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March 2008

Saturday 1st March: Packed up to move to the campsite closer to the dive centre.  Jet Washed Nel on leaving the site then dropped dive kit off at Zoea Dive Centre before booking into Playa de Mazarron at Bolnuevo, a large site with few empty pitches.  Paul cycled off like a man possessed to go diving whilst I nodded and smiled to our German neighbours.  The toilets and showers are fantastic here, with lots of push bikes parked outside - think the many retired people here must get caught short and peddle for a pee!
 

Monday 3rd March: Loud bird song and blue sky! Yippee!

Decided to do some washing today - what a pavlova!

Firstly, locate machine.
Walk to reception to purchase token.

Decide how much can be crammed into machine.
(The cost of the token here also includes powder and softener which is ok as long as you don't mind your washing smelling of cheap disinfectant!)

Back to van, grab washing, and return to machine only to find someone has beaten me to it!
Check timing of other persons washing to be sure to jump in when its my turn, not allowing anyone to jump the queue even if they are twice the size of me and look like they have just chewed a wasp.
Load washing, decipher instructions written in Spanish, German, Dutch and pigeon English.
Walk back to van, tie washing line to what ever it can be tied to, posts, poles, trees, fences, anything will do!
Back to the machine – remembering to take large laundry bag to transport contents.
Struggle back to van with washing now quadrupled in weight in the last 40 minutes and peg it on the line.

Sit back, relax, look around whilst bloomers billow in the wind and remind myself never to moan about doing the washing if the machine is plumbed in the kitchen, next to kettle, telly and telephone!

Look up to see the darkest cloud appear from absolutely nowhere as the Heavens open.
Run around like a loony taking carefully pegged washing off the line.
Open cupboard above table to get electric heater (momentarily forgetting we have been on the road recently and things have a tendency to fall on your head upon opening).
Hang, hook, tie and attach the wet washing to anything it will hang from in the van, open roof vent, plug in heater and create sauna.
Put kettle on - overload power supply & blow fuse!

Trip over electric cable, bang head on door, swear, give up, then remind myself things ain't that bad - at least I don't have to do the ironing - I forgot to bring the iron!!

Later the same evening we were visited by a little stray dog that I had seen foraging around the campsite earlier. We gave him dry biscuits and some water, dirty little thing, filthy but rather cute with his bottom teeth sticking out.  We made a fuss of him (fell in love with him) and named him Perro.  Going inside as night fell, we looked out of the window to see Perro curled up on our door mat!  He was a great guard dog, barking at anyone that went by and we discussed adopting the poor little fellow if he was still there in the morning.  Perro made our decision for us as by the time we awoke he was gone!  Obviously lured away by the smell of a cooked breakfast in preference to our lousy dry biscuits!

Tuesday 4th March: Paul lost the lead for his camera today. Turned entire van (including all the washing) upside down, he eventually found it under his seat after  of course blaming me first!

Walked to the grocery shop in the village for a few bits, its like an Aladdin’s Cave, jam packed with hats, buckets, food, fresh fruit and vegetables, cheap drinkable red wine, the biggest leeks ever to be grown, local heavenly tasting almonds, candles, tea light holders, nic-nacs, nearly everything you can think of.

Thursday 6th March: Walked west along the coast, a beautiful unspoilt area.

Saw unusual colours in layers of the rock and strange shaped rocks sculpted by the sea - Paul found a dinosaur egg!!

Friday 7th March: Went for a bike ride towards the town, still a chilly wind blowing, the sky is blue but there is little heat in the sun. Had a lovely day riding around and exploring.  Rode past some divers working on an archaeological wreck site in the bay.

Saturday 8th March: Paul got up early, gulped down a bowl of cornflakes and was off on his bike to the dive centre!.........

Tuesday 11th March: Left site 9.30 am (world record so far) drove to Zoea divers to pick up (dry, yes, dry for once!) dive kit. Sat waiting for the dive shop to open – we were early – unheard of!

