Babley Babble: Days 25 – 37 Oliva

As we write this entry we will have been in Oliva for the best part of three weeks (20 nights) – the longest we have ever stayed on a campsite so far! And it’s a testament to how much we love it here – and how lucky we have been with the weather, that neither of us has had itchy enough feet to move on. It probably helped that we had an idea that if the weather allowed, we’d likely enjoy a beach focussed trip rather than one of our more adventurous road trip style journeys…

So – what have we observed/learned through staying put for so long?

Not only did we stay on the one site the whole time, we also stayed on the same pitch, as luckily, apart from a couple of very short bursts of light showers at night – neither enough to clean the windscreen (see pic later) – and a couple of cloudy days, it has been wall to wall sun for most of the three weeks, and we swerved the much feared Gota Fria!

We did however have one pretty weird evening, where the wind went from nothing to very strong gusts with a spattering of rain in a matter of seconds, leaving us scrambling to get the laundry in and the skylights closed, but not before the van was covered in tiny little pine needles, inside and out - even in the bed! It then blew noisily for the rest of the night and throughout the next day. This is not at all uncommon here, but we’d clearly been lulled into a complacency based on the pretty idyllic run of sunshine and more gentle breezes until then!

Staying on the one pitch has meant that although we may have not moved, life around us has changed on a regular basis, which for us, has delivered enough change/variation/new neighbours as it never gets dull, and delivers plenty to natter/gossip about!

One of the best bits of staying put, was the series of serendipitous ‘bumping into one another’ events with a couple of fellow Brit travellers, Nick and Tessa, who we ended up seeing (unplanned) on an almost daily basis on the beach, in the sanitary blocks, walking around the site, out on the bikes, in Oliva town, in the supermarkets…

Which led us to meet up a couple of times for drinks, swap phone numbers and, hopefully, stay in touch with our future travels, as you never know who you might just bump into…

This more social vein than usual (for us) was also continued when we had a lovely ‘come back to ours’ evening with Janette and Ian, who walked up to the site along the beach from their nearby house and we had our first ever BBQ’d chicken on the Cobb ‘oven BBQ’ – which we had trialled in the UK but had never used camping! (A brilliant bit of kit – see here if you’ve never come across them!) Luckily it worked well, and as well as managing to consume slightly less alcohol than we had round at theirs, we had a great time! You can also see in this pic that we have succumbed to one of the trademarks of the long-termers here – we bought a printed Indian ‘mandala’ (at least that’s what they call the large printed cotton sheets used for shade here) from the market to help keep the pitch cooler, (although we now realise they are also used by some just for privacy and they’re pretty good for that too).

And apart from the usual campsite gripes of occasional annoying awning lights left on when the campers have turned in for the night (we are talking super-bright LEDs here that shine into our hippy-style solar and candle-lit pitch – or into our bedroom windows...) or, post-midnight game players with associated dice-dropping onto tables… it would be fair to say we have had a very fortunate stay that we would easily repeat!

In fact, given how busy it was when we arrived, we intend to use an empty plan of the campsite and mark up pitches we might fancy next time – and consider booking ahead – and that will be a first for us!

Staying longer has also allowed us to observe longer-term campsite life, including two campers being evacuated by ambulance, a visit to one of our neighbours in la Calle Valenciana by the Police, and the fascinating ebb and flow of near neighbours in our own cul-de-sac, including two German families with young children that gave a lively and familiar sound to our own camping adventures with the grandkids – or Enkelkinder as we now know to call them!

We have also been able to explore the local shops and supermarkets at a more relaxed pace, which has meant that we’ve refreshed our local knowledge on where is best for what, from fish to empanadillas, all of which has meant it has brought back some very happy memories of our longer stays here in the house at Font Salada!

Which probably contributed to the decision to take a ride over to the Font for a swim and a cortado for old time’s sake. We didn’t swim last time we were here and we were so glad that we had packed our swimmers in the panniers as we arrived at the font in the sunshine, with its warm waters empty of anyone swimming!

