The Arrival

Well we’re here. Cap Blanch, Altea.

We were recommended to come to this site by some people we met in France in September.  We had emailed them a couple of months ago asking to make a reservation and we were told that we couldn’t book a pitch but they would probably be able to accommodate us.

We arrived about 5.00pm which was late for us and yes they had room for us. We could choose our pitch anywhere we liked – from a choice of about 6 pitches, it was packed and we could only fit on two of the pitches.  One was at the very far end of the campsite, surrounded by walls and a million miles from the toilet block.  The other we just about fitted onto but there was no room at the side and we found out the next day that there was no sunshine either.  We shadowed the whole of the side area with our van. They really crammed them in here but that was what we expected.

We set up quickly and then went for a walk. It was new-year’s eve and we really needed a supermarket, especially knowing that it was a bank holiday the next day – could we find one – no! Oh well, we’ll eat out tonight then.

As I said, it was new-year’s eve and we saw a steak house just outside the campsite so we decided we would go there.  Off we trundled about 7pm and oh no! they were fully booked.  Shall we go somewhere else? Well to be honest I couldn’t be bothered, I was shattered from the drive and didn’t really want to see in the new year with a load of people we didn’t know, so we went back to the van and knocked up a simple meal.  We still haven’t used that tin of emergency corned beef that has travelled thousands of miles with us, so we weren’t that desperate.

I fell asleep watching a film and then Iain ushered me off to bed sometime later – probably 9pm.  The dog woke me up at midnight when the fireworks all went off, she was in a panic and terrified – there were a lot of whistles and bangs, so I grabbed her, threw her under the covers of our bed and got back in. That seemed to settle her and we got a few more hours sleep.