We both discussed how much we had liked Mazarron & Bolnuevo - it's lovely beaches, very well stocked and reasonably priced grocery store!, wonderful walks and cliffs to explore and flattish ground for bike riding.
Headed back to Cabo de Gata National Park.  As we arrived back at Las Negras where we had stopped a few weeks ago, we both commented how different it looks in the sunshine.  We could hardly recognise the place, now calm with a flat sea and blue sky.  Parked up in car park and walked along the beach in the tiny village that time has forgotten to the dive shop.  A sign on the door when translated read "Closed - Gone Diving!" What a place! Its stunning here! Had looked up a camp site that just happens to be within walking distance from the dive centre, so we drove up the almost single track road round a couple of hair pin bends and we both looked down with open mouths at the most stunning cove below us and where the road ended was the campsite. Wow! We said! Look at that! Very much like Cornwall, rugged, beautiful. Booked into Camping Nautica La Caleta, a large flat almost empty site and pitched up with a sea view and mountains surrounding us. Drove back round to the dive centre, to drop off kit and arrange diving.

Its 11.33pm and still 16º. A beautiful clear night, little light pollution - can see millions of stars. Delve into Library and find our ‘Beginner’s guide to stargazing by Sir Patrick Moore’ and both vow to learn more constellations. By the way, its brilliant ‘The Essential Astronomy Map and Guide Pack’ and highly recommended........

Thursday 13th March: Both walked to the dive centre, up and over the hill, very windy today, got there just as dive boat was leaving for the early morning dive. (Keep forgetting we are in Spain and time is different over here!) They were running rather late! so sat outside a tiny Moroccan café watching the dive boat in the shelter of the bay. Waited for the boat to come in.  Paul then kitted up and they were off.  I walked back to the van taking many photos along the way of this most stunning area, its beautiful, what a wonderful walk. There is no one around, its really peaceful, I got followed by two large stray dogs (large stray dogs are not my favourite) and I talked nice and calmly to them as they followed me along the path up on the cliff. If I needed help there was no one around (ok, so its nice to be quiet and peaceful, but also nice to have people around, just in case you need them!). It entered my head to take a photo of them and then if anything happened to me and my camera was found, it would be obvious who was guilty then I decided perhaps I was just being a bit mad and was just a little bit scared. I made it home to the site and to the van without having to wrestle with two large dogs whose front teeth were absolutely huge.
Back from diving, Paul and I went to Reception to ask about booking out in the morning. It’s a beautiful area, a lovely site and the weather is improving, but its also expensive here the site not listed in our discount book, so decided to move on in the morning. Due to the remoteness of this site they couldn’t take card payments so we had to pack the van up making items secure and drive 16km to the nearest cash machine and civilisation being at the town of Campohermoso.
On the return journey we were in high spirits, looking forward to moving on and being on the road again when we approached the campsite and looking down into the cove we both gasped and said at the same time “Where’s Nel?!?!” - Then it dawned on us that we were in her! Driving! It was a really strange experience! We don’t normally leave site once we are set up so it was unusual to see our pitch with no van on it! Well that's our excuse anyway!

Friday 14th March: Left site good time to pick up dive kit from dive centre, parked along a dirt track at top of the beach thinking not in anyone’s way. Chatted to fellows from shop and a dust cart came down the road and onto the dirt track, impatiently hooting its horn as we had blocked its path! Very impatient driver, Paul ran down and moved Nel before it was moved for him! There was only one way to go, further along the track being chased at what looked like high speed by the dust cart!
Sadly leaving Las Negras behind us we headed to Orgiva, a campsite, a road and a journey that had been recommended.  We drove through the Sierra Nevada towards Granada on the A348.  A most awesome journey, with sheer drops on the side of the roads, surrounded by mountains, some snow capped with vast panoramic views all around us - fantastic.  It felt like we had the road to ourselves as we met very little other traffic along the way.
Highly recommend this route to anyone - truly wonderful.
Stopped just past a village called Valor for lunch, then continued on through forests, terraced valleys and other pretty villages before arriving at Orgiva.

Whilst booking into what we thought was the recommended campsite, we realised it was not listed in our discount book, the lady at Reception telling us this happens regularly and that there were in fact two campsites at Orgiva.  We made our apologies and set off to find the correct site, thinking it couldn’t be far away in this small mountain village. Wrong! It turned out to be quite a large town, with lots of one way streets, no visible road signs and no width restrictions warning us of narrow roads ahead. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we managed to find the correct campsite (Puerta de la Alpujarra) having endured a complex road system, men shaking their heads and waving arms, warning that the road ahead was too narrow, a few dead ends, lots of skilled reversing down very narrow roads, many scary moments, a couple of ‘run ups’ to get Nel up steep, slippery cobbled streets, a few swear words, white knuckles and a feeling of will we ever get out of here! Eventually and much later than expected we pulled up to the correct campsite and had a well deserved drink. A drink for the driver having been on the road for nearly six hours and a drink for his near hysterical passenger!!!