After an excellent coffee and a lovely chat with (the owner) Antonio’s daughter Sandra who we can remember as a young teenager (she’s 33 now and has a two year old daughter of her own) and Dani the waiter (now the chef) who we probably spent the most time chatting with over the years, we spent a lush half hour swimming up and down with the fish and ducks, still amazed at how lovely and warm it is with the bubbles percolating up from the bottom…

Most of our time in this latter part of the stay was, predictably, spent on the beach, reading, swimming and walking – and on one occasion, taking afternoon tea and cake courtesy of Mr B’s fine balancing act in bringing the tea tray back from Evie…

Like other campsites on this beach, Eurocamping has pitches on the dunes - and only a €3 premium!

The beach stretches for miles to the north...

To the south...

One of the small lagoons that appear after the tide has been high...

Looking back from the extensive dunes to the sea...

And a surprise one morning...

When we first arrived we promised ourselves that we would go out to eat in either lunch at one of our all time fave eateries, L’Almàsera Hotel Rural in Margarida in the hills behind Oliva and about an hour’s drive, or, for dinner, to the Hotel Rural near the Font where we have eaten a couple of times before and we’ve loved the relaxed vibe and fabulous architecture – and only a short bike ride away…

So it will probably come as no surprise that we opted for the short(ish) bike ride! Friday was vetoed as it was too windy and we booked for Saturday instead. With darkness now falling about 1900 and no-one in Spain ready to eat until about 2100, we guessed we’d have the place to ourselves if we wanted to ride over with some daylight.

Setting off with the light failing and the moon rising, we noted the drop in temperature as we headed into the marshland and orange groves that lie between the beach and the Font…

…which was no big deal for Mrs B who of course had worn a cardigan – and packed an extra jumper for the return trip… unlike Mr B, who of course relied on his body temperature alone and the fact that he was wearing long trousers for the first time this trip…

Arriving at the hotel just before darkness fell, we were unsurprised that we were the only people in the dining room, and we fully expected the tables to fill as the evening unfolded (they did). We had booked a table for 1930 to allow us to get there in good enough daylight… as Mr B had forgotten to charge the lights up since our last nocturnal adventure…

Greeted by a very friendly staff member who, as soon as she heard Mr B’s Spanish, very thoughtfully slowed her speech, which enabled us to have a pleasant chat that all three of us could follow, and we soon plumped for the ‘menu diario’ at €28 which we thoroughly enjoyed, along with a bottle of the local Bobal red wine

Leaving the hotel feeling very mellow, we noticed immediately how the temperature had dropped further, with Mrs B donning her jumper and Mr B his wine goggles, we negotiated our way back across the marshes and orange groves, lit by the moon, with hardly a soul about and just the sound of some cicadas settling in for the night...

Of course, it being a Saturday night, the relative silence was soon replaced by the hubbub of Valencian weekend campers, but, as seems to be the case consistently here, by midnight calm had returned, and we enjoyed the sound of the sea one more time as we drifted into sleep…

And so our last few days in Oliva hove into view, with mixed feelings of sadness to leave what has been an amazing run of good weather and relaxing lifestyle, and also excitement about being back on the road again! Of course it wouldn’t be a stay in Oliva without one more ride into town to the shops, past the orange groves with their ripening fruit, and woodyards waiting for the older trees…

…with Mr B hauling the shopping back on poor old Freddy and wondering just what the payload maximum is…and how well the spokes are holding up…

…a final Corvina BBQ (completely delicious – again!)…

…tackling some of the departure jobs before the day arrived, including Evie’s filthy windscreen – a testament to how little rain we’d had – just a few spots – and at night…

…a final load of washing in the hi-tech lavanderia, with its App driven capability to check which machines were available, book and pay for one over the web, and even be alerted when your washing was done – and all for €4! Of course, we felt adventurous enough just using the touch screen pad in the room and putting our washing bg in a queue in front of our chosen machine…