Back in Mojacar :-)

 Camping el Quinto, Mojacar Pueblo - Wednesday 5th March

It poured with rain all morning, so we sat and slumped.  We did need food so put on our wellies and oilskins (it wasn’t that bad really) and drove down to the Playa.  We went into the underground car park and when we emerged the rain had stopped, so we rushed to our favourite beach to give Rio a run.  The poor little dog just ran and ran and ran, round in circles, straight lines and after birds.  We just stood there and laughed at him.

We thought that, as we were out, we would have some lunch, but all the places with dog friendly areas were shut, I guess they couldn’t see the point in opening when there was a red weather warning!

Back at Kiwi we were both rather fed up so watched an episode of Escape to the Sun, so we could at least see some sunshine, but it was raining in Italy too!

Camping el Quinto, Mojacar Pueblo - Thursday 6th March

A better day, though grey and chilly, for Mojacar at least.  

We took Rio to the beach.  When he saw where we were he was so excited, it was lovely to see.  Like yesterday he ran round and round and even dipped his paws into the Mediterranean.  

We just wanted a snack for lunch so went to a tapas place.  We chose four things between us but they were so big - we felt so full, however they were delicious.

We decided that pudding was in order, we both had a small place left in our tummies just the right size for an ice cream sundae from Alberto’s!  Richard had a chocolate something and I had a banana split.

After that we drove around old haunts and even to see the two villas that we stayed in.  We really do like Mojacar.

Back at Kiwi there was no dinner for us as we were still full from lunchtime. 

We made the decision to stay in Mojacar until Monday as the weather forecast was pretty diabolical.

Camping el Quinto, Mojacar Pueblo - Friday 7th March

This is going to be a quick one!  

It rained all day - full stop! 

The only excitement was doing the washing. I was backwards and forwards to the laundry, in the pouring rain all afternoon and early evening.  It was highly complicated but it all got done and dried. 

The last three days of our long journey

 RV Penedes - Santa Margarida i els Monjos - Sunday March 2nd

No photos today, I’m not sure why.

A nice quiet night which was a bonus as reviews on the site had mentioned that the traffic started at 4am, but it was a Sunday morning.

We set off going past Carcassonne and Perpignan and onto the main road down through Spain - a road we know well.

It was a boring day especially as we are restricted to 90 kph in Spain after 110kph in France.

I was surprised at how soon we drove into Spain, it felt like coming home!!!

Richard drove all day while I tried to sort out our stop for the night. I had sent emails to a couple of places but neither of them replied so I had to look again.

Finding places to stop in Europe is very different to the UK.  Europe likes motorhomes and most towns have their own aire which could just be a pitch or it might offer electricity and other services.  There are also farms, wineries, olive farms etc. that offer overnight parking, some are free - they just ask you to buy a bottle of wine or similar.  There are lots of different apps to use and I am still trying to get my head round them all.

The site we used was one set up by a local organisation to bring revenue into the area.  It was a fenced off part of a large car park and offered services but no electricity - but then it was free!  We could have also parked in the car park - there were about 10 vans there when we left in the morning.

236 miles

Santa Margarida i els Monjos - Search4sites

Finca el Fin Del Mundo, Catadau - Monday 3rd March

We found cheap diesel as we left Santa Margarida, having paid an extortionate amount on Saturday!  All the pumps seem to be self service and Richard is getting the hang of them!

The sunshine that we had been driving under so far, turned to grey skies, but only a bit of rain.

Once again a boring drive but it was surprising how soon we started to look for our turning.  

Just to show you that we were in the middle of nowhere

We drove through Catadau and out the other side, up hills and then down a short way before going up again.  The road started off concrete and ended up a rubble track.  Reviews of our stay had warned us of this thank goodness.  The last part of the track was pretty treacherous but my trusty driver made short work of it!  Google told me that our destination was on the left.  The directions the finca owner had given me was to pass their orange house and turn down.  We drove past the orange house and stopped.  Large dogs started barking which worried me, then a face appeared over the fence and looked at me, puzzled at this intrusion!  He spoke no English and my Spanish is practically non-existent but using the word camping, he pointed across the road!  We turned around and found another orange house on the other side of the road.  Then it all made sense!  We drove down past the house and the gate was opened for us.  The finca only has 4 pitches at present, but they are making more.  It was 15 Euros plus 4 Euros for electricity.  It was quite a nice afternoon so once “moored” up we took Rio for a walk.  He hadn’t been off the lead since Saturday morning and just loved it.

219 miles

Finca el Fin Del Mundo - Search4sites

Camping el Quinto, Mojacar Pueblo - Tuesday 4th March

The last long drive thank goodness.

I think we were all getting stir crazy by this stage, especially Rio.  We just wanted to get to our destination.  We could have come slower but our plan is to drive right round the coast of the Iberian peninsula, so we wouldn’t have had time.

The great thing about kilometres is that they go down quickly!  I drove the last bit and I just couldn’t wait to get off the main roads.

