Sunshine & Batchata

At last the sun has now broken through but not after some dramas and tribulations. The severe weather had caused a lot of the pitches to become too soft to support some vehicles. 

Caravans faired the best as their weight is minimal but unfortunately their awnings become sodden inside as the water rose from below. 

Motorhomes fared the worst as their extra weight meant they became mired in the soft ground and ended up with some being dragged out of their sandy graves.

The term self-levelling pitches took on a new meaning as some of the vans sank to their axels but the hard working ground staff soon had them dragged out of their troubles. No fault can be aimed at the sites owners as the unusually heavy rain was the culprit but some did wonder why the pitches soft cover surface was as deep as it is.

We faired quite well considering, holes started to form where the trees had been removed from our pitch, one inside the windbreaks and the other under the RV and one more where the toad was parked. 

Within minutes the ground staff had the one inside the windbreaks and near the car re-filled and levelled after I had removed the cover matting. 

The one under the RV is out of the way and is as yet not causing us any problems so can stay as it is till we leave.

The ground staff supplied us with some large square boards to put under the jacks to spread the load more evenly than was offered by the blocks I had used before, so now the weight is better spread over the soft surface. The sun has now started to dry out the pitches surfaces and if this continues the grounds will soon be as hard as rock.

I managed to get a stint in the new spa and it was fantastic so we’re looking to spend more time in there. Both Kay and I attended a dance class on the site which due to poor attendance meant we both had our own personal dance teacher (Anita).

She proceeded to teach us to dance the Batchata a Latin American dance that originated in the Dominican Republic. Needless to say we soon discovered we both had two left feet but with perseverance from Anita we did get the rudiments of the dance right by the end of the session but we felt as if we had done an hour in the Gym rather than a dance lesson.

It was great fun and we spent most of our time laughing at our inability to get our feet to move in time with the music. 

Things have also started to get organised as we now have Cribbage nights and Poker nights (Not the gambling variety) Quiz nights and if the weather stays dry the cycling will be back on so things are getting organised.

More Anon

The perfect Storm’s

What weather we’re having, it’s just not on, we came to Spain for wall to wall sunshine but of late it’s anything but.

In the early morning hours of Sunday night we were awoken by the booming of distant thunder and the gentle patter of rain on the RV’s roof, soon the patter turned into a thundering drumming sound as the heavens opened up with a vengeance. 

Thunder crashed and ricocheted off the nearby mountains and lighting lit up the sky all around us. 

It was a fantastic light and sound display but I quickly realised the potential problems for us. 

Firstly our awning was still up. Out I rushed braving the downpour and unhooked the storm straps and quickly rolled up the awning into the stored position. A lightning bolt hit the nearby Marjal elevated sign with an ear splitting crack and all the camps lights went out.

I struggled on through the storm's rage packing away what items I could out of harm’s way as the roads soon turned themselves into rivers. 

Gusts of wind whipped two of our windbreaks (That were securely held down with right-angled steel storm poles) out of the ground and trying to secure them back into a pitch that was now going soft underfoot was a problem, but securing them with extra-long spikes eventually did the trick.

So at 5 o’clock I sat back inside the RV with a warm cup of tea and an early breakfast (in the dark) to watch nature’s fury vent its self out in all its glory.  By daytime the storm had passed over and I went out to see what the damage was.

For us it was relatively small, we had two small wet patches inside the RV where the rain had been forced inside the living area’s slide out (we had rescued it from any further damage by retracting the slide to the parked position, although this gave us less living space it prevented any further intrusion of water). 

This has happened before when strong winds and heavy rain hit us from a certain direction, something I will have to get sorted once back in the UK.

Outside all the windbreaks had held so it was just a case of sweeping off grit and leaves that had blown over the matting, but the ground underneath had become decidedly soft, luckily I had rescued some timber off the builders and had used these under the RV’s Jacks to spread the load when we first set up so nothing had sunk in.

The TV news informed us that four people had died in flooding that night just up the coast (it’s now been raised to five) which on top of the two who had died earlier this month shows how dangerous these flash floods can be. 

Touring the site most people had escaped without too much inconvenience, but I noticed several peoples awnings and storage tents blown down and one of our friend’s awnings had been totally inundated with water when a nearby drain could no longer cope with the deluge. Luckily they had rescued most of their belongings before the water poured through.

   

We realised that we needed a storage tent to protect anything left outside and decided to order one from SOT Caravans who where down near the airport. 

After one abortive trip to visit them on Monday afternoon we succeeded on the Tuesday to obtain a strong Inaca one, which we proceeded to erect as soon as we got back. Thankfully the ground had started to dry out by now.

On the journey back we noticed how high the river Segura had become, no chance of crossing that on the cycles over the ford now which would have been under several feet of rushing water.

