waiting to get my tablet back (I’d left it in our cabin…) This wasn’t a major issue though as we were taking our time to reach the coast, via Pamplona.

This time however (January 2022) we docked in Santander (after a nightmare journey – read about it here), and the intention was to travel in the most direct manner south. Together with our travelling companions, Steve and Denise, we decided on the next night’s stop each evening. Actually, let’s be honest here, Steve and I found each evening’s park up between us!

We decided on 3 overnight stops before reaching the coast – it can, of course, be achieved quicker, but we wanted to enjoy the journey and see some new sites on our way.

So the 1st leg was Santander to Aranda de Duero just south of Burgos, roughly 150 miles in total. We stopped in an approved area with services, by the river and had a wander into the lovely little old town across the river. I also met a lady who had the misfortune to have had the same horrendous crossing as I experienced – only this poor lady hadn’t benefitted from the comfort of a cabin 😦

The following day we made it a further 125 miles south to the beautiful town of Aranjuez just south of Madrid. We had been somewhat concerned about negotiating our way around or through Madrid, but it was Sunday and we decided to head straight through (on the motorway of course!) You just need to keep your wits about you and make sure you follow the signs for Cordoba/Granada. I think I was more stressed than Calv trying to ensure I got the navigation right!

This time our stop off was by the side of a river, and just before a campsite (Camping Internationale). We parked up and headed straight across the bridge to the Palace Gardens to follow the river into town. Sadly the Royal Palace was closed, but plenty of bars were open, and we took full advantage. This is a lovely place and we would happily return for another visit.

We had a slightly longer journey the next day (about 175 miles) heading to an Area de Autocaravannas that I’d found in La Guardia de Jaen– it looked wonderful but some of the reviews suggested that we might struggle to reach it in our van. We decided to give it a go anyway as we were coming from the north. Absolutely no issues were experienced and this spot is an absolute gem 🙂 We stayed 2 nights in the end. The only problem was that it took us 3 attempts to find the little supermarket open, and the only bar open at all while we were there was a very local one – Calv poked his head through the door and said it looked like someone’s front room filled with men (exclusively) smoking and drinking.

We saw a red squirrel in the trees in the valley by the area, and Calv and I walked up to viewing point high above us – a very steep climb; one of those that was as bad coming down as going up! We also walked around the town and up to the castle (sadly closed), around the back of the castle to the church (similarly closed) where there were additions tacked on where families were living, down to the garage to get drinking water – there was another bar here that was actually open – entailing another steep climb back up to the van.

The guy in the van beside us also stayed a few days and he used to go off cycling for miles while his wife sat in the sun relaxing 🙂

Click on the link above for advice on how to arrive at this area (i.e. we would recommend that you don’t try and come through the town itself, you need to approach from the north, which might entail going past and then coming back on yourselves). This is probably the best free stopover we have ever stopped on (although Algodanales in the hills north of Ronda comes a very close second 🙂 )

A 2 night stopover at La Guardia de Jaen

After La Guardia de Jaen we headed for the coast and 1 last free night (in Cala de Mijas) before arriving at Camping Cabopino for a few weeks. We had to go via Granada having found a Caravan Dealership where we could buy ACSI cards (we had ordered ours before christmas but they hadn’t arrived before we left home).

This final stint we did in 1 hit (apart from the stop to buy ACSI). We know the free area in La Cala (de Mijas) well from previous stays, but on arrival we were shocked at how many motorhomes were there! It’s normally very well policed, but they were spilling over outside the accepted area – there must have been 3 times as many vans as would normally be allowed 😦 We decided to stay for 1 night however (it’s very handy for a night out)). We were now able to head out to do a proper shop – we tried the Aldi (not too keen tbh), and then headed back out to Lidl in the morning for the bits we couldn’t get in Aldi!

A meal in El Gusto (because Biddy Mulligan’s shut the kitchen at 5pm – their loss, we discovered El Gusto next door and will return!) was most welcome and very, very good.

We did see last week that the car park has now been cleared of the excess motorhomes and there is just the corner now available (as per usual – there’s still about 30-40 vans in there though)

Bringing the shopping home in La Cala de Mijas

We’re now settled at Cabopino for a few weeks and in my next post I’ll tell you about trips to Marbella Old Town and La Cala de Mijas (on the bus!)

