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Well Christ only knows how long it's been since the last post! Internets been crap, I've been sore with me ribs and have been getting my website and YouTube channel up n running. Been a busy old month. We're still in Castillo De Banos but are getting close to being ready for the next move. I want to get some more riding done in the Sierra Nevada yet, as the ribs cost me almost 3 weeks of riding. After that, we're off down towards Malaga. Just to the south west hopefully, so as we are in good distance of all the important stuff. Good walks, good mountain biking and a LIDL! We'll also be taking our first visitor down there. Dad is heading over from bonny Scotland for a few weeks which will be ace. Can't wait for him to make a few fry ups!!!! Erin and dogs doing good. Still loving it on this peaceful site and are enjoying some incredibly cheap rates for a long term stay. Won't type much more as I've lost 3 posts while writing them in the last month. Hence the big gap! Hope alls well with you folks! TTFN!!!

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Ola folks! Just a little update as we moved sites yesterday to a little village called Castillo de Banos. We're right by the sea again though it's still very hilly here and the weather is a balmy 20 degrees almost every day. This is the first place we've stopped where the outside pool is open! Interesting departure from the Sierra Nevada yesterday. The hill out of the site was sooooo steep and I had to rag the car to get out! Just about made it but the car did just physically stop it was so steep. My aim was to get the clutch out, go as fast as I could and not stop at all costs to avoid a hill start (and a burnt out clutch). The car not having enough grunt for the hill put pay to that idea! I had to rev the tits off the car and ride the clutch to get over the crest of the steepest bit, but I did it quick enough to avoid any damage. We got here and set up in good enough time yesterday to hunt down the closest Lidl (our fav shop in case you hadn't noticed)! While driving home we were talking about how lucky we feel to be on the trip and able to do it without worrying about money. Erin said: "Its great travelling in a caravan. I wouldn't want to stay in one of those grubby hostels....... I bet they nick your biscuits!" I was in hysterics for ages. Of all the things you could have nicked at a hostel: your passport, your wallet, your phone but no, Erin's more concerned about her chocolate digestives! Pics above are of the new site. Pretty sweet little setup and a lovely feel to the place. You can hear the waves breaking and birds chirping all the time. Everyone is 60 or above I would say, so we're the youngest campers by far. They're all really friendly. Only draw back so far is that it rains mud here! We woke up to a brown caravan this morning so I've spent a few hours washing it and the car today. Luckily there's no rain on any of the forecasts now going out 10 days. The local market was today and they have rotisserie chicken which is a bit of a result! It's bleddy hansom. I've managed to sneak a pic of one of these massive tour buses some folk have. You can't really get a feel for how long it is but it's big! They have these compartments that they can extend out of the side as well to open it up inside. The kitchen pushes out and the bedroom I guess. They're pretty impressive but just so huge. Must be murder getting them around some of these smaller sites and towns. That's about it for now. Will have some more pics in a few days and we've got a lot of site seeing planned for here, so there should be some good ones! TTFN!!!

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Hello chaps! Hope alls good in your worlds.

Another little update from sunny Spain! We’ve had a good couple of active days. I was out on the bike yesterday. I thought the elevation profile above from my Strava was pretty funny and representative of most rides here. Slog uphill for ages (in this case 5 miles solid without so much as a flat bit) and then bomb it back down in the blink of an eye!

Today we went out for a pretty epic 5 or 6 mile hike with the dawgs! It was tough going but really nice to wonder around the valley past some great (empty) houses and lovely little plots of land. The landscape is really great here. Dry but not too sparse with great little bush things. Something in-between a succulent and a bush. Hard to explain but they’re home to the little lizards which we saw another two of today. I really like the, what feels like, abundance of wildlife here in Spain. I don’t think it’s abundant by comparison to the UK, just more of a novelty. I really enjoy seeing lizards and snakes whilst out wandering about. Every rustle I hear in the hedges next to me while walking along, makes me stop, look and listen in the hope of seeing something new (not that! you monsters)!

