Apologies for being a bit slack over the last week … apparently it has been noted 😦

Since leaving Murcia we stopped off for a couple of nights in Santa Pola before arriving in Playa San Juan where we are still parked up.

In Santa Pola we parked by the beach, just near the marina which was very tranquil, enabling Mika to sunbathe until her solar panels with full …which took until approximately 10am each day – the sun has definitely decided that Spring is here.

Santa Pola at this time of year is a quiet, normal town with a very long stretch of promenade providing good running and walking territory and if you want to venture slightly further, pretty good cycling too.  It was nice to relax for a few days before arriving in Alicante when we knew it would be pretty full on!

We have been to Alicante (and Playa San Juan) a few times before as we have friends who live here that Keith met in 1998 when he spent a couple of months in Alicante.  Some may say he was studying Spanish culture via night school (ahem), others would interpret it as watching the football (World Cup, France), drinking beer and living in a cave …. yes, he really did live in a little cave just below Alicante Castle!

Anyway, I digress – when we were in Barcelona (2008) Miguel (one of the old friends) and Elisa (the new girlfriend, now wife) came up for a few days …. the rest is history – it is home from home!

As we knew we would be staying a few nights we booked into a new Aire (Camper Aire Campello Beach 9-12 euros a night) which is two roads back from Muchavista beach near San Juan.  It only opened back in November and isn’t very big (40 spaces) but is in great location for the beach as well as having the bus and tram stops on the doorstep to get into Alicante should you want to go further afield.

We spent Wednesday through to Sunday enjoying good food, good drink and great company – we have been well looked after and on Saturday not only did Keith get a game of Squash in, we also managed to consume more meat than most carnivorous animals would eat in a week at Miguel and Lisa’s house in the form of a Bar B Q… not complaining though.

The weather has also changed in the last week, the sun is shining, the wind has died down and the shorts have been dug out of the cupboards – it reached 30 degrees in the middle of the day on Monday…. no wonder I had such a bad run in the morning!  Needless to say the temperature has now dropped back down to slightly more normal levels …. it was around 20 degrees yesterday although dropped off sharply in the afternoon and over night.

Playa San Juan is a beautiful long beach with mountains in the backdrop.  At this time of year it is perfect as it is still very quiet, although I am sure that the quantity of people will start to ramp up after Easter.  Unlike Alicante, Playa San Juan (and San Joan D’Alacant, the local town) is mostly made up of second homes for families from Madrid, so it has quite a different, more Spanish feel to it than a lot of touristy beach resorts …. we have been talking about coming back for the winter in the future and our eyes have even strayed into the odd estate agent window!

Having got over the weekend, despite planning on moving on last Monday, we have spent a few extra days here walking and relaxing. We popped into Alicante yesterday to have a look around and I am still always mesmorised by the size of the rubber trees over here …. I am obviously doing something wrong when pruning mine… although I am sure that if they ended up like these, the neighbours may complain 😦

I just love the way that the trunks and branches grow – it makes you feel like you are looking up at an Ent (one of the very large talking trees from the lord of the rings)

We plan to move on at the end of the week so that we can meet up with Keith’s sister and brother in Law who are flying out to meet us in Valencia … fingers crossed the weather will be as good as it has been recently.