Away in a Ranger,

 Equipped with a bed.....

As we didn't get to take Campalot to the UK this summer - ever changing covid rules meant it was more flexible just  to take the truck and move around faster - we decided to take a few days down at the Mar Menor to test out the latest modifications and see if there was anything else we wanted to change before we set off on a major trip. It was also a chance to check out a couple of possible locations for our next move within Spain.

Mar Menor is a large saltwater lagoon in Murcia (next province down from Valencia) that often features in A Place in the Sun but having seen it for ourselves we don't think we want to stay there - the townships are all quite small and artificial with little infrastructure or character.

Cartagena on the other hand dates back to about 200 BC and the Carthaginians and has been occupied ever since, in particular there are some large roman ruins. As such it has the character that the Mar Menor lacks, and some nice back streets and squares, and I think it could be a good contender for a winter rental. No beach in the city itself as the natural port is all rocky and is Spain's main naval base for the med, but that is less of an issue out of season. A good food market with more varieties of fish than we have seen anywhere else in Spain so far.

it also had a large nativity diorama set up in one of the squares, reinterpreting the christmas story to feature their own roman amphitheatre - and of course it made me think of Life of Brian

Campalot performed well and we were quite comfortable for all it was cool and windy - we spent more time sat inside than we would normally expect to keeping warm and away from the mosquitos. I have a few more tweaks to make over winter but talking with some of  the German snowbirds on the campsite reminded us why we made it demountable in the first place - they were either having to tow another vehicle on a trailer behind their motorhomes or couldn't get into the towns because their camper vans were too large. Tigger II isn't exactly small even without the camper on the back, but at least we manage to get into on-street parking spaces.

So now we hunker down for winter and hope that the travel situation improves again before next spring.

Land of my fathers (almost)

San Sebastian in the Basque country about 100km from where I used to visit as a kid. We allegedly came through here but I have absolutely no recollection of it - I don't think we ever stayed as it was so close to the end of our journey that we always pushed on through.

On our way back to Valencia from our first official UK trip in 2 years. This is our only stop in this part of Spain as tomorrow we head home via an errand in Madrid. We will visit and a tour properly one summer, but at this time of year it's a bit cold and gray

Land of my father's mother's fathers....

 

Thanks to the politicians and health advisory" experts" deciding to bugger up the vaccine rollout by restricting rollouts and throwing the baby out with the bathwater, we have given up on touring to anywhere this summer and opted to relocate 400kms south to Gandia in Valencia.

Rental contracts here are for a minimum of 12 months, so once the so self-important regional authorities decided to limit travel until after easter, we had to bite the bullet and either stay put until next spring or do a video viewing of somewhere else. Maria had spent weeks looking for properties all along the Valencia coast, and flagged up a house near the beach north of Gandia. It looked good on the video so we said yes and gave our notice on the house in Cubelles.

We came down with Campalot on the Sunday, stayed at a local campground overnight and then did the usual waiting around for hours for Spanish incompetents to sign the contracts and get the keys. Once we got in we found out how enormous the house is over 4 floors, 500m back from the beach and in walking distance of a good range of bars and restaurants - much better than before . There are always a few drawbacks and gotchas but i think we will be happy here for a year, and hopefully we can resume our meanderings next year

And whilst my paternal grandmother was from around Blibao, apparently my great grandfather was from Valencia......