Oldies On Tour

Saturday 30th September 

In spite of the two blokes waking us up in the night, all four of us had an undisturbed night; well done doggies👍👍

We are not going anywhere today, it is a day of cleaning and relaxing, though the car park is filling up earlier than usual, locals getting their spot for the day.

We had lived in and around this general area and walked numerous dogs around this “Regional Park” over the past 18-years but have never wondered why these salt pans were started, why they are here and their history, so today I’ve done a little in investigative work and I am “gobsmacked”, I had no idea “salt” had played such a part in history other than preserving food before refrigeration and clearing ice on the roads.

Salt extracted from the sea has been produced in the “Salinas del San Pedro Pinatar” for a long time; Excavations in front of these beaches in 1945 discovered ceramics dating back to the Carthaginians, even before the Romans arrived around the 2nd century BC and were used for keeping salt.  Apparently there were many uses for this salt, two in particular around that time, one was to produce “Garum” (a fermented fish sauce condiment made up of macerated Mackerel and preserved in the salt) widely used in the Mediterranean area from the time of the Phoenicians to after Roman times.   The second reason vast amounts of salt was needed around that time was the ritual of “Punic Salt” (conquerors spreading salt on the defeated’s land) which “apparently?.” carried on well into the Middle Ages by the Spanish and Portuguese.  

Salt from this area was discontinuous until the 13th century when King Alfonso X ensured that it was harvested regularly and used exclusively by the monarchy; as a result, the salt flats belonged to the Crown until the 19th Century.  During these six centuries, the Crown had the monopoly of the exploitation and sale of salt, fixing and regulating prices (known as the “salt pond”) and becoming one of the major sources of taxes.   This continued until the law changed in 1879 and the production was commercialised.   Sometimes one never really knows what’s around them and this area is a very good example of that.

After our “chores” we headed onto the beach, found a quiet spot and exhausted the dogs with the ball being thrown into the sea before returning for a refreshing “gin and tonic” and a special meal; Duck breast with all the trimmings and one of our bottles of Burgundy from Chusclan.  I then settled to watch Fiji beat Georgia 17 – 12 and Scotland thrash Rumania 84 – 0 before heading to bed.

Friday 29th September 2013

We had a very comfortable night at our “new” campsite in-spite of the “midnight visit” by the rubbish-bin truck, and a few midnight dog walkers.   We were also surprised at the number of early risers exercising their dogs.  Today we have a long awaited meeting with “Telivision Technology” a company in Benijofar, to collect our new tv “black-box”, ours being 5-years old plus, it is beginning to give us some trouble and I can only collect; still it’s worth the effort!!!

After another session in the dog exercising compound we headed off and arriving at the appointed time to collect said object.   Nothing else planned for today so decided to head to Mil Palmeras to do a “recce” as we are meeting up with Lee and Sarah at Oasis after which, driving is a BIG no-no.   Whilst heading that way we decided we should top-up with gas, and as we don’t have a gauge after about a week, it is “prudent” to top-up.   Christine opened “my LPG.eu” App and was furiously looking for somewhere nearby when driving from the AP7 on the Torrevieja road, low and behold a garage selling it!!!   So far so good, but I didn’t have the correct “nozzle” for their pump and when I asked inside for one, they hadn’t got a clue what I wanted.   After a few minutes with two or three cashiers looking at the array of nozzles before them, including mine, someone suggested asking their boss for help.   A few moments later this “chap” arrived, scooped up the correct one and we headed to the pump together with the cashier as he wanted to “train” her in the use of the LPG pump and of course he filled Rosie for me in the process; win-win, what a helpful young man.   This particular garage wasn’t even on our app, why not I ask???

We drove around the Oasis area of Mil Palmeris and found a secluded road with an open gate to some scrubland, ideal for us and the dogs so stopped there for lunch, check the area out so-to-speak!!

Today we noticed the temperature on the roadside display had gone down from 30-degrees to 29-degrees, oh dear, winter is setting in😂😂.

Back at our regular “overnight stop” stop amongst the salt pans, it was now beach time, today we are taking a couple of chairs as there is no rush and it will give the dogs even “more” exercise!!!!!

After dinner we played crib then I watched New Zealand trounce Italy 96-17; another miss-match: also, being a Friday I suppose, “our” car park is unusually busy, what’s going on????   And it got worse, at 0140hrs we were woken by the dogs barking, not to go out but to tell us someone was about, that’s a first, well done Dogies.   Annoyingly it sounded like a couple of “blokes” having an argument and though they were about 25-meters away, in the quiet still of the night, their voices carried.   I didn’t know what time they stopped and buggered off as we closed the window and went to sleep

Wednesday 27th September 2023

After a quiet, undisturbed night we woke in this big carpark, all on our own, wonderful and let the two dogs out to do their business; we’ve definitely cracked it!!   Today we start the big “catch-up” in Campoverde.   Apart from catching up with friends etc., we have other important things to do, such as visit the dentist and get Christine’s nails done not to mention haircuts, but firstly we’re enjoying our carpark environment whilst having breakfast.

Driving through Pilar and up to Campoverde, not having been here for a year, we notice the changes, and there were a number that perhaps living here one misses.   

We had arranged to meet Paul Butterworth for coffee this morning and though it was great to meet up again, it was very sad as Paul had very recently lost his wife Sharon after a valiant fight against cancer.   We then met up with Mary Sturgess and had lunch at Juanita’s before returning to our “new” favourite campsite.

Again we could park in the same position where the dogs can just run out, do “things” and get back in, but first the beach.    Today the temperature is 30-degrees, so a trip to the beach and a swim in the sea is essential and again the moment the dogs were “unleashed” they were in the sea closely followed by Christine and I. 