I’ve also been seeing a lot of these mountain goats they have here. Will have to look up the name again online but they’re pretty common in the Sierra Nevada over 5 or 6000 feet. They look like something between a goat and a small deer I reckon, and they get themselves into some pretty sketchy places on the hills. I’ve seen them a few times and had to double take at how steep the ground is they’re standing on. Nutters!

Was happy to read there are no Bears here, having been a bit freaked out on my bike the other day by massive piles of poo, and what felt like, very beary surroundings. Those are up in the Pyrenees which is something to look forward to. They’re pretty rare and limited to the western and eastern sides of a particular mountain range up there so we’d probably be lucky to see one. I think there’s only 300 odd altogether. They’re like a miniature version of the iconic Brown Bears you picture in your head when you think of the beasts in America and Canada. The males here get up to around 200kg and the females only 80kg or so. Still, I don’t fancy tangling with a big male when we’re back up there. I really had no idea there were Bears in Spain before we got here. I knew there are black bears further east in Europe, but not this close! Mazing! There are wolves here too somewhere I believe but I won’t google that!

That’s about it for the minute. We’re here till Thursday, then we move further to the west and back on the coast. The draw of the good weather is becoming too much to resist. It’s 20 degrees everyday down there and our tans need topping up. We’re going to be just outside a town called Motril, due south of Granada. From there we can get to the Nerja Caves, Alhambra Castle and some other site seeing spots we want to see. Some good photos to comes!

TTFN!!!

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Thinking about doing the blog in a more, little and often fashion, and post most days but a little less wordy with more pics. So, today! Today I got up and enjoyed my coffee in the warm morning sun, looking out over the hills, savouring the good weather before it turns tomorrow. After the bread van had been with our croissant and baguette, we took the dawgs up the hill for a good stank as they've been particularly wound up for a few days. On the walk, surrounded by Cherry Blossoms (Erin's fav in Spain) and the dry / semi desert landscape, I was on the lookout for any snakes or creepy crawlies. It's exactly the kind of landscape I'd try and recreate in our old reptile tanks at home, so I was loving it. It's the Spanish version of looking for crabs on the beach back home. Whilst walking back, I could hear this rustling in a small bush thing that stopped when I stopped walking. I watched and waited for a few seconds, only to see the little lizard in the second to last picture leaping up with all his might, trying to get a grip on the rock above so he could do some basking to thermoregulate. He eventually made it and that's when we got this shot. He was about 6 or 7cm long including his tail, and didn't seem too bothered by us looming over him. Can't find the species as I reckon he's a baby and looks different as an adult. After the lovely walk we went to ALDI for a bit of shopping and made a homemade curry for tea. Now settled in for the night, ready for 4 or 5 days of bad weather. Still going out on the bike tomorrow though, fuck it, I'm not that soft yet! Thunderstorms forecast for next Wednesday, which is not a favourite in the caravan, but hopefully that will change over the next week. That's all for now. TTFN🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸

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Photo update from the Sierra Nevada!

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12/02/2017 – Ola from the Sierra Nevada!

Hello folks. Hope all is well in your worlds.

It’s been a big gap since the last post, which is usually a sign of how content we are with our day-to-day. We forget to even do the blog with so little in the way of responsibilities apart from the basics (shopping, washing, bog emptying etc). We’re now in one of my most anticipated destinations in Spain, the Sierra Nevada! The drive in was another interesting one, though nowhere near as bad as the run into the Pyrenees when we first got to Spain. Tight bends, narrow roads, huge drops off the side of the road and very steep hills! When we finally pulled into our campsite, just above a lovely little village called Laroles, we were at a dizzying 3900 feet (ish). With the altitude comes the most fantastic view and because no one comes up here this time of year, we got the pick of pitches. We went for the one closest to the edge and pulled up side on so our “patio” is overlooking the valley below. On top of the scenery, the lovely little campsite and the local mountain biking, it’s also much warmer than I’d expected. In the last post, I said I was expecting cold and that no one else could believe we were coming up this far. As it turns out it’s 15 degrees most days and because you’re so high up, the sun feels much warmer. Perfect! We like it so much that instead of the staying 1 week as planned, we’ve now negotiated a good price for the month and are probably staying till the end of February!