Casares – Charming White town. Birthplace of Blas Infante

A wonderful discovery in the mountains above Manilva 🙂

Finally tearing ourselves aware from the comfort and familiarity of Cabopino, we were aiming to spend a night or 2 at the spot in Puerto Duquesa that we had scoped out on the day we visited the Banos de la Hedionda (click here for relevant post), followed by a couple of nights in the free aire on the outskirts of Casares.

If you’ve been reading regularly you will know things don’t always go according to plan! This time everything seemed fine to start with. We arrived in the car park by Castillo Duquesa, parked up and had a cup of tea. All was fine as a policeman did his rounds and was perfectly happy, so we spent a couple of hours on the beach – which was idyllic at first as we had it pretty much all to ourselves, the sun was out and the van was but metres away! It was lovely even though the beach is not the nicest (slightly grey and gritty sand), and after about 1/2 hour the sandflies decided they liked the look of me!

So after a lovely couple of hours relaxing we returned to the van, to find 2 more vans parked behind us, and popped the kettle on again. At this point (it was after 5pm by now) the police returned, there were 2 of them this time, They proceeded to move everyone on, saying camping wasn’t allowed – indicating our step being out as being ‘camping behaviour’… We’re pretty sure the problem was really that whilst they will tolerate 3 or 4 vans, anymore causes an issue. The 2 vans parked behind us took the number stopped there to half a dozen.

Not wanting any more run ins with the police we moved – being our first time trying to park free of charge – to the nearby site of Bellavista (at 31 Euros for the night…) In the morning I went for a run along the seafront promenade and saw that 3 of the vans were still parked up where we had been – possibly confirming our theory relating to why we were moved on.

Before heading inland to Casares we went back to the same spot and visited Castillo Duquesa which was free to visit. The castle is clearly used by the community still as there are meeting rooms in the old rooms as well as 2 museums, 1 archeological and the other a fencing museum Continue reading “Casares – Charming White town. Birthplace of Blas Infante”

A couple of Secret Swimming Spots ‘found’ in Andalucia #2

The 2nd of a couple of wonderful days out from Cabopino – Banos de Hedionda was quite possibly my favourite day out of this trip so far!

We had been told about a couple of places that we could park for free and were keen to check these out, never having parked for free before. Along with these 2 spots we had been told about the Banos de la Hedionda, a Roman Baths that you can still swim in.

I’m telling you about this separately as it turned into a trip of 2 halves!

We had planned the day out with Steve and Denise for a Sunday and we were almost ready to go when Calv decided that we should fill up with fuel before we actually left. So over to the fuel station opposite Cabopino we went – cue a little confusion as signs on the pumps suggested that we had to pay before filling up, so Calv decided to see if the pump worked, it did. ‘Is this the right fuel?’ ‘Gaseole’ I read, ‘Diesel; yes’ And Calv proceeded to fill up.

We then all piled into the little car with our supplies for the day and set off along the A7 towards Marbella. After about a mile and a half Calv said ‘We’re breaking down…!’ , the engine management light came on and we started to limp. Luckily there was an exit handy (which turned out to be into the car park for the abandoned Marbella Roc hotel – shame as it looked really lovely). This is where we realised (as I am sure you already have) that we had put the wrong fuel in the poor little car and we weren’t going anywhere until we’d sorted it out 😦

This is where knowing several people onsite came in handy! We rang Alan, who was in a caravan so definitely had a towbar, to come to the rescue – which he did and really quickly too 🙂 (Thanks again Al 🙂 ) He firstly took us all back to the site before he and Calv returned to pick up the car (using the A-frame).

Calv then spent the majority of the next 7 hours emptying the diesel out (which wasn’t easy) and then putting some unleaded in (if only we’d done that in the first place!); and finally turning the engine over and over to expel the remaining diesel from the pipes…. Steve kept him company for the first hour or so, then I went into the car park to see if there was anything I could do – this turned out to be going and fetching more fuel (using Graham’s, of Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun fame, spare fuel can) and later turning the engine over and over again and again (we also had use of Jill’s – Jill and Roger, also seen frequently on Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun, car hooked up to the jump leads).

When the engine eventually fired it was a good moment, but also very dramatic! It looked like the car was on fire…

All’s well that ends well and we re-organised our trip for a couple of days later 🙂

We decided in the end that this was actually for the best because just imagine how busy it would have been on a Sunday!!

