June 2015

Ninot on Alicante Promenade

7th June 2015. 

We've had a fairly quiet start to the month but have still managed to cycle almost 90 kms including another ride to Busot to see if my hill climbing legs had improved. I am pleased to say that the second time around it was much easier so all this practice must be working! Deb & David left on the 3rd to start heading further north so we won't see them again until we meet up in Gruissan around the end of July. 

Wedding Anniversary toast.

Today is our wedding anniversary and Pilar, the site manager gave us a lovely bottle of wine from her home town in Northern Spain. We did a great ride to Valle del Sol this morning but when it turned out to be a large urbanisation with no shops or cafés we headed back to make our own coffee. Oh well, it saved us €2.80!! As it was so hot we spent a lovely afternoon on the beach before walking back to cook dinner. We were keen to watch Bradley Wiggins's attempt to break the hour record so we were delighted when we managed to find a website showing a live stream of the attempt.  I then had my first attempt at a lovely fish curry recipe that I had pinched from Deb and we enjoyed a lovely relaxing evening with the curry washed down by Pilar's wine. 

11th June 2015.

After a month at El Campello it was time to move on as we planned on visiting many places en route to Cartagena before heading inland to Totana and then Murcia. We need to be back at El Campello for the 20th June as Alicante celebrates the festival of the Fogueres de Sant Joan (the bonfires of San Juan), also known as the Hogueras de San Juan depending on whether you speak Catalan Spanish or not. It's a 5 day festival celebrated every year around the time of the summer solstice to welcome in the summer. It promised to be an amazing display of music, dance, fireworks and food but for me the attraction is the Ninots which you may remember from my post in April when we visited the Fallas museum in Valencia.

Chilling by the lovely pool at La Marina

Anyway I diversify so more of that later. We set off for La Marina, just south of Alicante as it was ideally placed for visiting several coastal towns as well as the Laguna del Hondo nature reserve. It was a lovely little site with 2 swimming pools which was a real bonus now the temperatures were getting in to the high 20's. Ironically today was cooler with showers, the first rain we had seen for weeks, typical. We spent the rest of the day planning our itinerary for the next few days.

14th June 2015.

Pink Flamingo on the salt lake

We have enjoyed 2 great rides since we arrived at La Marina. On the 12th we cycled to the beach area exploring the pretty coastline with its sand dunes and trees, the nearby salt lakes with their beautiful flamingoes and also cycled around the urbanisation of La Marina which is apparently the largest urbanisation in Europe. I nicknamed it 'little England' as it was full of British and even had a British style pub called the Hogs Head and several charity shops all with their signs in English. It was a very hilly area so we had certainly got some good exercise, albeit only 20kms. The following day we did a lovely 30km ride to the

The view en route to Laguna del Hondo

Laguna Del Hondo nature reserve. The scenery en route was lovely with great views of the mountains in the distance.  Right in the middle of the reserve we followed the signs to a viewing point and came across a huge lake full of pink flamingoes. I was keen to get a picture of them in flight so you can guess how annoyed I was when several off them took off in front of me and I accidentally hit the off button by mistake. By the time I got the camera back on the birds had landed at the other end of the lake. I did eventually get a picture of some of them flying but it wasn't a close shot and my Panasonic LUMIX doesn't have the powerful zoom that my Nikon SLR camera does. 

The one disadvantage to the lovely little site we were staying on was the mozzies. There were hundreds of the little blighters and we were woken up several times each night by their buzzing and their bites.

Stunning view from the cycle path

We had even given up on the fly screens and closed all the windows but they still got in. We decided to move a mere 5kms to a lovely little camperstop at San Fulgencio as we had checked it out the day before and it appeared to be relatively mozzie free. After parking up we set off for a bike ride to Guardamar del Segura. The town itself was much like any other but the area around the coastline was stunning. There were miles of sand dunes backing the lovely beaches with well designed

Guardamar beach

walk/cycleways between the trees. As we rode along we kept getting glimpses of the the sea between the trees. It was a stunning area and we covered a very pleasant 35kms, enjoying a great ride. As England were playing Slovenia in the World Cup qualifiers we cycled to the Hogs Head after dinner to watch the game which resulted in a 3-2 win for England. It's looking like England will make the finals but how far they get is another matter!!

