It's not straightforward to book into Camping Madrilles at Isla Plana. It's very popular, not somewhere you can turn up on spec and expect to get a pitch. The place is also highly regulated and full of people that my grandmother would have approvingly deemed 'very particular'. As a child in the sixties I struggled to make sense of what she meant. It's not surprising really as she was a product of the Victorian age. As far as I could work out to be 'particular' is all about being 'neat and tidy', minding your Ps & Qs, and adept in the art of fatuous small talk, which probably makes me profoundly 'unparticular'.
Gill reckons the place is like being trapped in a Sims geriatric extension pack. So why do we keep coming back?
Happenstance really; we seem doomed to require a laundry whenever we are in the vicinity of Cartegena. The area autocaravanas in the city is excellent and does have washing machines, but we've visited the place a few times and have no real need to go back. That leaves the coastal campsites around the Golf de Mazarron and Camping Madrille is the best option despite the Saga cruise vibe.
Bolneuvo to the south is also an attractive seaside town with spectacular fossilised dunes. Camping Playa de Mazarron has spa level facilities and opens onto the beach. Sadly it is also very peculiar. Whenever we have used the site it too has been packed out with over-wintering OAPs from colder climes. Here, however, they gather together in national enclaves, flags aflutter, there's a Norwegian lane, 'La Place mini-Republique', an island of dear old Blighty marooned among Deutschland Deutschland über alles. Tourers are slotted in as and where the odd pitch becomes available. You might be fortunate and end up in the relatively benign 'Camp Amsterdam' or entrapped by the surreal social mores of 'La Place de la Concorde en Espagne'.
If you consult the Camping Card ACSI handbook you will come across another idyllic looking site just to the north of the Golfo de Mazarron, beyond Cabo Tiñoso, at El Portús.
On Streetview the little cove looks fabulous, remote, flanked by jagged mountains, and the village gorgeous, like some little fishing port in the Mani. Sadly 'Camping El Portús is "naturista'. I get why people like to skinny dip, but the desire to wander about or socialise while stark naked is quite niche; harmless, but weird, like Morris Dancing or carpet bowls.
We headed to our elderly favourite. The receptionist at Camping Madrilles recognised Gill when we booked-in, allocating us the same pitch number as last year.
Odd hanging out the washing in exactly same spot, laundry deja-vu! If you can cope with the over-regulation and the antics of the institutionalised long term campers then the immediate area is pleasant and the coastline very beautiful. We have always been lucky with the weather here. The last few days have been no exception - classic blue Med days, temperatures in the mid twenties.
A gentle pedal east takes you to La Azoiha, a dive centre and fishing village tucked beneath the cliffs of Cabo Tiñoso.
From the quayside we had a great view across the Golfo de Mazarron towards the jagged Cabo Cope half hidden in mist about 30 kilometres away.
It's a great place to spend half an hour or so just staring at the sea or mooching about.
Gill took a few pictures of some jelly fish from the quayside, they were sloshing about on the incoming tide heading inexorably beach-wards. It became a topic of conversation for a while - Is the correct collective noun for jelly fish 'a shoal'? Why do they group together anyway (spot the jellyfish)?
The village of Isla Plana is a kilometre or so west of the campsite. It has a small but well stocked supermarket and a few other shops. The seafront has been sensitively developed with a paved esplanade and wooden walkways that take you past the remains of a Roman fish processing factory.
I can see why people decide to over-winter here, at the moment the place is not overwhelmed by visitors, it's busy, but not crowded. To be fair this does depend which way you point your camera.
Empty promenade - behind me the community run cafe was humming as people from the campsite headed out for a late lunch with tapas.
However, like in the Punta del Calnegre a couple of days ago, there are tell-tale signs hereabouts that the numbers of winter sun seeking motorhomers are increasing exponentially to the point of becoming unmanageable, annoying locals and the 'snowbirds' themselves equally.
Ten years ago on our first visit here I blogged that this area was so deserted in winter it felt like a scene from a zombie apocalypse. Last year there were a handful of motorhomes overnighting on Azoiha's beach side carpark This year the car parks are crammed. There are no facilities, where waste is being dumped does not bear thinking about. It's not a civilised situation. Recent reviews on 'Search for Sites' and 'Park for Night' give an inkling of some of the issues.
Not everyone is nice, considerate or tolerant. The ignorant few queer the pitch for the rest of us. Gill's just come across a comment from a Brit about an area autocaravanas in the Ebro delta moaning that the place was 'full of European vans'. What can you say?
Motorhoming was hardly a niche activity when we began our long term travels ten years ago, but aside from hotspots around Benidorm and the Costa del Sol it did not seem like a mass invasion either. These days from Valencia to Málaga sites are busy, phoning ahead or booking on-line is essential and ever more people are occupying the more informal places where they can stay for free. The other change we have seen is an increase RV sized luxury motorhomes like Concordes and Murillos and big French A Class vans.
I cannot find any stats on the number of people spending the winter in Spain in their motorhome, hundreds of thousands I would guess. Mass tourism never has been our thing. We are going to have to rethink what we do next winter. I don't like crowded places. In February Portugal's Alentejo, both coast and countryside, remains uncrowded, maybe we should linger there rather than spend most of our time in Spain.
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