Post It from Los Madriles at Isla Plana, Murcia, Spain

We arrived at Isla Plana around lunchtime on Tuesday 23rd April having called the owners the day before to make sure there were vacancies after the winter overnight campers. He said there was and recommended a good, hot water, car wash at the Repsol garage in Mazarron close by. We took his advice and washed all the road grime from Bessie with a fantastic hot wash brush system. She came up brilliantly and all the black soot, which I presume was from the diesel fumes from passing vehicles, were gone. We knew the location and basic view of the campsite from our earlier visits to Mazarron as we always drove there via Cartagena over the tops of the hills but were pleasantly surprised when we were invited to look around and find a pitch we liked by the receptionist. The site is all terraced so we chose a level pitch where we could drive on and get a view of the Mediterranean and the lookout point at La Azohia, about 2 miles away. The waters are crystal clear around that area and divers explore the Carthaginian wrecks found off the shore. Coincidentally I have been using an old photo of a view into the sea from the watchtower as my laptop wallpaper for some time. We arrived to dry weather but strong winds with a forecast to get rain and stronger winds later in the week, and it was right. By Thursday we endured rain all through the early hours and into the morning. With a short respite, which allowed me to brown the sausages & onions outside in the electric cooking pan before putting a casserole in the slow cooker, the rain continued for most of the day so we entertained Maureen and Andy in Bessie after lunch The site here is an ACSI member and we were pleased to be there. The site is clean and the toilet blocks, whilst not like the Caravan Club’s, were really good and plentiful. There was a lovely outdoor pool with adjoining cafeteria and terrace with sunbeds available in the surrounding garden and terrace area. The big bonus was the covered geo thermally heated swimming pool which is emptied every night and replenished, I assume from the sea. I shall no doubt find out when I pay it a visit. A small supermarket, library, car wash and laundry make up the rest of the facilities. There is water and electricity on the pitch with a grey water sink as well. Free Wi-Fi is available from a number of indoor and outdoor points on the site and you can purchase connection on your site if you wish. The campers mainly consisted of Germans, Dutch, French and just a smattering of British and we ended up discovering our neighbours were Andy and Maureen from Wigan with their caravan. The pitches were more or less level and rock with a covering of small grave. My first lesson was how to get the carpet fixed in place on the rock and without Andy’s assistance with the gift of a heavy duty steel peg I would never have done it. The wind was too strong for me to warrant putting the sun canopy out so after an hour making the holes for my pegs I was ready for a rest. We had a walk down into Isla Plana the second day and found a small number of shops and a delightful social room with a bar where we enjoyed a bottle of my favourite Spanish beer, Estrella de Levante and some tapas of barbecued chicken thighs, I learned a long time ago here not to drink during the day without something to eat with it or I would suffer with a thick head. Lager is not my drink of choice but I do enjoy this one more than most. Sharon gave the chicken a miss. We were surprised to find we had actually not gained any weight since we had left home and our dieting of ten weeks, let’s hope that remains the same throughout the holiday but somehow I doubt it. By our 5th day we had had some exceptionally bad weather for this area of Spain, I had never seen such a prolonged period of rain during the whole 16 months that we lived here so were somewhat disappointed. Still the very warm sea water pool was good and we eventually managed to get out on our bikes between the showers. Our new friends, Andy & Maureen left for Pensicola early this morning (Sunday) after a full night of heavy rain so we cooked them an evening meal the night before so it would make life a little easier for their preparations and the company was good. This campsite is wonderful and I guess we will find it hard to get another one like it. The only downside to it is there is nothing really in the immediate vicinity but Puerto de Mazarron is only 4 miles ride away. We have decided to move off to Camping La Manga on Wednesday and experience another site, which is very different, and closer for our friends to visit. The view of the coastline and trees is the view from our cab window on the terraced site so you can see why we liked it. Regards, Roy