Meandering through Spain 2024

The Murcia region is an area we’re unfamiliar with, but having read that it gets the most daily hours of sunshine all year round, in the whole of Spain, we were keen to explore more 😃 The city of Cartagena seemed more appealing to us than Murcia itself, so that’s what we plumped for. There are a couple of campervan aires on the outskirts of the city, but actually getting a space proved more difficult than we realised, as all booked up. Eventually we got the nod that a place had become available, so we arrived at Finca Bazul which would be our base for a couple of days (all we can seem to manage in a city 🤣) Having secured the parking space we booked onto a walking tour for the following day - history and tapas tour of Cartagena 😃 Surprisingly there wasn’t much sun, and it was fairly chilly, but we embraced it nonetheless. The owner of the Finca drove us down to the harbour in his taxi to meet Carmello, our host for the tour. It was Valentine’s Day, so lots of heart shaped and flower...

The next place we were keen to visit was the Cabo de Gata Natural Park in Almeria province - probably as far south as we planned to travel. Heading down there the weather forecast wasn’t great, so decided now was the time for a little rest from the van. Yet again, Sawdays came up trumps, and before we knew it we were checking in at the lovely Casona Granado in the beautiful Almerian village of El Pillar. Run by Clay (short for Clayton) and Rachel, who moved from the UK to Spain over 20 years ago, they have developed a small award winning boutique hotel with an award winning restaurant, Albar, with Clay being a professionally trained chef. Also extremely dog friendly, so absolutely perfect for us 🤣 Albar - a restaurant with rooms  Casona Granado We were definitely ready for some tasty food, and Clay didn’t disappoint. The central feature of the restaurant is a huge wood fired oven - a real feature. The first night we dined extremely well on oven baked mushrooms with melted Camember...