So, let’s get down to business. Mountain biking (everyone sighs). The mountain biking is very good but these Spanish boys are sadistic fuckers! They have BTT routes here in the Sierra Nevada, some of which pass right through Laroles. I think I mentioned these before as they had them in the Pyrenees and the Costa Brava. They’re basically cross country routes but are pretty variable. They can have good downhill sections, massive climbs, be very extreme, be very boring and vary from 5 miles to 50. Here at part way up the Sierra Nevada mountain range the climbing is just mental – as you’d expect I guess. On Friday I spent over 2 hours (a good bit of that resting!) riding 10 miles up a hill climbing 3100 feet in total and reaching a highest altitude of 6121 feet. For most people this is misery, as Erin reminded me, but I don’t mind it. I don’t try and break any records when climbing, for me it’s just a means to get fit and get to the good downhill bits. For the local riders, they just seem to want to ride up these ridiculous hills as fast as they can, causing themselves as much pain as possible! They literally get up these hills 2 or 3 times faster than I can and I know it must hurt. I just don’t know how they push themselves on like that!

I read somewhere the other day, that climbing on the bike doesn’t get easier, you just get faster. Same with running I guess. It does get a bit easier I reckon, but once you get half fit you push on harder which makes it hard as nails again. What goes through these guy’s minds when they’re climbing up gravel tracks that make Furry Way in Helston look like a gentle slope, I do not know. For me it was a bit of a slog but good fun. I pushed a few sections where I literally couldn’t keep the front wheel on the ground but rode most of it, then I reaped the rewards of my hard work with some wicked downhill. No falling off and no flat tyres. Just me, my bike, a long gravel track, some trees, some goats and even a bit of snow. Bleddy hansom!

Laroles is a lovely little place. Everything happens at a snail’s pace (apart from the driving!) and I like it! The shop has everything you need but without the choice overload. It’s not the best idea to try and do a full week’s shop in one hit. The secret is to go 2 or 3 times a week as they have different meats and veg in the shop of varying freshness on any given day, but I like that too! We’ve been trying to get to the village markets without much success, as this is where to get your veg. We were about to leave to a market on Sunday last week, but just before we were about to leave the wind got up. Before we knew it, we were packing away everything outside, battening down the hatches and riding out 30 – 40 mph winds! That was an interesting day! Then I headed out to a village on Monday but it was tiny. A few hundred people for a guess so there wasn’t much there. Next attempt was on Thursday and it was much better!

Orgiva is a town just over an hour’s drive to the west of us. It’s famous for the hippy community that resides in the area, so we had to have a look. The drive over was fun because ‘Sally Satnav’ took us on a diversion over the top of a bleddy mountain, but at least the views were good. It’s strange looking down at the sea from 4000 or 5000 feet because the horizon is so much higher up. On a hazy day, it’s hard to tell where the water ends and the sky begins! We pulled into the car park near the market and got the only space left. There were cars everywhere. The market was exactly what we’d hoped for! I left Erin in the car with the dogs and went on the hunt for food as we hadn’t eaten breakfast. I came back with exactly what I was looking for, a rotisserie chicken and portion of chips which is my favourite part of these markets. The chicken is so delicious! After that, we took Bear (and left Charlie because he hates dogs and busy places) and wondered around the market for an hour. It was so much fun. There were; veg stalls, spices, clothes, aromatherapy oils, handmade crafty stuff, sweets, and much much more. We stocked up on veg and got some goodies while soaking up the lovely relaxing atmosphere. It really was relaxing too. The hippies were exactly how hippies should be. Chilled to the core! There was a woman meditating on a car boot lid, hippies sat about chatting (and smoking!), some hippies dancing a tango in the town square to no music and I even got chatting to an English chap from Milton Keynes, who when it came to say goodbye, told me to “enjoy my journey”. Not trip, or travels, but journey! I liked that too! A good day was had by all, even Charlie, who chilled out in the shaded car without Bear pissing him off for an hour! I like to think he sat and read his book as I fancy Charlie as a bit of a book worm.

