"We are on the move"

Camping LO MONTE ¤¤¤ Pilar de la Horadada (Alicante, Spain) - Camping

We went to look at "Camping Lo Monte" today and was very impressed with the set up there. So impressed that we made a reservation, starting Monday. It is about 30miles from where we have been staying for the last 2 months.

Lo Monte has 3 pools , gym and spa, whose use is included in the price. We will be able to do a lot more walking into the townof Pilar de la Horadada and the beaches are on the Mediteranean where as we are on the shores off the Mar Menor here at La Manga. I think I have done the beach here to death with my metal detector, anyway. We were given the details of this campground by some German friends here, who are also moving there on Monday.

Benidorm

Some times you hear the name of a place you have never been too, and you get a picture in your mind of it. Some times its a nice picture and some times its not, but for some reason or another, you dont put your self out to go. Well today we woke up to rain, and Jim said, "lets go to Benidorm.........". Well Benidorm to me was not a place I have ever wanted to go. In the late 70s it was the place to go if you only wanted sun and beer all day. And stay in a high rise. Not my cup of tea. Anyway, we set off this morning, the rain stopped as we got there, so we parked the the car and set on off on foot to have a look round. We did not bother to take the camara, as we thought there would not be anything we wanted to take a picture of. WELL. The sun came out, and the beach was so clean and the old streets were very busy and alive. We had a great walk, and yes, there was still a few bars full of topless men drinking beer, but all in all it was not as bad as I had imanged. I have put a few old pictures, I found them on Google, below.

On the way home we drove the coast road, the N332, and the rain started again as we got to Torrevieja. By the time we got to San Pedro, about 15 km, the roads were under water. We made a decision to get off the coast road, and onto the auto pista, for the last few miles home.

This is the main road, the N 332 through the centre of San Pedro, it was like driving through a fast flowing river, and just a little worrying. There was just one road we had to do a "U" turn and find an alternate route, it was just too deep, and flowing too fast to risk going through. No pictures of that I'm afaraid, I was too busy looking for another way to go, and forgot the camara.

Cartagena

"Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" wasting time......

Cant think of a better way to spend some time.

The guy in the cherry picker preening the palm trees

Me thinks he went a little too far with this one.......

A weary sailer on his way home....

Jane keeps on trying to pick up these weary sailors

Loved this tree.

The wild cats of Cartagena.

Doing some wood work.

I had so much fun in Alaska with Chris making Walking Sticks. So Jim drove in up in to the woods here, to get some pine branches that had just been cut down. The smell from the pine is so nice, smells like Christmas.

Have only got 2 walking sticks, from the load I got. The rest are just nice “Sticks’.

Cartagena

We had a great day here in Cartagena, it's only a short drive from the camp ground. Here are a few of the pictures we took. We only had the little camera with us today, so will take the big one next time.

This guy was made to represent all survivors of all terrorist attacks throughout the world. The Spanish have had their share of terrorists, with the Basque Separatist. (a major terrorist threat in Spain) They are responsible for many deaths and injuries to both civilian and Police/military personel.

Cartagena is one of two main Spanish Naval ports, (the other is in Northern Spain) and the THE main Naval port in the Mediteranean. It also has a huge Ship yard, where most of the "Spanish Armada" is maintained and/or repaired. The harbour is shared by civilian ships, and pleasure craft, and is a major destination for the cruise ships that travel the Med.

It really is a pleasant city to wander round. We took an open top tour bus ride to give us a good idea of how the city works.