Heading towards journeys end

Kay and I are staring out at the pouring rain as the winds batter the RV, we’ve sat here twiddling our thumbs for what feels like an age. I suppose it’s only normal while we wait for time to pass before we return to Spain.

What a miserable Easter it’s been! We’ve had only two good days, the day we arrived in Plymouth at the end of March and a reasonable day traveling up to our site here in Burnham, from then on it went downhill fast. April showers, downpours, strong winds and falling temperatures have made our stay here in Home Farm pretty miserable.

For Sale

Rhys came to visit us during his Easter break which we enjoyed!!! Well he did, I think his mother was glad to leave him with us for a while, while she had a well-deserved rest. Although we love him to bits, an eight year old being shut in the confined space of an RV can soon stretch anyone’s tolerance to breaking point. We were constantly looking for ways to amuse him or to keep him occupied.

He did learn to brave the indoor swimming pool. We purchased a pair of swimming goggles for him, which helped him to get him used to putting his head underwater and soon he was splashing, jumping in and eventually attempting several swimming strokes. In the end I think he was sad to say goodbye, but it won’t be long before he will be seeing us again.

We did venture out to Glastonbury, Clarkes Shopping village, Western Super Mare, Wells, and Wilton to purchase a few things we will need for Spain. Anywhere to shop under cover to stop us going stir crazy watching the rain drops.

Western Super Mare' sea Lake

We’re glad we’ve parked on a Tarmacked area, as a lot of the caravans & motorhomes on the grassed areas have sunk into the sodden ground, it looks more a home for ducks than campers.

A place for ducks

Not for campers

We had a visit from a gentleman who came to view the RV with the intent to purchase the machine from us which has now been confirmed, so soon we will be traveling to our last stop at Briarfields Nr Cheltenham where we and our RV will part company.

Looking back over the past fourteen months we’ve had a great adventure and it has opened up new horizons for us, so now we are now looking forward to our next adventure which I hope you will share with us.

More Anon

The end of chapter one, the start of a new one?

We’ve had a ball over the past six months living on the sunny Spanish Costas in the RV at the Marjal Costa Blanca Eco campsite and the time we’ve spent there has been more than eventful. So much so, that I’ve been greatly amiss at keeping this blog up to date.

Marjal Camp site

As you know from our previous posts, we’ve been out cycling, doing some swimming and enjoying the first class spa facilities on the camp. 

We’ve been out touring around some of the interesting towns and villages in the little IQ. 

Last November on one of our first forays out on our cycles we travelled through the really nice village of San Isidro, just a few miles away from the camp. 

It was a typical little Spanish village with some old parts and some new. It had a central café called the Rincon that seemed to be the place where all the locals appeared to congregate. I had made a passing remark to Kay that this was an idyllic little spot that reminded me of a similar place that we loved in Crete. It was somewhere we felt, we could easily spend the rest of our days.

Gradually as we were nearing the end of our stay it became increasingly obvious to both of us that we just didn’t want to leave Spain and the thought of the journey back to cold wet old Britain had us feeling a bit down especially as we started to wave bye, bye, to friends and neighbours who over the next few days also departed for pastures new.

Towards the end of our stay we had the rally of the “Motorhome Funsters” who arrived over the last few weeks of March and we’ve had a ball meeting them and enjoying some of the party events that they had arranged.

Sadly the time came only too quickly for us to depart, as we cleared away the windbreaks & tent, moved the RV, pulled up the green ground mats that we had covered the complete pitch with, re-sited the RV and visited friends to say goodbye and then prepared for the following day. 

We were up with the Lark and off followed by two fellow RV’ers who wanted to know where the Repsol LPG place was that we used near to Alicante Airport, here we had decided to bully the pump attendant into giving us FULL tanks. 

A short journey later up the AP7 and A7 we were filling the RV to the gunnels with gas (after we managed to get the attendant to understand it was imperative). 

The journey north took us past Sax and Albacete on the A31 where we popped in at a known LPG stop to see if they had some to offer. Sadly the pump was in pieces, so no luck there.

Off we went onto the R3 and up to the south of Madrid where we joined the M50, what godsend it was that Kay is good at map reading, the Sat-Nav helped but it’s always best to double check as some of the Autopistas looked like spaghetti junction. 

We left the M50 north of Madrid and went up the A1 towards Burgos. We had arranged a one night stopover at a site called Camping Castajan just north of Aranda de Duero off the A1. 

We arrived and navigated carefully through a forest of trees to set up for the night and gather a much needed night’s sleep.

