9th April

9th April

Almayate Costa to Lake Vinuela.


I got up and made a start on packing up to move. It had been raining again during the night and I'd forgotten to bring the deck chair in so it got soaked. I filled up with fresh water after a rather interesting conversation with the wee Spanish cleaning woman in by best attempt at Spanish. She understood what I was looking for, but I didn't have a clue as to her reply! Hand signals and a combination of mime and pointing got things sorted out.....
I couldn't find the area to drain off the grey water tank, so I'll just need to empty it later.

I settled up for the 3 nights at reception and got the feeling I was ripped off a bit as the bill came to 95 euro for 3 nights camping! Bah! I know I was taking up one of their larger pitches and it was Easter weekend but I was charged a 'package' price for a car, caravan and 2 people including electric hook up and I think if it had been priced individually it may have worked out a bit cheaper. Anyway, as my Spanish isn't very good, I couldn't be bothered trying to make a fuss about it. You live and learn, but it did stick in the throat slightly.

I finally hit the supermercado and did some grocery shopping as the fridge was extremely bare looking, since everything had been closed for the weekend. I had about 6 bags of shopping that included a 12 pack of beer, 4 litres of wine (and a bucket with a lid!) and the whole lot came to 33 euro! I reckon that would be around half the price of the same stuff in Ireland, although I'd probably have normally steered clear of the alcohol normally. If I can stick to living on those sorts of prices, I should be ok. I also fuelled up Hermione as she was running a tad low on go juice. I'd earlier checked with Graham as to what the difference was between the cheaper and more expensive diesel and found out that it's just down to the additives used, so I'll use the cheap stuff without worrying from now on.... 93 cent a litre, that'll do for me.

I headed up towards La vinuela with Maisy giving directions. Unfortunately the village is a good bit away from where the lakeside camping ground is, so I ended up a bit lost.....
My mobile rang and it was Graham. "You've gone too far, matey" he said and I just laughed. I had visions of hime sitting at his computer tracking my movements by satellite, but it turned out that I'd passed Karen on the road as she tried to wave me down, but I was oblivious. I turned around and headed back down the road and spotted Karen and her business partner Jenny. We popped into a bar and had breakfast and a natter and made arrangements for them to lead me into the camping.

So, here I am, camped next to the lake. It's only 15.50 euro a night although I've opted to go without leckie to keep costs down plus I don't really have a huge need for it. It's only the telly and laptop that knock the stuffing out of the battery if I use them for long periods on the inverter, so I'm sure I'll manage. The site also has a decent laundry area and the washing machine is only 3 euro to use, so I'll get my laundry done tomorrow and that's another job out of the way.

I think I'm doing ok for gas so far as I'm not using any heating, so hopefully I should have plenty. I'm still on the 1st bottle and have another full one there. The weather's been a bit damp today although it dried up and the sun came out in the early evening. It's a really peaceful little spot and a nice site that looks quite recently built. There's only 1 other van on site; I think they're Dutch and have a big aul' German Shepherd dug with them.

I have the satellite TV set up which didn't take long but I couldn't seem to get a signal from Astra 2 as i think I'm way too far south and the dish is far too small to pick up the beams so I'm locked on astra 1 and can get BBC world, Sky news, CNN and some music channels in English. it's all I need really. It's just nice to keep up with events back home.

Depending on the weather tomorrrow, I may go and do some exploring in the van to some of the villages and towns. I need to phone Rab and Carol and make arrangements to head to Mijas to see them in the next couple of days.

I've been told that Algeciras and La Tarifa and Cadiz are well worth a visit, so depending on the forecast, it might be nice to do that later in the week. I also need to get in contact with Matt now that he should be back from Morrocco and make pland to visit him in Madrid some weekend.