Santa Pola salt mounds

17th June 2015. 

We have done 2 fantastic rides the last 2 days. We cycled to Torrevieja which had some pretty areas but wasn't really our kind of place. The main route was along the N332 dual carriageway but luckily there was a good cycle path covering the majority of the route so it wasn't a bad ride and we covered 44kms. Yesterday we cycled to Santa Pola which was a lovely fishing town built over the ruins of an old Roman village. It is bordered by salt marshes and we could see two huge piles of salt as we approached the town.

The Castle

What a delight this place was with its lovely promenade, wide sandy beaches, a stunning castle and the Marina. We explored the town and then stopped for coffee and tostada for the bargain price of €1.50 each. After leaving the town we stopped to admire the salt marshes, home to many flamingoes, before heading home. The one disadvantage to this area was that the only route was along the N332 and unlike the route to Torrevieja there were no cycle paths so we were cycling in a small lane adjacent to the carriageway. It was quite a gusty day so it wasn't a very pleasant ride being buffeted by the wind, especially as the wind was blowing us towards the carriageway. Definitely not a ride for a nervous cyclist!! Although it wasn't an overly hilly route it was quite tiring with the wind and it was a relief to get back.

Santa Pola promenade

We had covered another 46kms so we rewarded ourselves with a glass of wine.

We had underestimated how little time we had and how much there was to see as it had now become evident that if we were to make it back to Alicante for the Hogueras festival we did not have time to make it to Cartagena or Murcia. We decided to head to a lovely campsite at Crevillent as it was the nearest one to Elche, famous for its orchard of over 200,000 palm trees that have been declared a world heritage site by Unesco. 

Elche castle

After a quick set up we unloaded the bikes and set straight off for Elche. The route was via the very busy N340 but as the road was lined with industrial and commercial units along a large stretch of it there was an adjacent service lane that made it safer although there were still a few places with no service lane where it felt like the traffic was dangerously close. Elche was delightful and had a very good cycle path network. After admiring all the palm trees we headed to the castle which was lovely.

That is one big stiletto!!

There was a giant sculpture of a stiletto heeled shoe outside the castle which intrigued me. I later Googled it and discovered that Elche is home to a major shoe making industry creating employment for over 18,000 people. Luckily for Glynn I wasn't aware that on the outskirts of the city is the Salvador Artesano factory selling thousands of shoes at discounted prices! Although it is unlikely I would have found any shoes to buy as I am somewhat of a freak by Spanish standards as every shoe shop and market I have visited only sells shoes for women up to a size 41 and I am a size 42. Are there really no big footed women in Spain or do they just rely on mail order?

Elche palms

We meet some amazing people on our travels and today was no exception. Parked opposite us was a lovely lady named Aileen. She was 78 years old and hailed from Ireland. She didn't let the lack of a travelling companion hold her back and spent 6 months every year touring a new country in her camper, learning their language and then spent every winter in Thailand . She was a great character and had many tales to tell us of places she had visited. We enjoyed a fun evening of wine and gossip. 

Outside the Town Hall

20th June 2015. 

We returned to El Campello yesterday and today we were up bright and early to catch the tram into Alicante for the start of the Hogueras festival. Prior to the main event there have already been many events taking place in the preceding weeks. Each neighbourhood selects its Beauties and her ladies in waiting and from these candidates the queen of the fiesta is selected, the Bellea del Foc (beauty of fire) and her Ladies of Fire (Damas del Foc). There are also Infantile Beauties too and all wear the traditional dress of a Novia Alicantina (Alicantinian Bride). Parades of the Ninots have already taken place and I was really excited to see the Ninots (meaning puppets or dolls) in situ as opposed to in a museum and we had a fabulous day wandering around the city looking for them. There was an incredible atmosphere with thousands of people

Check out that food!!

filling the bars and restaurants and wandering the streets, cameras in hand, much like us. There was a fantastic drum band playing in the streets, building up the excitement towards the crescendo that was the Mascletà at 2pm at the Plaza de Los Luceros. The Mascletà takes place every day of the festival and is an explosive display of firecrackers and fireworks that are so loud the noise can exceed 120 decibels and ear plugs are recommended. There were thousands of people heading towards the Plaza and we went with the flow, keen to witness our first Mascletà. 

