Spain- Palos de la Frontera

Travelled : 138km
Visited: Palos de la Frontera, Spain
Stay: car park in National Park East from Mazagon, Spain (unauthorised but with 3 other motorhomes) N37.08080 W6.68749

We took the motorway out of Portugal and stopped on the outskirts of Huelva in Spain  to buy some auto gas. 

It is a relatively large port town and it is where the famous Rio Tinto mining company began, named after the river that flows into the estuary here. 

Statute of Columbus

We then visited Palos de la Frontera. A beautiful village from where Columbus set sail on the Santa Maria in 1492 bound for the East Indies.

It was from here Columbus departed. Area is now silted up.

From here we continued a short way to Mazagon and had some lunch before stopping in the National Park. It was evident that it had been built by EU money several years ago but no upkeep has been done since then. We went for a walk and the eroded cliffs along the beach looked interesting. 

Upon our return we noticed most of the other motorhomes had gone. We asked a Spainish couple if they were staying the night and the said 'no you are not allowed'. So we decided to go to another parking lot a little further on and we asked the French van if they were staying and they said no as they had been told no overnight stays allowed. Our next option was to drive to the next town but on the way we noticed a few campers in another car park and they were staying! So here we are... and fingers crossed we don't get told to move on. After a simple dinner of scrambled eggs we walked along the boardwalk to the beach and we're surprised to find rubbish bins overflowing which looked very unsightly and detracted from the possible pristine coastline. Feeling disappointed we returned to Bluey and began preparations for our weekend visit in Seville.