A reservoir (almost) without water

Day 24: From our pitch we look directly at the mighty walls of the Embalse de Santomera , a large reservoir that supplies the entire Murcia region with water. The structure was built in 1967 and has a capacity of 26,290,000 cubic meters. Multiplying this number by 1,000 would result in liters - hard to imagine. This makes it, for example, 20 percent larger than the drinking water dam near Frauenau in the Bavarian Forest. However, the capacity of the Embalse de Santomera is practically never used. The water depth is currently around 50 centimeters and this is in the middle of winter. It is not for nothing that the Spanish Meteorological Office classified the region between Murcia and the Costa Blanca as a desert in 2022. Water is a luxury item here.

The two kilometer walk to the reservoir took us through a small pine forest and through seemingly endless orange and lemon plantations that are due to be harvested these days and weeks. We discovered trees and bushes that bear lemons and oranges. That was even for a proven naturalist like Prof. Dr. Dr. Icke Lüdeking an unsolvable riddle. (I'm afraid this will cause trouble again...) As we later found out from our friend Bienchen (telephone joker), there are now cross-breeds through refinement. I call this: messing with nature's craft.

Back at the pitch a surprise was waiting for us. Edith and Patje, who we met at the market in Guardamar and who recommended this place to us, came to visit. Edith's brother Hermann and Jack, who runs the place together with Hortensia, are work colleagues. They drive trucks for the same company. Hortensia had inherited an old goat farm and didn't know what to do with it. “Make a parking space out of it,” said Hermann, and the idea was born. As a small thank you, there was a permanent parking space for his caravan.

And tomorrow morning we'll take a little detour to Fortuna. 18 kilometers further north at the Los Banos de la Fuente campsite are Ricci and Irmi, Bernd and Brigitte, Maria and Wilhelm and Angelika and Martin, who belong to the group with whom I traveled to Morocco exactly a year ago. A year is long, and there's definitely a lot to talk about. We are really looking forward to seeing you again!