Entry of the Bands Parade

All around the city centre barracas and racòs (big tents) are erected where everyone can eat drink and dance the night away during the festivities. There are numerous parades,  the Entry of The Bands, small bands from each neighbourhood accompanied by the Beauties in traditional dress, the Prize Giving parade and the Offering of the Flowers parade. There is also a spectacular International Folk Parade featuring dance troupes from all over the world. 

An Infantile Beauty

I doubt much sleeping is done during the Hogueras festival as the celebrations carry on throughout the days and nights and firecrackers are set off in every district at 8am. We could hear the firecrackers from our camperstop in El Campello which was about 10kms from the city centre. It all culminates at midnight on the 24th June when the bonfires are lit all across the city and whilst everyone is dancing and singing the firemen spray them with water in what is known as the banyá. In true Spanish style the festivities don't actually end there as a firework competition takes place over the next 4 days and there is a medieval market and numerous shows.

Ninot

After the very enjoyable Mascletà, with ours still ringing from the noise, we decided to head back to the tram and spend the evening relaxing as we had walked for hours and we're ready to put our feet up.

22nd June 2015.

Yesterday we spent the morning cycling and the afternoon was spent cooling back down with a swim in the sea.

Parade of Giants

Today we decided to head back to Alicante to watch the Entry of the Bands parade and the Parade of Giants.

It was lovely to see the Beauties accompanied by their tiny counterparts in their traditional dress. With every group accompanied by their own band there was a lot of noise as they made their way down the streets. We wandered to other areas of town, checking out some more Ninots that we had missed on our previous visit and as we walked past the bullring there were ticket touts trying to sell us tickets for that night's bullfight. We declined their offer of cheap tickets and headed back to the tram as it was now wine o'clock!! I would definitely recommend a trip to Alicante to witness this festival and here is a link with more information. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfires_of_Saint_John

Alicante Bullring

26th June 2015. We left El Campello on the 24th, deciding against going back into Alicante for the last night of the Hogueras but we may well go back another year to witness the bonfires. I almost can't bear the thought of witnessing those incredible Ninots being set alight. We decided to spend a few days back at Calpe before we head inland slightly. It is now getting incredibly hot and as the Motorhome seems to remain several degrees hotter than outside it is getting difficult to sleep. Today we decided to copy the Spanish and spend the evening on the beach with a bottle of wine and a picnic. We have been surprised at how busy some of the beaches are at night but with the temperatures climbing so high now it is the best place to end the evening with the lovely breeze coming in off the water. Clutching our beach chairs and a backpack packed with cheeses, olives, crackers and wine we headed to the beach. The wind seemed to be getting stronger and it soon became obvious that our first beach picnic was not going to happen tonight. The gusts of wind blew sand everywhere and it was like getting a free exfoliation as we were getting shot-blasted by the sand. It was almost painful so we admitted defeat and headed home to have our food and wine. Oh well there are plenty more days to have a picnic on the beach. 

The view to the coast from the camp

29th June 2015.

We have spent the last 2 days at a really lovely campsite at Campell in the Vall de Laguar, approximately 10 kms inland as the crow flies. It is a stunning area in the mountains with fantastic walking and cycling opportunities. Well that would be the case in cooler months but as our luck would have it the temperatures had soared to over 40° not the least bit conducive to cycling level roads let alone mountainous ones! Always keen to give things a go we set off yesterday to explore a could of local villages agreeing that we would not cycle too far in this heat. We headed to Orba first which turned out to be downhill all the way and no pedalling was required for the entire 5km journey. As we flew down towards the town my heart sank knowing I was going to have to cycle all the way back up again. After a quick exploration we decided to head back but with a quick deviation to Fontilles which

At Campell

houses the last remaining Lepra hospital in Europe. The views all the way down to the coast were stunning and I stopped to take some photos while we got our breath back from the tough climb. We were surrounded by mountains on 3 sides and a huge valley that sat between us and the sea. The roads were lined with fruit trees, oranges, limes and many others. It is an area famous for its cherries but we had just missed the season. It was absolutely stunning and is definitely a place we will return to in cooler months. When we arrived back at Campell the temperature sign was showing 42° so we swapped the bikes for swimming gear and headed straight for the pool. I didn't even bother to check how cold the water was as I think I would have got straight in even if there had been ice on it! 

