Life of adventure, Road Trips

Roadtrip – Alicante to Comares, Spain

Suzanne

Spain is made for road trips.

 

We had two days in which to arrive at our destination not far from Comares.  It seemed we had been travelling for quite a while, in reality, it was only days not weeks.  Which meant we were looking forward to exploring and more so to relaxing in a rural area of Comares at our next housesit.  With nothing much more to do than wander with the dogs and absorb the country air.  Absolutely in no hurry to explore every crevice within a few days as we are going to be based in Southern Spain for a few months.

Firstly, we had approx. 486 kilometres to drive.

Our first stop and the most interesting was to view a unique wetland area of Santa Polo’s Saline Park and situated on the road to Cartagena.

The watchtower was build in 1552, during the reign of Felipe II.  It is strategically placed to spot the enemy before they landed.  Communication with each lookout was achieved by smoke during the day and fire at night.  Also known as the Lagoon Tower or the Saline Tower, it has a square shape situated between the Pinet Tower and Santa Pola’s Castle-Fortress.  Because it is a bit far away from the coast, the primary function was as a repeater station, to facilitate communication with Elche’s countryside towers.

 

The tower which belongs to Bras del Port S.A. situated in an exceptional place, in one of the lagoons of Santa Pola’s Natural Saline Park, and houses various environments; the working of the salines close to the sea, the permanently flooded freshwater pools and the surrounding area.  The fauna and the flora adapt to the dampness and the high salt levels.  The groups of flamingos that arrive in their thousands are a spectacular sight.  Common shelducks, marbled teals, avocets, storks, Kentish plovers, little terns or common terns can also be spotted.  Though we could see birds from a distance we, unfortunately, weren’t close enough to capture any.  Maybe next time.

Back onto the main road, and a few more kilometres completed, it was time to have a bite to eat and stretch our legs,  this time by the coast and a town called Torrevieja.

As we drove down the narrow streets in town, we were fortunate enough to find a park reasonably straight away.  At this point let me emphasise that carparks over here are sometimes like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  Near impossible at times!

The relief at exiting the car and walking in the sun was palatable. 

 

Along the promenade we strolled until we arrived at the pier, this was an incredibly long one, at 1.7 km.  Not a long walk just a long pier.  As we moved along, there were three types of fishermen trying their luck that day, humans, birds and what seemed like quite a few cats.  The cats were the more comical out of the three types, with schools of small fish being pushed into the crevices by large fish, their paws were doing overtime trying to capture that ever elusive meal.

 

On the bright side, two out of the three had ready-made food at their disposal.  The men, in the form of cheese and bread, and the cats a dish of dried cat food.  Though I have a feeling that the men, birds and cats would much prefer a meal of fresh fish.  Who wouldn’t!!

Talking of food, it was time to find a seat to park upon and have a nibble or two.  Located one not too far away and had a Spanish omelette which was rather tasty and enjoyable.  Hunger satisfied and legs stretched, and Vitamin D topped up we were once again ready to head to our first night’s accommodation situated just out of Cartagena.  We stayed at a very reasonably priced hotel by the name of Posadas De España Cartagena.  Which suited our need of wanting to break up the roadtrip into manageable parts.  There was also a significant shopping facility a walkable distance away to buy food.

The next day was very much uneventful, with the main distraction going through a few tunnels and over viaducts, with the scattering of numerous shade houses on what seemed precarious positions on the side of the hills.  We managed just a short fuel stop for us and the car, and before we knew it, we had arrived at our accommodation by the beach, Hotel Elba Motril.

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Suzanne

Travel and Life Musings from New Zealand and Beyond. . . . . . .

52 thoughts on “Roadtrip – Alicante to Comares, Spain”

    1. Thanks MIriam, it was a good trip. It feels so good to move after sitting for a while! The most unusual thing was seeing all the handmade cat houses and feed bowls around the rocks!

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    1. Thanks Shailaja. We were on a mission to get to our next housesit in the hills, though we always allow enough time to relax along the way 🙂

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  4. I’m always very jealous of your strolls about Europe. I adore seeing flocks of flamingoes too. I remember seeing a gang of them in the south of France and bring mesmerised by them. The sky in all these photos is just stunning by the way.

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    1. Thanks Hayley, unfortunately we didn’t get a close up look of the flamingos and have never seen them a flock in flight, now that would be amazing!! You do know blue sky is so overrated 🙂

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        1. Yep 🙂 it’s all right we are back for a few months next year, with the month or more of a UK summer! Looking forward to it!

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    1. We are, thanks Deb 🙂 It is very much a vast countryside, very similar to Australia though has more mountainous areas, I think?

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    1. Hi Phil, I just use my mobile phone camera. I did have a larger camera, though now my neck can’t handle carrying it around. Plus baggage excess is an issue! Thanks for the offer of being an assistant, though I do know you were joking. I have one, the Squire 🙂

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    1. It definitely one country where we could easily live. Thanks Orla we are having fun, learning all the time!!

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    1. LOL – good on you Osyth. I really enjoy your posts and your grouping of words. Love it 🙂 You can keep coming back and I do hope we meet up in the future sometime!!

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    1. Apologies Judy, I just recovered your post out of my spam folder, which I found out where it was located from April this afternoon! Luckily the cats were being fed by locals, though I am sure they will catch the odd fish just not when we were watching them.

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    1. Thanks Carol, let’s put it this way many love their pets and many do not in the way we think that they should, e.g. street animals. It happens in most societies. Luckily there are many animal lovers that feed the street cats and dogs.

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    1. Thanks April, the light was wonderful that morning. The hills really do look like burning embers. Love the countryside of Spain. Not so much the built up areas around the coast. We have a lovely spot over Christmas away from the multi-story buildings and still close to a lovely beach for walking.

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        1. April, with the amount of history here, you would certainly love it. Just stay away from the highrise jetsetters by the beach 🙂 Lovely small villages and out here in the country

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  17. Lovely part of Spain – I have a few friends who have emigrated to that area over the years – my future son in law’s parentslive there too & it will be the destination for his stag weekend next year! 😊

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    1. Nilla left there already completed another near Marbella. Now back in the hills in a different area. By the beach over the Christmas period ☺

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      1. Doing a post on the new abode? Look forward to reading it and seeing your photos.
        BTW I wrote to WordAds and as I suspected, the ads do slow your site down so need to decide whether to keep ads or not. Might try it for a couple of months. 😉

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  20. It’s not an area of Spain that I know at all, other than that Torrevieja is an expat haven. My t’ai chi teacher has a villa close by and one of the class members has a house in Cartagena. This world keeps getting smaller. 🙂 🙂 And the housesit community seems to be thriving. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Yes, the area of Torrevieja was not our cup of tea either, though it was interesting to see the area. The housesit community is thriving and getting very competitive. Hopefully, more people will use it for the number of people joining up. Anyway can contact us if they do need a housesitter 🙂 Though we are nearly booked up for most of next year, we still have a few gaps to fill. You are welcome as I enjoy sharing our experiences, and thanks again for commenting Jo.

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