We turned off our usual route before Mojacar Playa as our site was at the bottom of the road up to the Pueblo.  There was no-one around when we arrived but discovered that the office opened at 5pm.  We parked up and waited.  At 5pm we went back and were told to find a space and let them know what number!  The pitches are all different sizes but I think we chose a good one.

We were hiring a car for our time in Mojacar, so we didn’t have to keep moving Kiwi.  It was supposed to arrive on Saturday morning but I got a call to say it would be dropped off in 15 minutes.  We have known Jay since we first came to Mojacar in 2017, he was then running a bar but back in 2023 he left the hospitality business and went into the family car hire business.  It was nice to see him again.

Well we had arrived in Mojacar, but so had the rain.  This was not in plan.

217 miles

We knew about this site so I didn’t use any of the apps.

Welcome to the first post of Kiwi on the Road - Our Motorhome Adventures

Welcome to the first post of my new blog, created especially for our new motorhome, Kiwi.  My other blog And Millie Makes Three will be used for our trips in our narrowboat, Mary H.  Yes, OK, we are never at home!

Portsmouth - Thursday February 27th

The date on this post should read Wednesday February 26th, but, just as in 2022 and 2023, our trip to Europe was delayed.  In 2022 we were delayed by three weeks due to the French closing its borders to British tourists on December 16th.  As soon as they lifted the ban, we were off.  In 2023 we were delayed by six days as I hadn’t got Muffin his rabies injection in time, well I had but the vet didn’t log it, so he had to have another one!  This time the motorhome, known as Kiwi, developed a fault with the tail lights.  The earliest the garage could do it was Monday 24th, which didn’t give us much time.  Due to a family emergency I couldn’t get hold of the service manager at the garage on Monday but got him the next morning.  He had forgotten that we were leaving on Wednesday evening!  Adams Morey pulled out all the stops and by Tuesday evening they had done a temporary repair. We had visions of picking up Kiwi on Wednesday morning and being ready to leave about 5pm that day.  Fortunately for us, the French dock workers in St. Malo went on strike and our ferry was delayed by 24 hours.  I never thought I would be so grateful for a strike!

We were all packed and ready to leave by 5pm on Thursday.  We called into Sainsbury’s for a click and collect order and set off for the port.  While we were queuing I had the time to put the groceries away and we boarded about 7.30pm.

Our crossing was on Brittany Ferries’s new hybrid ship, St. Malo.  It is very smart inside and the cabins nice, but then everything is new!

Le Ferme du Grande Chemin, Dompieres sur Mer - Friday February 28th

We docked at about 8am.  Brittany calls the crossing a cruise and I guess it's because it took 12 hours.  It meant that we embarked and disembarked at a decent time, none of this 6am lark!

We stopped at a Carrefour and stocked up on all the things that Europe won’t let us bring in - meat and dairy products, silly rule.  I had also left my rain jacket and fleece behind, so sadly I had to buy new ones!

We had a good journey to our first stop which I had booked.  It was a farm with 5 pitches, a bit like the British CLs (Certified Locations).  There was one French and one British van there.  We had electricity and all the usual services for 15 Euros (£12.50).  You wouldn’t get anything like it for that price in the UK.

I am going to give the mileages and the link to the site we stayed at on each post, along with the app we used.

211 miles

Le Ferme du Grande Chemin - Park4Night

Camping-Car Park, Castelnauday - Saturday March 1st

I took Rio for a walk before we left.  He was really pleased to be off the lead so he could have a good smell about.

We were supposed to turn off before we got to Bordeaux but I managed to miss the turning.  Bordeaux wasn’t as bad as I remembered, it was just a case of following signs and Google maps, they needed to be used together.

We have made a routine on this part of our trip to stop and make coffee then stop later on for lunch.  We are driving long days as we want to get down to Mojacar where we will stay for a few days before heading south.  Our days will then be much shorter.

I was driving when we got to Toulouse and again missed a sign and ended up going on the inner peripherique instead of the outer one.  It was quite busy but at least we didn't have to go through the middle of the city.

We arrived at our site and attempted to get in!  As it was our first visit to a Camping-Car Park site I needed to enter a PIN and get a membership card out, of course it wouldn’t work.  There was a help line so I rang it and was answered by an English lady who talked me through it and even made the card pop out - magic!  The worrying part of it is that she knew who I was!

The site takes 14 vans and we were number 11, you can also book this one.  Again 15 Euros a night including electricity.

The site is right beside the Canal du Midi and the whole point of staying here was to see the Le Boat office and the boats.  We are hiring a boat from there in May.  We walked towards the basin, it was a beautiful evening and the sun setting on the houses was lovely.  We walked for about 2 miles which didn’t do my poorly back any good.

300 miles

Camping-Car Park - Camping-Car Park

Welcome to my blog

If you have landed on this blog, please come back at the beginning of March!  It is a new blog to cover our adventures in our, new to us, motorhome.