We departed early on the Sunday morning, even before breakfast, I had set the co-ordinates into Snoopy and we drove away from the bolt hole, our cunning plan had been to arrive, get the ‘Little Fokker’ turned back into ‘home mode’ and then have our breakfast on the beach, our destination was only a short thirty-minute drive away. As we had anticipated, the roads were exceptionally quiet, moreso than usual, but it was Sunday, and so it was not long before we exited the main coastal road. Very shortly after taking the exit, we should have been driving down a side road to the beach, ‘Should Have’ being the appropriate phrase, but we discovered that ‘Google Maps’ is not as good in it’s imagery of access roads to places as it could be, what looked on the mapping as a road was in fact a very narrow track, and I do mean narrow, no way, even at only 2.2 metres wide, was I going to attempt to take the van down there, I think you would have had trouble even getting a narrow VW campervan down it !!
Shazza looked at me, “So what do you want to do now ?” She said. I could sense the slight hint of frustration in her voice, after all it was me that had found the location and built the nice picture in her mind of just a short drive then having a morning, sat on a beach eating our breakfast in the glorious early morning sunshine. “It’s okay, I will just have to look at the Park4Night App on my phone, it will have some other alternatives in the area”, although I was not sure that I had convinced myself, let alone her. I found another location, which was literally just a few minutes further North along the road, one of the reviews had mentioned that there was something that stated that you cannot go beyond a certain point, obviously signage of some sort, but that we should keep going past it and we will come to a parking area on the beach. Once again the co-ordinates were programmed into Snoopy and away we went, still plenty of time to have our breakfast on the beach. We went down a long single track road, past some very plush houses, but then, just as we were literally seconds away from the identified park up, we could see some obstacles in the middle of the road, which we couldn’t have removed or driven past even if we had wanted to, because, just beyond the road obstacles was a six foot high chain link fence stretching right acoss the road, a bicycle would not even have got past let alone any type of motorised vehicle !! Was it going to be one of those days I said, silently to myself ? Now just to add insult to injury, there was nowhere to actually turn the van around, the road was too narrow, so we would have to reverse all the way back and it was quite some distance. Shazza got out to see me safely back, she hasn’t had to do that for a very long time when it was a common occurrence when we had ‘Big Momma’, however, after just several metres, luckily, she saw a house that had a gated entrance, and the gate was set back just enough for me to reverse into and with a four or five point manouevre, I manage to get turned around. Our mini-trip had not got off to the best possible start. We pulled in to the side of the road at the next available opportunity and whilst I searched through the P4N App on my phone, Shazza did the same on her’s and we both came up with another couple of different locations, although neither of us were now very confident with what we may find when we actually arrived at them, if we actually managed to get to them at all, based on our current immediate morning experience !!
We arrived at the third location without any issues, hoorah for that I thought, although it was just a normal car park it had lots of parking bays available. We reversed into one and we could see the sea to one side of us, and the beach, and what looked like a Chiringuito, it was only a short walk to the beachfront and although it was not what I had initially visualised, you know, van parked on beachfront, habitation door open so that we could step right out on to the sandy shoreline, chairs on beach, although far enough away from the van so that it couldn’t be considered as ‘Camping of course, but all in all it did not look that bad a location. Shazza took the short walk down to the beach to investigate whilst I put the co-ordinates to our fourth location into ‘Snoopy’, just to pre-empt yet another negative decision, for whatever reason. She came back and stated that the Chiringuito looked as if it was closed for the season but that the beach looked nice. We were not bothered that the beach bar was closed, for that meant that there would be less people coming down here, but I cannot put my finger on what it was, something was nagging at us, something that made us think twice about parking here for a night or two, it may have been that we were a bit apprehensive about being so close to lots of really expensive looking houses, and I am talking mega bucks type residences, the area was pristine, very well groomed shall we say, so I think that in our subconcious minds we were thinking that this area would very likely be patrolled quite regularly by the Guardia Civil and there would be a much higher chance of us getting a knock on the door and being told to move on, ‘Persona Non Grata’ sort of attitude, although the reviews had all stated they had no issues. I think we certainly have a long way to go before we become ‘seasoned’ vanlifers when we probably would not be so particular, or concerned, or look such a gift horse in the mouth, and not worry too much about where we parked up for the night, as long as it felt safe. Perhaps after our fantastic beach front location on our last trip out on the Cadiz coast, we had got this image in our heads that we were trying to replicate.
So, we irrationally decided to go with our gut instincts and probably, because such a lovely location didn’t already have anyone else there, it made us feel a little uncomfortable about remaining parked there, so location number four it was then, a further twenty-miles North, if that didn’t work out I could already feel that the decision would be to give it up as a bad job and return to our bolt hole although I knew that there were lots of other locations further up along the Coast, but we were getting further and further away from our municipality and we were apprehensive about what the ‘Junta of Andalusia’ was going to announce about further restrictions and travelling, as we discovered on our last trip, restrictions can be implemented within just hours of being announced.
