Post It from Camping Armanello, Benidorm, Valencia, Spain. Sunday 6th September, 2015.
After leaving Aire Sur L’Adour we travelled south to Pau and managed to circumnavigate the city with ease this time as it was well signposted going south for Zaragoza, spelled with an S. We passed once again through beautiful countryside as we crossed the Pyrenees through the Somport Tunnel and exited to long awaited sun.
We overnight camped at the municipal site in Zaragoza where many British campers stop on their ways north and south and parked next to a stunning fifth wheeler. Behind us was a couple returning to the UK after spending 10 months in Benidorm so instead of stopping off closer to Valencia we decided to push on to stop at Benidorm ourselves and if it was good weather we would stop a couple of nights.
It was not to be. As soon as we came off the motorway to follow the coast road the rain started and came down in varying degrees of buckets. Thankfully it stopped, briefly, for our arrival at this campsite. The site was quite good with good facilities and very clean. The pitches confused me slightly and I ended up camping on a small service road to two at the back because I thought it was a pitch and it was the only one with no sun shades across the top meaning I could safely get onto the pitch with our height at almost 3m. The receptionist said it was not a problem for the one night and so we camped on the road!
There were quite a lot of permanent or seasonal pitches and for the first time we saw plush awnings decked out with three piece sofas. The client group is mainly Dutch and British and it gets full for the winter months. There were some aviaries in the grounds and a typical Benidorm skyline of tall buildings and a large satellite dish for northern Europeans so they can receive their favourite programmes whilst away. I think we could have happily stayed much longer with easy access to Benidorm had the weather been better or we had nowhere else to be.
The rain did not stop so we did not venture off the campsite. The last time we were in Benidorm it was to take some friends who were visiting us during our long gap year. Trevor had last been there with a group of lads some 40 years previous and wanted to see how it had changed, a bit of nostalgia I think. It rained that day and we saw the water 6” deep gushing down the streets as we waited it out in a café. I had left the car’s two sun roofs open and returned to a damp rear seat as well! We like Benidorm in the winter but I guess the summer would be a different story.
Camping Lo Monte at Pilar de la Horadada for us next and as we have posted stories from there before this may well be the last ‘Post It’ for a while. We shall enjoy meeting up with our friends who live there and hopefully some fellow campers we have previously met on our travels who now have a pet long haired Daschund so have changed from a VW camper into a motorhome. It will be good to catch up with them and see how they are getting along with having their own bathroom now and more space! After years of travelling in the camper I bet it will be a little strange.
Regards, Roy