Even With Travel Restrictions ! Vanlife Can Still Be A Beach

It feels as though we have been over here in Spain for absolutely ages but in reality, as I am sitting and drafting these latest ramblings, it has been just a few days short of a month, in that time we have done some travelling in the van, then we had a short period back at the ‘Bolt hole’, then we went back out in the van and did a bit more travelling, although the last outing was not for quite as long as we had hoped it would be, but that’s the story of this Covid pandemic for everyone I guess, be prepared for changes to plans at short notice. So now we find ourselves somewhat unexpectedly back at the ‘bolt hole’ once again and whilst I know that some of this has been due to Covid but actually, this is basically like what the ‘original plan’ had been anyway, but without the complexities and unknowns that we have now. And when I say the original plan, I do not mean just the plan for this year, but the original plan when we first purchased the bolt hole nearly six years ago. We know that we will not always drive down to Spain from the UK, when, after the Brexit Transition Period we will be restricted to our two ninety day periods, but there will be periods when we will choose to visit, or re-visit, other parts of Europe and during those periods our bolt hole will remain stood empty, and before the suggestions come in, we had already decided right at the very beginning that this place was not going to be used as a ‘rental’ property. But when we are in this part of Europe, meaning basically France, Portugal and Spain, we can drift backwards and forwards to our bolt hole as and when we want to and even use it as a stopover between future trips to and from Morocco. We already know that those ‘other’ parts of Europe will not be visited by us until 2022, and that, as I may have mentioned in previous ramblings, is because, due to our working commitments for the last six years back in the UK, between March and October, we have never actually had the opportunity to use our bolt hole during the much hotter Summer months over here in Spain, so we are going to rectify that in the Summer of 2021.

So, back to the here and now, and we are now settling back in to life back at our ‘bolt hole’ for the time being, we do not know how long it may be before we can get back out in the ‘Little Fokker’ and do more touring, either inside or outside of our home Province of ‘Malaga’, but, to be honest, whether we be in the ‘Little Fokker’ and out exploring, being parked up somewhere near a beach, or in a village or a town, or whether we are here at our bolt hole, literally within a short walking distance of a number of beaches and within walking distance to a beautiful Marina and our own local town, or within a short driving distance to a number of other local towns, beaches and not forgetting the white-washed Andalusian villages and towns up in the surrounding mountains, so we actually consider that we really do have the best of both worlds wherever we may be.

If our movements do get more restricted, should they impose a ‘Home Confinement’ policy again, which will actually be our first in Spain, then we will have no choice but we shall just have to deal with it, at least we can still sit on our balcony and look at the sea and watch the freighters as they pass on the horizon, we have two Supermarkets within a five minute walk if we are restricted to using the closest to us, we have all the home comforts we could possibly need, including unrestricted WiFi without having to utilise our UK mobile data packages, so we can still keep in contact with everyone back at home via social media, on our Smart TV we have access to normal Spanish TV channels and a good selection of English speaking one’s, as well as things like NETFLIX so that we have access to SKY News (UK) and lots of Films and Box Set Series to watch, and of course we can get ‘You Tube’ on the TV so we can keep up to date with our favourite Vlog channels, not just Vanlife related topics, and then of course we have the sunshine and nice warm temperatures, with of course, the possibility of the odd day of rain here and there, just to freshen things up a bit as, contrary to what the travel and property shows on TV may imply, we do get some days without sunshine.

Now I am under no illusion that a prolonged ‘Home Confinement’ is not going to be a barrel of laughs. It appears, talking recently to a number of our neighbours who reside here permanently, British, German, Belgian and Spanish, that most struggled with the long confinement during the first lockdown, as they were not even allowed to go out and exercise, they were not allowed to use the communal pool or gardens and so living in an apartment, with no, or very limited, access to outside space became very oppressive after a while. So if any new confinement measures, that may be introduced again, are that restrictive, and prevent us from getting our daily exercise walks, then we shall just have to see how we cope, but fate may once again have intervened, I knew purchasing those Yoga mats from Amazon during our lockdown period in UK would come in handy, rather than just using being used as beach mats !! Although my blog ramblings may be somewhat curtailed (And no, you cannot request the Spanish Government to urgently implement an extended period of home confinement for the Malaga Province !!), I still have lots of things to plan and research, more places to go in the ‘Little Fokker’, both within the UK and Europe, when this Pandemic stuff is all over and done with that is, did I happen to mention that we are now retired ? I can also now re-start learning to play my guitar once again, which I have not picked up since re-commencing work in June, that should entertain the neighbours during an extended home confinement don’t you think ? or drive them even more stir crazy !! Perhaps too, I should try and discipline myself and get back into my language course, German or Spanish ? So there are lots of things to keep me occupied and the only question will be, not how long the confinement may last, more a case of how much time do I need it to last 😂

You may recall the young German couple we met recently on our travels, Mirko and Anya, well we have maintained contact via Email and, even with everything that is going on around them, border lockdowns etc, they feel safe and secure and have access to essentials so they are remaining where they are, for the time being at least. I did threaten them with publishing a photograph that I took of them in bed in their van, if they did not send me, as they promised they would, a photograph of their van setup, the threat worked, see below……….

