Costa del Azahar – Benicassim – Benny & Bessy's Travels from 2021 and Samson & Suzi's European Travels 2016-2020…… (as named by Jack Spencer)

After leaving Navarrete and Logrono we headed 315 miles south into the mountains, climbing for almost 4 hours to a dizzy height of 1200 metres for three quarters of the way before plateauing out then heading sharply downhill for 45 minutes to the coast arriving at Benicassim, north of Valencia. Fuel consumption is usually 18mpg when towing, 38mpg when not, however the continual climb meant we only got 15mpg and had to refuel en-route as we couldn’t risk doing the downhill drive purely on fumes!

Benicassim is a Spanish holiday resort with properties looking out onto the 7km long beach; the mountain range behind (Desert de les Palmes) shelters the town from any winds and the beach in the bay is shallow and perfect for swimming and sailing. The Desert of the Palms is not a literal desert but a protected natural area with a small mountain range! The beach has a wooden boardwalk all the way along, at the top end where we are the bay is called Voramar and from 1890 onwards Spaniards realised the benefits of the fresh air, perfect warm climate and salty sea water and built a parade of villas along it. I understand that in the roaring 20’s and 30’s certain villas were popular as party houses of certain repute, whilst some bigger ones were turned into hospitals and rest homes. Nowadays most are fully maintained and still occupied, one or two are very run down and needs attention and some are restaurants and cafes. The styles differ, some are simply one level living, some have palacial balconies, some are more traditionally Spanish, and some are art deco delights.

The town itself seems to be a haven for those over a certain (retirement) age, in November people are still swimming in the sea and walking around in shorts and t-shirts, whilst the local authorities encourage activity by providing a huge network of cycle paths, activity clubs and beach games. The local market is primarily a fruit, vegetable and clothing market and bus routes take you to the next towns along, Castellon is south and Oropesa is north. The site is very social, half the residents are here for the winter and the owners of the site provide activities every day; Spanish lessons, Spanish cooking, yoga, tai chi, gym exercises, bingo, wine tasting and a band plays every Saturday. There is also a group of people that are trained by a local choir leader to perform Christmas carols in several languages for a performance at the local Church for the villagers and within the site for people here, all supported by wine and goodies of course!

On arrival at the site, we had a big issue……the main “streets” are narrow and there was no way we were going to be able to reverse into a pitch as the pitches opposite were full. However, a knight in shining armour came along in the form of Jeff, another 5th wheel owner who had a 5th wheel specific motor mover and he helped us onto our pitch. This caused quite a commotion in the street, we had at least 20 people watching, offering advice and moaning (about how big we were compared to their caravan) however, we have made friends with everyone (especially Jeff) and David is looking at purchasing a new toy for future use!