Motril was a complete wild card for us. We’d never heard of it, didn’t know anyone that had ever visited there and we had no idea what there was to do in and around the place.
As we were driving away from Granada I decided I didn’t want to go to the site in Nerja we were already heading for and that we should go to Camping Poniente in Motril instead. We were about to park up for a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Year and something about this campsite looked more appealing than the other, so I quickly re-programmed the sat nav before Eamo had a chance to moan at me!
The gamble paid off though. Turns out Motril and the surrounding area is actually rather beautiful. Camping Poniente was practically on the beach and was a grand, very popular site. The only minor annoyance was the wi-fi was very hit and miss which was made a little bit worse by the fact that you had to pay for it. Actually that’s a lie. The big, chubby, feathered annoyance was the god damn rooster in the farm behind us that DID NOT SHUT UP! The first couple of days and nights we were teetering on the point on insanity thanks to this freakin’ bird, but, after that, I think we must have blocked him out because he didn’t seem to bother us as much. If we were to return, I think it’s safe to say we’d be avoiding the corner of the campsite where the animals are.
The beach went on for miles and had a number of beach bars and restaurants open which were lovely and cheap. One of the great things about these bars was that you could go for a drink or two and walk away completely full and still only have paid for your drinks!
Hoyo19 bar was a big favourite of ours, as with every round of drinks you got free food. Serrano ham and cheese bagels on round 1, manchego cheese with bread sticks and olives on round 2 and so on. Of course the first time we ate there we ordered all the food and then had this on top – we were happy customers that day but pretty much rolled out of there.
Same thing with the next bar down from Hoyo19 – free food! We just ordered a couple of drinks and ended up having lunch for free (on a different day, of course!). Some sort of cold potato dish (which was lush) followed by grilled octopus (also delicious), then olives and cheese. The bill came to €10.
The best decision we made whilst in Motril (actually on our entire trip so far) was to buy bikes. I have no idea why we didn’t bring bikes with us, but it was a poor decision on both our parts, definitely. So after Christmas, we treated ourselves and I’m so glad we did.
Now we had the bikes we could venture much more easily into Motril town centre and the surrounding towns. Salobrena was the next town along and was another surprising little find. Although there was nothing major about Salobrena, the views more than made up for it.
We stayed for an extra week at Camping Poniente and only reluctantly left because we had to get The Duke fixed, but that’s another story…
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C x
Distance travelled so far: 2,755 km
Days away: 68
Gypsy Pigs 