Our car park got so full last night that we thought Basil would never get out. People parked so close to us we could barely get out of the door. We presume this was all to do with the forthcoming festival.

Because it was Friday the Medieval Festival did not start until midday, so we ambled over at 11.30 am and found that the stalls were already open.

The parade, which was to mark the official opening, was assembling at our end of the town and there were bag pipers, knights on horseback, stilt walking jugglers, monsters, camels and more! The Spanish know how to do a festival.

Before the parade started Sarah and I walked along the main streets of stalls. It was a little like a Christmas market but with a medieval Christians and Moors theme. Most of the stalls were selling artisanal crafts and food. There was also a large array of options for eating and drinking.

The town had done a really good job of creating the atmosphere with banners strung across all the streets, many stall holders dressing up and even the rides for children were all made of rough cut wood – not your standard fairground amusements.

The Main Street through the old town, which is about a mile long, was full, end to end, with stalls and there were many side streets also used. This was a large festival.

We stayed for about 2 hours, watched the parade, which was very lively, and then decided that there was not enough to keep us for the whole day.

Lunch was taken in Basil and then we moved moved 30 miles to the city of Murcia to an official motorhome aire with proper filling and emptying facilities. Amazingly, although the aire holds about 60 vans its full, in January! So we are parked on an adjacent enormous and empty car park. Ikea is close but, much to my surprise, Sarah, at the moment, has opted not to explore it!

Tomorrow we intend to move to the coast just south of here, which we are told is relatively unspoilt. The number of vans on this aire makes me a little worried about finding somewhere to stay.