almeria

Tau Campsite in San Jose

~ Kate Wilson ~ Leave a comment

We recently went to Almeria and discovered the wonderful  Tau Campsite in San Jose.

In the two years since I came to Catalunya I’ve done more camping – both in tents and in the van – than in all the years of my previous life put together.

I remember one rainy weekend on the Isle of Arran when I was 16 and all our clothes were wet before we even set up the tent. I had to take the boat home withint 24 hours because of a serious asthma attack.

I’m still hardly an expert but have become more knowledgable about what works for me and what doesn’t.
I imagine there are people who like the overly manicured places that seem to abound in the UK, with plastic castles and painted mushrooms and pots of begonias around reception but they have never matched my idea of what makes camping enjoyable.  In those places there always seem to be more signs telling you what Not To Do than lists of what is on offer.

Here in Spain some of the sites are chaotic and noisy, everyone packed into tiny spaces beside neighbours with satellite dishes and caged birds.  These places can be fun for a few days but the real pleasure for me is to find somewhere that is peaceful and relaxed as well as organised and welcoming.

The Tau campsite is like this.

Here is my list of what I loved about the place

  • On arrival you can choose where to put your van or tent.  No restrictions on who goes where – they credit you with intelligence to make your own decision.

 

  • There are lots of trees – for shade and for hanging your hammock or your washing.
  • Dogs are welcome!!!!  There were lots of them in Tau and all well behaved and clean. There weren’t endless signs telling you to pick up their shit.  Again, we were treated as responsible adults.  There were also resident cats strolling around.

 

  • The owners had made lots of little corners for socialising.  Small wooden seats and tables, larger spaces for having barbeques, a big tea tent with cushions and rugs for relaxing, as well as a cafe-bar
  • The bathroom area was spacious and clean. There were plenty of toilets and showers.            The first day I heard someone in the shower luxuriating in the water  ‘Que bien!  Ahhhh, Esta muy bien‘      The showers have water that stays on while you are washing rather than turning off automatically so you have to keep restarting it.
  • The water is HOT!
  • Music.  This must have a bullet all to itself as it was something that most impressed me.             They played music in the toilet block during the daytime. And not only that but they played Radio 3 Espanya which is my favourite station.  One morning it was jazz, the next it was spirituals. I have always thought there should be music in public toilets – don’t you just hate that echoey silence?  The feeling of sitting alone in your cubicle but surrounded by others ?   Here someone else had thought the same and done something positive about it.
  • There were bicycles for rent
  • They twice recharged my mobile phone in the office as we decided not to plug in to the electricity.
  • There are hills just outside the camping and lots of birds coming and going throughout the day 

I once saw a film about a group of people who rented a house in Tuscany. They started their holiday tense and unhappy but the place changed them and day by day they relaxed and opened up. Tau Camping seemed like this to me. A group of young Catalans arrived and pitched their tent near us – they were noisy and a bit insensitive, staying up late the first night and rising early in the morning but after 24 hours they settled down and blended in.   Another young man played loud rock music from his van the first day but by day 3 he was quietly listening to Blues. Who knows what he might have listened to by day 7?
I think this place has some special magic and a lovely energy and hope we can go back there one day.

A week in Almeria

~ Kate Wilson ~ 5 Comments

I couldn’t send posts from the campsite wifi so that plan didn’t work!
TO DO   *get a phone contract with internet access.
Now there is too much to say but I’m going to say it anyway – sorry, you have been warned, it is long!

Day 1

We stopped off for our first night camping near Xativa. The romantic fantasy of sleeping beside the hill top castle was scored out when we arrived to find it regulated and fenced off. After a long twilight drive looking for somewhere to park we asked some people about nearby campsites.
They were Belgian and said we could use their land. We followed them to a field in the middle of a plain. There was a shed with two horses and nothing much else.
We closed the gate and parked under a star lit sky, feeling safe enough to sleep well without worrying about intruders or irate landowners waking us up.