Up early once more and off, back up the A1 around Burgos via the A62 & A231 then onto the A67 for Santander. 

We had intended to stop off at an LPG station at junction 167, at junction 168 we suddenly realised we’d missed it; well the scenery was fantastic with snow on the mountains and all. We had been averaging 60 Mph for most of the journey and we were amazed that we were still on LPG! The old RV had managed over 400 miles on gas alone; we were chuffed to say the least. 

The warning beeper went off just on the outskirts of Santander to tell us we were now out of gas and it switched itself over to petrol for the last few miles.

We’d been worried that due to a general strike that day in Spain, that we could end up sleeping on the docks for the night, but everything was fine, the docks were open and we arrived in plenty of time to catch the ferry home. 

We also met some of the Funsters from Marjal waiting in the queue to board the ferry and luckily for us all, the crossing over the Bay of Biscay was like a mill pond.

Santander
click to view in full size

The following day we docked in Plymouth. Driving an RV with a trailer on the back through that town is not for the feint hearted, though it wasn’t long before we arrived at the Riverside Camping site on the town’s outskirts. 

On the way there we noticed that there was panic buying of fuel and all the petrol stations blocked with queuing traffic, what a welcome to Britain!! 

We off loaded the IQ and unhooked the trailer at Riverside then quickly departed to Lee Mils industrial site down the A38 to fill the RV’s tanks with LPG at the Calor Gas depot (no problem here getting fuel as we filled her up with 251 Litres of gas at 78p a Ltr). 

Now filled with gas it was back to Riverside to spend the next two nights. We did pop into Sainsbury’s later to stock up on provisions and while there filled the little IQ with petrol, not that it uses much.

Sunday the 1^st of April saw us travelling up the A38 through Exeter then onto the M5 and north to our next stop at Burnham-On-Sea’s Home Farm.

So here we sit awaiting the visit of both our daughters and our adorable grandson, though we did take a trip out to Clarkes Village shopping centre at Street Nr Glastonbury and then onto Wilton Shopping centre Nr Salisbury before putting our feet up for the night.

More Anon

Our Last Days in Spain

All good things come to an end and soon we will be hitting the road back to Santander and the ferry back to the UK. 

It’s sad when you come to the end of a stay that you’ve really enjoyed only to watch as each day your close circle of friends starts to shrink as they all gradually depart the camp for pastures new.

Our time here has been great; we have met some very interesting people from all over Europe and have made many friends. The staff and management at Marjal have been exceptional and they have made our stay a real treat.

Antonio (or Costa) the director has recruited and great team who are a credit to him. Ava with the reception staff are always friendly and attentive sorting out any problem that comes their way without losing that friendly smile.

The bar staff (particularly Ivan and Carmen) work like Trojans never losing that ability to make you feel special and the animation team under the leadership of Julio (originally from Argentina) with his very capable sidekick Anita have made each day highly interesting and enjoyable.

I will miss little Anita’s twice weekly workouts in the gym where her attempt to turn my flab into rock hard muscle has sadly failed…mainly due to my lack of control when it comes to vino tinto and good food. 

We had the last Cycle ride to the town of Callosa last Wednesday and it was nice to be thanked by the group (who at one time reached a total of forty members).

The cycle group at Callosa

We have made a short hop up the AP7 and A7 to refill our LPG tanks at the Repsol depot not far from the Airport. 

I needed 240 Ltrs of Gas but the grumpy old pump attendant started to gripe when the LPG pump started to strain at 177 Ltrs and refused to fill the tanks any further so it will be interesting to see how far we get on that.

The drive gave the RV a good shake down after its long stand and with our fingers crossed everything worked fine. 

The Sat-Nav has been programed with our return route to where we plan to stay overnight north of Madrid not far from Burgos at a campsite, travelling on to Santander the following day.

This weekend has seen a huge influx of campers mainly Spanish as its father’s day today in Spain and the camps swimming pool is out of bounds as is the spa, mainly as its jam packed with campers.

The weather has started to warm up nicely and sitting outside its easy to get sunburnt if you don’t take care, though tomorrow we have been warned that strong winds , storms with thunder and lightning are on the way.

We have had a fortuitous meeting with people that both Kay and I knew over twenty years ago it happened the night Wales beat England at rugby as we watched it in the camps bar / restaurant a meeting that we will reveal more about in our next post.

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Ups and downs

Well it had to happen with all this keep fit malarkey, on Monday my old problem of an Osteophyte (Bone spur) that I have in the shoulder kicked in with a stab of agonising pain, of all things as I tried to change into a T shirt to go do my weekly keep fit in the gym. 