We were going quite a way, beyond Estepona to Manilva. Our first stop was to have a quick look at a campsite, Bellavista, which we didn’t really like (and at 31Euros had no intention of staying there – only we did…)

From there we took a walk along the boardwalk towards the marina of Puerto Duquesa (where we had a quick drink), which took us through the 1st of our suggested stopovers, in the car park in front of the Castillo Duquesa. Overnight parking is usually tolerated here, but we think that there is a limit on numbers as when we tried, a few weeks after our initial visit, the police were happy at first but when more motorhomes turned up they came back and moved us all on… So our first attempt at free camping failed (and that’s why we ended up in BellaVista).

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Before heading up into the mountains towards Casares we had a lovely lunch in Marlowes Fish and Chip Restaurant – we have missed fish and chips 🙂

Next stop the motorhome parking area at Casares (which we resolved to definitely use)

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And finally to the best part of the entire day – the Banos de la Hedionda. Although they don’t look much from the outside (when you eventually find them), this is one of my favourite activities on the whole trip so far. We were literally swimming in history – the baths are believed to have been originally built by Julius Caesar, when the waters were recognised as having healing properties. They were later modified by the Arabs when they conquered the area.

You can swim inside or outside – we went inside (apparently it was warmer outside). I would recommend water shoes, simply because I’m a bit of a woss and don’t like putting my feet down when I can’t see what’s on the bottom! I could put my feet down in a couple of places; you could also swim down the tunnel where there was a shallow pool that you could climb into – there was also another passageway that was so dark you couldn’t see someone literally a foot away! Without a torch I wasn’t willing to venture down there, but might well do on another visit (with a torch!)

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There is clear evidence that this was once a thriving attraction, but when we went we were the only people there (although I understand that in the summer you now have to book your place (free of charge though). On the walk back we also found the old aqueduct across the river.

I cannot recommend a visit here highly enough – although remember to remove any jewellery; it turned somebody else’s Pandora jewellery black..!

Campsite Reviews aimed at motorhomers.

Honest 1st hand campsite reviews from the perspective of motorhomers with a fairly large unit (and often towing a small car). Currently covers sites in the UK, Spain, France and Portugal – hopefully in the future we will be adding sites in Germany, Italy, Croatia, Austria, Switzerland and beyond!

Hi to all you motorhomers out there (and caravaners, but being motorhomers ourselves we know what they need :); well we know what we want/need and suspect many will have similar wants)…

We have, so far, visited sites throughout Spain, France and the UK. This spring/summer, coronovirus allowing, we are hoping to add Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany and Belgium to that list (and perhaps Switzerland, Lichenstein and Luxembourg…)

Within each review will be contact details, location details (ie. GPS co-ordinates), access issues and anything that’s particularly good or bad about the site. We will also include links to blogs giving you ideas of where to visit during your stay (this might be on foot, by car or bike).

Every site for which there is a review has been visited by us. Many of them have been found via the ACSI card book, but we are now starting to branch out and there are reviews for the free overnight stops that we have found (some of them just amazing and not limited to 1 night – Algodonales springs to mind; we stayed 4 nights with electricity provided…)

Knowing what’s important to us we are going to use a set format to complete, with key questions (access, pitch, facilities etc.) + the description set up under ‘The good, The bad and The ugly’.

Please do comment with your own views of any campsites I review that you have also visited – it’s quite possible we’ll have differing views! Any suggestions for other campsites or parking areas are also very welcome 🙂

Just a bit of background information on our set-up then:-

We are Mandi and Calvin and we have a 2012 Bessacarr E769, 8.56m long and 2.3m wide. We have been using the ACSI book for our travels on our last 2 European trips, and have found it invaluable (although we have had to resort to the internet a couple of times).

We have also invested in an Aguri SatNav for this trip (the one we had previously, from a different manufacturer, proved to be completely useless!!)

And, of course, if you find the campsite reviews helpful you might enjoy our blog cataloguing our travels!

I will be adding to these whenever we travel 🙂

Happy travelling 🙂

Jump straight to relevant reviews below – separate pages created for each country – simply click below for relevant list (most recent trip is shown first):-

SPAIN

FRANCE

A few more days on the Moors and seeing the Transporter Bridge

We did a lot of walking in the North York Moors – even when we were ‘going’ somewhere! So this post will deal with 1 of the days that we were, sort of at least, heading somewhere and I will do a separate post for the days we actually set out just to walk (to the top of Roseberry Topping and to see Captain Cook’s Monument to be precise).