I also soaked up a little of the Spanish hospitality yesterday while Erin took an afternoon snooze. Some folks that stayed here last weekend from Almeria came back this weekend to collect their van. Like us, they have a manual car but unlike me, the guy can’t tow with a manual car. The hill out of here is pretty steep and instead of just getting the clutch out and powering up the hill, he made the fatal mistake of riding the clutch. There was soon a very clutchy odour and lots of people stood around the car with the bonnet up. Anyway, they came back to get the van this weekend and stopped one night. Before they left yesterday they did a big Paella for another couple and Tino (the campsite manager) and his wife on the communal BBQ. While they were cooking, they sent over their daughter to invite us “to eat paella with us”, which was lovely given we hadn’t even spoke to them before that. I left Erin in the van snoozing with the dogs and headed over to eat their food and even had half a glass of the local red! It was great having a natter with them, talking food and sampling the paella, blood sausage, rabbit and tapas for an hour before announcing my departure. Before I could leave, the wife of the guy who cooked the paella shot off and told me to wait. When she came back, she was carrying two massive Chinese takeaway containers which the husband loaded up with all the remaining paella. He handed both over to me, giving me instructions on how to microwave it for our evening meal! Like I said, Spanish hospitality, it was quite lovely.

Not much else to tell I don’t think. Will add all the pictures from the market, bike rides etc below. We’re here for another couple of weeks probably, depending on how the weather goes. We had a bit of rain yesterday and the forecast is starting to look a little worse. If we head back to the coast and towards Malaga, we’ll be in 20 degrees enjoying the sun every day. It is getting tempting as nice as it is in the mountains.

Thats all folks.

TTFN!!!

PS - Can’t get photos to upload. will try again later

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26/01/2017 - Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Ola people! I trust all is well in your worlds.

Before I start with the update, I have 2 messages and a piece of news. First, Happy Birthday to my big bro Benjamin who is 36 today (hahaha). Second, good luck to my little sis Flora who is performing in "Legally Blonda" the musical in the lead part no less, over this weekend. Amazing! All my sibs are either getting very successful, starting jobs and careers, living it up in cities, driving, drinking in pubs or getting closer and closer to the big 4-0 (Ben and I, Ben more than me though!). Scary stuff! Third is the news. I shaved my beard of this week in a moment of madness and now deeply regret it. I am genuinely upset that I now find myself bare faced and have started the pain staking process of regrowing the thatch. If you could all just be mindful of the difficult and upsetting situation I find myself in, it would be much appreciated.  

Not much has occurred over here in Spain. Still at the same site just outside a town called Aguilas. We've been here just over 2 weeks now and I'm ready to move on! The weathers been great other than 4 days of serious wind and rain last week, the site is nice, but I don't like the area that much. Mountain biking, which as you all know by now is high up my list of priorities, has been shit here. Seriously shit. All wide gravel roads, private land and dead end climbs up hills. I've had some pretty disastrous rides over the 2 weeks here, the last of which was yesterday during my birthday ride. 

I had it all planned to do this coastal ride I'd found in a local tourist book. Starting at a place called Cabo Cope, I’d be riding up to Puntas de Calnegre then back down to Cabo Cope. A 19 miler which I pictured being something like riding a narrow coastal path in Cornwall, or so I thought. The reality was not even close. I rode 7 miles of boring wide gravel track (AGAIN), at which point the route ahead had collapsed in front of me where the cliff had selfishly slid into the sea, leaving me nowhere to go but back where I came from! To add insult to injury, I decided to take a detour and head down into a cove, but got a little bit carried way on the decent and stacked it onto some rocks after hitting some sand. 

