The first Aire we headed for at Calaberdina was closed. A little further along the coast we spotted some motorhomes parked up so we headed towards them. On entering we saw a big sign saying ‘No Camping’ with a warning of a €3,000 fine if you did! Back to the drawing board, or in this case, ‘All the Aires book’. We continued down the road that had tumbleweed coming towards us until we came to a gate, we had arrived.
A nice man came out and opened the gate for us. We parked up and walked the short distance to the beach. The owner said that although they had a beach bar they currently didn’t have any beer, but we were welcome to take our own food and drinks and sit in the bar.
The beach was sandy with large rocks poking out which created some rock pools. The sea was a bit choppy and it was windy but the bar area was sheltered from the wind so we spent a lovely afternoon there.
We found this site so peaceful that we asked to stay another night. As it was a holiday weekend, they were all booked up. However the owner said we could park by the beach bar. He was very apologetic, which made us both chuckle, as the place he had given us was much nicer than the camp site. It was just behind the bar with a view of the sea. We would have stayed here longer except we had run out of wine! Time to move 🙂
Time for a change. We have spent the last few weeks by the beach and I felt I needed a bit of life, so we headed to the port at Almeria. This was a very short walk into town, so a great location for visiting. We headed into town and came across a Christmas market. There was music playing, stalls selling all things Christmassy and lots of people having a good time. What a great atmosphere.
Further up the hill we found a tapas bar for dinner, although, not being very brave, we both ordered steak and chips! We agreed that we needed to be a bit more adventurous so ordered a sharing platter of deserts.
With dinner finished we headed back to the port. We soon found ourselves back at the restaurant, having walked for 20 minutes in a circle! Lesson learned, don’t listen to Donald when following Google maps as he always wants to explore new places. It kept saying turn left but Donald said to ignore it.
Finally we arrived back at the van where I promptly fell asleep. Donald wasn’t so lucky. It turned out that the end of the port was the ‘in’ place for the local youths to hang out and play loud music till 3am. Fishermen arrived at 5am and chatted very loudly to each other which woke me up. On the plus side, there are beautiful sunrises over the port.
The following day we set off to explore Almeria. First stop The Alcazaba Fortress. This can be seen from any part of the city and it is the biggest of the citadels built by the Arabs in Spain. It is a stunning building with the most fantastic views across the town and the sea.
Next we went back to the restaurant where we had dinner the previous night and, feeling braver, ordered tapas for lunch. We followed this with a visit to the ancient thermal baths spa. There was even a red wine bath. We didn’t try to drink it, although Donald was tempted! It was a very relaxing experience and we came out feeling super chilled and refreshed.
Later that evening we headed to the nearest restaurant, which was Italian. We both had pasta washed down with a local Almerian wine.
Mazarrón to Tortuga Mora
Mileage – 23
Route RM-332
Tortuga Mora – €8 a night
Águilas to Almería
Mileage – 95
Route A-7
Puerto de Almeria – Free
