Sunday 24 January 2016

Sunday 24 January – Isla Plana and Belnuevo

Where’s Colin? He’s in a very large car park behind the beach at Belnuevo, at N37º33.850, W1º 18.643.

Our first stop this morning, at the attractive place of Isla Plana, only came about because about a few seconds after I spotted a car park, I saw an open supermarket (on a Sunday!), so Colin was quickly swung around, our onion deficiency was resolved and we had a walk around. Here’s a bit of a panoramic shot:

We’d driven though those hills to get to Isla Plana, although Mick did comment on the way that it was causing rather a hit on our miles per gallon. “Worth it, for the scenery” I replied, although Mick wasn’t finding it so much so, concentrating on the road (and the constantly changing speed limits) to the exclusion of being able to appreciate our surroundings. The 6km back down to the sea would have partially redeemed the MPG erosion, if it hadn’t been for the huge hairpin bends complete with speed limits down to 20kph (advisory 10 kph) in one place.

Having exhausted the sea-front walking in Isla Plana, on we moved … and got all of three minutes down a road, when a nice flat parking area above a beach, and with a stunning sea view, presented itself, and we decided to stop for another stroll and for lunch. Discovering a small band of motorhomes just another minute further along the coast, we did consider going and joining them in their lovely spot, in spite of the ‘no camping’ signs, but the day was still young so eventually we stirred ourselves to continue further south. We got about another 10km, before spotting a few motorhomes parked in a huge car park, with this notable natural feature just a few paces away:

 
And here it is slightly closer to (the wheel of someone’s bike in the bottom left hand corner handily gives a bit of scale):

 
Up to the top of the rocky outcrop we walked, giving a bird’s eye view of Colin (for once not the smallest motorhome in the group photo!) and the huge (but largely empty) car park:

 
We’re rather bamboozled by the signage in this car park and, even after extensive Googling, are not quite sure whether the signs in this section mean that only motorhomes can park here, or that motorhomes are not allowed to park here. Based on different signs elsewhere, we think it’s the former. If we are doing something unlawful, then we’re in good company (hmmm, now I think about it, none of the other vehicles here is Spanish; maybe we are all misunderstanding the signs!).

Aside from the hoodooey rock formation just to the side of us, there’s a sizeable beach across the road too. It’s certainly an attractive spot to while away the late part of the day:


So, we didn’t get very far today – probably not more than 30km from where we started (and as the crow flies, possibly not even that). In fact, nine days after we first hit the coast on Page 85 of our road atlas, we’re still just about on that page. But, we don’t have to be anywhere by any specific date (except on a Eurotunnel early in March), so moving on by only a few miles a day is not a problem.

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