Feliz Año Nuevo, Happy New year!

Happy new year and all the best wishes for 2019 from us here at Flip-flop HQ! We hope the new year will be everything you want it to be!

12 Grapes for good luck

For us, the year started in Las Negras in Cabo de Gata Natural Park, with the traditional Spanish 12 grapes, one for each chime of the clock, for good luck in the new year. We made our new year wishes, but we daren’t look forward too much as 2019 could be a rather unpredictable year, so we just hope for the best and starting thinking about ways around possible new restrictions.

For now though, we’re still enjoying our travels. We’ve spent a good few days exploring Cabo de Gata, and it’s an area well worth a visit. Once you get past the poly tunnels, you’ll find beautiful landscapes, seascapes and nature. There are some beautiful drives through the park, as well as lovely beaches and a few nice little towns. The mountains are almost reminiscent of the Isle of Skye on a sunny day, although not quite as high, and the seaside villages remind us of small Cornish villages.

We stayed in Las Negras for a few nights and we walked to Cala San Pedro from here. Here we found an off-grid community, living a simple life in simple structures by a beautiful beach. You can only reach this beach by foot or by boat, and there’s a lovely relaxed vibe about the place. It’s great to see how people live alternative lifestyles, and it’s always a source of inspiration for us.

We also visited La Isleta del Moro, San Jose and nearby Monsul Beach and finally the tiny Cabo de Gata village near the lighthouse and the Sirens Reef. It’s worth pointing out that wild-camping or free-camping is being clamped down on in Cabo de Gata Natural Park, with very clear signs stating no overnight parking for motorhomes & camper vans at many spots. There are still some carparks, nearer the towns where it appears to be tolerated even if the signs are up. Plenty of rumours of heavy fines however, so tread carefully. There are a few great camperstops in the park for about €10 per night.

We’ve since moved away from the beach and are in Guadix where it gets to freezing temperatures overnight, a bit of a shock to the system! We’re on our way to Granada and the famous Alhambra. We’re in the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada and we can see the snow-capped mountains from the town.

While here, we’ve also been working on something new. We’ve listened to your feedback on some of the information we provide and have come up with a new way to share the details of our stops. We’ve created little camperstop info-graphics with images from the locations and the things we’ve done & seen there. All our Spanish stops are now available here, and we’ll be working on our French stops next. We hope you like these.

You may also like...

error: Content is protected !!