Crashing relatively hard is funny thing. At almost 6 foot 4 inches and weighing in at reasonable heavy weight boxer kg's, I'm not the most agile. I get hit with three categories of pain. First, which we'll call "the rag dolling phase" is the initial jarring of the impact, wheel digging in, or whatever is throwing me from my bike. It's a bit like mini whiplash and just makes you feel like you've pulled muscles or strained tendons or ligaments. It's during this one that I make my obligatory girly noise. It's kind of a high pitched wince. Like you've taken a punch in the gut that's winded you, but you don't want to let on that you're hurt. I do that mid air. The second, which we'll call "the sack of shit phase" is obviously hitting the deck. This is usually either a hard knock to bony bits like knees and elbows, further jarring or some nice gravel, rock or rock rash. The third comes while in a pile on the ground. We'll call this "the moment of truth phase". This comes in like an unwanted belated birthday card as your brain runs through the damage you've done and decides which it needs to tell you about in order of priority. This is when you find out if something's broken or just a bit battered. All you can do is lie down or walk it off and see if there's any serious damage. That's the not so fun bit. Especially given your dickhead of a brain will often scream at you about some road rash while your foot is pointing the wrong way. The damage I always check for first, is damage to my pride. I jump up like nothing's happened, pick up the bike and start pushing while looking around for any unwanted witnesses. Once I know I'm in the clear, I check the most important thing, my bike. Once that's taken care of, I lie back down and let the pain wash over me before moving the sore bits to check for serious damage. Luckily I've never done much more than jar my neck, sprain a wrist of give myself some gravel rash. The bike doesn't always do so well. I've bent a crank, bent a set of handle bars, snapped a peddle off and buckled a wheel to name a few. 

Anyway, enough of that. The riding here is shit so the next stop is The Sierra Nevada to make up for it. 

The Sierra Nevada, for those who don't know, is a mountain range in the south of Spain with a highest point of 11,411 feet. This time of year the ski resort near the top is in full operation if it's not too warm. During the summer months the same lifts are used to transport mountain bikers up the mountain. Luckily, the slopes lower down the hill are covered in trails and see very little snow, so the riding is still some of the best in Spain. The only down side is that we'll be in land and at a higher altitude meaning the temperature will be much cooler. Erin's agreed to the colder weather for a week (so far) as I've been talking about the Sierra Nevada since before we left. I hope it lives up to the hype! 

What else? We've got the usual array of people on this site that I've given not so PC names to. I won’t tell you the names but there's the woman up the way that claims someone kicked her dog the other day. This I doubt as she seems a bit mental and the dog looks like a good sneeze would kill it. There's the English neighbour who's really nice but always has something to complain about. There's the Swedish couple who were dog walking on their travels somewhere and saw a fucking Brown Bear right next to them in the woods! They had to stop and stay perfectly still until the Bear got bored and wondered off! Holy frigging shit! 

The dawgs are good. We're struggling to find good food for them here or even to stay consistent from one bag to the next. This latest bag has made Bear particularly pungent. Some days it feels like my eye balls are going to fall out! I was fast asleep on the bed the other day with Bear next to me farting away. Unbeknown-st to me, during the night, Bear had turned around leaving my face at the business end of a very smelly English Bulldog, on food that turns his bum into a radioactive fallout zone. Instead of telling me, Erin just lay there and watched in disbelief, unable to believe the blasts from Bear weren't waking me up. Little fart story for you there.

Bear also had his jabs this week. No appointment needed, just rock up and get seen to in no time. Awesome! Erin took him in and apparently he got a good reception from the male vets in the building. They were all talking fast in Spanish while fussing him, but Erin made out the word "Amigo" said lots of times.

What else!? Oh, I came back from a trip to the supermarket today, only to be told that one of the guys trimming the palm trees here took a leak in front of all the caravans on ours and another row, even though there's a bog 50 metres away. These boys will piss anywhere, anytime with any audience. Little piss story for you there. ` 

What else!? All the usual really. Some nice walks which I'll add some photos of, bit of sunbathing, reading, watched the Matrix Films, eating, sleeping in and chilling out. We even had fish n chips as they do fish n chip Friday here, which has just made me realise it's fish n chip Friday again tomorrow!!!! Woohoo!!!! 

