Beautiful day at the beach at Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Toluca, Mexico.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Valle de Bravo on December 25th!

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Almost beach camping...

Went for a walk around the town of Conil de la Frontera before heading out. Glen and Steve are staying there another night, while we scout out on ahead to see if there's a better spot for us.

Not much to see in the town of Conil, even though it's been settled for a long time. There's a couple of old houses from the 15th century, and a tower that's been there since the 12th century.

But other than that, it's only worth an hour's walk around. It looks like it would be a pretty busy spot in the summer, with a popular beach and lots of cafes and restaurants, many of which look closed up at this time of year.

Fountain in Conil.

Built in 1584, this house has been restored, but they left the original well.

Church. 

Flowerpots on the wall. We wonder how they water them...?

This tower was built sometime in the 1100's. 
Been restored a few times since!

We said goodbye to Glen and Steve, with expectations of seeing them along the way again although it may not be until we get to Seville. We've both got the coordinates for parking near the city center where we can meet. We want to see Cadiz, but they have been there a couple of times before so we're going our separate ways for a few days.

We drove back inland, around Conil, and then down a road leading back to the coast. A real "resort" type area, with a huge Barcelo complex, and another one under the Riu brand. Hardly anybody around though. A couple of the roadways leading down to the beach had specific signs banning RV's.

But I had read about a spot in between the Barcelo resort and the village of Roche. Just a dirt road leading to the beach. When we got there, there were about 8 other RV's already parked up, but with room for probably 50! Can't believe the place isn't busier than it is, although we're very happy with that.

Louis, parked up at GPS 36.326605, -6.156121

No services other than a couple of trash bins. But, it's free, there's not many others around and it's a two minute walk to the beach.

We wandered around and spoke to a couple of guys from England also parked here with vans. They said that the police come through twice a day and they've never been bothered. Busy on the weekends with locals, but during the week it's nice and quiet.

We took off for a walk to explore the area. There's an advertised hiking trail, but we had a hard time following it and so broke off from that and walked back to the Barcelo resort. Figured we might get a free drink if we act interested and ask for a tour!

Ruth, outside the fancy Barcelo Royal Hideaway Sancti Petri Resort.

But it was closed. A sign on the front door said they were "making your resort better" and would re-open March 1st. Lots of people working on the beautiful grounds though. But we couldn't get inside.

Lots of walking trails, some of which lead down to the beach.

The beach goes for a long way.

Finally made our way back to Louis, and had done about 7.5 kms (4.7 miles). Again, another beautiful day but they're calling for some clouds to come in later today, with possible scattered showers the next few days.

Two minutes from where we are parked.

Horseback riders out the front door.

A couple of military jets flew by, way overhead. 
These guys were really high up and this is zoomed in as much as the camera will zoom!

We're just going to have a relax day today! Go for another stroll, maybe do some reading.

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14 comments:

  1. Nice area. Temperature wise, comfortable or hot?

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    1. Comfortable. Could even be a few degrees warmer. Highs around 18C (65F).

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  2. Looks like a lovely place and beautiful view from your camper! Relax and enjoy before the rain starts. Looking forward to your next destination!

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    1. It was a wonderful boondocking spot and we really enjoyed it, there was plenty of places to walk/hike and explore. We had some rain overnight but other than that we didn't get rain yesterday and we are keeping our fingers crossed for today.

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  3. Peaceful area. Have you tried any local oranges yet? They should be in season.

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    1. We have had some oranges as well as clementines but not sure if they were local or not. We will keep our eyes open for some. The ones we did have were good though.

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  4. You find the best places to stay. Love this!!!!!

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    1. We don't always but most of our choices seem to have been good ones. We did like this one, it was much better than being parked near the side of a road in a parking lot in Colin.

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  5. The Tower of Conil actually has an interesting history. Unfortunately, the information is all in Spanish. I guess you could run it through Google Translate. The picture of the beach looks just like the beach picture I used in the past on my blog from Barra del Tordo in Tamaulipas.

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    1. It is actually called Guzman Tower or Torre de Guzman but yes, it does have an interesting history.

      We have been to that beach as well and yes, it is a little similar except that this one has more development on it but it is a nice long, wide beach.

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  6. I love the original well in the restored house ... that's so special. Looks like a nice town, albeit too quiet! Camping on the beach is something we like to do also, but it isn't as easy on the Pacific coast to boondock at the beach. Rain can be a pain in Spain (insert smiley face), but it's a whole lot better than SNOW!

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    1. We thought it was a nice find too. The "house" was called Casa-Mesón and was built around 1580 and was used as an inn, guesthouse, flour mill and a warehouse but has now been restored and turned into private apartments. The doorway, well and courtyard are still the originals so I am glad that I was nosy and made my way into the courtyard in order to see this well.

      We said the saying a few weeks ago when we were on the plains and it looked like it was going to rain. ;-) Yes, rain is much better than snow!!!

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  7. Gosh you two, another day of great pictures...just spectacular!!

    I am struck with how few people there are in some of the photos on this trip. Sometimes, you can try to take a nice shot and there are SO many other people in the way!! Loving the pictures that you are taking that your Dad took, Kevin!

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    1. Thanks Doug and Nancy, it's not hard to take great pictures here! :-)

      We can't get over how few people are around as well. For the most part, this isn't the tourist time for the Spaniards and most of the expats live around Alicante down through to Marbella where is is super built up and too touristy for us. We do also wait many times for people to move out of the picture.

      We are having fun trying to match up some of Kevin's dad's pictures and hopefully we will find a few more locations before our trip is over.

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