On day 2 in the Moors we headed to the nearest decent sized town, Stokesley, which turned out to be extremely pleasant. The parking system was disc parking and, not having a disc, we drove through and parked as soon as we could, giving us a short walk back into town. There are an awful lot of old buildings in Stokesley and the centre has a really nice feel about it, with lots of independent shops and several butchers, bakers and greengrocers.

We also found a dedicated running shop here (I needed a new water bottle). The 1st bottle they showed me was £35 – I politely explained I wasn’t actually THAT much of a runner! I did get what I wanted though, and then realised that I recognised the couple from my previous morning’s ‘run’ – I had stopped to wait for them to pass me with their 4 dogs as I was embarrassed by my shambling and didn’t want them to observe it! These 2 are proper runners – he went up the hill like it was a Sunday afternoon stroll, whereas I had to bully myself up this hill (all 20m or so of it…). The shop is called Let’s Run, and they are very involved in coaching and getting beginners out with groups.

Packhorse Bridge in Stokesley

Looking toward the Packhorse Bridge in Stokesley

From here we headed towards Middlesborough as we both wanted to see the Transporter Bridge that crosses the Tees there.

We found it, and we went across the river on it (£1.30!), a very quick crossing after which we found ourselves in an area called Port Clarence, which used to be very busy, but which is now less so.

We had a quick drive around Middlesborough and were impressed by the evidence of past grandeur, and also the clear evidence of ongoing regeneration.

Making our way back the, slightly long way, we saw another bridge that appears to lift. I have since discovered this to be the Newport Vertical Lift Bridge which is no longer in use, so no chance of seeing it in action unfortunately 😦

Transporter Bridge, Middlesborough

Newprot Vertical Lift Bridge, Middlesborough

A couple of days later we decided to head south through the moors towards Helmsley. Continue reading “A few more days on the Moors and seeing the Transporter Bridge”

El Rocio – another WOW!

First off, this post is out of sync as I haven’t yet managed to get my thoughts about Camino del Rey down in words. Also the WiFi here is pretty bad and I’m having trouble uploading photos. I’ve managed a couple so I’ll put these on, but will add more to the gallery at a later date.

After El Camino del Rey we didn’t think we’d have many more ‘wow’ moments on this trip. But we were wrong…

Some other travellers told us about El Rocio weeks ago and we were quite keen to visit, so were very happy to find there was a site right at the entrance to the village, Camping La Aldea.

The day after we visited El Camino del Rey we relaxed at the van for much of the day, did a wash, started packing up, I made a chicken and bacon pie for tea (well I made 2 actually, 1 ready for another day – today, Friday, as it happens!) We also spent an hour or so at the beach and in the evening met Chris and Elaine halfway between us and them at Luna Beach, which turned out to be a very nice little bar with nice views. On the walk there, along the beach, we could clearly see Africa (as we had been able to all day). We also said goodbye to Roger (aka ‘Good Looking’) as we knew he wouldn’t be up by the time we left in the morning.

For once we were ready to leave quite early, and so were saying goodbye to Jill (Good Looking’s wife) before 9am and then on our way by 9.

We had to head back towards Malaga before going north and then west towards Seville. From what we could see of Seville as we bypassed it (we went the wrong way onto the ring road, but it didn’t matter as going north or south was much of a muchness), it looked like rather a lovely city. As we drove through the outskirts we saw a temperature gauge reading 32degrees! We had a good run and no toll roads were needed!

We finally made it to our new campsite at about 3.15pm (we had stopped on the way for breakfast and then lunch and a spot of grocery shopping). There was plenty of space and we could see that we were indeed right on the edge of the village. Unfortunately the swimming pool doesn’t open until Easter, otherwise we would have been straight in there!

After a dirty burger for tea we decided to go and have a quick look, via the site bar, before it got too dark. It was still warm enough to be out walking in a vest top (and we had eaten outside as well). In the bar we met the young couple who were pitched next to us – they have a 5 month old baby and are taking their parental leave as 5 months travelling in their motorhome. How wonderful is that?!

We walked around the village for a while. It’s all sand roads and you can see that all the houses have ‘bars’ outside to tie the horses up to (sorry, I don’t know what they’re called). We also saw many, many lodgings for particular ‘Hermandads’ – these are the brotherhoods from different provinces who come here on a pilgrimage at Pentecost (50 days after Easter) – apparently up to 1million people descend on this tiny village for the weekend of festivities.

On the way back to the van we walked along to a serenade of crickets and frogs. In the mornings we are waking up to cockerels crowing, donkeys braying and beautiful birdsong.

