Posted on by Peter

Spain Trip 7: Calpe

Wednesday 20th to Friday 22nd December 2023

We arrived at our site in Calpe, mid-afternoon after a tiring journey. The town is very pleasant, with a nice beach and promenade. As we are staying for two weeks, right over the Christmas and New Year holidays, we took the opportunity to set-up, do the laundry, shopping and other maintenance tasks, but we did get the chance to explore a little.

The Calpe sea-front

Despite it being late December, it goes dark a little later than at home. The above image was taken around 5:30pm and the one below, around 6pm.

Alison with a Sangria and me with a beer

The town of Calpe is a busy holiday destination. As a result, tourists are catered for in many ways, with a little tourist road-train, some souvenir/gift shops and many eateries.  There is also a fair amount of high-rise development going on, mostly behind the sea front buildings.

Santa on the little train
Souvenir stalls near the harbour
Although there is a Fish and Chip shop, it was closed until March.

It also has a marina and a harbour, which has a small fleet of fishing boats.

We saw one vessel heading into port followed by a flock of gulls.

There are also some quite unusual sights:

A blue …err giraffe??
A mobility scooter made for two.
A couple of baguette thieves, …plotting

There is a shallow salt-lake, which used to be used for salt extraction. This is now an urban nature reserve, which has a population of wading birds, including grey herons and large flamingos.

Part of the resident Large Flamingo flock against an urban background

It is clearly warmer than back home and it was nice to see some heavily laden orange trees in a side-street.

Further evidence of the mild climate is provided by a sea bather.

Swimmer on the beach

…and it looks as though it is some time since any appreciable rainfall.

The dried-up river bed.

 Over the next few days, we plan to explore further afield as we have hired a car.

Visiting Calpe with a Motorhome

We are staying on “Cámping Calpe Mar”, which is a moderately large motorhome/caravan site with all the facilities, including a bar and pool. The site is very well set-up, though there is limited space on many of the pitches, which means you are quite close to your neighbours. It is within easy walking distance of the beach and there is a supermarket across the road.

There are other options and we have seen a good number of motorhomes making use of the free parking facilities around the town.

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