Saturday 15th March: Lovely place, lovely site, but weather not good, so decided to move on back down to the coast.  As we continued along the A348 we passed a huge Dam and encountered major road works that seemed to go on for ever.  Immense viaducts being built through the mountains, un-surfaced road sections and temporary diversions that utilised crumbling old bridges, yet unlike the daily traffic chaos we used to endure, not a single hold up or jam!  At one point we were actually waved on under the arm of a working crane.  I closed my eyes and covered my head, all the workmen then cheered as we squeezed through.
Once back down on the coast road Nel guided us back to our spot at Atalaya Park, next to Happy Divers, arriving at 17:15.  Paul put the gas on for the fridge as free parking again without electric and ran round to see the lads, booking himself on a dive in the morning.
I sat on Nel's step in a warm breeze and drank a cold beer whilst admiring the view of Gibraltar and North Africa across the bay in the distance - I had forgotten what a wonderful view it is.  It felt like we had come home.
I greeted the Local Police as they did a three point turn at the end of the road in front of me, thinking that we may be moved on but they just nodded and drove off.

Monday 17th March: Having walked along the beach to collect Paul's dive kit, we sat on the wall outside Nel and ate our cornflakes in glorious sunshine before heading back to Tarifa.  The road along this section of Andalucían coast is beautiful and we marvelled at the return views as we passed Gibraltar with its African backdrop again.

Great to be back in Tarifa.  It’s the Monday before Easter, very busy with cars and people everywhere, very different to what we had left a couple of months ago.

Drove into Port looking for Yellow Sub dive shop.  Having found it and dropped off kit, we drove back out of town along the main road.  Turning off under some trees, we parked up for the night alongside some other vans on a stretch of sand at the top of the beach.  Very windy here and a lot cooler. Sat watching the kite surfers.

Wednesday 19th March: Up good time to be on our way, when about to leave our neighbours decided to come over for a chat!  As they stood telling us their scary tale of being woken by the Guarda Civil at midnight a few nights previous and asked to produce their documents, the Guarda Civil pulled up along side us in their 4x4!  Some time and form filling later, we waved goodbye and drove into town to pick up the dive kit.

As we drove back out through Tarifa, I asked Paul to stop outside a shop that I had seen before and leaving him in the van with a dive related book I went in without an imposed time limit! Wow! What a shop! Clothes from Thailand, India, Nepal, trinkets, jewellery, gemstones, African items, the lot! I was ages and had a wonderful time looking around - felt a bit mean as was in there for so long and only spent a few euros!
Left Tarifa much later than planned and made beeline for Portugal.  We passed Cadiz in heavy rain, saw storks nesting on pylons, made lunch whilst sitting in a traffic jam (good job the Guard Civil weren’t looking) and got held up in Seville's heavy traffic.  Strange, no oranges on trees now - all been harvested.

Crossing the impressive road bridge that spans the Guadiana River between the two countries, we arrived back in Portugal to be welcomed by a massive storm and heavy rain.  Whilst trying not to think of the sunshine we had left behind in Spain we headed for Quarteira and the site we had left behind us on New Years Day.  After a five and half hour drive, discussing where we had been, what we had seen and how much we had done since leaving, we couldn’t believe our eyes as we drove around the site looking for a pitch to see our old neighbours still there!

They waved and came over for a chat, saying they liked it here so much and had stayed put since before Christmas!  Even their deck chairs were in the same position!

Changed watches back one hour, same time as UK now.

Thursday 20th March: Had scary moment this morning with a nasty looking green spider in bathroom cabinet – never seen anything like it!  Unfortunately it died during the battle to remove him.  Have since tried to look the species up in a book but to no avail - it was an alien beastie!

Having received a text invite, we drove up to São Bràs de Alportel, stopping on the way to stock up with beer, chocolate and other goodies.  We arrived back at Grant & Tams and parked up on “Our Pitch”.  It was great to see them again and we spent the afternoon & evening chatting and enjoying our hosts beautiful surroundings and ever generous hospitality. It was so exciting to be back.

