Hola, about to leave Cabo de Gata having had a great time in the sunshine exploring the park and local villages. We have been lucky with weather which has resembled British summer in the daytime although it gets dark at 7 pm and cools down quickly. Once beyond the “plastic” covered fields, the area has its own attraction with long - long empty beaches, small white pueblos such as Cabo de Gata itself, lagoons with a variety of birdlife including Flamingos, Advocets, White faced ducks and Black-winged Grebes, Shovelers and more. We have cycled many of the local pistas and the road from the campsite along the coast towards San Jose. This goes through the more pristine area of the park over two passes to reach a final saddle (about 200 m) overlooking beaches and the coast near San Jose. At the col, the road transforms from “pot-holed tarmac” to a “stony pista” and looks to be all down hill. The photos show the Flamingos on the lagoon at Salinas during their courtship display, and the view from the last saddle back southwards to the lighthouse at the cape. The folks at the campsite are friendly; our immediate neighbour, Anne, as been here since October and is a font of information on the locality. The site is not as packed as the ones we’ve been in and most people seemed to have spread over two pitches!! Anyway, we’ve only 3 weeks left so need to move on if we’re to see more of southern Spain..Adios.

Moved southwards and beach for a windy day at Isla Plana near Puerto de Mazarron and cycled east to La Azohia. The campsite (Camping Los Madriles) is set on terraces about 200 m from a beach accessed by a pista over the road. We visited the more developed Puerto de Mazarron on a perfect day in shorts and “T” shirt going though the Puerto to Bolnuevo about 10 miles to the west, also with a beach and some sculptured sandstone rocks. The bikes have been going well and the small hills along the coastal road have not been a problem. Helen’s 18 V bike battery is lasting well having helped up the steep hills in the Sierra Espuna, the cycle to La Azohia, and today to Bolnuevo and still with 3/5 charge remaining. Here we are in a fairly large site with mainly German and Dutch campers with a sprinkling of British and French thrown in. It has a heated swimming pool, boules area, tennis court and table tennis room and activities we now associate with the “Overwinterers” (long stay residents). The site is in the ACSI scheme so costs us just 15 euro a night but is unusual in that they charge for electric over 4 KW usage (which isn’t much when you have a fridge and freezer on board). On most sites that we’ve been to so far, the electric is inclusive anyway.
Now in the desert near Almeria at Cabo de Gata. Haven’t explored here yet but have included a photo from yesterday of Helen cooling off during a cycle ride up a pista to a coastal lookout near La Azohia and also a view from the top towards Mazarron and the coast. We found a café in the village, Campilla de Adentro near Castillitos for a late lunch and rest before the cycle up to another pass to get back to La Azohia.

Rainy day today! We spent Valantines day cycling up into the Sierras and a very enjoyable lunch, “Menu del Dia” at the La Perdiz after a cycle over the pass to Fuente del Hilo (much puffing!) to find it closed. After that we explored the park a little to find the dinosaurs footprints under a suspension bridge, we returned via Casa Leiva and a long uphill route to the saddle followed by a long freewheel down back to El Berro. We all enjoyed the scenery and sunshine and almost no traffic on the roads. We caught glimpses of squirrels and two wild goats in the park but few birds although we heard quite a few in the pines. Sue and Brian have left us to return east to the coast whilst we continue to the south coast, hopefully leaving the rain behind us. Here's Helen braving the last hill of the day and getting a clear view from just below the saddle. I wasn't far behind!!

Now in El Berro in the Sierra Espuna in the Murcia region having good weather inspite of being 650 m up in the Sierras. It is a pleasant campsite with good views and not as busy as the coastal sites that we’ve been. The village is pleasant with two bakers, a small supermarket and bars and there are lots of walks in the vicinity. We’ve done three walks locally, one with Brian into the mountains to La Perdiz and the ridge up to Morron Chico (1444 m) and route along Barranco de Leyva, and two others with us all going through almond groves onto a ridge with views to the north and another longer walk to some sandstone cliffs (Golden Eagles nest in this area) which was beautiful but did involve a long road walk back to the campsite. We have not seen much wildlife inspite of the park making something of the wildboer and squirrel populations as attractions. We have seen lots of signs of the boer rutting in the forest and no wild goats either (not to mention Golden Eagles). A few small birds such as Siskin are around but not many so maybe the lack of water in the region limits the numbers. There are no rivers only dry river beds and we understand the water table has dropped so that rivers that did flow have now vanished. The weather prediction is still good for the next few days so we’ll probably stop on a while and enjoy it whilst we can, even thinking of getting the bikes out to see how we fair on the hills hereabout.

We have caught the sun at last. At least the temperatures are warm during the day going upto 17 C but drop to near zero at night. We’re at Guardamar del Segura near the coast next to the Rio Segura and just 15 minutes walk from the beach and dunes. The town is also a short cycle away alongside the canal so we’ve been exploring. Helen’s been swimming and some “keep fit” whilst we’ve both been cycling along the many pistas in the area. Also the beach makes a nice running strip with a walk through the dunes on the way back. We did a hours Spanish class on the site and have internet access from the café. Brian and Sue are also here (just opposite us) so we’ve had some great evenings for dinner and DVDs or “Rummy”, so it is good to have company. It still gets dark about half-past six and the temperatures plummet after five but that’s fine as its T-shirts and shorts after eleven once the sun is higher. The campsite is full and we got the last two places. There are many Dutch, English and German people with many of them “overwintering” with massive units I wonder how they get them onto their plots. We’re not sure how long we’ll stay here, no doubt the weather will decide that for us but at the moment we’re reluctant to move from this spot.