Aguilas

This is a nice area, rugged hills down to the coast, great to look at. We have been here before, last time we wild camped next to the beach, and there were loads of motorhomes doing just that, but we were put off by the new signage that mentioned €3000 fines for camping so we stayed in a formal campervan place. Park-for-night app had a few comments from people that had been fined for wild camping, I can understand why, I remember the rubbish on the beach and the men pissing in the bushes last time. It’s said people just empty their loos in the bushes and I can believe that a small few do, although most will go to the garage and pay their €2.50 to use the services. As always the few spoil it for the masses. Anyway we were in a camper park connected to a garage, think car park with wide enough spots to get your table and chairs out next to the van , electrics and modern loos and showers (€15). Nice walk to the beach, looked in a few civil war bunkers and walked/cycled along the seafront. We explored the castle and its views, and managed to keep dry more by luck than anything else. It has continued to rain but on Sunday the sun came out! We celebrated by cycling into the hills, to see the Geode of Pulpi but alas it was fully booked. We also cycled around a very large and strange golf complex. A lot of money has gone into putting in place new roads and so many golf buggies, but the housing etc doesn’t seem to have materialised. I couldn’t decide if this was a failed adventure or one in its early days. The van is filthy! In the garage the queue for the motorhome jet wash was rather large, I was amused that they provided ladders to access the top of the motorhome. I just brushed as much of the Sahara sand as I could from the van, cleaned the windows and solar panel. Hopefully this storm is now past, it has been ongoing for 3 weeks..

In some ways I’d have liked to spend longer here, particularly once the sun decided to stop hiding, but time moves on and we now have in place a timetable of kinds – Easter in Seville, ferry second week of May