Kay in her usual mothering mode said “that’s it, rest and no more physical activity for the rest of the week” and dosed me up with anti-inflammatory tablets. 

So I’ve had to pass the reins of leading the cycle group today onto another chap called Nick, my twice weekly gym sessions with Anita’s fitness class have been cancelled plus swimming is now off the menu. But I am allowed to go to the Spa to use the Sauna and steam rooms as apparently the heat will help with the healing process.

Andy the mechanic from AA Auto’s called as promised on Monday and fitted the new rubber bushes onto the exhaust, so now I can feel more assured when we have to leave the site for Santander that the rear tail pipes will not slip off and drag allong the road.

New rubber mounting

Two people from our group (Christine & Pete) are leaving soon, so on Sunday we all went over to the village of Catral to a small restaurant called Long’s Bar to have lunch together and to wish them a safe bon-voyage. 

The meal was excellent and really good value and I have a feeling we will be going there again.

Tony another of our group at the lunch was feeling pretty awful as he was full of man-flue (or in Spain I suppose it would be called Manuel-flue) a bug that has literally laid everyone on the site low at one time or another Kay and I included.

The group at Long's Bar

Ditto

Me & Tony

Kay with Christine & Peter

This information will be of use to those who intend to go course fishing while in Spain, you have to have a license and that is supplied by the local area you are in as no one licence covers all of Spain so beware. Even after all the rigmarole Tony and Nigel (our next-door neighbour) went through to obtain the correct licence (and that can take some running around to achieve) you then have to find good locations to fish. To date their tally has been one small carp and two plastic shopping bags, but you have to give them credit for perseverance.

The weather at last has started to pick up sunny and with temperatures soon to be back in the twenties. We have discovered from this visit that when we next come back to Spain in September we need to load up with…Baked beans, lem-sips, ibuprophen, clothes, electrical goods i.e. toaster, art materials, things that we have found hard to find or are expensive.

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And one year on

Well the anniversary of our one year on the road came and went on the 7^th of February, we were going to celebrate it then but unfortunately fate decreed that Kay would go down with flu. 

So we postponed the celebrations until the 14^th (Valentine’s Day) when we celebrated both events that night. We indulged in a special night with candles, crooners, dancers and a special meal in the Marjal restaurant.

On Saturday the 4th of February we visited the medieval market at Oriheula which takes place from the 3rd to the 5th and what a fantastic day we had. We sat and ate a freshly cooked pork baguettes and drank warm vino tinto that tasted like sweet Gluh wine. Watched the medieval knights on horseback and the parades of musicians and actors.

knights

Quasimodo

Elf

What's in this wine?

Over the past two months the weather has been a mixture of dry sunny days with intermittent cold winds and temperatures that dropped to below zero at night. 

Strangely as we sat eating and drinking on the 14^th we looked out the window to see that the heavens had opened up and rain poured down, something we’d not seen for quite a few weeks. 

But as usual, the following day it was bright and sunny. Slowly the temperatures have started to climb and we look forward to the dizzy heights of it getting back into the twenties before we have to head back home.

Planning has already started to be foremost in our thoughts as we prepare the RV for the return journey. While checking under the RV for any signs of potential problems I discovered to my horror that the previous owner had undertaken yet more DIY jobs. 

From my past posts you will no doubt remember the horror of this gentleman’s handiwork on the LPG Gas tanks that could have easily cost us our lives. 

This time it was the exhaust system, he had converted the old iron pipes to stainless steel. That in itself was not a bad thing; it’s just a pity that the guy has no knowledge of stresses in motion. The supports he had jury rigged for part of the exhaust pipes had failed on both sides (see photo).

Exposed rubber bush

Torn rubber

With bracket

Even I know that a rubber mount needs to have a tubular shimmy to spread the weight or a broad enough bolt to spread the load and as you can see in the photo the vibration had caused the thin post in the clamp to chew its way out of the rubber support. 

So we’d been traveling all the way down through Spain with effectively the both rear exhaust pipes only being supported by the muffler boxes.

Fortunately here in Catral we found an English mechanic (Andy from AA Auto’s) who came, took one look and confirmed that he could refabricate the two new mounts for us, so we await his return to fix the problem. It will then be a quick drive to the Repsol Garage near Alicante Airport to fill the road and domestic LPG tanks for the trip home.

Having the RV resting for such a long time does make us wonder if all will go well when we fire up the engine and move off site to get the fuel. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed that there aren’t any other problems awaiting us.

