Wild camping (boondocking) in the desert

When we read about how crowded it is on the south coast with free camping van and motorhome people, we are glad that we are not beach people! We are only about 50 kms inland from the coast, and not another van in sight.

Funny enough, we've been in Spain for almost three weeks now, and while we've been following the coast south we have yet to walk on a beach.

We sure had an interesting sunrise and sunset yesterday. 

Sunrise was bright yellow in this direction.

But if we looked over in this direction, it showed up as pink!

It was very odd.

We did a little driving yesterday. We find that it's easy for us to just meander around and not really get very far! Of course if we really had to, we could hop on the motorway and get to the ferry port to Morocco in a day if we had to. It's only about 500 kms (300 miles) away now.

One of our readers suggested we visit the town of Abanilla, and it was kind of along our route so we headed over there.

Castle at the busy town of Petrer.

We had to get on the main highway to avoid Petrer.

Interesting apartment building painted to look like houses.

Scenery along the way.

We had to go right through the center of Pinoso. 

We see a lot of different types of Christmas decorations.

The road ahead.

Scenery.

Lots of grape vines and fruit trees.

More scenery.

Arrived at Abanilla, got parked up on a side street on the outskirts and sat and had some lunch. We're at a much lower elevation now (200 meters, 600') and it's a different geography. More desert and palm trees than the mountains and pine trees we had yesterday. And it's warmer! With a high of 22C (72F) yesterday, and calling for 24C (75F) today. Nice.

Max, parked up on a side street in Abanilla.

Ruth, with the poinsettias and palm trees.

Typical Spanish building.

Beautifully painted stairs!

Wow. Fantastic.

The stairs led up to this statue and viewpoint.

View of Abanilla.

They had some botanical gardens at the top with all different types of cactus.

More views.

Another view.

We walked back down to the town and came across this beautiful fountain.

Not drinkable water though.

Central square in Abanilla.

We were looking at the exterior of the church when a local man walking by told us to go around the corner to find the wash station. 

We had to go through this narrow entranceway.

The old laundry wash station.

I bet it's still used by some people.

Me, with another interesting building.

This statue symbolizes when the Muslims and the Christians of the area decided to get along.

Just a door.

Big birdhouse!

Quite a few parking options in town, and in fact we probably could have stayed right where we were for the night. But the Abanilla Desert is located right outside of town and it looked like a quiet place to spend the night.

Technically, wild camping (or boondocking as it is called in North America) is illegal in Spain. But it's a grey area because provided you don't put out any chairs or tables or camping paraphernalia then you are just parked, and not camping. The law is more likely to be enforced on the coast at beach areas though. Here in the desert, nobody would care.

Ruth took a short video of the drive to our overnight spot... 

Scenery where we are parked in the Abanilla Desert.

Yep, this will do.

GPS 38.209201, -1.081553

View out our side window.

Nice sunset.

Max, watching the sunset.

Despite it being a little bit windy at times, it was a good night and we're thinking we might stay another. There are some hikes we can do here in the desert, and apparently a viewpoint of some kind a couple of kms up the road.

Yesterday's drive.

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