Having been out to lunch today supper was a bowl of fruit!!! Followed by Christine taking the “two” out for another beach walk, but no swimming!!!

Thursday 28th September

Our plan for a good and undisturbed night’s sleep backfired; around midnight there was some unwanted activity in the car park so I closed the window rather noisily which unfortunately disturbed the the dogs who didn’t settle and about 0100hrs uncharacteristically decided it was time to get up and wanted to go out.   Once they had been let out they were “full of beans” and wouldn’t come back leaving poor Christine outside trying to “round” them up.   To compound the issue we set the alarm for 0700hrs as we had to be back in Campoverde in time to join the Crib group.

We rocked up to Jim and Hazel’s and joined in with the crib; it was as if we hadn’t left!!!   It was good catching up with everybody and even met a couple new crib players.   It is nice to know the weekly crib get together is still prospering under Jim and Hazel’s guidance; we will be back next week👍👍

After lunch and a trip to Mercadona we headed to meet up with Martin and Jackie, our old neighbours, again it didn’t seem 5-minutes since we said good bye last September.  Visiting them means driving is a no-no so planned to stop in the new part of Campoverde by the park rather than drive back to Lo  Pagan.   Whilst there  ChristIne went to “George’s” the Village vet to organise the dogs worming and complete the necessary paperwork to get them back into the U.K. 

After a very convivial couple of hours we left, tomorrow they both have hospital appointments so couldn’t drink and had early starts; hopefully we’ll meet up again before we leave.

We headed to our overnight stop and whilst Christine sorted dinner I took the dogs to the special “dog park” adjacent to us.   The mission is simple; “wear the buggers out”!!!!

Tuesday 26th September

Up early after another undisturbed night’s sleep, the secret is exhausting the pooches by the end of the day and throwing the ball into the pool certainly did that!!  Where Martin lives, it is on a very narrow, no through road on the side of the mountain with a big drop one side and overgrown individual “rocky” building plots on the other. When we arrived we drove Rosie in knowing we would have to reverse her out as there is nowhere to turn her, another reason to start early!!!

At the agreed time we reversed out, Martin marched down his steps and we were away.  Alicanté airport is just over an hour away by car but in Rosie and with people heading for work, probably a little longer.

A good run to the airport and we dropped Martin off in plenty of time to catch his ‘plane.  We now headed towards Guardamar, we seem to remember motorhomes parking up there and besides we know a “cracking” restaurant called “Canada” that do excellent “Menu Del Dia’s”; Christine even found a free place to park-up, win-win.

We arrived at the site, it’s not free, not in Guardamar, and nowhere near the restaurant and besides the site reminded us of the one we spent a night at in Peniscola, so we headed off.  After some consideration we decided we would head to the car park near Lo Pagan just outside “Puerto San Pedro” alongside the beach, amongst the San Pedro salt-pans. 

We arrived early afternoon and although the car park was fairly busy, we found a place to  stay; result!!   It was another hot day and the dogs had been cooped up for many hours so the first thing Christine did was take them down to the beach where they immediately took to the water and ran around like a couple of lunatics, but enjoyed themselves.  Later the car park thinned out so by “deduction” we assumed the beach wouldn’t have so many people on and headed on down.   Again the dogs took to the water but this time Christine and I were dressed accordingly so went in with them as well; we all had a great time and the sea was nice and warm, this was followed by a walk along the beach.

Back in Rosie Christine cooked a roast dinner tonight, quite a remarkable achievement in such cramped conditions.   Whilst enjoying the roast there was a beautiful sunset, we’d forgotten about these!    After dinner another walk along the beach; (we want another quiet night) before a couple of games of crib then bed at which point we turned ‘em out again for their last opportunity, and by which time they were “dead on their feet”, hopefully another good undisturbed night’s sleep🤞🤞🤞

Monday 25th September

What a good night’s sleep and thanks to everyone for entertaining Tom-Tom and Rosie yesterday; the ball thrown into the pool and them fetching it so many times did the trick, no disturbances until 07.00: wow!!!

Another day of leisure with no driving but first a quick trip down to Xalo for a few bits and pieces and whilst out, Martin and I took the opportunity to enjoy a tostada accompanied by a coffee and a brandy, my first Soberano in Spain since last September 😁😁😁.  I took numerous bottles back to the U.K. last year and “eked” them out but it never quite “touched” the right spot!!!   

The rest of the day was spent as before, by the pool, and again relentlessly throwing the ball into the water, over and over again to wear the “buggers” out!!    Another reason to “sort” them out is that Martin is taking us all out tonight, so we don’t want the dogs destroying his house whilst we’re out!!!   Being a Monday many restaurants are closed but there is a new one that has recently opened in Alcalali, so that’s where we are off to later, but first, keep throwing the ball and keep the wine coming!!!

Naturally the time flew by and suddenly it was all rush to get out in time.  The restaurant is in walking distance but the journey is down a very steep hill and of course you have to walk back up; fortunately Martin took the car so my knee didn’t have to suffer, mind you Christine did walk down!!

We arrived at Lulah’s, surprisingly on time and our table for 7 was all ready.  The interior of this restaurant was quite unusual and there was plenty of staff and reasonably busy.  We ordered a round of drinks which was fine but we also ordered a a couple of bottles of Cava  that seemed to “flummox” our young waiter; he got quite confused!!!    Still the evening progressed well, birthday boy was toasted and the food was nice so everything worked out well.   The youngsters headed back up the hill on foot and the oldies took to the car!!!!

Back at the house we said our goodbyes as the youngsters were no doubt going to party and we had to be up early to take Martin to the airport.