Merry Christmas from Spain!

I was looking back at where we have been the past few years on Christmas morning. Last year we were in Greece, and Christmas day 2020 we were at the hospital in Antalya, Turkiye having eye surgery! 2019 and 2018 we were at different places in Mexico. 2017 in Texas, and 2016 we had returned to Canada for Christmas in the cold. 

This year, we are parked beside an orange grove in Ulea, Spain.

Palm trees and sunshine

Seems most of Canada and the U.S. are experiencing a major blast of winter for this Christmas weekend. Most have either snowing or ridiculously cold, or both. Friends in British Columbia just went through an icy deep freeze. It was -40C (-40F) at the park we used to work at in Cabri, SK. And our home town of Ottawa is having a major winter blizzard. Our daughter in Nova Scotia is doing well though with a high of 10C (50F) yesterday!

Not meaning to rub it in, but here in southern Spain, we are having our best weather yet. Palm trees and sunshine and a high of 24C (75F).

The sky was on fire!

We had a nice relaxing day yesterday. Max took a day off from driving, and he just sat in the desert enjoying the sunshine and blue sky. Ruth and I did get out for a walk though, just to explore the area and see some of the desert scenery.

Wild camping (boondocking) in the desert

When we read about how crowded it is on the south coast with free camping van and motorhome people, we are glad that we are not beach people! We are only about 50 kms inland from the coast, and not another van in sight.

Funny enough, we've been in Spain for almost three weeks now, and while we've been following the coast south we have yet to walk on a beach.

Steep hike to a cave

With nice weather in the forecast, we decided to head to higher elevation to do some hiking. There is a recreation park only about 10 kms (6 miles) from Castalla called Sierra del Maigmo and I had read of an area where we could park overnight.

The road up was steep in places, with signs warning of a 20% grade. 

We got up there, but nobody was home!

Got an email back yesterday confirming our vehicle insurance for Morocco. We're under a new insurer this year and when I had read the paperwork I had noticed that insurance was only valid in Morocco "with prior approval of the insurance company".

In Europe, you're generally covered for all of the typical European countries. But depending on the insurer there can be exclusions. In our case, we need to get prior approval for Tunisia, Serbia, Montenegro, Moldova, Bosnia,... and Morocco.

It's all a bit unorganized

Woke up Sunday morning at the cemetery outside of Bocairent. Peaceful night, even with three other motorhomes parked nearby. But the cemetery soon got busy. We would have thought that people would be in church Sunday morning, but I guess some of them visit their dead relatives on a Sunday morning. At one point, we didn't think we were going to be able to get out of the parking lot.

We left at about 10:30am. Not headed very far though. I love short driving days!

We did lots of exploring yesterday

The weather guessers didn't do a very good job yesterday. We were supposed to have sunshine with cloudy breaks, but it was more the other way around. Cloudy, with sunny breaks. And we even had some rain drops in the morning. Oh well. 

But, when the rain had passed, we got out and did some exploring. Twice!

Back into the mountains

Because it's a little warmer, most people stick to the coast in the southern area of Spain. And that's totally logical. But boy, we sure do enjoy the interior more. We find the coast very busy and industrial, and really not that scenic. And if you want free motorhome parking, it's not that easy to come by, and you likely won't be alone.

Yes, there are also a lot of campgrounds along the coast. But they're not cheap, and we remember from past experience when we were here doing a motorhome exchange in 2017 that they can be very crowded, with not much space between sites.

Into the big city of Valencia, Spain

Valencia is a big port city on the east coast of Spain. It's actually a bigger city than I thought it was, with a population of just under 800,000.

Unfortunately the coast of Spain has a reputation for motorhomes and camper vans getting broken into, so you have to be cautious about where you leave them. We have read lots of reviews where people have had problems, so we've decided to take the cautious approach and pay for secure parking when we visit cities.

Glad we stayed put!

It turned out that this area is exactly up our alley, and we're glad we stayed put for another night. Lots of exploring to do on foot... with hiking trails, caves, and waterfalls!

And it turned out to be a nice day as well. 

We headed out, but not very far!

Still dealing with some showers throughout the day yesterday, but at least the temperatures are decent. It's supposed to hit 20C (68F) today, and we no longer have to use the furnace in the evening. Forecast for the next week calls for lots of sunshine, so we are finally into some decent weather.

We said goodbye to hosts Mirella and Bart, and of course Diezel the dog. And we headed out... but not very far!

Back on the road

The rain stopped yesterday morning and we finally made it out for a walk around the neighborhood. The area we are staying is called an "urbanización". There are hundreds of these types of developments in Spain. 

They are essentially private communities, normally located outside of a town with monthly fees that go towards maintenance and public areas. 

Through the ages...

We never left the house yesterday. It drizzled with rain the entire day! So rather than show you photos of us at our laptops, or us playing backgammon, we'll take this opportunity to show you some photos that you've never seen before!

We met in March of 1983, and by September of that year we did our first trip together... to England!

Thinking we might have to put a fire on!

It turned into a beautiful blue sky day with a high of about 17C (63F), but it was really windy which kind of took away from what was otherwise a really nice day.

Our plan was to get out for a walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon, but we just never got to it!