Alicante?...no thank you 😉

We are heading to Cartagena. There we can park near the football stadium and walk into the historic old town. At the end of the 'shopping street' with its wonderful old buildings, one ends up at a large harbor. There’s even a submarine anchored here. We meet Kai, who is traveling around in his Jeep, and two days later we find ourselves in Guadarmar del Segura in a beautiful pine forest right between huge dunes and thousands of palm trees. Endless sandy beach included. Kai is already there, and two girls from France complete the cheerful group. We stay for a few days and take long walks through the magnificent landscape while enjoying each other’s company.

The subsequent days are eventful. We are heading towards Alicante, and the search for overnight spots begins. The entire coast is developed, and when we finally arrive in Alicante City, we see only high-rise buildings. What a bizarre sight! We search for a decently acceptable sleeping spot for hours that day. We realize that this corner of Spain is not for us, so we take a shortcut through the inland and eventually end up in Denia. Here, there’s a great free parking spot for campers almost directly by the sea. We happily snag a spot. The sea and the old town are within walking distance... what more could one want? There are also thousands of campers here. They are all over, and it seems there will be about 1 million of them enjoying Spain this winter! The Mediterranean coast is the desired location for everyone, and almost all now live full-time in their RVs, trucks, and other converted vehicles. Most are from Germany, followed by France, Holland, and England. Full-time camping is the new trend, and it’s growing.

In any case, we are fully enjoying Denia, visiting the market and the castle, and strolling through all the little streets of this wonderful city. The marina is also impressive. There’s a lot of capital in the water. We all agree: Denia is amazing.

We notice that we are losing diesel and call several workshops. No one has time for us; they are also short-staffed here. We drive directly to a Mercedes Benz truck workshop and are attended to right away. The line is replaced, and we pay €17.90 for it. We happily give €20 and ponder how much fun this would have cost in Germany.... we actually don’t want to know 😉.

In Gandia, we find a parking spot at a dreamy park with many trees and a lake. Here, too, everything is blooming and lush. Unfortunately, the police come in the evening and send us and two other campers away, even though we had been tolerated here for two weeks already. Easter is approaching, one of the biggest holy holidays in Spain. There are many processions and services taking place, and from this moment on beaches, parks, etc. are cleared to make room for the locals. It’s school holidays, and the adults are also on vacation. Thus, we can understand that we foreigners have to adapt and make room for the locals. For us, this naturally means that it will become increasingly difficult to find well-located parking spots. An alternative would be the mountains, but there is still snow there, and it’s very cold. We are not used to that anymore and haven’t missed it either.

Nevertheless, we park again in the evening directly behind a sand dune by the sea on the outskirts of Cullera together with about 50 other campers. This is no man’s land on the edge of a skyscraper city, and we are tolerated here. Many have been staying here for months. The police come daily but only wave friendly even though we are all sitting outside, grilling, playing, and chatting with the neighbors... so we are enjoying camping as it's often called. The beach is breathtaking, and the skyline of Cullera is too. The city is built between high cliffs and sandy beaches. Due to the lack of space, buildings have gone up, and they are quite tall. In awe, we walk along the high-rise promenade and almost get stiff necks from looking up. We stay several days in this beautiful spot. Tomorrow we will set off again, embarking on the search for 260 liters of drinking water, taking a wide detour around Valencia, and seeing where the road leads us. 😊