Diary 26. From Luxury to Disaster

We had been enjoying visiting beaches and resorts along the south coast of Spain, but the heat had started to become too much. The temperature was in the 30s, there was a lack of shaded parking places, and the van felt like an oven. We needed a break.


My Aunt and Uncle own an apartment near Alicante. Some of my family have been going there for years, but I had never been. It was described to me as being on a golf resort in the middle of nowhere, which never really sparked my interest.


However, we knew we were about an hour away so we sent them a text asking if they were there, thinking it was unlikely. As luck would have it, they said they were holidaying at the apartment for a few more days and that they would love to see us.


We thought we would pop in, say hi, see the apartment for the first time, and maybe cheekily ask if we could use the shower. Unexpectedly, they invited us to stay for a couple of nights and to take us out for dinner.


How could we say no?!


As we drove around the resort looking for the apartment, we discovered the resort was enormous, clean and passed some beautiful, large, new-looking buildings. It was definitely somewhere that our big, rusty van didn't belong.

Resort Apartments

We arrived smelly, sweaty and looking pretty rough. They gave us a warm welcome, commented on my oil-stained white t-shirt, put a cold beer in our hands, and asked what we wanted to do first - shower or go for a swim in the pool. We couldn't resist the thought of a cool outdoor swimming pool.


We shared some of our travel stories while we finished our beer, floated around in the pool for a while and practiced the dirty dancing river lift (after rinsing off our sweat in the pool shower, of course) and returned for a proper shower and scrub. They then treated us to a delicious meal out at a Chinese restaurant with good food, wine and conversation. Despite seeing each other often at family events, it felt like it was the first time I had properly sat down with them and had a conversation beyond the basic catch-up.


We felt spoiled rotten and were extremely grateful.


After 2 nights in a comfortable bed with air conditioning, we left with clean clothes, full tummies and feeling refreshed.


We headed for a remote spot near the coast that we had seen on Park4Night, prepared for a relaxed evening alone by the sea but amongst trees. We were getting close and could see the SatNav wanted us to turn off of the carriageway, but it was such a hidden turn to an off-road track that we drove right past and had to find somewhere to make a U-turn. Once we returned, we discovered it was the van's 2 worst enemies...hills and potholes!


Jenna began to drive us down the bumpy road, throwing us around in our seats and making everything in the back of the van clang, until it became significantly worse and I told her to stop. We were only half way down the hill and I was starting to doubt whether the location we expected was even at the bottom.

Further down the road

I jumped out and walked down to investigate, only to find that road got worse further down and the area at the bottom looked nothing like we had seen in the photos. It was time to cut our losses and find somewhere else.


However, we were on a single lane track and there was nowhere to turn around. The only way out was to reverse back up the hill.


We both attempted the backwards climb, but by using high revs to get up the hill and trying to slowly mange the dips in the road, we were never fully releasing the clutch.  That meant it didn't take long until we started to smell burning and smoke was actually coming through the heaters in the cab.


We turned the engine off and opened the bonnet. Sure enough the engine/clutch was too hot and needed time to cool. For the first time on this trip, the warning triangle came out. I started to think that we had reached the inevitable day that we have to call the breakdown rescue.


Thankfully, the road was quiet so our obstruction wasn't a huge issue. One other car did attempt to come down the hill, a German couple looking to visit the same place, but I quickly warned them of the road ahead before they went too far, and they backed up in their rental car.

The only thing we could do was wait in the scorching heat and deeply miss the comfortable air conditioned apartment we had just left.


Once we felt enough time had passed, we prepared to make another attempt, this time realising that we had to fully lift the clutch and deal with the fast speed that comes with it. We had already navigated the worst of the dips so it was a fairly straightforward stretch back to the top. Only when I tried to put the van into gear, the stick wouldn't move.


I was stressing out now, as I was more than certain the gearbox had broken from attempting to get up the hill backwards. I got out of the van, huffed and puffed, and Jenna put on her 'Fix It' head. After turning on the van with the clutch down, and a couple of failed attempts while figuring out the problem, she'd freed the gearbox and gotten out of the van to gloat.


I took the captain's seat while Jenna helped me navigate from outside. The van travels very quickly in reverse, so with my head out of the window I twitched the steering wheel back and forth trying to avoid the worst holes, but mainly concentrating on keeping the van on the road and not crashing into the fence on one side.


After an hour and a half, we were free!


All our showers and cool tiled floor apartment living were completely down the drain, as we were dripping in sweat and were completely flustered and unrelaxed again. Still, we'll count our blessings. We didn't have to call a tow truck to rescue us from an unknown location, and the van was still working on getting us around Spain safely.

Matt :)