I’ve now sorted the problem with the trailers electrical plug that became damaged on the way down thanks to the narrow location of the Albacete’s LPG pump.

Apart from Kay’s flu which laid her low for a week we have managed to keep our fitness regime going with cycling swimming and gym work. Our achievements have been to regularly swim 50 lengths of the pool and to cycle 50 km to the old Guardamar site and back. In the mean time I’ve managed to get two punctures and work my way through two tyres and three inner tubes.

The cycle group keeps going from strength to strength but it is worrying with it becoming so large. I had thought that the cold winds would have laid most of them low, but it is still surprising how many turn up saying how they look forward to the Wednesday jaunts.

 We continue to visit the local markets for fresh vegetables and fruit each week as it’s really inexpensive here. 

Clothes and electrical goods are expensive whereas wine from the bodegas is ridiculously cheap at €2.45 for two litres.

More Anon

New Year Resolutions

One of the reasons for the delay in updating my blog is a result of our New Year Resolutions which are.

Monday we’re up early and out cycling and trying to discover new routes to take the Cycling group on Wednesdays, a light lunch followed by swimming and a session in the spa.

Tuesday I attend Anita’s gym class at 12.30 for an hour to loosen up joints stretch the muscles and do so cardiovascular exercises and believe me she really works you out.

Wednesday I lead the cycle group out over the area to visit a new village or town which takes about three hours and covers anything between fifteen to twenty miles, then swimming and Spa. After three hours in the saddle you need the Spa.

The group now consists of over thirty riders from Italy, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and the UK as the leader whom they follow through these back roads it's becoming a bit of a worry being responsible for so many.

We have taken the group to Callosa de Segura, Cox, Graja De Rocamora, Albatera, Rafal, Dolores, Catral, Sant Isidra, Almoradi and around the Parc Nutural de Hondo.

the cycle group awaiting the off

Coffee break in Cox

Group in Rafal

Gardens in Albatera

Thursday Anita’s Gym class again.

Friday back in the saddle where Kay and I stretch our legs for more cycling followed by, you guessed it swimming and Spa.

Saturday we take a drive out to visit some interesting town or monument.

Sunday soak up the sun and do any outstanding jobs on the RV.

In between we have to fit in shopping for food, cleaning and all the other daily routine jobs so you see our time is really full which is great, we just hope all this exercise is helping to reduce our waist lines and will build up our strength.

On February the 7^th it will be the first anniversary of our change of life style and looking back over the past months we realise there are things we could have done a lot better and we have learned a lot over the past year.

Yet the main reason why we opted for this life style still remains as strong and as important as the day we first started out, but more on that when the anniversary arrives.

The weather here is still warm and sunny with highs of 25 and lows of 18 degrees with a few windy days, but thank god no sign of any rain, now I’ve said that you watch the weather change.

At the beginning of the month we had a nice trip out over the mountains that line the horizon at the rear of the Marjal camp site called the Serra de Crevillent. 

We drove out of the camp through the village of Sant Isidre onto the next town of Albatera (all places where we have cycled into recently.) 

Then it was up the CV873 out of Albatera which took us past fields of oranges and lemons and high up into the mountains with climbs of 13% and more, eventually skirting Mont Alto at 683 meters. 

The road back down the mountains

Once over the top we dropped down into a picturesque valley that was surrounded by further high mountains on all sides, from the Serra de Crevillent over which we’d climbed and the three ranges of Serra del Argallet topping 1085 meters, Serra de la Cava at 1053 m and the Serra del Rollo at 658 m.

The first village we encountered nestling in this bowl between the mountains was the pretty village of Hondon de los Frailes, we were surprised to find that it is has a huge English ex-pat community. 

Here we turned right onto the CV845 and drove past yet more fields of oranges and now lined with long terraces of vines right into the next village of El Fondo de les Neus.

What a delightful little place this is, we parked the car at the entrance to the village next to the modern looking Bodegas Cerda a local winery and tourist shop which offers wine tasting and a guided tour of the wine process with lunch thrown in for €15 

(see www.bodegascerda.com).

The Bodegas Cerda at Fondon

We then explored the village on foot and dined out at a local bar in the village square, which you guessed it, was owned by a young lady from Nottingham. 

This village again seemed to be full of British ex-pats; the only Spanish person we met was the village drunk who sat contentedly poking the ex-pats in the back with his walking stick and muttering.

We climbed to the top of the village where the church of Our Lady of the Snows gave us an unparalleled vista of the village and the surrounding fields.

