14th May 2009

The weather wasn’t very good so we decided to leave and head further south.  We left after breakfast to drive to Oliva, which is between Valencia and Alicante.  My foot is better thankfully.  We stopped in a big Carrefour supermarket and stocked up on food and wine.  As we were driving along the desert type landscape, every now and then you would see a scantily clad woman by the side of the road.  It took us a while to realise that they were prostitutes!  But when you look, it’s obvious by the way they are dressed and the small caravan they have tucked away down the little tracks behind them.  One was very scantily clad, with a big smile on her face as she twirled her parasol.  I’m going to take a photo of one if I can and post it on a website I’m a member of with the caption “One roadside service you may not want to use!”

Oh my God! As we were driving along the highway outside Valencia, we noticed that our rear wheel arch cover was hanging off and flapping about.  I really panicked because we could lose it at any minute, and Paul had to stop at the side of the road and get out and take it off completely before it blew away.  I was so scared for him because it was a really dangerous situation with huge trucks roaring past a few feet from us.

He managed to remove it and we carried on to our next campsite.  A couple from Birmingham had recommended it to us, but when we got there, although the site had lots of facilities, the pitches were so small we left and found another site. This was Camping Azul, and was also rubbish really but it was getting late so we had to stop for at least one night anyway.  Honestly the diversity of these sites is amazing.  The ASCI guide makes them all look good, but some are simply terrible.  I have to say that the campsite at Play De Bara was lovely though. It had a shop, supermarket, restaurant etc. It was very touristy, but at least the pitches were a good size. We had a small sink outside with running water to wash dishes, and the showers were good too. Others are nice because they are in the middle of a forest or in the mountains, but they may not have the facilities like shops or a pool.  So there’s different sites with different things, but some are just shite.  On the subject of cost, because Paul is over fifty-five, we got a special discount at Play De Bara and only paid €12 per night, which was amazing.

Camping Azul near Alicante

Anyway, back to Camping Azul. I was so worried about the bloody wheel arch that I didn’t sleep much that night and neither did Paul.  We lay there talking, and when I looked at the time it was 2am.