Day 1 – Leaving Monda for France
Monda to Águilas, Murcia, Región de Murcia, 30889, Spain
2nd September 2023
Packing up KEN with essentials which included homemade meals in the freezer, fridge well stocked, coffee and milk, but most important of all – our England supporters kit – flags, shirts, jackets, caps – all so we could proudly wear the red rose and support our team in this, what will be our 5th World Cup.
We were heading for Marseille from Monda – over 1500kms, approx 930 miles.
We would be taking it easy, to enjoy the journey through Spain and see parts of the coastline and country we had not seen before.
We left Malaga province, heading out towards Algeria and it wasn’t long before we started to see the plastic greenhouses, famous for being Europe’s greenhouses and growing many of the vegetables we all eat, notorious for the awful conditions for people who work there. The greenhouses stretch for tens of kilometres along this what would have been a beautiful coastline. Almeria is far more barren than Malaga as we drove north on the AP7 (E15) through this desert landscape.
As we left Andalusia behind, we drove into the region of Murcia. Still following the AP7 (E15) which would eventually take us into France.
Along the natural coastline of Aguilas, were areas where motorhomes were ‘wildcamping’ but with many days and nights coming up in KEN and with a lot of food in our fridge and freezer we wanted the benefit of electric hook up. We found a small, but basic autocaravanner site right on the coast, its location was stunning. Set within the Calnegre and Cabo Cope regional Park.
The site had basic facilities, such as showers and toilets, but being out of season (2nd September) the chiringuito (beach bar) was closed. We were able to take our own drinks and snacks down to the coast and enjoy the scenery. Unfortunately, the clouds gathered, before what would be a horrendous storm. The next morning we had to take a detour out of the campsite as the road was flooded, we found out the Tarragona region (where we were heading) had had bad floods that night. We hoped no-one was hurt and reflected again on how often we take bad weather wherever we go!
I would stay at this campsite again, because its location was stunning, it was lovely to see an area of Spain left virtually untouched without the high rise hotels and tourist activities.
Overnight: Camper Tortuga Mora
GPS: 37.447754, -1.483748