Friday 21^st February 2025

Seemed like a normal day when we woke up but I do have to write about all the things that happened before we left the first campsite of our 2025 trip. We got up and stripped the bed, stored the single duvets under the side seats, rolled back the sheet so the top bit is still in place but the rest is hidden, and ready to be rolled out at bedtime (one of my very many great ideas!). Paul made himself a coffee with his coffee machine and then put the electric camping kettle on to make me a cup of coffee. This immediately tripped the power into the van. Paul discovered this after finding (and checking) every fuse in the van until the only thing it could have been was the external power supply. Situation accepted and put on the back burner for tomorrow. Paul tackled his favourite job and dealt with our ‘Black Water’ This ‘perk’ of camping is a lot more pleasant than when we started camping in 2017. Back in the day, everything used to go in the portaloo, and I do mean everything! Nowadays we treat our loo like a Greek would treat theirs on a remote island – nothing goes in there but liquid (fortunately, as we are not Greek, the occasional accident is tolerated). I went off to the showers with my Waitrose ‘bath’ bag. Everything I needed was in there except my toothbrush which I had forgotten, but this was a nuisance more than anything. Paul went off to the showers when I came back and I made sure that his Waitrose ‘bath’ bag had everything he needed. He returned far quicker than he should have. He had stripped, stepped into the shower, and there was no water! Not no hot water, just no water at all! His day was going so badly that he just got dressed and came back in a worse mood than when he had left me. We were nearly ready to leave when we remembered the windscreen insulation on the front of the van. You cannot, in reality, forget to take this off as you cannot see to drive when it is on! Last night was the first time that we had used this vital piece of thermal equipment but we could not work out how to pack it up to get it back in its bag. After several tries this became item number 2 on the back burner to be sorted out tomorrow. We eventually left camp a couple of hours late and decided to make a second stopover in the city of Murcia. before on our journey towards our final destination which is Los Escullos Camping in Nijar in Almeira.

Best: I had my shower the previous night with plenty of hot water.

Worst: Getting to Murcia, going around in circles but never finding the campsite we thought we would use for the night.