Hi, Now away for a couple of months in Alicante/Murcia in southern Spain. We took the Dover to Calais ferry and drove (a long way, stopping at Aires on route!) to get to the border near Angeles-sur-Mer where we camped-up for the night in the harbour. We had originally intended to then go to Valencia and spend a couple of days there but on route I realised that the campsite might be closed as we'd stayed there last year but at a later date in January. Anyway, this turned out to be the case but luckily we just diverted off route to Peniscola on the coast. This was a busy campsite with lots of residents but a very pleasant stay with two sunny days and a chance to see the old town and the restoration work they have been doing (since 2008) on the sand dunes (see photo above). We then drove straight down to Mahjal camping which is south of Alicante city near Crevillent and the Parque Natural El Fondo or Hondo depending on the map.

This is a shot of Helen in the afternoon sun after we joined a group cycleride to Callosa in the morning. The campsite is brand new (opened in December last year) and has very modern facilities, gym, indoor pool and we're doing free Spanish lessons; maybe one day I will be able to speak something resembling Spanish. It gets dark by 6 and light by about 8.30 with temperatures rising in the daytime to near 20 C at the moment. However, the temperatures drop suddendly as the sun drops and in the morning it is 6 - 8 C and feels cold. However, once the sun gets above the horizon, the temperatures quickly rise unless there is cloud cover and then it stops at about 14-16 C. There looks to be lots to explore locally on our bikes, small villages and the Nature reserve and the coast is ony about 15 km away. There is a train line a few kilometres away that goes to Murcia and Alicante and also buses that can be found to get around here and to the coast. We've joined the gym, indoor pool and sauna and that went well so far. In case anyone wants to contact us, we have email and a phone signal. We've used Skype alread to contact Helen's Mum and Dad and that works fine but we only got one picture.