As the title says 1437 miles after leaving Devon we are at our winter destination, camping imperium at Villajoyosa in Spain. More on that later.

We got to Parcverger campsite and were met by Frank the owner. Had a chat with him. It’s always nice to see peaple you have not seen for a while, catch up etc. He told us what he had been doing to the campsite etc. We got parked up eventually. We were going to spend a couple of nights here to recharge our batteries. That’s me and Nikki not the camper. We use Guinness and wine to recharge, the camper uses electricity. The weather was not good, misty and raining on and off so we never really got out for a nice walk. Another couple who live on the site in a small chalet invited us over for tea in the afternoon which was nice to catch up with them. We often check the weather while we are away to see where we’re going is going to be nice etc. As I said we were planning on moving on after a couple of days, but the weather was set to be gale force winds as in 50/60 mph where we were heading for which was Palamos in Spain. My nervous passenger and co pilot was not looking forward to the journey, so we stayed another night at Parcverger.

The day we left Parcverger was sunny and dry. We decided to use the toll roads because we wanted to get there the same day. It was very windy at one point, but with a firm grip on the steering wheel we were ok. If we had a pound for every cone we saw on the road or a euro we would be very rich. There was mile after mile coned off because they were cutting the grass banks. Or what I really think is they never had room at the yard for all the cones so the boss thought, let’s put some out on the road so it looks like we’re doing some work and solve the storage problem.

Our sat nav has been playing up on this trip and on more than one occasion has been very close to being thrown out the window. At one point we had the sat nav on which was Emily, she does have a nice voice, Nikki had maps on her phone for directions which was a woman’s voice also and of course Nikki with the map. I was thinking, this is great here I am driving along and I have three women trying to tell me where to go. And none of them have ever driven anything bigger than a shoebox.

We crossed the border into Spain and the sun was shining and we were soon at Palamos. The place we’re staying for a couple of nights to recharge again was a cross between a aire and a campsite. All very nice, plenty of space, clean showers and toilets etc. We got checked in by a nice guy who spoke very good English and told us to park where we liked. As we drove in we saw a nice pitch in the sun and guess what. There beside it was another bloody cone. We did laugh and had to have that pitch. The next day we walked off down to the beach which was about 1km away. We sat on a bench in the sun gazing out to see thinking, this is what we work for, to spend winters like this. Well and to buy our recharging sources. There was a group of students setting up some small sailing boats for lessons in sailing. I think they got ripped off because there was hardly any wind, where were they the day before when the winds were blowing a hoolie.

On the way back from the beach we spotted a big bug. A praying mantas to be precise. Fantastic looking bug. Reading up on them later, it turns out that they have sex and then the female eats the male. No wonder he is called a praying mantas. I think I would be praying if I thought after sex I was going to get eaten. Here’s the one that got away or he is still a virgin.

Off we go again after two days, heading for Benicarlo, to a site we have stayed before. Another loverly greeting by one of the owners daughters who actually remembered me which was nice. Pitched up and time to recharge. Saw some old friends there also which again was nice. Washed the camper as it was so dirty after the bad weather and all the miles/ kilometres. The weather again was fantastic, no wind blue sky’s and warm enough to be sat out in shorts and vest top until the sun went down.

We left Benicarlo yesterday at 10am heading for Villajoyosa. The journey is mostly motorway and the miles flew by. As we turned into the site it felt really good to be back. Greeted by Yovonne who again remembered us. Pitched up on our pitch and within ten minutes we had been greeted by three different people, all who had remembered us from last time we were here which was December/January. So after leaving Devon and driving 1437 miles we are here. Time to recharge.