Malibu Molly

October 13th The weather hadn't improved all that much and so it was a case of being cabin fevered in the apartment with forays out to give Reggie a walk. So not much to report. October 14th What a change in the weather. It's sunny. It stayed dry all day. After breakfast we got our stuff together and set off in the van.  We had looked at maybe going to Benicassim but lately, reviews of van parking areas have suggested that break-ins have been occurring. So we decided to head for the Mercadona at Oropesa del Mar (Marina d'Or) that we have been to a few times before. It's only about 25 minutes down the N340. Usually, we park up near the seafront and take a walk and a coffee in a local bar.  Once we shopped, we got Reggie out of the van and had coffee in the sun on the terrace of the café by the Mercadona. Then we set off back to the apartment. Back at Kione, we went past along the coast to see if we could find a park-up for lunch. In the end we found a nice spot near to C...

Please excuse the linking to another blog service.  I use Travellerspoint as my family can see posts appear in their email. I have never been successful with that in Blogger. Travellerspoint also allows me to update via email and include photos in the posts. Blogger doesn't. Anything over 25mb is blocked. https://devall-travels.travellerspoint.com/996/

It might be a bit early to be planning the return for a holiday that we haven't started yet and that's a month away! But one needs to have a look at the maps and suss out places to stop that aren't too far apart, or requite driving all day and also that mean you see little or nothing of the countryside. That's why I try and avoid motorways where possible, and toll motorways in particular. Okay, you can speed along and cover long distances.  For a lot of the time you only get to see  the road stretching away in front of you and often just a bank of grass where they have tried to hide the road from view! The rough route that I have planned from Kione Playa in Alcossebre to Calais Ferry Port takes in a route we haven't done before.  Well, some of it we have but not for many years. At the moment I have planned stops at Camping-Car Park aires, although once the route is cut down to each day (from an overall route) then we can refine, and I like the idea of the France Pa...

 ... and we will be deep into France and on our way to Spain. After the birthday celebrations (let's hope the French do zero alcohol beer and wine!) we will be setting off for the first campsite. I know that "real" vanlifers would be looking for a wild camping site or the very least a bit of scrubland to park up for the night.  We won't be doing that at all.  Why not?   Because it's our holiday that's why not! I have nothing against the occasional wild camp. We do it at Motor Caravanners Club Rallies and at some festivals. But when we are on holiday I like to be able to switch the kettle on and not rely on gas (LPG!) or the Bluetti AC70. Not all the time anyway. So we have chosen, or rather I have chosen! When I say we it's usually me that does the planning... We have chosen Camping La Gaviota near Roses not that far into Spain in the Girona province.  It's not the cheapest at around €33 a night, but it's well placed for walks and is dog friendly....

This is the destination of the Autumn trip this year. It's almost the same as last year but a week later in the year. In my head I had planned to go earlier, in September, and staying over to include our wedding anniversary.  Firstly, my brother and Phil embarking on a three week bike tour for most of September meant that we might have to ticket exchange our Arsenal season ticket seats if all three of us were away at the same time. Phil and I share my seat 50/50. Secondly, my old workmate and friend, John, who lives in France is having a 70th birthday party. I'm 70 in December.  Probably have a takeaway from the Chinese.... So instead we are here, in Alcossebre, from the 11th October.  I had a look on RCI to see where we could go "dog friendly" next year. Not wanting to tempt fate..... Reggie is 15 in September this year.  There's not a lot available that fits the bill. It's a shame to waste the timeshare before I can sell it or dump it back to the current own...

I haven't made all that much progress with "Summer 2025" yet other than a channel crossing booked and one campsite for the first night booked. My attention has turned to Autumn,  October to be a little more precise. We have been invited to a special event early in the month in France and I have begun to look at the feasibility of going and including it into the holiday we normally have for our wedding anniversary.   I can't say much about the event itself until later in the year but the wedding anniversary will be our 25th - Silver Wedding! So, I have been looking at combining the two events and incorporating them into a trip to France and Spain. I have been looking on RCI ( rci.com ) to use the "banked" apartment and seeing if there are other options to Alcossebre. We have done Kione Playa Romana twice before, lastly in October 2024.  It was  a good week and meant we didn't have to travel all that far once there and could have a bit of R&R. The...