Helen & Dicks Big Adventure

 Our next stop was another Caravan & Motor-home Club rally at Alannia Costa Brava resort. It has to be said that as we weren't really ready to leave La Manga and having few negative comments about the site, it was with some trepidation that we arrived at Alannia.   The site is large with lots of bungalows and lots of pitches. The pitches are a open making it a bit of a car park. At the entrance is a big complex with a restaurant, bar swimming pools. gym, shop etc.  All really smart.  The rally pitches are at the bottom of the site about a kilometre from the entrance. The site is about 15 km from the coast set on the coastal plain between the mountains and the sea. Essentially in the middle of nowhere alongside the AP7 motorway.  Just up road is a wet land nature reserve with miles of water reed reminding us a little of Snape mashes but with flamingos😃 We found a good beach for the doggies at San Pola just behind the salt pans (with more flamingos) Some...

 14 January and our next stop was La Manga campsite which is situated on the Mar Manor, a massive salt water lagoon in the Murcia region.  This was to be our first taste of an overseas Caravan & Motor-Home club rally.  The advantage for us being new to caravanning in Spain was having rally stewards and fellow campers who could give us some good advice. It was also good value.  What we didn't realise is just how sociable and a good laugh it would be.  We had been warned by friends that La Manger campsite is a bit like Marmite  you either love it or hate it. As well as touring pitches that site has a large amount of "parcellas" which are basically shanty like buildings on pitches, they range from an old caravan with a tin roof to a small well appointed villa and everything in between. At first sight they can be a bit off putting but we came to appreciate the character of the place. What we loved was this was by far the friendliest campsite of our trip. Th...

Our next stop was Ribamar camping. The campsite is situated in the Serra d'Irta national park, literally in the national park. You have to drive about a mile down a very rough track to the site which is situated right on the coast, below the mountains  in pine forest. The national park stretches for about 12 miles along the coast between Alcossabere and Peniscola (Yep Helen found Peniscola hilarious😂). We stayed at the site for 29/12 to 14/1, 16 nights. The site is fairly small and it was a bit of a challenge to get Bill Bailey (the caravan) on to the pitch. We ended up using the motor movers all the way. There is a restaurant on site which supplied fresh bread in the mornings and specialised in local pork.  It became apparent the woods around the site are full of wild boar  and in the mornings you could see where they had been digging right up against the campsite wall.  I think some of them ended up on the restaurant menu. I did hear the boar attacking a waste bin...