A New Adventure in France

Happy New Year and hope it’s not too chilly wherever you are. We mentioned previously that it was our hope to be able to escape in the campervan in the winter months and to hopefully find some warmer weather in Southern Spain. We didn’t get to do it last year for more than a week as we were still in the thick of settling-in admin issues, but this year (or last year, more accurately) we headed off on 26th December with a plan to travel for a couple of months – like the old days. It’s a very quiet time in deep France, with variable weather, and it seems a few people from our area take the opportunity to head off somewhere. Surprisingly (to us), many campsites get booked up months ahead (some by August) with campers block-booking for a few months at one place. We booked a couple of campsites for a few days each, when they had availability, and decided to make it up as we went along for the rest of the time. It already feels like we’ve been away for ages – in fact it’s only just over 2 weeks – and already we have seen variety and contrasts, in landscape, overnight stopping points and visits. Most days we’ve also been enjoying the blue skies, sunshine and warmer temperatures we had hoped for. We headed first south towards Perpignan,  crossed into Spain and, after bypassing the Costa Brava which we loved last year, we have followed the coast south and are currently near Nerja to the east of Malaga. 

On the scenery front we have driven through areas ranging from stunning and awe-inspiring to attractive, and from industrial through to downright ugly. The mountains always inspire us the most – they have been the backdrop for most of the trip and you don’t need to go far off the beaten track to reach them with excellent roads making them very accessible. The landscape can be scrubby and barren, terraced with olive trees, or colourful and fragrant with miles of orange groves around Denia and Javea, and then more verdant with glossy-leaved avocado and mango trees in the area we are now.  On the coast in the Murcia region we saw some unusual sandstone formations – the Gredas de Bolnuevo – right next to the beach at Bolnuevo. The sandy clay soil  has been sculpted by the wind, sand and sea over thousands of years resulting in curious mushroom like formations. In the Cabo de Gato national park we walked past former volcanoes to fossil beaches.

The most sobering reminder of Spain’s huge role as the market garden of Europe is the peninsula south of Almeria where you pass by miles and miles of dusty plastic polytunnels where fruit and vegetables are grown all year round. The extent of these structures, which started to be erected in the 1950s and 60s is hard to describe or photograph,  but they are so extensive that they have been photographed from space. We’ve been told that it’s not very safe to venture into the midst of this plastic ‘shanty city’ and working conditions must be terrible for the people employed there. It really does make you think about the impact of eating salad and soft fruits all year round. Needless to say, we couldn’t get past there quick enough. 

Our stopovers have also been very varied with our usual mixture of campsites and off-grid. We have been amazed at the number of people in campervans and motorhomes who travel here in the winter – heavens knows what it must be like in the spring and summer. You can’t take it for granted that you will get into a campsite or motorhome stop, so need to plan ahead or have a contingency (or two) in place. As we’ve noted before, on campsites and stopovers in Spain, pitches are much smaller or simply consist of a parking space sized pitch. In parking  areas without any facilities along the coast and beaches, vans are rammed in often right next to a busy main road, each hoping to get their bit of sea view, and it’s clear that there are many long-term campers with huge rigs (and dogs) laying claim to the prize spots. The Spanish police do regular patrols and seem to be very tolerant. These beachside stops can have quite a hippy vibe and at one of our more attractive stops the baker’s van came to the beach in the morning selling bread and pastries – very enterprising. Hilltop stops are usually attractive and at one off-grid spot at El Castell de Guadelest we had views over the castle and village and surrounding valleys.

The cities and villages we’ve visited so far have all felt very different. One of the most ‘functional’ (by that I mean not very attractive) overnight stops we’ve had was at Cartagena. There are very limited parking opportunities in the city so most reviews recommend parking at the football stadium. What the parking lacks in atmosphere, the city more than makes up for. A 20 minute walk brought us to the centre of the elegant city and led us down to the port and seafront area. Cartagena is the base of the Spanish navy so naval vessels and and old submarine were visible in the harbour. The jewel of the city, for me at least, are the ruins of an almost intact Roman theatre, completed around 5 BC. The ruins were accidentally discovered in 1988, beneath an existing church, when construction work for a new building was underway. Excavations revealed a large and well-preserved portion of the theatre which would originally have had capacity for 7,000 spectators. You can catch glimpses of parts of the theatre in some backstreets but the main access is via a building near the harbour which then takes you up several levels to a tunnel under the church from where you emerge to the theatre, surrounded by residential buildings of the old town. And it certainly is a dramatic view as you emerge – well worth a visit. 

We’re on the edges of the Axarqia region in Andalusia, known for its hillside white villages and one of the best known, Frigiliana, reputedly one of the most beautiful villages in Spain, is about 10 km from our campsite. The scooter has really come into its own as it is the most practical way of exploring locally without having to pack up the van and drive every  day. Roads into towns are quite big and busy, so even walking and cycling is not for the faint-hearted. We had a lovely ride up into the hills to Frigiliana with views back down to the coast.

The village climbs up the hillside so we parked midway and climbed uphill to explore the historic centre, through the winding streets with small shops and restaurants. The village and surrounding area used to be known for sugar cane production which was introduced to the region by the Moors in the 9th century when they occupied this part of Spain.  Frigiliana, became an important center for sugar cane cultivation and processing in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the production of sugar from cane became a significant economic activity. Very near our campsite is a beautiful 4- storey aqueduct -Acueducto del Águila or  Eagle Aqueduct – that was built to supply irrigation water to a former sugar refinery outside Nerja and still supplies irrigation water to local farmers today. 

From Frigiliana we headed further uphill to find El Acebuchal, the Lost Village or Ghost Village. At one time the region’s olive oil production was a significant part of the village’s economy.  However, in the 1950s in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War the Spanish government forcibly relocated the villagers of El Acebuchal. The exact reasons for the abandonment are not clear, but it is believed that the government wanted to remove rural populations from isolated areas to discourage possible guerrilla activity. In 1998, the village was rediscovered by the Gutiérrez family, a local family who were descendants of the original inhabitants. They began to restore the village and in 2005 the village was re-inhabited, and it began to attract visitors as part of an effort to preserve the region’s heritage. The tarmac road soon ran out so we did an unexpected bit of off-roading on the scooter, successfully negotiated in the capable hands of expert rider Joe. Our campsite neighbours who are cyclists told us they had cycled to the Ghost Village two days previously having checked the opening hours of the only restaurant there. They arrived after the long uphill cycle to find it closed, so cycled back to camp but obviously weren’t put off as they cycled back the next day and enjoyed a very good lunch!

Nerja itself is a very attractive white town on the coast with views along the coast from the ‘Balcony of Europe’ viewpoint. It is also known for its impressive caves discovered in 1959 and holding the Guinness World Record for the tallest column, where a stalactite and stalagmite meet, at 33 metres tall.

Our travels have also given us the  opportunity to catch up with some friends, long-standing and more recent. We spent a few days over New Year at Javea, south of Valencia and the furthest point we got to on our previous foray into Spain in 2021. My former boss and his wife, both friends of mine for 25 years, had a house built in the hills above Denia after holidaying there for several years, so we were delighted to be able to meet them and see their lovely house. Closer to where we are now we met up for a beachside with friends from a nearby village in France who come to Spain for a couple of months in winter, and then bumped into other walking group friends from France in Nerja. It’s a small world. 

We move further west and south in a couple of days so are looking forward to exploring and discovering code.