Mirko and Anya’s Van Setup. What more do you need ? When we were there with them we were parked on the other side of those trees in the foreground.

 

When we returned to the UK in February, for our mandatory three day refresher training, we were staying on a Campsite and we met Ian, Sue and Florence (the dog) who were on the site as guests, not part of the training. They had just sold their house (or rented it out, I cannot remember which ?) and had moved in to their Motorhome to commence fulltiming. We have remained in contact with them ever since. As new fulltimers their travel lifestyle was halted before it had really begun, when they found themselves locked down on a campsite in Wales just a few short weeks later. I have recently had contact with them again and they informed me that they had decided to dip their toes into the fulltiming lifestyle in Europe, but it was not to be their year, as they once again found themselves in France, which was just about to go into another National lockdown !! They made a mad dash and managed to get themselves onto a campsite in Northern Spain, just as the Regions and Provinces closed their borders !! However, they are safe and well and have access to all the facilities they require, and like the rest of us, must just sit and wait for the next chapter in this Covid experience.

We ourselves have not been sat idle though since rushing back to escape the border lockdown, because at the moment there are no restrictions on movement within our Province, apart from the night curfew of course, so we can still get out and about. I have a couple of very ‘minor’ DIY tasks to be undertaken, and being very minor is good as it means that I can probably just about manage to do those jobs myself, I like ‘Minor’ as ‘Major’ would mean paying for someone much more proficient to come in and do them !! But I am saving those little jobs as the ‘Works of Fiction’ are forecasting a couple of ‘Wet Days’ in the very near future, when we will be forced to remain inside anyway. Then there are the usual household chores of course, the bits of time spent on cleaning, washing and ironing, shopping etc. etc. etc. Which still leaves us enough time to do other stuff like our daily exercise walks.

During our walks we noted something quite unusual, and that something was quite obvious by their absence, yes I am referring to the usual number of Vans and Motorhomes that are normally parked up on several of our seafront locations. In the few years that we have been here, these areas have always appeared to have been accepted as ‘Tolerated’ parkings and, although ‘Camping Activities’ were not permitted, it was generally accepted that people would sleep in their vans and were able to stay for one or two days, but on the odd occasion being moved on by the police. Now normally there were, in just a very limited stretch of coastline parking in our area, five seperate ‘Tolerated’ locations, but now it would appear that there is only one, as the other four now contain brand new, and permanently affixed, official signage, that prohibits Caravans & Motorhomes. The one area that is still accessible is quite some distance away from any facilities, shops or residential communties, but, it is in a beachfront location, or within about 100metres from the actual beach, and because it is set on a slight hill it does have some lovely views, although there are no Motorhome Services available in the immediate vicinity. I cannot say that this is totally unexpected, these areas are not official Aires, they are car parks, either proper ones with tarmac surfaces and proper line marked bays or sand ones located near Chiringuitos on the beach areas, but all, except the one that is still being used, were very close to private residences, children’s play areas, Cafe/Bars and Restaurants. Now a minority of these Vans were ignoring the ‘No Camping’ principles, hanging washing out over fencing, chairs out, tables out, awnings out and on one occasion green carpet with plant pots and flowers !! The larger vans, some towing trailers, were parking horizontally and taking up four or five bays, and so it really was only a matter of time before the locals complaints finally must have got to such a level whereby the Municipality Authority (local Council) had to be seen to act. So once again I am afraid, it is the minority that have now spoilt it for the majority and, I believe, the same is happening elsewhere all over Spain and also in Portugal. From what I have read in the UK press just recently, even Scotland are clamping down on the ‘Wildcamping’ due to the mess that is being left, although I believe this is more down to those that have been camping in Tents, but it does not matter which group of individuals are involved, it appears that the demise of the once ‘Tolerated’ park up’s is rapidly gaining pace.