Later we drove back down the valley past Hondon and onto the villages of Macisvenda, Barinas, Mahoya, Abanilla and La Murada before eventually returning to Albatera and ending up back at the Camp.

The week after we visited Sax a town that we passed through on or way down from Santander below Abacete the castle was closed but we where able to take some photos of the outstanding views from the top of the rocks on which it sits.

Sax Castle

The following week we visited Montaguido just outside of Murcia, it was a stunning old castle with a huge monument of Christ at its summit that was very reminiscent of the statue of Christ that overlooks Montevideo in Brazil.

Montaguido

Sadly we couldn't find any way to visit the top of the castle which we later found out was from the other side

on a not very well signposted road.

As the month draws to an end we were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of an old friend in the UK. Geoffrey Burtonshaw was the first person who befriended me when I left the forces in 1978 to live in South Wales.

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Tributes-city-councillor/story-15028776-detail/story.html 

He was my Boss at Port Talbot’s Welsh Water Authority Depot on the banks of the river Afan that backed onto the old Port Talbot Docks.

We became great friends, a friendship that lasted a life time with his passing on, on Monday the 23^rd after a long battle with illness, it really hit us hard. 

Sadly I will not be able to keep a promise I made to him on my last visit to him at his home in Swansea, that once he got back on his feet I would to take him fishing in the old docks behind where we first met all those years ago.

He was a true Welshman that worked tirelessly for his community, well respected by many, an intelligent and humorous man that no one had a bad word for, he will be greatly missed by many especially myself as I regarded Geoff very much as a brother.

Rest In Peace Geoff we will miss you so much…..

For more of our photos of our trips go to Animal & Blods Spanish adventure

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150300150683302.330634.518003301&type=1

More Anon

Happy New Year

The Eve of Christmas Eve? Well that was a new one on me… as that’s how the news reader announced the news last week. It’s strange to think of it being Christmas time, when we’re sat outside sunning ourselves and having a BBQ while the temperature is regularly in the twenties.

Since our last post it has been a mixture of over eating, drinking and trying to keep fit and that’s not a good mixture, at some point we’ve to stick with one or the other probably the latter. 

We have completed some memorable cycle rides though, first was a 20 mile trip around the Del Hondo Naturel Park by Kay and myself  followed by a good session in the Spa, swimming twenty lengths and a session in the steam & sauna followed by a relaxing Jacuzzi.

We also took the cycling group out to the really pretty town of Cox, a round trip of fifteen miles and we were joined on that trip by a group of Dutch, Belgian and German campers who it seems also enjoyed the ride. 

As we sat there having a coffee break, both Kay and I decided to take some photos for the blog were I ended up being propositioned by two young Spanish Senoritas (see photos) who we think were full of Christmas spirit. The following week we also went to Dolores as the cycle group is now growing; sometimes we have as many as fifteen riders.

Geoff with a Spanish  Señorita   

Sadly I had the rampant one

Cox's Square

Towns convent, now a museum

We went to our previous old camp site at Gudamar, as it was advertised as a Christmas carols and nibbles night. 

Twenty three of us piled into two mini busses and headed off to the Marjal’s old restaurant in Guadamar. Hmm pork chop at a Jewish wedding sprang to mind as the function turned out to be a full blown sit down luncheon meal with entertainment and they had not even put a table aside for us or even bothered to inform us of what was really happening. 

We stood there twiddling our thumbs while the staff ran around like headless chickens trying to get us fitted in. It was not an auspicious start. 

Still we were determined to enjoy ourselves and after a couple of bottles of Vino Tinto had disappeared (followed by a rather large Jack Daniels and coke) I was in full idiot mode. 

We made the decision after that fiasco, that we would steer clear of any organised events with the old site as we had the distinct impression it was a case of them and us from now on.

Several of our friends had returned to the UK to be with their families over Christmas as they’ve had some good cheap flights to the midlands from Alicante, sadly for us there were none to Cardiff and now some of those have returned back here for the New Year.

The New Year was celebrated by some of us visiting our favourite Chinese restaurant the China house where they had an all you could eat menu and some entertainment for only €16 a head. 

The Marjal Site had a black tie do on, but at €65 a head for a meal it was way over the top for us. 

We did end up in the bar on the site to celebrate the arrival of the New Year (Twice), once at 12 o’clock Spanish time and again at one in the morning as it was 12 o’clock UK Time.

So we staggered back to the RV at two in the morning to sleep off the nights revelries. This morning we have been sitting out in the sun once more getting a sun tan, it’s a hard life.

More Anon