Wednesday 13 February

Early start to another bright sunny day which promises to be somewhat warmer – at least that’s what the forecast says!

We’re now at the true start of the Costa del Sol and have arranged our route to take us through the seaside towns and resorts – just to see what they’re really like. And we have to say we’re pleasantly surprised at how clean, bright and attractive they are, although it has to be remembered that this is well out of season and there was quite a lot of cleaning and improving going on. 

Estepona

After our usual stop to replenish the larder, our first “resort” was Estepona which we thought was lovely, the hi-rise hotels and apartment blocks almost totally absent. A large car park at the NE end of town persuaded us to stop for half an hour and enjoy a short stroll along the promenade.

A little further on was Marbella – right we thought, this will be Blackpool On The Med. But no, although a working city as well as hosting many hotels and apartments, it again was fine, though much “busier” (can’t put it better than that). There was certainly nothing to put us off.

Now following the coastal autovia A7 and N340, we stopped for lunch just short of Fuengirola before continuing NE. We decided not to venture into the town as the map showed it to be somewhat tortuous through the middle, so stuck to the by-pass. This is not to say that it looked unattractive, but we felt the time would be better spent making progress toward our destination.

Then I promptly missed the turn back onto the coastal road for Benalmadena, which we really needed to take.  The next junction was a little way but the map showed we could get back on our route. So off we headed along a back road and spotted this new building which bore no information but we later discovered was a mosque built for the benefit of the recent massive return of Arabs to the area.

 Shortly after we turned down a winding steep road, rounded a corner and discovered Disneyland! We remembered that somewhere in our notes we had seen mention of this place as being the inspiration for the original Disney castle and it certainly appeared to accept tours, although it was actually closed this day. There were no signs or directions and unless you knew about it or, as we did, stumbled upon it you would never find it.

Along this stretch of coast there really was no proper break between built-up areas, the land being filled in with holiday developments and residential complexes, some, regretfully, looking to be just shells and the building work stopped, probably due to lack of investment money. There has been a lot about this kind of thing in the news lately and the evidence was there for all to see.

Which made it difficult to establish precisely when we entered Benalmadena, that is, until we passed under a great big bridge sign saying B E N A L M A D E N A! Clue there somewhere! Another very pretty holiday resort, obviously designed to attract a better clientele than Club 18-30! Strangely the roads were very quiet and, though we had not seen evidence of this before here, it looked very much like siesta time. Even passing under another huge sign saying T O R R E M O L I N O S we began to think it was Sunday afternoon.

Another missed turn (netbook navigator playing up) took us right into the centre of Torremolinos but due to a complete lack of traffic it was no problem and we found our way back onto our route then our target campsite just on the NE edge of the town. Siesta here too but we roused reception and booked in for 3 nights. It is here that we are to meet up with the “framily”.