I attended an art class that afternoon run by the Animation tem and at seven o’clock Kay and I went out with loads of other campers for an all you can eat €10 Chinese meal, which was once again excellent.

It’s now Wednesday morning and once more rain and thunder are disrupting our stay, the roads are once again like rivers and we’ve retracted the living areas slide out to keep any water out, at least the storage tent is now keeping our external possessions dry an safe. We are sitting here watching the horizon for signs that the storms are passing as everyone else on the site seems to have hunkered down until it clears.

More Anon

One week on

We’ve been very busy this week, so it’s been hard to spare time to keep the Blog up-to-date with all that’s happening. 

Each day is filled with either getting out to different places, not to visit new towns or villages but to get things we need or being invited out to lunch and being involved with organising events.

We did get out taking a cycle ride, but even that had an alternative motive as we are setting up our own little cycling group to go touring so it was more of a fact finding mission with a slight detour to view a local cemetery (Kay’s tomb stoning).

We cycled out of the Site over a new bridge and down a Camino (service) road to the nearest village of San Felipe Neri. It’s a one horse village but has a fantastic restaurant called Casa Harry or Harrys bar that’s well known for good cuisine. 

From there we went through Catral and on down towards Dolores stopping off at a local flea market. We both found this a little un-nerving as the market consisted mainly of car boot style stalls run by mainly dodgy looking Moroccan’s with very few women in evidence so we departed quickly as we stuck out like a pair of sore thumbs.

We had used mostly service roads as we wanted to keep away from any heavy traffic that would be suitable for a cycling group. We returned and called in at a Cemetery just on the outskirts of Catral for Kay to indulge in her tomb stoning and then using the back roads we made our way back to the site.

Inside

Catral Cemetary

Enclosed tombs

We also had a pleasant surprise when a phone call announced the arrival of our friends Nigel & Rose, from the Briarfields site near Gloucester, who were on their way down through Spain to join us the following day. It was nice having them park up on the pitch next to us, with their dogs Susie & Oscar. My reversing guiding technique failed when supervising Nigel onto the pitch when one of his small running lights got smashed on a small tree. 

This ended up with me visiting Cruz caravan at Elche to get him a replacement, must remember a tree has a bottom as well as a top.

The mountains behind the site below

I’ve been meeting with Huglio the Animation (events) chap in organising the art group that will start next week, though he and all the team here are working flat out to make this site a success.

In the week we dropped a couple of fellow RV’ers off at the airport, they had arranged to collect a hire car from there and in thanks they invited us both out to a " meal of the day"  in the restaurant last night.

We have also decided to purchase a storage tent to store the cycles and other bits that are now stored under the RV and have finally completed the task of covering our entire pitch in green matting.

It’s strange how rumours spread; we had an email from a friend on the old site saying that they have been told all is not well at the new site, its complete rubbish of course. It’s probably been spread by one of the group on the old site who is aggrieved at not moving with the rest of us to the new site.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse with clouds and rain, but it has had one benefit in that the crowds of Spanish campers have decided to stay at home so the expected rush this weekend has failed to materialise.

The indoor pool and the gym opens today but unfortunately I’ve caught a head cold so Kay’s advised me to stay away from the pool until it clears, damn and I was looking forward to that.

More Anon

New Week New Site

It’s Saturday and we’ve moved to the new site but more on that later, as the weather looks to change for the worst. 

In the past week we’ve managed to complete quite a few tasks. We had visited the new site last Monday to fit the green matting over the hard packed stone dust surface of our new pitch as well as helping two other campers to complete theirs and then rushed back for a BBQ in the afternoon at the old site. 

It was a great event with live music supplied by Bob and Angie and yours truly doing his bit with the maraca’s again. 

It seems I have become a bit of a celebrity as I’m asked time and time again to show my skills with the maracas, how sad that a classically trained percussionist like me is now only renown here as a shaker and mover, but after seven bottles of strong German Pilsner I was certainly a mover (shades of Morecombe and Wise dancing to Give Me Sunshine).

Bob

BBQ

Mover & Shaker

The following morning both Kay and I (who had also downed seven pilsner's) were remarkably well considering, with no headaches or bad stomachs although I did have a bit of a lager throat. I’d even managed a few rounds of Cribbage after the BBQ so my head was still in working order.

We spent some time over the next few days getting bits and pieces we needed for the new site mainly windbreaks as the site being new is fairly exposed.

We were intending to depart the old site on the Friday, but the management advised us that we should move on the Thursday to the new site as they were expecting 350 caravans from the Alacante Caravan Club on the Friday and it would be hectic getting everyone through the reception area.

So Thursday afternoon we departed the old site and headed for the new one, we made the short hop of 14 miles to this new site without a hitch and started to set up home. 

