We are Young We are Free

.............keep our teeth nice and clean, are words from a song we liked a few years back and are pretty relevant in the way we are beginning to feel on this trip! We've knocked up a lot of miles now and a fair few campsites and the one thing that has come clear, is that we are at least 10 years younger than most of the folk we meet doing the same thing. But that's OK as well, means we can be doing this travelling stuff for a while yet.

So back to matters at hand and where were we. Benidorm. Dad was coming out for a week, which he did and we all checked into the Hotel Nereo for some family time. All went well and dad was on his usual form, making folk laugh with his jokes and enjoying the singing at the many karaoke bars we visited.

The weather has been excellent since we hit the coast and this week with dad was no different. The sun shone continuously and not a sign of rain anywhere. All too soon we drove dad back to Alicante airport and once again, started our next trip North. To Benicassim.

Which in the summer, is famous for its House Music Dance Festival, with most of the worlds top DJ's giving it some toons. In October it's much more laid back and the campsite mirrors that. Great bar and restaurant on site and friendly staff.

Again, the beach at Benicassim is beautiful.

Quiet ain't it?


We stayed five days here and as the sun was still shining every day, we decided to go further North to Salou. This is a summer holiday resort favoured by the Brits, but with an obvious Russian encroachment taking place. It is evident that new Russian wealth is creeping into the Costas and that in a few years, they could be the main toursists in this part of Spain.

The campsite we wanted to stay in was closed for the season, so we moved up a wee bit to Camping Sanguli, which is the first 5* site we've stopped at.

This place is class and is massive, favoured by the Spanish at this time of year. In fact, the first few days of our stay, the place was full of kids and mums and dads, all weekending in their residential caravans. These are the professional Spanish, no worries about unemployment with these folk. Designer everything! But good on them. It was refreshing to be in among younger people after so long with the zimmer team. (joke)

This campsite has one drawback. Trees. Hundreds of the bloody things and as I sit writing this, I don't know how I'm gonna get the van out without ripping something off the camper or the branches of these trees. And they're not willowy things either. They're horrible stunted, gnarled and thick branched. The sounds of wood against fibreglass is a regularly heard thing.

To wrap, we head to Sitges on Wednesday. The Gay capital of Europe. We will also use this stop off as a base to explore Barcelona. Could be mental.