We have been out in the ‘Little Fokker’ for day visits to a couple of our favourite beaches, it is so nice to be able to take the chairs down to the beach but have your own bathroom facilities at hand, many of the public ones on beaches are now closed, which is normal during the Winter months, but also to be able to just come back to the van for lunch and a hot cuppa then go back down to the beach again. Now other than the odd spot of Kayaking, watching boats, of all shapes and sizes and paddling in the sea, I am not much of an ‘active’ water sports enthusiast, however, I do enjoy watching other’s engaging in these activities. So perhaps one of my followers, who may be better informed than I, can confirm what I saw recently on the water……………..

A Power Surf Board ?

Powered SUP Board ?

Whatever these things were, it was the first time I had seen things like Surf or SUP Boards operating under power, it got me to thinking that whatever was actually powering them must have been pretty small ? Perhaps something that small could also be adapted for say…….. a Kayak ?  I know we are on a buget but it will soon be Christmas ?

Now I know that I often occasionally have a bit of a moan about the ‘Works of Fiction’, and to be fair, I think that most of the time it is with good justification. For example, we had checked the aforementioned forecasts the evening before another planned beach day out, the forecast showed that it would be bright sunshine all day, so when we got up in the morning and looked out from the balcony,  yes, the sun was up and it had all the hallmarks of another good day, we had breakfast and then set off to one of our favourite beaches just about a ten minute drive away. However, as we got closer to our destination the mist got thicker and thicker, by the time we got down to our spot we couldn’t see the beach, let alone the sea. We could see the hazy sunshine trying to break through and burn off what was now a fog, so we decided to remain in the van, have a coffee and see if the weather improved, we double checked the forecast and it still showed bright sunshine, all day !! We must have waited for forty-five minutes but there were no signs of the fog lifting so we decided to head for another one of our favourite beaches, back in the opposite direction, straight past the road leading to our bolt hole, and once again we were back in sunshine, just like it was when we departed over an hour earlier. We got to our second destination and what did we discover……….the fog was there as well !! I think the ‘Dark Forces’ are back because if we had just parked up at the bottom of our hill, the beach there was in gorgeous sunshine ? Now I know that weather can change from one place to another and within only a couple of miles, but this did not make sense, our first location was just ten minutes away on one side of our local beach, this second location is twenty-minutes away from our local beach but on the other side, so how did both these locations have fog but our beach, virtually in the middle of the two, didn’t ? Anyway, it was now getting close to lunch time so we decided to eat our snack lunch and have another coffee and sit it out. What is that saying, something about Patience being a virtue ? Well on this occasion it was correct………..

Whilst waiting for the fog to dissipate we may as well pass the time with a picnic style snack !! Cut up chunks of Baguette, Fresh tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and topped with Bocherones (little fish) and a few crisps and Note the Coffee and no sign of any Anti-Covid Vaccine….. Yet !!

Before………

And After

Before……….

And After

So, all in all, although the Borders between Provinces and Regions are ‘technically’ closed, and I say technically because I know that some people are managing to cross the borders without any issues. But even within our Province, apart from having to wear face masks in all public places (except when you are sunbathing on a beach with someone from the same household, or swimming) and of course adhering to the Curfew times, life is pretty much normal here. Although I am not sure how long that is going to last ? In my last post I commented that the Spanish Prime Minister did not want to implement ‘Home Confinements’, however, as I am writing this Shazza has just informed me that the daily infection figures for Spain for today (Wednesday 4th November) have just been announced, they do not make good reading, again, 25,000 new daily infections over the last 24 hour period but critically, over 1,600 deaths in the last twenty-four hours, so I think his hand may be forced sooner rather than later as the reports are that most of the hospitals are now at a critical level of capacity. I have to just put some perspective to these figures, whilst Covid is present all over the Country, the much higher infection rates appear to be in the Northern and Central Regions and in the larger Cities. Andalusia, like other regions, are of course not virus free, but our particular Municipality (Manilva) in the southern part of the Province of Malaga has had no deaths since the start of this Pandemic and infection rates on a ‘weekly’ basis remain less than 20, however, we are still not complacent and we continue to be as cautious here, as we were when we were back in the UK, we limit our social interaction with other’s and ensure that we maintain social distancing when we are out in the public domain. We are quite lucky really because we do have areas that we can walk where there are very few other people, the Environmental area where we often walk is so large and open that we can keep plenty of distance between ourselves and any other’s that may be walking or jogging at the same time.

I do not know when I will have anything more of interest to write about, although I may bore you at some point with an update on how we are getting on with our ‘Plant Based Diet’, I bet you cannot wait for that one to come hot of the press 😄 so this may be my last ramble for some time, so I would just like to finish by wishing you all well, and wherever you may be in the world reading this, please ensure that you and your families continue to stay safe, this virus really can be a silent assassin !

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