We’re both a bit nutty at times, but……
Cats fighting, a sheep bleating, dogs howling and barking all night, a cock crowing pre-dawn and then a man with a small generator on wheels making a horrible early morning noise; all had us very ready to leave our campsite driveway plot and move on.
Almansa, only a short distance south, turned out to be quite a busy spot. It was another town with a tall, skinny castle perched atop a tall, skinny limestone crag and so photogenic again. We found a bank and a post office, both of which were open and there was a small market selling fruit and veggies. Now I know that bigger is definitely not always better but the enormous round grapes and huge, bright red strawberries just had to be purchased and they really were as good as they looked.
Next stop on Thursday was at Villena, just another 40kms down the road. Yet another castle to see and yet again it was spectacularly perched up high above the town. We slogged our way up to the Castillo de la Atalaya for a stroll around the high stone walls which looked amazing against the bright blue sky. The steep streets on the opposite side led us down into the town, but we must have been in the wrong part of town because we couldn’t find any restaurants, only a couple of cafés. So we bought a baguette and ate it with cheese and salami inside Eileen.
Finally a campsite was needed but the first one we sought out seemed to be in a rather yucky town. So we continued on to Camping Marjal Costa Blanca. We were prepared for it to be a large ‘holiday camp’, but it was still a shock after we checked in. We’re parked between two German campervans, the four occupants of which like to get their gear off and turn their skin ginger. One of the chaps likes to wear a rather see through, low-hanging, pair of fake leopard skin budgie smugglers, a.k.a. swimming trunks. I really don’t know where to look!!! There are 1,423 placements in this campsite, and we get allocated a spot with a view of the utility-block wall and the bins.
There is a plaza near the reception with a bar, restaurant (not open), hairdresser, beautician (not available without booking two-days in advance) shop, gym, masseur (also not available without….yep), playroom, tennis courts and a swimming pool and there are obviously people who stay here for weeks and apparently some of them stay for months and yet it feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere, akin to a desert. Mike quickly popped by and told us about happy hour at 6pm. Later on in the afternoon, we spotted posters everywhere with the faces of him and his wife, Anne, encouraging us to sign up for ballroom dancing classes with them. No wonder he looked disappointed when we told him we were only staying two nights and not two months. It is a strange place, another world; we feel like we’ve fallen into some parallel universe! This is not us. But we will wear our little red and yellow wristbands and smile at our neighbours tomorrow. The A.C.S.I book, that we trust so much for finding good campsites, states, that if we stay at Camping Marjal we ‘will come again’. We really, really don’t think we will………