Day 2
We left around 6am and drove the rest of the way to a beach called Genoveses near San Jose in Almeria. Parking beside many other camper vans, we began to make ourselves at home but around sunset the park guards arrived and moved everyone on. It is common in this area to sleep in the beach car parks but sometimes they do a massive clear out and send you to the municipal car park in town. We drove that way but it was now dark and hard to find so we stopped on an empty road on the outskirts of town. Slept well although my body stayed semi-alert for patrol cars and early morning runners and dog walkers made it hard to have a pee.
The countryside was full of wild flowers

Day 3
Breakfast in San Jose. Three dogs are an extra challenge when it comes to eating out. Especially when two of them fight and have to be kept out of biting distance. We managed this by using the terrace of a lovely pizzeria which served fresh fruit salad as well as toast and honey. Seated by the beach we could watch the stall owners setting up for the day with crystals and nicknacks for the tourists. One stand had rails of those baggy trousers which look like they are made to accommodate adult nappies. And sure enough there were lots of people walking by wearing them!
We moved to a new beach and found many of the other camper vans already there.
This was a lovely day, sunny and hot but with enough wind to keep Blue cool in her black thick coat.
I gave her a haircut – her first ever – with a pair of nail scissors and she ended up looking very chic with a short back and sides.
The sea was very calm. Blue went in almost immediately and swam for a long time.
Lovely to see her

That night we slept very well. No interruptions, all dogs now used to the van and the rhythms of camping. Duna sleeps in the front with her own blanket and the curtains separating her room from the back. Bonnie and Blue curl on the floor space at the end of the bed. In the mornings it’s so easy to open the door and slip out straight onto sandy open space.
Bonnie and I watched the sun rise over the sea.
Day 4
But the lack of toilets and showers and electricity for recharging the phones/cameras does make a camp site a tempting proposition.
We went to Tau Camping in San Jose. I will write about that in a separate post – it deserves more than a few words. It was wonderful in every way.
There is a bakery in San Jose which sells fantastic cakes. Did I take any photos? No – I just seemed to eat them without even thinking of preserving the memory. He also has great bread and little pasties of spinach or vegetables.
Day 5
Now installed in the camp site I began to feel more relaxed which meant a day of descans was needed. Here is where I lay and dozed and read and listened to the birds

Day 6
Now all the days begin to melt into each other.
We explored the park, visited more beaches, ate more lovely Andalusian food.
There is a village which is famous for being used in the filming of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. It was very windy – Blue wasn’t keen to pose.  A place called The Middle of Nowhere!

Lunch in a village square with the dogs safely sleeping in the shade in the van.
Duna has to be tied to the seat….just in case….you see, it isn’t straightforward camping with three dogs
 
The roads were quiet in the interior. Sometimes you are driving along rough tracks, like in the Westerns that were filmed in this area.
Here are rocks in the Mineral Trail, there was once a gold rush around here

Day whoknowswhat
We had a long and interesting breakfast with our camping neighbours. She was for many years a naturopath and he worked in theatre. The campsite has little corners strategically placed for morning and evening sunshine with tables and benches. The sparrows join you companionably, searching for crumbs, the main areas of camping entertainment are far away so there is little noise but the rustle of the wind through the trees

Then the drive back led us to stop again near Xativa. This time we took the inland road, the A7.
As it was Saturday afternoon all the lovely places selling pots were closed.

I drove along a straight and quiet highway with sculptures marking every crossroad



Then we found a hidden place in the hills to park and sleep. The moon was high and almost full. Noone bothered us. We woke early and set off again at 4am. Perfect driving on Easter Sunday.
Stopped for lunch in Altafulla. Tapas by the beach, dogs again peaceful under the table while being fed occasional peixet fregit (little fried fish) heads to keep them happy

Home to find the house unexpectedly dirty, messy and chaotic due to unprogrammed sleep overs by Resident Adolescent and his friends. But that is another story!