We have had some fantastic weather with the day time temperature well into the high thirties and the sunsets have been spectacular.

Sunset over the old site

on the new pitch

On Friday the Spanish caravans and motorhomes arrived in their droves and before long the pitches started to fill with riotous Spanish caravaners. 

That night we had a show put on by the camps management and Alex (who is also the young man that runs the art group, some cycling trips and the Spanish for beginners sessions) showed us his skills as a vocalist entertainer and he was very good, for such a quiet young man, he really comes alive when he’s entertaining.

Yesterday we had a visit from Raimon, he’s Marjal’es photographer and Internet chap he took several photos of us and interviewed me on Video Camera for Marjal’s Internet site, he’s a really nice chap half Welsh half Spanish. Now this is confusing bit I’m referred to as Wenglish (Half Welsh half English) so what is Raimon? Is he Wanish or a Wick) you work it out.

Raimon

Kay & I Setting up home

So far the staff have been exemplary with their welcome and professionalism nothing was too much trouble or too difficult. We have raised our windbreaks and just in time it seems as at the moment a strong Westerly breeze has sprung up. 

We’ve just returned from a massive Paella event put on by the sites management (it’s not often you see the director of a site as big as this standing behind the pumps serving beer) each Paella dish was at least eight feet across and there were two of them. The queue of eager diners was quite long but at €3 for Paella and a beer it was not bad value.

The Paella Que

Getting stuck In

Next to our pitch the Spanish group have erected a rope from our lamp post to the next one with loads of Spanish flags as England are playing Spain today in a friendly match so I nipped down and handed them my England and Welsh flags for them to add as well and they were more than pleased to oblige ‘entent cordiale’ or what!

English & Welsh flags amongst the Spanish

More Anon

Good Luck, Bad Luck

Bad Luck first:

The weather has been our bad luck this week, as it’s been wet and windy with the occasional good day. 

On the 31^st it was Halloween, there was a large party organised in the restaurant to celebrate event by the Marjal staff and the Spanish campers. It was a great event with loads of the campers and kids dressed in fancy dress. We didn’t attend as we were feeling a bit tired though we had loads of young visitors at the RV dressed in all sorts of freaky outfits seeking treats. 

Note that the trick part doesn’t seem to be part of the festivities here, thank god.

   

I’ve managed to keep my exercise regime going and completed a 52.9 Km cycle ride with the Dutch group last Tuesday. 

We cycled to the outskirts of Elche where we stopped for refreshments and then returned via Dolores past the El Hondo nature reserve and Rojales back to Marjal, needless to say my butt was very sore and is still recovering.

the Dutch cycle group near Elche

and at Dolores

We have made a couple of trips to the new site near Catral to check the progress of the site and to measure the pitch. 

The pitches here in Spain are mostly hard packed stone dust and in wet and windy weather the stuff gets everywhere. So to prevent it causing a mess all the people with long term pitches put down green plastic matting over the top, this allows you to keep everything nice and clean.

Our new pitch its big....very big

Main Drive

We have been seeking some windbreaks as the new site will be very open and we will need some protection from the wind and also to have some privacy when we eat outside. 

These items we found can be very expensive and we have been fortunate to find a supplier just north of Benidorm at Albir who will call down to this site with a good selection of reasonably priced items that several people here are looking for.

Good Luck:

Last night we attended a charity event just outside the town of Guardamar on the Lemon Tree road which had been put on by some folks who were raising funds for the Nuffield centre. 

The venue was packed with people from all over the area and to help with our diets we had deliberately avoided eating prior to attending the event, but sadly the food, for €5 each, came in very small portions which left us feeling still hungry, though we resisted the urge to order a second helping. 

The music was great with a five piece band that did an Everley Brothers tribute selection, an Eagles tribute Selection and finally Status Quo.

During the evening they held a raffle, now with our luck at winning prizes I didn’t hold out much hope, I even made a comment to two friends that if we won anything it would be a holiday for two weeks in a nuclear reprocessing plant in Iran. 

At that Kay turned to me and said “our numbers just been called” so up I went and was asked to select a playing card from one of other the ladies, it turned out to be the Ace of Clubs.

At the table I was told I’d won the top prise of a Christmas hamper and what a hamper, it was full of High quality stuff, Champagne, Brandy, red & white wine, Bailys Crème, Brandy, Christmas puddings and chocolates. 

The chocolates

The booze

I then selected the next ticket for the raffle and returned to the table only to find Kay had disappeared, it turned out the next number I had drawn was Kay’s and she returned with a bottle of Whiskey and Vodka, lucky or what.

So the diet will have to take a back seat while we diminish the now burgeoning stock of chocolates and booze.

More Anon