Our grand tour of southern Spain January 26th Day Twelve

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Thursday 26^th January Day twelve

Go figure. The electric hook up behaved itself all last night. I have no idea why. Randomness!

We are away by 9.15 heading to Cartagena. We take the back roads passing by Salinas de La Mata so we can see the salt lagoons – fascinating. Huge mountains of salt lying just off the roadside being loaded into huge lorry trucks by big bulldozers!

Our planned stop at the red and green lakes and the little museum just outside of Torrevieja is not very successful. Two coaches of primary children have swamped the little museum and even its warden has suggested we go for a stroll and come back in a couple of hours. We went for a stroll, the kids were still there on our return, and so we went to the Carrefour instead. I know, we are retired teachers and should love being around kids. We did it for thirty-five years – that love towards little people – the six and seven years olds – fondly referred to by most primary colleagues as ‘Kling’ons’ or ‘stickies’ wears off immediately you retire – trust me on this! Duty done, time served and all that! Our empathy and sympathy towards their teachers however, always remains!

After our last experience at a Carrefour, where some miscreant tried to get into Bryony (and got the shock of their lives no doubt when four sirens went off – thanks Vanblitz for your ‘growler’ alarm system – love it), I decide to stay with her whilst Maggie does the shopping. Again, parking for a motorhome is non-existent but I manage to find three spaces not under those sunshade roofs and I park across them all!

We head for our next stop, AreaCaravanasHome, just outside northern Cartagena. The welcome is really warm and we are given a personal tour of the site by a really kind friendly gentleman, who has mastered Google translate speech app. He even apologises for the chilliness (its 14C and sunny). Apparently, it is the first year that they have ever had a temperature below 22C in January in Cartagena and everyone is blaming climate change! Google translate speech app – what a fantastic invention it is!

Finally, a site with a sense of space and tarmac not gravel pitches. It’s effectively a giant car park but fenced off, away at the back of the buildings, off the main road and bordering some nice countryside. Facilities are clean and there are washing machine and tumble-drying facilities. It is out of the way and a 600m walk along a busy road to the nearest bus stop, bizarrely called ‘Buenos Aires’! But we love the sense of tranquillity and space. We come to a grinding halt and the afternoon is spent reading, typing up blog posts and editing photographs. We will tackle Cartagena tomorrow.

Everyone else has had the same thought. There is a queue of washing bags for the washing machine!!

Useful information

Route: AP7 – N332

Distance: 95 miles

Costs: 51 euros for campsite

Campsite: https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/marker.php?id=41270