8th Apr BENICASSIM – PENISCOLA

Choosing a wildcamping spot is always a bit hit and miss; mainly they’re fine and sometimes downright fantastic (like Puntas de Calnegre) and occasionally we get it wrong.

We look for somewhere where:-

      We’re not going to disturb or annoy the local population with our presence

      We feel safe; often that means where there are other campervans

      It’s not too noisy

      Of course it’s great if it looks nice too!

Last night we were parked on waste ground next to a very large car park, close to some flats, houses and a few bars/cafes. We were with seven other vans so we felt quite comfortable. We had noticed cars parking, in the car park, between 10 – 11.00 p.m. and remarked that the Spanish ate and socialised late. When we went to bed around midnight cars were still arriving and were now starting to fill up the waste ground. We went to sleep ....................... we were woken at about 1.30 a.m. by people laughing, shouting, whistling and talking loudly (completely oblivious to anyone trying to sleep – I’m thinking of the locals here rather than us). We looked out and there were at least a couple of hundred people hanging around in groups (obviously the cafes/bars had just closed). Then the ‘music’ started; cars with their stereos on really loud “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM ................ ; there was a car parked a couple of cars away from us with all it’s doors and boot open. We couldn’t sleep; Brett tried to use his headphones as ear plugs, but you could still ‘feel’ the beat. When do these people sleep? By 3.30 a.m. we decided to move to Lidls – but there were cars and people parked there too (and the campervans had gone); so we went back to the aire by the noisy road – bliss!! We slept in until 10.00.

A really easy trip today, that even our Sat Nav couldn’t mess up; to an aire/campsite that costs, but it has electric hook up and showers; well that’s what it said in the book, what it didn’t say was that the shower only had one tap – cold, as Brett found out when he went for his shower!!! I’m sorry I draw the line at a cold shower; so I put the water heater on in the van (using the electric hook up), after 40 minutes I undress, got in the shower, wet my hair whilst waiting for the warm water to come through, shampooed my hair, still waiting for the warm water and then realised that the electric hook up had tripped and that the water hadn’t been heating and that I had to have a cold shower after all! – Brett reckons that his shower was colder than mine.

All along the front here is pedestrianised, with a dedicated cycle path; well I wish they’d told all the walkers, showing off skaters, groups of runners, cyclists riding three abreast, children and all the other people I had to avoid when we went for a ‘ride’ – I spent more time off the bike (walking) than on.