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.