And so we head North and homeward bound.....

 Hello again! If you've been wondering where we were I'm writing this from home in the UK. We had no internet for the last part of the journey and when we arrived home our phone was not working and neither was the internet, hence the lateness of my final post for our trip! 
So, at last here it is:-
With the compass pointing north we headed back up the spectacular coast road to Mojacar - a bustling resort town popular with the Brits since the sixties, fortunately although there are lots of shops, restaurants and hotels it is not an ugly resort like so many of the places we have seen - no high rise hotels or ghastly looking apartment blocks. 

There is a wonderful long sandy beach and we had the glorious sunny weather to go with it. We found a great place to wild camp right on the beach for a couple of nights, about a mile from the town with a lovely cycleable path cut into the beach cliffs giving wonderful views along the coast.

A sad fact of life is that everywhere in Spain there are unfinished building projects, some of them massive complexes of apartments or houses sometimes almost complete but now standing abandoned. Behind the area where we stayed was a complex right in a prime location, begun but never finished, it only got as far as the skeleton.

Janet and Frank's house with very inviting pool

After two days of walking and cycling in Mojacar we continued north to visit our new friends Janet and Frank who live in Rojales near Torrevieja. We parked right next to their house, slept in the van but used all the facilities of their house including the swimming pool.

Keith with Janet & Frank and the 'kids'

 Jan and Frank have lived in Spain for nine years, they have a lovely home and they made us very welcome - including their four rescue dogs who got quite used to us coming and going in the house.

Frank cooking our dinner in the outside kitchen

We had a fabulous time, finding that we had a lot in common especially Frank and Keith talking motorbikes, in the past Frank had an impressive range of bikes from the Triumphs of the sixties to the modern Kawasaki.

It was really interesting to discover what it was like to live in Spain as an ex-pat.

After three nights we had to drag ourselves away to resume our long journey home

Me enjoying an afternoon swim

We travelled for  six days almost completely toll-free back to Calais and the Eurotunnel - definitely our preferred method of crossing the channel - we were back in the UK an hour and a half after arriving at the Calais terminal.
We had an amazing time, met some lovely, interesting people and have just begun to wonder that maybe we might want to spend more time in Spain in the future. Who knows?.....
Our ten week trip was over and I had the Moonwalk to do on the Saturday - a gruelling marathon distance walk in London through the night to raise funds for Breast Cancer. It was quite an experience I have to tell you but together we raised over £5000 so it has to be worth it!

Team Bridget's Birds ready to go!

Our next trip is planned for the September, I hope you have enjoyed reading about our travels and will continue to follow us on our future adventures!
Bye for now!!

To the end and back....

Faro de Gata

Imagine if you will that the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) is a square, as I write this blog we are parked on the bottom right corner, the lighthouse Faro de Gata marks the corner of that square, it also marks the end of our journey away from home because it's time to turn and make the two thousand mile journey back home.

Nice topiary

We left La Azohia on Saturday to stay at a Camperstop near a town called Vera, it was situated in the middle of nowhere and we nearly gave up trying to find it when luckily we found it, we soon hooked up and had the washing machine running in no time at all. We stayed for two nights to catch up with the washing and wifi etc but didn't particularly like the place as it was noisy with a shooting range close by, twelve-bore target practice echoing around the valley was not conducive to relaxation!  But it was convenient and we had a laugh when our lack of Spanish caused a misunderstanding - having arrived at the weekend the Camp reception was closed so we went into the bar to pay for our stay, we asked the young man behind the bar if we could pay for our two nights camping, I think 'pay' sounded like 'paella' to him because a few minutes later he came out of the kitchen with two foil containers of takeaway paella - Oops!   Well, luckily he saw the funny side of it when we explained! We left the bar giggling but mildly embarrassed, I always resolve to improve my Spanish but never keep it up once we get home - not much call for it in Billingshurst really!

Overlooking Agua Amarga

With the van replenished of water, toilet emptied etc we headed off for more wild camping first to the pretty bay of Agua Amarga where we stayed on a dried up riverbed and hoped it wouldn't rain (apparently this particular area is known for its flash floods where the water pours down from the mountains in heavy rain) then the next night we stayed in the even prettier bay of La Isleta - a tiny fishing village.

Not much company at La Isleta apart from the seagulls

 This is the first time we have done so much wild camping and really enjoy it - from talking to other motorhomers who tell us where to go, we have discovered so many beautiful places right on the seafront.

La Isleta from a small mountain we climbed!

 But we do like our creature comforts so we stay on a camperstop every couple of days to 'service' the van and perhaps do our laundry in the site washing machine so we had one night on the very nice Camperstop Capo de Gata run by the delightful Manuel, who was very friendly and helpful.

The very tip of Spain!

Which brings us to where we are now on the corner tip of Spain enjoying the lovely long sandy beach (not enjoying the wind so much!) parked right on the beach.

Another beach virtually to ourselves