Where's Bertie? After a second night at the Aire at Puerto de Caleta de Velez last night, tonight he's at an Aire just to the west of Málaga. (Exact location: 36.68416, -4.46067)
Weather: Sunny intervals.
Saturday
It was long run day for me yesterday (not that 'long' is particularly long at the moment, with this being Week 1 of my training programme towards an event in July), so I started the day, along with lots of other people exercising (including Mick for the first 3km), with repetitions of the beachfront at Torre de Sol.
I went away beyond the end of the seafront promenade and found a bull
It was also market day at Caleta de Velez, so after a shower (unlimited mains water! Indecently hot!), we went in search of the market place, finding it just a couple of minutes up the road. It was rather too crowded for my liking, so we only walked through part of it, before returning on the other side of the road. There a Chinese shop drew me in (vast and not in any way crowded), in search of safety pins, elastic and a roasting pan. I came out with one of the three. Although I'm sure they must have had the pins, I couldn't find them and I decided that I need to measure up before buying a new roasting pan, as I want to get the biggest one that will fit in Bertie's oven.
Popping into a panaderia for bread, we found it to also be a pasteleria and after drooling over the display it seemed only polite to buy a couple of slices
Our afternoon was accompanied by live music from the bar across the road, which after several hours was starting to sound rather samey, but it stopped earlier than expected, at around 5pm.
Sunday
It rained in the night! I only know this because Mick's exclamation of the fact woke me up momentarily. Otherwise, I slept like a dead person until my alarm rudely awoke me at 7am. An early start as I had another run to take, another shower to squeeze in (because if they're included in the price then why not shower daily?), and we needed to leave by 10.30. We achieved it by a good margin.
Málaga was our chosen destination for today. We avoided this section of coast on our tour six years ago, heading inland to bypass it, having it in our minds as an awful, tacky series of package holiday resorts that wouldn't be our cup of tea. Our short trip to Benidorm in 2020 (not to mention Blackpool in 2019) established that, out of season, such resorts can, in fact, be okay, so Málaga made it onto the list for this year.
We were half way here when I went to read one of the comments on Park4Night to Mick and found that a glut of new comments had been posted, all saying that this Aire is being closed down this week. Other recent reviews also painted it such that we had a picture of a shanty town, covered in litter.
A quick bit of Googling confirmed that yes, the local council had a meeting on Friday and decided to effect a ban on motorhomes as of this week (officially from tomorrow, but not to be enforced until they can get the signs made and erected). It seems that the popularity of the place (a story I read in a local newspaper said that it was designed for 100 motorhomes but 'there are now more than 300, including tents and other vehicles*') has attracted complaints.
Did we still want to come here, we wondered? After a bit of dithering, I decided that as it's still a legal place tonight, and as it would be a good location for Mick's run tomorrow, it would be worth coming even if it was awful/dirty/full of party animals.
Driving into the place we were pleasantly surprised. Yes, there is a bit of litter on some of the exterior verges (as there is on all the verges between here and the seafront) and there is a disgusting amount of toilet paper behind each bush and tree, but the vast parking area itself is clean and tidy, with relatively neat rows of motorhomes, few of which look like they've taken root. Moreover, with the car park being sunken from the surrounding roads, and in the midst of sports facilities, it's not overlooked by a residential area. So, it's a mystery as to who it's offending, and a shame that a sledgehammer is being used to crack a nut when there are other solutions that could be used (and potentially be more lucrative to the council).
Being right on the west edge of the town (city?), we haven't been all the way into the centre - and may well not do so during our stay. We did, however, walk a couple of miles in that direction, only turning around when it became a bit too crowded on the seafront promenade.
I'm sure it doesn't look anywhere near as busy in the snap as it felt in reality.
The good news I learnt today is that the outdoors-mask-wearing law is being reviewed on Tuesday, with a view to removing it as of Thursday. It being a weekend, bars and restaurants are busy, and we've walked past establishments housing multiple large tables of groups of people, all sitting in close proximity indoors, shouting at each other and (quite legally) not wearing masks, whereas we've been out in the fresh air, with nobody in the immediate vicinity, with noses and mouths covered. It will be a great improvement to our time here if the requirement is removed. (Incidentally, we reckon the rate of adherence to this particular law is approximately 50%; bizarrely, the majority of the time when there's a couple walking towards us, one of them will be wearing a mask and the other not.)
One final thing: parakeets! Must mention the parakeets! We've been surrounded by vast colonies of them for the last couple of days and they don't half make a racket.
Taken on this morning's run at Torres del Mar. There had been a dozen or more sitting on this patch of ground until the moment before I took the picture. At least two stuck around for the snap!
(*We have seen no tents. There are a few caravans. All of the motorhomes are widely spaced apart so the 'designed for 100 but now there are over 300' statement is a bit odd. As for the toilet paper behind the trees, given that there's a service point with toilet emptying facilities here, I very much doubt that the occupants of the motorhomes (plenty of which are vast things that cost hundreds of thousands of Euros) are the culprits there (because why would you go and poo outdoors in a public place when you've got a toilet on board and somewhere to empty it?), but rather the very few car and van dwellers.)