We pulled in to what was in effect just a large open gravelled area located behind a sand dune and wooded Pine tree area that was being used as a car park, which although not as salubrious as the location we had just departed, it looked pretty scenic although it was a much longer walk to the beach than we would have liked. This was obviously quite a popular location as there were already a full row of cars parked under an area of the pine trees, to protect them from the heat of the sun, we did not mind the sun it was good for the solar energy, although with the driving we had now done all our batteries levels were showing full. Breakfast now became ‘Brunch’ and we ate it in the van and not on the beach, which at this point, we hadn’t even looked at. As we were having our ‘Brunch’, more and more cars kept arriving and soon there were three rows of vehicles, this was certainly not going to be the quiet location that we had hoped for, but realisticly it was still the weekend and with such a lovely sunny day, where else would people be, other than the beach.
We locked the van and followed a wooden boardwalk pavement in the direction that we had seen everybody else heading. The first thing we noticed was the extent of the sand dunes and the vast amount of lovely fenced wooden boardwalks that weaved like a maze, in all directions, through them. It was a downhill walk to the beach and when we got down there we instantly made our minds up that we would stay for at least the day and night. On one area of the beach were a number of Chiringuito’s, they were all open, there was one large expanse of beach separated off by a large stone breakwater that jutted well out into the sea, on it were lots of people fishing, on the other side of the breakwater was the the rest of the beach that stretched as far as the eye could see, the sand dunes rising behind them and in the background the mountains, it was certainly a beautiful location, and the vast coastline provided so many choices for people to select their own area of plentiful space so that it did not look in the least bit crowded.
We of course had not come down prepared, well we didn’t know before we got down to the beach whether we would be staying !! So we had to walk all the way back to the van, uphill, and wearing our facemasks on what was already a searingly hot day, so that we could change into more appropriate beachware, grab our reclining sun chairs out of the ‘Little Fokkers’ garage, and collect all the other paraphanalia we generally cart along with us, Books, iPads, mobile phones, binoculars, camera, drinks and beach towels. But when we returned we still managed to pick ourselves a spot, almost right at the edge of the shoreline and with nobody else within at least fifteen metres of us, so we felt very Covid safe.
Shazza settled down with her Kindle and adopted her solar basting position whilst I put in my earphones, turned on my ipod, lay back in my sun chair and elected to indulge in a spot of personal contemplation, however, that didn’t last too long as I had to keep shuffling around as I could feel the sun burning me. So, it was time to implement my second strategy, ‘People Watching’ and I was gifted with more than enough to keep me entertained for hours, my camera started working overtime almost immediately.
Although the sea was really pretty calm, some of the waves near the shoreline were sufficient to act as ‘Nursery Surf’ for the young, and not so young, beginners to learn their skills. I was quite impressed at the perseverance of these surfers, repeatedly dragging their boards into the waves, paddling them out, sitting and waiting then catching a wave, falling off their boards, then repeating the same routine over and over and over again until eventually they managed to stand on the board and cruise in on the small and pretty insignificant breaking wave, but enough to give them confidence on their boards.
The activity on the water increased as the time went on and soon enough it got to where I didn’t know in which direction to point my camera lens. Although I definately had to make sure that I kept the lens facing seawards as there were some on the beach who preferred to go topless, and I am not talking just about the men !! I had expected to see Seagulls and Cormorants but not ‘Bronze Chested Boobies’ !!
Now as you have probably gathered, from my previous posts over the years, I love the sea, in fact I love any sort of water, Lake, Reservoir, River, Waterfalls, Canals, but mainly viewing them from the safety of dry land, unless of course I am in the kayak or having a paddle or at some height above the water line on say a Ferry, it isn’t even as though I cannot swim. Whereas, Shazza loves the water and enjoys swimming, but their are occasions when even I will venture further into the wet stuff, just a bit further than my ankles or shins, usually because it is the fastest way to cool down, and this was certainly one of those days.
After a while the ‘Big Boys’ came out to play, some were bigger than other’s though, and just in case you are unclear as to my meaning here, I am referring to marine associated vessels !! I could see much larger vessels out on the horizon but even with my usually quite good zoom lens the heat haze did not enable very clear shots, but there was enough going on closer to shore that held my attention for most of the remainder of the afternoon, and not just the ‘Bronze Chested Boobies’ ?
