Seaonal greetings from the electric penguins...

1st December

Pila de la Horadada to Guadamar del Segura.

13 miles

Christmas is coming. Camping LoMonte's notice board announced the competition for the best decorated parcelos. Though judgement day is still three weeks hence, the keener long term campers from the Bundersrepublik were taking no chances. Overnight the gnomes, chintzy figurines of kissing children, garish ceramic frogs, gonks, statuettes of cute kittens and all the usual other crap designed to make Herren and Damen's pitch a heimat in the Spanish sun disappeared. Instead pots of poinsettias, fairy lights, plastic Santas, snowmen, sleighs, anything vaguely Christmassy popped-up in its place. Most of the stuff must have  been lovingly transported from Dusseldorf and Regensburg in anticipation of this very moment. By the time the competition reaches its heady crescendo we will be long gone. For what it's worth our money is on the man four pitches down whose caravan awning fairy lights emanated a complex pattern of flashes, swirls and whooshes capable of communicating with alien life forms on the other side of the galaxy. Though I have to say his neighbour's ensemble of matching Santas, roped together and ascending the north face of the Hymer could make the final outcome too close to call.

Festive fever has spread beyond the confines of the campsite. Two days ago, the Zenia mall had erected an excuse for a Christmas tree and there was a bit of tinsel draped across the shop mannequins here and there. Mostly though they were making evermore excited tannoy announcements about Black Friday bargains.

The mega retail moment having now passed without the breakdown in social order reported in the UK, attention can be fully focused on Christmas. Visiting to the Alcampo hypermarket today, a large tableau of Christmassy penguins greeted us as we entered the store. Though I say 'tableau' the term does not really do justice to the vivacity of the animatronic figures. They gave a spirited rendition of 'Jingle Bell Rock'; well, at least as spirited as you might expect from a three foot  plastic penguin. Gill was on hand to record this remarkable moment.

It is difficult to take all this seasonal stuff seriously. As the penguins sang perkily about ''flying through the frosty air,' it was 24 degrees outside, sunny with palm trees wafting their fronds in the gentle breeze. .Later in the afternoon, having parked up at Camping Marjal at Guadamar del Segura. we took the bikes for a bit of a spin through the nearby eco-park. 

A new imperative - post-lunch meditation

The protected dunes and coastal forest east of the campsite

Raised wooden causeways protect the dunes (good idea!)

it means it's easy to cycle to the more remote parts of the beach (and it prorects the dunes)

We cycled along the raised wooden causeways snake through a forest of eucalyptus, pine and date palms. I'm not sure we were meant to, but the place was deserted, so who cares? The paths led to an empty beach with a view over the bay to the high mountains beyond Alicante. I stopped at the top of a dune to take in the view. A slim. tanned young man wandered out of the dunes and down towards the beach. He was wearing nothing whatsoever. ,Platje Els Tossals adjacent to the area of protected coastline is designated 'nudista'..Really,under such circumstances you can't really take 'In the Bleak Mid-winter' seriously at all.