Post It from Camping Lo Monte, Pilar de la Horadada, Alicante, Spain.

We arrived here on Sunday 12^th May, after a weekend with our friends in Los Alcazares again, and planned to stay here for 15 nights before heading back towards Calais. This site was another ACSI one and it was only opened in June 2011 so all the facilities were in fabulous condition. It is set about 5 minutes’ walk from the Mediterranean coast and has very large pitches set on fairly solid ground with tarmacked service roads. The site was quite busy as it was a weekend and there were quite a few Spanish families here for the weekend. The reception staff  were extremely helpful and we wandered off to choose our pitch. We settled for one of the later additions to the site, facing south and about 11 meters wide so we could easily put the motorhome on sideways to get the very best of the sun and privacy.

The toilet blocks were very clean, heated, with very large shower cubicles and hot water. There were the standard washing facilities for clothes and pots and a recycling point. In the grounds were a library room, restaurant/cafeteria, large outdoor pool with grassed surround and loungers, indoor spa pool, gymnasium and free internet in certain areas. The site was still developing and the hedging between the pitches were not fully established but we could see why it was difficult to get a place here in the winter months.

Torre de la Horadada, which is actually where the site is located on the coast side of Pillar, is a typically Spanish holiday location and there are many holiday homes up and down the coast so cycling or walking was easy along the coastal paths where they existed. We rode north to Campoamor and south to El Mojon and the start of the Salinas. Hopefully we will also ride to Lo Pagan on the Mar Menor before we depart.

 It also meant there was a good size supermarket only 10 minutes’ walk away and a good selection of restaurants easily accessible without a car. Cycling into Pilar was easy and the Mercadona supermarket, our favourite chain, only 10 minutes ride away and then there were all the usual shops that come with a fairly small town in this area.

The weather had been unkind to us with some strong winds, cloudy days and rain more than usual. The Spanish said it had been a terrible year for the weather, pretty much like the UK really except that it was much brighter and warmer than there. The weekend saw many Spanish families arrive on the Friday and Saturday and the site was almost full. In the time we had lived here I had not realised how many caravan and motorhome owners there actually were in Spain and this took me by surprise.

Our first week had been very enjoyable and we had a number of friends visiting us for the last week of our stay in this area before heading north up the coast and into France. Today was forecast to be a full day of rain, but as I type it has not yet arrived, so I thought I would take advantage of the weather situation and add this story to the earlier ones. Smokee is doing fine and enjoying his travels and new life as a motorhome cat and no longer a house cat, at least for the time being.

Regards, Roy