At around 2pm, the beach activity started to go a little quieter, although people had left their beach towels or sun chairs where they were, whilst they retreated to the Chiringuitos for lunch, it was the Spanish ‘Siesta’ period. We had not brought a picnic with us, the original intention had been to return to the van and have lunch, but neither of us were keen on walking all the way back to the car park where we had left it, and to be honest, we had already eaten before coming down. The Chiringuito’s soon became packed full of people, although all the staff wear wearing masks and the tables were well spaced and out in the open air, some protected from the heat of the sunshine, we could hear the gaggle of chatter and the music started, which sounded like a guitarist with a sound box to provide the additional musical support, but it was not intrusive, in fact my toes were wiggling in time to the rather good medley of Rock ‘n’ Roll tunes. As the people wandered off and left their beach gear behind, out came a troop of, no not the usual opportunist flock of seagulls searching for a few snacks that may have been left unsecured, but Pigeons, and they were not shy either, coming right up close to even our occupied seats.
Although we had not commenced our mini-trip in the perfect way, that had long been forgotten as we enjoyed the sunshine, the gentle sound of the waves breaking just in front of us and the multitude of activities going on around us. We discussed our options and had voted unanimously that as the beach would probably be much less populated the following day, with it being a Monday, kids back at school, adults back at work etc. and with the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasting another hot one, that we would stay here for an extra day, although those votes may take some time to be confirmed, just so that nobody could declare a fraudulent count and so be subject to a re-count, or even subject to a threat of legal action !! We would then re-locate, drive back the twenty-miles or so to the third location that we had previously discounted, we had given ourselves a bit of a talking to and decided that if we are to considered as true vanlifers then we have to be prepared, at some point, to take some calculated risks on where we stay, and after all it was a lovely location.
We were all sunbathed out by mid afternoon and decided to return to the van, get some shade and enjoy a nice hot cuppa, so British eh ? Whilst Shazza had prepared, and brought along enough extra provisions to feed an army for several weeks, even though we had only planned to be out for two or three days, but we made the decision to enjoy an evening meal at one of the Chiringuito’s, they all served food, we could sit looking out over the beach and sea as the sun started to set. We had not been spending very much of our allocated ‘Personal Allowance’ budget on anything really, last month we had not even spent half of our allowance and here we were just over a week into a new budget month. We are not big spenders as it is, we do not deliberately set out to not spend money but neither do we feel the need to spend money just for the sake of it.
By the time we had finished our cuppa’s and got changed it was still very warm, although not unbearably hot, so we decided to go for a walk along part of the boardwalk and build up an apetite, not that we needed to as we were both ravenous, but it was just a little too early and the Spanish tend to draw out their Siesta periods and lunches so the beach bars would still be pretty busy from the lunchtime diners.
We were just casually walking back, enjoying the scenery, when all of a sudden, from an area up in the dunes overlooking the beach, a naked man stood up, he looked around, turning slowly 360 degrees as he did so, everything out on display !! He saw us, and other people, both on the boardwalk and on the beach not far away from where he was, he appeared unperturbed and was seemed happy to give everyone who cared to look a good view of his manhood, even Shazza, who, whether it was just for my benefit stated that she considered him to be somewhat of an exhibitionist and exclaimed, “What A Nob” !! Now I didn’t seek any further clarification on what this comment was referring to, a show of distain or perhaps just some kind of an impressed observation !!
It was the typical bar food meal selection choices, but Shazza settled for a ‘Funghi Pizza’ whilst I went for the ‘Calamari’, although not the battered rings variety, this was a whole squid, pan fried and served with a garlic and olive oil marinade. It was not A La’Carte, we didn’t expect it to be, it was just basic plain pub grub, for want of a better description, but it served it’s purpose. The Covid safe measures were adhered to, all staff wearing face masks, cleaning tables as soon as they were vacated, although it could have been plain old tap water in the spray bottles as far as we knew, but at least they were going through the motions, the tables were well spaced out and although under cover, we were sat outside in the fresh air, so we felt safe enough.
We walked back to the van, we wouldn’t actually see the sun set as it had dropped behind the mountain, but the air was still, warm and very humid. The car park had started to empty and soon enough we would be in darkness although not quite alone, as another van had arrived and had parked up across the other side, some distance away from us. We left the blinds on the windows open, not because we were uneasy, more a case of just being nosey and watching everyone else as they eventually departed. With the Curfew starting at 11pm we should not be disturbed by the boy racers and their loud music.
It was time to check all the latest News on our iPads, International and Local and it was a good job that we had !! You may recall that the information that I had was that news, on any changes to the Andalusian restrictions, were going to be announced on the Tuesday, Miguel, my Spanish neighbour had thought it was going to be on the Monday, we were both proved to be wrong, the ‘Junta of Andalusia’ had unexpectedly announced them today, and it was not good news………….
To be continued…….
More Swerves In The Road 