Wednesday 2 February - Nerja

Where's Bertie? He's in a very large car park conveniently positioned for both the town and the beach at Nerja. It costs €12 for a 24 hour stay (no facilities). Exact location: 36.74729, -3.87344.

Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and warm.

Last night's parking spot was a not only as quiet as we expected (except for when an animal, presumably a cat, tried to climb over Bertie - something that's happening too much at the moment, and can't half make us jump), and was also extremely dark. Nipping out to water one of the nearby bushes just before bed, we opened the door to the sight of ...absolutely nothing. With no light pollution and no moon, we may as well have been blindfolded.

There was nothing to hold us there beyond a nightstop, so we were on the move straight after breakfast, over which we had discussed where we were going to stay in Nerja. There are no motorhome Aires, and the campsites are expensive, leaving us with the options of staying just on the edge of town for free, or right in the thick of things for €12. Because we wanted to give Nerja more than a cursory look, and because our first activity on arrival was going to be a run, preferably along beachside, we opted to pay. 

Arriving at just gone 9am, it wasn't long before we were heading out. An alleyway took us out of the car park and into the old town, where our immediate impression was that Nerja is indeed a nice place. 

Typical of the side streets we came across. 

Regularly checking the map on my phone, whilst also trying to gaze around me, I navigated us through the old town to the beach, along which we ran until the promenade ran out, then continued along a track, then onto the sand we went. When it became too soft for my foot to be happy (it still doesn't like too  much lateral movement), we turned around. A jaunt up the river followed, up the west side as far as the second bridge, then back down the shaded east side. By then the temperature was such that the shade was welcome. 

Snaps from the run. I have no recollection of taking the second one. 

It is eight days since we last put any water in Bertie's tank, and then we only half-filled it (60 litres). Supplies are now dwindling such that showers weren't an option post-run, but it doesn't take much water to have a flannel wash, then we squandered some of our (also dwindling) drinking supply on both cold drinks and coffee. We'd barely had the last sips when lunchtime was upon us, so more eating was done before we headed back out for some aimless wandering. 

Art imitates Mick at one of the viewpoints we found.

Sculpture of the day

A good and pleasant time was had walking the streets and observing that this is a very multinational place. Naturally, our ears are  primarily noticing the Brits, of which there are lots, but we've also heard Dutch, German and French voices, and there are more than a few Swedish registered vehicles in this car park too.

We also noted an absence of grafitti, and that all of the buildings are well maintained. I'm not sure if we just didn't stray into parts of the town which are less well-kept or if the property market here is such that buildings don't get abandoned and left to ruin and/or if there is some other town policy that keeps everything so neat and tidy. 

After a sufficient amount of wandering, a bar called to us, where I learnt that although I like both coffee and olives, they really don't go together. Mick had more success with the beer/olive combination. It was good coffee today too, and cheaper than yesterday's mediocre cup.

A quick look at another beach, to the east of where Bertie is parked (everything else we'd done had been to the west), and it was back to Bertie for a late second lunch. 

When in Spain...

Before the day was out, we needed to do something about our drinking water situation. With the assistance of Open Street Map a tap was located only a 500m or so walk away, although we did the distance twice in each direction, having remembered just as we returned to Bertie the first time that his windscreen washer bottle showed signs of running out this morning, so that's where most of the first bottle went. 

I'm not sure yet what we're doing tomorrow. The final decision may come down to how urgent we consider it is to empty Bertie's toilet and get some more fresh water on board.