Update - just checked with Erin and we won’t be having fish n chips tomorrow. I forgot it was 16 euros! 4 euros more than it costs us to stay here for 1 night!

I think that's it folks. Next update from the Sierra Nevada!

Don’t forget -  “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” St Augustine.  

TTFN!!!

The coast just north of Cabo Cope

In order left to right - Luke, Bears arsehole and Erin.

Erin on the beach

Luke on the beach

Looking back towards Cabo Cope

The rain in Spain!

The usual seating arrangment

The hill we “almost” walked up!

Beautiful tree in barren land

The cuteness

My excited beardless face, pre birthday ride

Saga holiday gone wrong - zoom in

The view from my crash site

Hobbits? 

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15/01/2017 – Everyone survive Friday the 13th?

Hello anyone and everyone. I hope the last week has been a good one in spite of the poor weather and the January blues. I hope you all survived Friday the 13th unscathed! 

All’s normal on the magical mystery tour and we’re now a little further south, just outside a town called Aguilas in the Murcia region of Spain. We’ve dropped on a pretty nice campsite after dipping our toes in the very tourism orientated Benidorm / Alicante region. The price is good too which is always a bonus, especially after getting stung for £50 for electricity over an 8-day period at the last place! We had a windy but incident free drive down to the new site, and have settled in nicely.

The Site – is run by an English couple that I’m yet to meet, but seem very nice from what Erin says. They take in abandoned dogs and have amassed quite a pack by all accounts. The head honcho seems to be a wily old character named Merlin who I christened “Dickhead-Dog” after our first encounter! He came wondering over to our awning mat on the first day, and after having a good sniff about, decided to take a piss on the corner of our wind break and on Bears bed. I ran him off and we haven’t had any running’s since. He seems like a pretty cool dude even given his bad first impression. He’s got the run of the place and spends his days sitting with various campers (getting fed no doubt) and taking himself for strolls around the site and the nearby back roads. Another little female dog (kind of a sausage dog / beagle thing) called Maggie comes wondering up every now and then. She’s really sweet and shy. She’ll look at you like she’s trying to hold back her excitement with her tail pinned between her legs until you show her any kind of attention and then the head goes down with her big eyes looking up and her tail comes out and goes mad. She loves a fuss but also tends to dine and dash. I’ve started giving her treats and as soon as she’s got what she came for, it’s off back home to eat it.

It’s got everything we need here with the bogs and washing facilities but without all the crap that draws in the crowds. There must be 40 or 50 touring pitches set on this gravelly stuff, the landscape is pretty typical of Spain (what we’ve seen of it so far) with hills in all directions and everyone’s pretty friendly. It’s the usual mix of nationalities but there seem to be more folk from the UK over wintering now than before Christmas. There are next to no Spanish campers whereas before Christmas there were loads. There’s a few Dutch, some French then the odd Bulgarian or eastern European vans. Mostly English or Scottish though.

The Area – is nice but there is much exploring to be done in the 3 weeks we’re here. We’re struggling to find good walks and I’m struggling to find good rides because of all the private land. A hell of a lot of crops are grown here. So far, I’ve seen acres and acres of lettuce, tomatoes, oranges and I think some lemons. There are polythene tunnels and tents as far as the eye can see in some places with people working the land day and night. There are no hedges like back home so you get a clearer view of what’s being done. There are tractors to do the ploughing and what not, but most of the work is hands on picking and putting down seeds. I saw a bunch of older Spanish ladies pushing massive trolleys into the polythene covered fields having a laugh and a bit of banter. All the polythene tents and tunnels just make me think of E.T and the X-Files. I reckon it’s a big cover up!