Weather: Sunny intervals.
Saturday
It was long run day for me yesterday (not that 'long' is particularly long at the moment, with this being Week 1 of my training programme towards an event in July), so I started the day, along with lots of other people exercising (including Mick for the first 3km), with repetitions of the beachfront at Torre de Sol.
It was also market day at Caleta de Velez, so after a shower (unlimited mains water! Indecently hot!), we went in search of the market place, finding it just a couple of minutes up the road. It was rather too crowded for my liking, so we only walked through part of it, before returning on the other side of the road. There a Chinese shop drew me in (vast and not in any way crowded), in search of safety pins, elastic and a roasting pan. I came out with one of the three. Although I'm sure they must have had the pins, I couldn't find them and I decided that I need to measure up before buying a new roasting pan, as I want to get the biggest one that will fit in Bertie's oven.
Our afternoon was accompanied by live music from the bar across the road, which after several hours was starting to sound rather samey, but it stopped earlier than expected, at around 5pm.
Sunday
It rained in the night! I only know this because Mick's exclamation of the fact woke me up momentarily. Otherwise, I slept like a dead person until my alarm rudely awoke me at 7am. An early start as I had another run to take, another shower to squeeze in (because if they're included in the price then why not shower daily?), and we needed to leave by 10.30. We achieved it by a good margin.
Málaga was our chosen destination for today. We avoided this section of coast on our tour six years ago, heading inland to bypass it, having it in our minds as an awful, tacky series of package holiday resorts that wouldn't be our cup of tea. Our short trip to Benidorm in 2020 (not to mention Blackpool in 2019) established that, out of season, such resorts can, in fact, be okay, so Málaga made it onto the list for this year.
We were half way here when I went to read one of the comments on Park4Night to Mick and found that a glut of new comments had been posted, all saying that this Aire is being closed down this week. Other recent reviews also painted it such that we had a picture of a shanty town, covered in litter.
A quick bit of Googling confirmed that yes, the local council had a meeting on Friday and decided to effect a ban on motorhomes as of this week (officially from tomorrow, but not to be enforced until they can get the signs made and erected). It seems that the popularity of the place (a story I read in a local newspaper said that it was designed for 100 motorhomes but 'there are now more than 300, including tents and other vehicles*') has attracted complaints.
Did we still want to come here, we wondered? After a bit of dithering, I decided that as it's still a legal place tonight, and as it would be a good location for Mick's run tomorrow, it would be worth coming even if it was awful/dirty/full of party animals.
Driving into the place we were pleasantly surprised. Yes, there is a bit of litter on some of the exterior verges (as there is on all the verges between here and the seafront) and there is a disgusting amount of toilet paper behind each bush and tree, but the vast parking area itself is clean and tidy, with relatively neat rows of motorhomes, few of which look like they've taken root. Moreover, with the car park being sunken from the surrounding roads, and in the midst of sports facilities, it's not overlooked by a residential area. So, it's a mystery as to who it's offending, and a shame that a sledgehammer is being used to crack a nut when there are other solutions that could be used (and potentially be more lucrative to the council).
Being right on the west edge of the town (city?), we haven't been all the way into the centre - and may well not do so during our stay. We did, however, walk a couple of miles in that direction, only turning around when it became a bit too crowded on the seafront promenade.
The good news I learnt today is that the outdoors-mask-wearing law is being reviewed on Tuesday, with a view to removing it as of Thursday. It being a weekend, bars and restaurants are busy, and we've walked past establishments housing multiple large tables of groups of people, all sitting in close proximity indoors, shouting at each other and (quite legally) not wearing masks, whereas we've been out in the fresh air, with nobody in the immediate vicinity, with noses and mouths covered. It will be a great improvement to our time here if the requirement is removed. (Incidentally, we reckon the rate of adherence to this particular law is approximately 50%; bizarrely, the majority of the time when there's a couple walking towards us, one of them will be wearing a mask and the other not.)
One final thing: parakeets! Must mention the parakeets! We've been surrounded by vast colonies of them for the last couple of days and they don't half make a racket.
(*We have seen no tents. There are a few caravans. All of the motorhomes are widely spaced apart so the 'designed for 100 but now there are over 300' statement is a bit odd. As for the toilet paper behind the trees, given that there's a service point with toilet emptying facilities here, I very much doubt that the occupants of the motorhomes (plenty of which are vast things that cost hundreds of thousands of Euros) are the culprits there (because why would you go and poo outdoors in a public place when you've got a toilet on board and somewhere to empty it?), but rather the very few car and van dwellers.)
Sounds like you are missing the gale weather we have been having here.
ReplyDeleteThe forecast predicted today's wind speeds to be between 1 and 6mph. We have had some breezy days since we arrived, but all is calm at the moment.
Delete