We left Gibraltar with the plan to go to stay in an Aire at Barbate. We needed to find a Aire or a campsite with electricity so we could recharge all our gadgets.
We stopped at Tarifa which is the most Southerly point of Spain. It is also known for its strong winds and it was blooming windy. We had a walk along the golden sandy beach and then had lunch in an area that would have been a perfect night stopover if we didn’t need electric. Never mind there is always a next time!
We continued up the coast to Barbate only to find the Aire was closed and very overgrown. Best laid plans and all that, so we set off to go and look at the Roman Ruins which was the reason we had chosen to stay there, only to find they were shut on a Monday.
After taking a deep breath we decided to go drive a little further up the coast to Conil de la Frontera. We stayed at a lovely campsite called Camping La Rosaleda which we found in our ACSI book. The pitches were nice and wide and with electric, perfect albeit a little more expensive than we have been paying at 18 euros per night.
We only stayed one night and set off at lunchtime the next day in search for somewhere a little more scenic and also with less pine trees as the processionary caterpillars are making their way down the trees (read our blog post about these if you aren’t sure why they are dangerous). We were struggling a little to find areas where pine trees weren’t prolific, then we read that pine trees were under conservation on this coast. So a caterpillars heaven and our hell at this time of the year!
We headed to Rota as there is a free Aire right next to a beach, only to find it full when we arrived. Oh dear what a couple of days we were having!
So we called an Aire in Sanlucar de Barrameda to get success they had one space left and the location was nice right next to a dog friendly beach, so success at last.
When we arrived we discovered the following two days were Spanish bank holidays and that is why the Aires were so busy. So we decided to stay put here for a couple of days otherwise we just knew we would have had a nightmare. The dogs enjoyed having lovely walks on the beach and we enjoyed watching the sunsets. The good news was we were next to a beach and not a pine tree in sight.
