After a couple of busy (noisy) days in Almeria we headed 4 miles out of town to a little campsite on the beach called Camping La Garrofa. The campsite was very tight for us but we managed to squeeze in. It was situated in a small valley so the pitch was in the shade for most of the day. We were unable to use the grey waste service point as the slope onto it was too steep for our length of van which caused the rear to ground out.
They did have a small bar/restaurant where we had lunch when we arrived. The beach was stony but it was in a cove so we were sheltered from the wind. The people on the site were really friendly and there were quite a few English. Fresh water was only available from a single push tap which we could only fill using our 5 litre containers. Slow and laborious. First time we’ve had hot showers with salt water! This campsite was not for us so after two nights we decided to move on.
We moved a little further down the coast to Roquetas de Mar. This was a free car park I had found on Search4Sites. There were lots of vans parked up and we found a space right in front of the beach. What a beach. It stretched for miles! Initially we thought it was a sandy beach, however, it was very small stones that really hurt your feet. Not as good as we first thought.
We headed off to explore, and to find somewhere for lunch. A couple of miles along the coast we came across a very small castle. There was no way to see inside so we wondered round the back and found a little outside theatre. It would be great to come back here in the summer when there is more going on. The other side of the castle were even more miles of beaches.
We started to make our way back to where we had seen some restaurants and stopped to have some lunch sheltering from the wind. After lunch we took a walk along the beach only to find a little river cutting off our route. Rather than walk back the way we had come we decided to cross the river! It was a bit deeper than we thought. Donald slipped down the bank filling his pockets with stones that we spent the next week clearing up from the van!
Next to the river where hundreds of birds that all took off as we emerged from the river. It felt like a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds”.
The wind was getting stronger and battered the van all night. Needless to say we didn’t get a lot of sleep. The next morning we decided to move on to somewhere more sheltered.
Our next stop was at the Puerto Almerimar. This was an Aire at the port and was lovely. The view from the van was overlooking the boats moored in the harbour. There were a few really nice restaurants that were open for breakfast and dinner.
We had a very enjoyable evening in one of the tapas bars chatting, with the help of google translate, to a Spanish couple who owned a coffee manufacturing business.
The next day we cycled off to see their coffee business. It was about 12km away but we didn’t factor in the 47kph winds and the uphill route. We found ourselves in the middle of all the greenhouses in the mountains which was a spectacular sight. It took us a lot longer to get there than what we had thought and when we finally arrived we found it was closed. We headed back, by now it was getting dark. We were both shattered but at least it was all down hill on the way back.
We spent four really nice days here but were both getting a bit fed up with the strong winds and we needed to think about where we wanted to spend Christmas. Looking at the weather forecast if we continued West it looked like we would be heading into rain. The East coast had sunshine forecast with no wind, so we decided to head back to the campsite at Mazarrón.
Almería
Mileage – 4
Route N-340a
Camping La Garrofa – €18 pn
Almería to Roquetas de Mar
Mileage – 11
Route N-340a/A391
Roquetas on the beach – Free
Roquetas de Mar to Almerimar
Mileage – 22
Route E15
Puerto Almerimar – €13 pn
Almerimar to Mazarrón
Mileage – 126
Route – A-7/E-15
Camping Playa de Mazarrón – €18 pn
