Benidorm and Beyond to Portugal

We spent a week at Benidorm with a few meals a lot of walking and a bit of scooting about on Suzi the Scooter. By Saturday morning  we felt it time to move on, not far as we had decided to visit Darren & Lyn (DazzLin on the MotorhomeFun forum) who we had met a few years ago in Morocco. They had been full-timing in their motorhome for about four years but had now sold it and bought a  tiny Spanish house in la Marina near Guardamar del Segura, but they plan to buy another Motorhome in Spain to continue their travels. Don’t forget, you can click on any picture to bring it up full size.

We were quite comfortable parked outside their house so they invited us to spend New Year with them at a local restaurant. We had a great meal and finished up at a nearby bar for midnight. Lots of the local businesses had interesting packs of fireworks which were lit with one fuse and then did a five minute display. They were all a bit too close to the  cars parked in the square for our liking though, but luckily no damage or accident and everybody had a great time. New years day was quiet as driving was not a good idea after the New Year Alcohol! But a long walk in the sunshine and an afternoon reading fitted the bill fine.

Wednesday 2nd January 2019. After saying our goodbyes we moved on just a little way to a town called Benijofar where there is a fantastic Fish-n-Chip restaurant which is a must do lunch for us, the restaurant is called Quesada Fish & Chips and the nearest street for parking is at N 38.06623, W 0.3133. We arrived a bit early though and a little walk around found us in the biggest Chinese Market we had ever seen, about the size of a UK Sainsbury’s. These shops which are throughout Spain stock everything more or less non-food at incredibly cheap prices but of course about £20 later with all sorts of things that we think we will need it is not so cheap!

After a fantastic F&C lunch and the necessary snooze we headed for Murcia and a Motorhome parking place we had been told about. Between a large shopping mal and an IKEA it took about 100 motorhomes was free to park and had free water and emptying facilities, thank you Murcia. Called Thader Centre Murcia; N 38.02907, W 1.14731. Arriving at 16:00 we spent about three hours in the shopping centre then found that there was another even bigger one about half a mile walk away so spent the whole of the next day there. It was the January sales so we managed to buy all the Tee shirts and basic clothes we would need for the year and a couple more pairs of shorts for Steve in case we found the sun!

Friday 4th January 2019, after filling with water and emptying we left early for a long drive. We had decided that we would tour Portugal again rather than Morocco so Steve found a stop about a day’s drive away on an app we use a lot called Park4Night and set the coordinates. It was a gated parking area at Huelva where we thought we could spend the day and join in the celebrations for the “Night of the Kings” which is more important than Christmas in Spain but, when we arrived at about 17:30 we didn’t like the look of it so carried on. Unfortunately Huelva was bigger than it looked on the map and we were now caught up in the Friday evening rush hour which took about an hour to extricate ourselves from and we decided escape was easier than finding somewhere else to stop for the night. Back on the motorway a large service area looked good but with only one truck parked in an area that could take 50 or more there was not the safety in numbers that we like so carried on into Portugal and a tolerated parking area that we knew of at Castra Marin right on the beach. N 37.17757, W 7.46978 a  603km drive today.

We spent a peaceful night and woke to a cold morning at 4 degC but very bright sunshine and a nice long walk on the beach calling us.

Happy New Year to all.

Till next time……. S&J

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