From Gandia, we headed down the coastline to Albir – our chosen Christmas destination. Chosen for it’s non-costa kinda feeling. Named Blanca due to it’s native white pebbly beaches , for the main it’s generally pretty low-rise, apart from Benidorm – and we’ll deal with THAT abhorrence later! We hugged the coastline through Denia and Javea (the latter somewhat inadvertently since we didn’t actually see the signpost banning motorhomes through the centre of town until it was too late!), parking up on Javea’s beachfront for lunch, blatantly ignoring the “No Autocaravans” parking signs posted at regular intervals in order to have lunch with a view! Sure, it’s “out of season” and we’re not staying overnight! What really has become apparent now though is the ” Perros No” i.e No Dogs signs posted VERY regularly along the beaches, in Public Parks etc…..Harley is NOT impressed, and neither are we! In Northern resorts, this only applied between June and October but the further South we travel, we see that this is an all-year-round ban! A tad ridiculous when the beaches are completely empty!

We finally arrived at Camping Cap Blanch, Altea( though, to my mind it’s actually in Albir!) late afternoon and, brandishing our much-loved ACSI discount card, we were told to “pick any available pitch for €19/night including WiFi and a 4amp electricity supply, along with the usual freshwater supply, showers etc”. Available pitches were few and far between since The Dutch Oldies & Wrinklies have pretty much commandeered the sunniest/most convenient pitches from October til Easter or so it would seem. No matter – we found a suitable spot on which to rest Sebo’s wheels for enough time to see out Christmas and New Year – possibly longer if our maildrop from home doesn’t make a timely appearance!

The site is clean, hot water is plentiful and it’s all within a two minute walk of the beach – which we have snuck Harley on to and haven’t yet been jailed for doing so-a ten or so minute walk to the bars and restaurants and an easy 2km cycle to the nearest Lidl and Supermercado . Couldn’t be handier!