Friday morning, once we’d properly woken up, we set off to explore the village properly and this time we found the main square containing the Ermitas and where no cars are supposed to enter… We saw many horses and horses and carts (we’ll take a trip tomorrow) and also found out that the nature reserve starts immediately in front of the main area.

This is a horse village, many of the bars have high counters outside so that people can stay on their horses to have a drink! We were told this morning, by a British man, that apparently Americans still come over here to buy horses that have a gene going all the way back to the original wild horses, and that the breed, Mustang, originated here.

The high point of the pilgrimage is on the Monday when the statue of the Virgin Mary is taken out of the church and paraded through the village to visit every 1 of the Hermandads (brotherhoods) – there were 106 of them shown on a sign we saw in the village. Apparently the campsite charges 50Euros a night during the week of the pilgrimage (we’re paying 17…) We saw the statue in the Ermitas and it’s huge. We have no photos as individuals make pilgrimages here throughout the year and there were several people in there who were clearly on their own personal pilgrimage.

At lunchtime we sat in 1 of the bars at the top of the main square and had some tapas. We tried patata Ali Oli (garlic potato) – which I would have liked if it had been hot, but it was straight out of the fridge and I’m not keen on cold potato – and Pimiento asados con atun (peppers with tuna), also cold, but I really liked it (sometimes I surprise myself!)

While we ate we watched the swallows flying around the Ermitas and into the eaves. There were hundreds of them!

There was also a fenced off grove of Olive trees nearby. These were fenced off as they’re all over 100 years old and 1 of them is over 600 years old. It seems that those attending the pilgrimage used to touch them (maybe hug them??) and they needed to be protected. It would be interesting to see if fencing them off actually had the desired effect!

By 2pm we were beginning to flag as it was so hot so we headed back to the campsite to relax for a while.

But by about 4.30 Calv was getting bored! So we got the bikes out and headed for the lakes to see what birds we could spot.

This gave us another view of the main square and we also saw horses grazing in the shallows. Calv made a friend of a stray dog that seemed to want to play, but I was a bit concerned that he was going to bite him – he just wouldn’t leave him alone…! He got some good photos of the birds (including flamingos, spoonbills and black kites), but nowhere near as good as our Swedish neighbour next door, who visits us regularly and brought over some of his photos to show us this evening – truly amazing (mind you he has rather an impressive lens!)

Tomorrow we will go back into the village and hopefully take a trip in a horse and cart, and perhaps visit the ornithological centre to find out what some of the birds that we’ve seen are. We might even get closer to the flamingos and get a better picture of them 🙂

It’s now tomorrow and we’ve had a lazy morning before walking back into the village. It was hot again today and we were hoping to get some got pictures of the various wildlife. I think Calv did get some pretty got shots, but we’re having trouble uploading at the moment so I can’t put them on here.

It’s Saturday today and there were, as expected, more horses around. Naively we thought that perhaps there would be fewer cars in the village, but there were many more + many coaches… Before we came here I had a daft idea that there would be no cars in the village. In fact they’re only barred from the area around the Ermitas – however, being in Spain, this rule is regularly flouted…

We took a 25 minute trip, just the 2 of us, in a horse and cart, at a cost of 20 Euros, which we were happy with. The driver spoke to us in Spanish, and we managed to communicate in some small way. We now know there’s a famous singer living in El Rocio and he knows we also visited the village yesterday! Also that El Rocio is pronounced El RoSio – I thought it was either El RoKio or El RoTHio. (they also say GraSiaS here, rather than grathia…)

The Spanish love to come out to play at the weekend which is great to see. We saw them having picnics, family gatherings, a wedding party in full swing, ladies practising playing their castanets and their flamenco moves by the water. It was all very uplifting! (Actually that’s another thing that’s big here, flamenco. There are several shops dedicated to selling flamenco outfits – and they’re not cheap….. There was also a show in 1 of the bars, but we missed it!

We also now have a party of scouts, or equivalent, here on the campsite – we could hear them this morning before they set out for the day, playing games and singing.

We saw horses at the bar – raised counters so that riders don’t have to dismount in order to have a drink. People sitting in their carts outside bars drinking.

We saw several different species of birds plus frogs and a couple of lizards. All in all we were pleased that we stayed an extra day.

Horses grazing in the water at El Rocio

The Ermitas at El Rocio

‘Horse Bars’ in El Rocio

Hasta manana 🙂