Friday 21st March: Good Friday

Had a delicious Good Friday Breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs and fresh juicy ripe tomatoes and ate it out on the deck by the pool.  Paul and I marvelled at the view, with the sun shimmering on the ocean in the distance. It is a truly wonderful pad!

Saturday 22nd March: Rode down to São Bràs de Alportel to explore this pretty market town.  Tied bikes up and wandered around looking at the mix of old and new buildings.

Arriving back at Grant & Tams, Grant talked us in to staying with them till Monday - they had a large pork joint that they needed some help to eat and he pointed out that we may have difficulty booking into a site, it being Easter Sunday.  We didn’t need any further persuasion!!

Sunday 23rd March: Easter Sunday.

Cycled into town again to witness a wonderful flower festival; the streets were paved with petal patterns and all the men paraded through the town holding floral torches and cried out Alleluia, Alleluia Alleluia, in a very strange monotone chant.  It was great and then back to Grant & Tam's for the huge roast pork & crackling dinner with smashing roast potatoes – delicious!  Followed by a traditional Portuguese Easter cake decorated with hard boiled eggs (still in their shells!), set into the top of the cake! Lovely cake but the shells were a bit crunchy!

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Monday 24th March: Normal day, not a bank holiday here.

Time to move on.  Having now celebrated both Christmas and Easter with Grant & Tam we would like to thank them again for their hospitality, food, drink, chocolate and fun that we shared! We joked we shall see them on the next Bank holiday!  We said our goodbyes whilst warming Nel up in readiness for the hill at the end of their lane.

Found a site in our discount book that we want to check out before Mum & Dad arrive on 3rd April.

Arrived at the Orbitur Valverde site just outside Praia de Luz and set up camp.  We walked down into the nearby village.  It’s beautiful, a beach of golden sand, fringed by palm trees, a lovely path along the front with a couple of cafes and bars.

Tuesday 25th March: Went on massive exploration of the area on bikes, riding first to Luz then back to Lagos, the larger town, along the hard shoulder of the main road.  Rode up hills and round roundabouts to dead ends and pretty beaches, then down towards the town, passing another campsite next to a football pitch, not particularly pretty but great for exploring the town, went along dirt track and came out at the famous rocks at Ponta da Piedade, where the sea has eroded the cliffs to create stunning pillars and beautiful grottos. Turned around and went back down through the walled city with its cobbled streets and many narrow roads, out and along the riverside prom, over the bridge to the marina and to a dive shop at the far end.  We picked up lots of maps and guides along the way.  Passing the turning to our current site on the return, we continued along the main road up a massive hill to check out another campsite - Turiscampo at the village of Espiche, from there back down through the village of Luz again and home to Nel just as it was getting dark, having ridden 21 miles!

Over the next few days we travelled up and down the Algarve coast, exploring many of its beautiful towns, villages and beaches.

We got lost in Portimão before staying a couple of nights on a site at Amaҫão de Perra.

Saturday 29th March: Drove back along the coast road heading west again, still exploring, stopping at Ferragudo on some waste land next to some other vans.  To our left, the pretty fishing village with boats bobbing around in the little harbour along side the mouth of the river Arade and to our right and in stark contrast, the massive modern town of Portimão on the opposite bank.  On the way out, we saw a sign saying the rough ground we had parked on is to be turned into a massive new marina complex – we couldn’t believe it!  Drove back towards Luz and booked into our chosen Turiscampo site at Espiche in readiness for my parents arrival.

Saw a reminder written to ‘Our Dearest Guests’ pinned on the shower block door informing us the clocks go forward tonight - we were pleased of the reminder!

Sunday 30th March: Asked to see a bungalow for when my folks arrive and a man took us up on a golfing buggy to the top of the site to see inside the accommodation, it was great fun!  The bungalows are really nice, modern and clean, with table and chairs on a sun deck and a handy clothes airer – I shall borrow that! I thought.

Paid for 7 days wi-fi, only for it to run out within an hour due to an error.  No broad band at this site, so the connection is painfully slow.

Monday 31st March: 4 am mozzie alert!  Turned van upside down, found the culprit and killed it.

Warm and sunny today, that’s more like it!

Spoke to my sister Nic on the phone for her birthday today, she is going to London with her family and our parents to see the sites – wish I was there with them!  Felt a little bit home sick, then remembered I am home!

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