Onto the Costa del Sol, Rincón de la Victoria

Zagan the motorhome is sat on white gravel under the sun-abundant skies on Spain’s Costa del Sol. We’re in a motorhome campsite on the edge of Rincón de la Victoria, about 10 miles east of Málaga (N36.71678, W4.23828). The parking area here has been custom-built for motorhomes, and sits snuggled in the urban sprawl this coastline’s infamous for. It has pitches separated by picket fences, wide enough apart so you can whip your table and chairs out for some al-fresco action. It has a great service point, electrical hook-up if you want it, a food delivery service (pizza, paella, lasagne, pannini and cold drinks, including beer and wine), a laundry service, a fresh bread service, an option to wash your motorhome, and a loo and shower. The basic cost is €10 a night, which includes speedy WiFi, everything else is a few € extra. We’re a short walk from the grey-sanded beach, restaurants, shops and the frequent bus service to Málaga.

Enjoying the motorhome campsite at Rincón de la Victoria. This is the 800th place we’ve stayed since we started ourtour.co.uk.

Our tyres rolled into here a couple of days back. We’d arrived through the Andalusian countryside, on small roads which forever flowed downhill, pushing Zagan into second gear to avoid busting the brakes. A small owl, perched on a road sign, had us twisting our heads to stare at it. Andalusia has a reputation for being impoverished, dependent on olives, lemons and wheat, and before hitting the coast that’s all we saw. A couple of small towns carried crumbling evidence of Spain’s 2008 final implosion of the unsustainable ten year building boom. Half built apartment complexes stand all over the place, including one near to where we are, like a stern finger being wagged at us all.

Once onto the free motorway south, all of this was lost in a blur as we hauled along at a good 50mph, wondering what the policeman was doing stood on the hard shoulder next to his motorbike, flashing blue lights as he spoke on his phone. Ah, sheeeeeet! Just over the brow of the hill there was orange warning triangle in the road, and the two stationary cars at jaunty angles just beyond. The policeman must have sensed my panic, and made a small wagging gesture with his free hand, indicating maybe I should change lanes? My indicators blinked furiously, ignored by car after van as my head grew ever-redder. Just as I slammed on the brakes to avoid trying to get up the inside of the rapidly enlarging triangle thing, or just running it over, a gap appeared and we flung ourselves in it with a blast of expletive. Reminder: we’re back on fast roads, which actually have traffic on them!

Malaga from the Motorway

After a stock up at a rather posh Lidl (yes, such a thing does exist in our world), we took to the motorway again and headed in here. Everyone comes in the wrong way, following the satnav route into narrow roads between villas when there is an easier route in, ho hum, we’ll try to remember for the way out. After an afternoon’s chilling in the sunshine we spent a good five hours chatting with Gill and Alan, a Welsh couple on the other side of the site, and their huge, friendly cattle dog (a beautiful briard) Oscar. They’ve spend a good few years living in a small farming community in France, and had some incredible tales: the farmer who still spun his own rope, the mobile still which took your old apples and provided them back in the form of liquor a couple of hours later, the farmer who considered an emergency trip to hospital as a ‘holiday’ (since he worked 7 days until the day he passed away), the list went on, and we loved it all. In return we did our best to sell the motorhome touring delights of Greece, Croatia, Morocco and Norway, but perhaps with a little less success.

Books! They’ve got loads of English books here in the book swap! Yes, we have a ton of ’em on the Kindle but a real book is great to read, and, Yes, I am setting you up for the next photo.

Motorhome Morocco – out now as a printed book!

Why the Costa del Sol, anyway? Good question! The last time we came back from Morocco we bypassed this entire coastline, and for good reason. Ronda, Seville, Granada and Cordoba all lie inland, and are sky-high with stone reminders of the essence of this land: reminders of Spain’s Islamic past and the Catholic religion which followed. If you’re after culture, then the Costa del Sol might not be for you (**wink wink**), but just head a few miles inland and you’ll be drowning in the stuff. This time around we’ve seen many of the ‘big sights’ of Andalusia, and just fancied coming for a look at this coast. Has the entire coast down here been ruined by uncontrolled, avaricious development? Dunno, we’ve only seen a bit of it, but from what we’ve seen, it’s been mullered (Edit: here the nearest coastline has only villas alongside, although the coastal development is 5 stories high in the town proper). Malaga is said to be a pretty city, but we can’t easily get in there as Spain doesn’t allow pets on the bus, and it’s too hot to leave the wee beasty in the van. Our parking databases show up relatively few places to stay on this coastline (this place is a welcome addition), so we’re eyeballing west towards Cádiz and Jerez.

We enjoyed a black rice paella last night on the campsite.

Right, another day’s relaxing (Ju’s been out for a morning run while I wrote this I should add), reading and writing in the sun awaits. Tonight we’re aiming to let the Earth cool in the evening and then walk the 500m down to the beach to find a restaurant to eat in. It’s (not) a hard life.

Hard evidence of Ju going out for a run this morning, just under 5k before it got too hot. The beaches are quiet at the moment.

Cheers, Jay