Fontilles

There seemed to be no breeze inland so today we decided to head back to the coast. We drove to a lovely campsite just outside Oliva, set right on the edge of a gorgeous sandy beach. The best bit was it was flat for miles around. We could see the mountains all around but didn't have to cycle up them to get a good ride in. We set off on an exploratory ride to El Verger and picked up some shopping before spending some time on the beach watching kite surfers battling to stay on their boards as they flew across the sea. I was very

Beautiful Limes

tempted to have a go as it looked great fun but ever since I had an operation on my shoulder I have to be a bit careful about putting too much strain on it so I will just have to watch in envy.

30th June 2015.

We decide to finish the month with a ride in to Denia. It was 16kms from the campsite but there was a really good cycle lane most of the way there and we spent a great morning exploring the town with its lovely castle, port and beach area. After a well deserved coffee stop we headed back to end the afternoon on the beach. With only 2 kms left to go I

Only my 2nd puncture!!

managed to cycle over a sharp piece of metal which embedded itself in my tyre. Glynn told me to carry on using his bike and he would walk mine back rather than change the inner tube on the side of the road. We had stopped en route at a supermarket so Glynn was carrying a heavy rucksack of shopping while I had a much lighter one. I cycled back, unpacked the shopping and made a cup of tea before suddenly realising I should have cycled back and taken the other backpack once I had dropped mine off. Oops. I set off again but only got outside the campsite gate when he appeared. Oh well it was a bit like an army exercise, blazing sun, heavy backpack pushing a bike with a flat tyre. The exercise will have done him good!!

We had cycled 38kms bringing our total for the month to a very healthy 525kms. We have kept up with the 30 day Ab Challenge. We now repeat day 30, doing two days on and one day off and we have both noticed a huge difference in core strength and muscle tone which is a great benefit when cycling. I have now introduced a 60 second wall squat in the hope of increasing my leg strength. I must say it seems to be working as I feel much stronger on our rides and when we get back from a 40km ride I feel like I could go out and do it again. Okay this may be wishful thinking as I know if I suggested it to Glynn he would definitely decline so I have never been in the position of putting this to the test. 

It is now getting unbearably hot and difficult to sleep (and cycle) so we are glad that we are now heading  back towards France. The beauty of having a Motorhome is the ability to change our plans on a whim which we frequently seem to be doing. Our original plan was to keep heading south working our way towards Portugal but the heat has made the decision for us and we will start next year's tour by heading to North Western Spain first and working our way down the Portuguese coast before heading to Southern Spain. 

In spite of the purchase of 2 beach chairs at a cost of €45 we have come in £100 under our baseline budget without even trying. It is so much cheaper in Spain than it is in France and if it wasn't for the purchase of 4 new tyres last month we would have come under budget for the past 3 months. In addition the exchange rate is hovering around 1.40 compared with 1.20 that we were getting last year so this has made a huge difference.

It is now 2 months since my last traumatic visit to the hairdresser in Benidorm and my hair has not only grown sufficiently for the back to curl again but is in need of another trim in the not too distant future. I can't face the trauma of another visit to a hairdresser so I may have to resort to wearing my baseball cap when I'm out! 

We have now cycled a total of 1502 kms on this trip and are halfway through this tour. We have much to look forward to with new destinations and meeting up with old friends but first things first.... What can I spend that £100 on??? 

Flying Flamingoes

Salt Lakes at Santa Pola

Basilica de Santa Marí

Basilica de Santa Marí

Part of my favourite Ninot

More from my favourite display

A bit of fun.