Isla la Plana

Tuesday 23rd – Saturday 27th

In good spirits at the thought that Annie would today be breaking her longest ever ‘swim-fast’ in a pool freshly –filled daily with seawater, we jaunted along the coast towards Cartagena. So begin to imagine the Bunch’s disappointment to find on arrival in Isla Plana that the campsite was FULL with people pitched up outside waiting for the next space!???? We couldn’t help going in to check out the afore-mentioned pool area where peoplewere enjoying an aqua aerobics session in the sunny outdoor pool. It looked luscious. Our indignation was compounded by the well-meaning English couple who approached us in the car-park to commiserate with our not being able to get on the ‘best campsite in Spain’. They did help us out by pointing out the ’pool-less’ campsite down the road when we said we didn’t fancy the prospect of waiting an indeterminate length of time for a freed pitch.

We found the ‘overspill’ campsite clean and pleasant despite its lack of any leisure facilities (the other also had a tennis court by the way grrrrrrrrrr). We returned to the original site the next day to check if spaces had become available. When we found the same crowd and more waiting, we resigned ourselves to making the best of where we were and a few more days of prom walking and running.

As sod’s law will have it, here we went on to enjoy the longest and best stretch of fine weather so far and our first proper breakfast al fresco!

Isla La Plana is a small town right by the sea. Towns like this are a sad testimony to how badly Spain is being hit by the recession; particularly it seems when they rely heavily on tourism from the more northerly European countries. Obviously greatly popular over the past 20 to 30 years with the Brits, the weakness of the pound is having a significant impact. Granted we are out of season, but so many shops, cafés and restaurants are permanently boarded up and it is easier to count the apartments not for sale or for rent. I think the Spanish terms ‘se vende’ and ‘se alquila’ will be permanently imprinted on our minds … Most shocking perhaps are the many half-finished, now deserted new apartment developments that leave a lot of places looking sad and ghostly.