It felt like coming home when we arrived back in Spain, relaxed driving, no animals or people wondering in the road and we were soon heading off to Dequesa (A) staying at nearby Bella Vista. This is our fourth visit to the area, we walked along the promenade remembering various places and finally settled for a drink around the marina. The main reason for coming was to see Mandy and Mal, however Mal was at an army reunion in Amsterdam. That didn’t stop Mandy and both of us having a good time as we caught up over a late lunch with one of her friends, great to see her and enjoy a good time together.
I also had a mad moment and swam in the sea in March, refreshing is how I’d term it, and something I’d wanted to do on previous visits. Walking around the town we found some beautiful tiles of white horses depicting the waves as they roll in on the sea. The promenade was full of flowers with the beach nearby where we sat for a drink and watched the horses under the trees. The few days we had were beautiful, hot and sunny, a real tonic and very relaxing.
Further east along the coast, another place we revisited was Almerimar Port (B) where we stayed for 2 nights. It was good coming back and after relaxing forthe first evening, we were refreshed to go Caching in the morning, successfully collecting 5, including our 2nd ever ‘first to find’ on our walk around the area. Nice to see it at a different time of year with wildflowers on the beach edge and mimosa trees fully of fluffy yellow flowers.
Heading into The Mercia area next, we made our way north west into the hills near Ricote (C) to our friends Jessica and Martin. We met them enroute and they led us to a friend’s house where our motorhome would be safe behind their high wall and locked gates. It was early evening and after a lovely social time together with Carla and Douwe, the six of us enjoyed wine, beer and nibbles before returning to Jessica and Martin’s house. Next day from a nearby village we had a great riverside walk with a wonderful mountain back drop, the day was quite hot and there were plenty of insects and the most beautiful swallowtail butterflies.
We also had a birding morning in an area where you can drive off road using the car as a mobile hide. We drove along tracks and through the open-plan fields, some cultivated ready for planting and some with vegetables and purple flowering globe artichokes. We got great sightings of a number of species, some close up and some more distant. The best birds were the Little Bustards, a very handsome male and 3 females, also 4 stone curlews walking among rows of vegetables then they suddenly took off, little owl, black bellied sand grouse, woodchat shrike, lesser kestrel and a greater short toed lark! No we didn’t see it’s toes, and Martin assured us that was its name. (Credits: Martin’s bird photos)
Next stop was Jávea (D) and a different more luxurious campsite than our usual one. Nice to have space and everything clean, there was a pool, bar, tennis court and boules pitch. We walked to the port end of Jávea to meet up with Trevor and Irene for lunch, we had plenty to talk about telling them about Morocco and our travels around such a different country. After a lift back up to the campsite we were given a bag of lemons, some oranges and avocados which were all most welcome, then they returned back into the hills to Parcent. I missed seeing the village this time, so next time we are in the area we’ll go and visit and enjoy the lovely scenery of the area and spending more time together with our friends.
The next few days were planned as a journey north, across in the direction of Zaragoza and onwards to Bilboa. First night was a free Aire on the edge of a small village called Geldo (E) surrounded by fields. A walk into the village revealed many buildings with huge art murals on the walls, some covering an entire gable end of a house. There were over 20 paintings, all sorts of works or art including portraits, animals, birds, and cartoon type images, it really was impressive and our walk around the village showed us the narrow streets and houses, in all talking around an hour.
Moving on next day, mid route instead of going to Haro, we changed direction and headed for Soria (F) where were meeting up with Kenny and Maureen, arriving outside Mercadona supermarket at the same time from opposite directions, totally uncoordinated! The campsite was on a lovely rural site with green fields in front and a hillside beyond. The trees were still bare of leaves, so thankfully no shade, and on a few trees were stork nests with large black and white storks occasionally clattering the beaks together. An afternoon of catching up on their recovery from Morocco, the motorhome being mended in Algeciras and subsequent the journey north, it was great to be together again. We chatted on throughout the evening over a card game of Five Kings and drinks at the onsite bar before retiring for the night, heating on and all the windows closed, so much colder up north.
Next day was the last chance this trip to go Geocaching together so we walked some tracks, under a huge viaduct and into the town of Soria and found a few sculptures while hunting down caches along the way. Lunch was a nice cheap tapas each and a beer on an attractive square before returning the the campsite for more beers in the sun.
Parting company again, Chris and I set off for Miranda de Ebro (G), our final destination before the ferry, leaving Kenny and Maureen heading home through France. Arriving in time for an early lunch, we changed into shorts, probably for the last time until the summer, and set off into the town. It was clean and modern with attractive buildings, a tree lined street where we found a cache in a tree hole, a railway station where we found another in a pile of sleepers under a train wheel and by now we were a bit thirsty. Beside an busy park we sipped two beers and chatted to the owner, he then gave us two more beers ‘on the house’. Such a lovely man. We were telling him about our trip to Morocco and he asked about our motorhome, thankfully his English was excellent. He began telling us about Easter celebrations in Spain, disappeared for a short while and came back with a special bottle of wine only drunk at Easter time, and said it was a gift for us and thanked us for coming to his bar. Amazing!
Well it was an epic journey by ferry from home to Portsmouth, through Spain and down to the south of Morocco and back. We are home now where Spring has started. Here are a few facts for you:
I drove a total of 3,740 miles on our trip from 20th January to 8th April
We stayed at 9 locations in Spain over 20 nights, divided between the beginning and the end of our trip. We also did 19 locations (2 of them we stayed twice) in Morocco over 55 nights
Money: 10 dirhams is about 80p
Fuel cost in Morocco generally around 12.85 dirhams a litre, therefore just over £1/litre, averaged at £1.10 / litre or £5 a gallon in old money!
Campsites averaged at 100 dirhams / £8 a night although we used Guarded Parking several times at only 40 dirhams / £3.20 a night
Food is very cheap and you can live well on fresh produce for little money. Eating out is also cheap. Alcohol is not readily available but you can occasionally find it at some supermarkets and restaurants
The high cost of the Fully Comprehensive Insurance and extra ferry from Spain to Morocco is more than compensated for with the cheap living costs. And of course the Sunshine!
Our motorhome adventures 