As nice as it is to see the land providing for the population, it does get on my tits how much harder it is to explore the area. There are some lovely hills just waiting to be walked and ridden, yet all the surrounding areas are private with gates and signs all over the place. Tracks that look like they’ve been winding around the hills long before these guys added access roads off them, are gated and signs put up all over the shop. It also means that when you do eventually find an open route up the hill, there are no footpaths or trails to follow as no one walks up there and there’s no livestock wandering about. After a long climb on the bike a few days ago, looking forward to reaping the rewards of my work on some lovely downhill single-track or footpaths, I was greeted at the top by the road just ending at a house. I ended up dropping into a dried-up riverbed and following that down the valley but it was pretty rough going. I managed to find a good trail book for hiking and biking on the coast and in the local hills so I’ve got some adventures lined up. Can’t wait! Didn’t go out on the bike today and the days don’t feel complete without an adventure at least every other day which is good. It means I’m craving time outdoors which is the first time I’ve properly had that feeling since living in Wales!

Our first trip into town didn’t give a great impression. Lots of graffiti and a shitty beach that doesn’t allow dogs. On our second trip in we got further into the centre and it actually became quite nice. There’s a communal park thing in the middle of town surrounded by coffee shops and places to get food. It felt very Spanish and social with folk of all ages sat blethering, the women in their typical feisty fashion! The gals here take no shit, that is for sure! Erin keeps seeing lads trying to cut in line at Lidl only to get a bollocking from some Spanish bird and getting sent to the back!

The winds picked up over the last few days. We’re quite exposed here and it’s coming through at 15mph most the time with gusts over 20mph. A Spanish lady in L’Estartit warned us that the wind gets up after Christmas here and she wasn’t wrong. The temperature’s been pretty stable at between 15-19 degrees, but that drops down this week for a few days and we’ve even got 2 days of showers forecast. Shocker!!!

What else! Just reading through the post and it’s all a bit boring! Be nice to see some more likes and comments if you have anything to ask about what’s going on. Not getting so much feedback (apart from Mum – thanks Mum!!) so it’s starting to feel like no one’s reading anymore!

Anyway, sorry for the big gap since the last one! Will check back in after a few of my upcoming rides and after a few trips up some hills with the dogs!

I’ve also started using my Instagram account @luke_on_2wheels to post loads of pics of the trip, so it’s worth a look if have an account.

Here’s some pics for those that don’t use Instagram.

Some from the last site: -

Benidorm from the hills

Puig Campana hiding in the clouds

Nice little shack! Location Location Location!

Gotta stay hydrated!

Some beautiful single track that I spend my rides hunting for. And it’s dusty instead of muddy!

Erin chilling on the awning mat as we aren’t using the awning at the moment.

The new site just outside Aguilas: -

Morning coffee on the mat.

Lots of work!

Lots of lettuce!

Lots of oranges

Out riding. 

TTFN!!!

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Nearly ran the wee snakey over on my mountain bike 🐍🚲

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Forgot the up to date map. Google maps only lets you put so many points in so this isn’t the exact route we took but gives you an idea. 

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05/01/2017 - Ola from La Vila Joiosa - Alicante!

Happy New Year folks! 2017 is upon is and I've not noticed any celebs die so far which means we're off to a flyer. 

We really are off to a flyer actually and I'm having a really great couple of days. We moved to this campsite just outside Benidorm in a village called La Vile Joiosa on the 2nd as kind of a pit-stop before the south coast and I really like it here. Not Benidorm itself particularly but the surrounding area and weather! The site itself is very "efficient" in that it's all very clean and tidy, access in and out is great, the pitches are all very symmetrical and square and there's a big reception and restaurant. Not very picturesque or wild but it has a very nice panoramic view of the mountains to the north and serves as a great base camp to explore them. We've not set up the awning this time as we've decided to use the week to get a good tan on. It's nice not to have that job to do on arrival and before leaving and a windbreak gives us plenty of privacy.

During the drive down we got our first proper wobble on while towing the van. I was doing about 55mph overtaking a lorry when a car shot past going at least 95-100mph. The combination of the suction between us and the lorry (where their wide slip stream envelopes us during the overtakes) and the sudden rush of air from the car zooming past started the wobble and boy did it take a while to settle. As we were heading downhill I just eased off the accelerator to maintain our speed and see what it did, ready to hit the accelerator if it got any worse. It just seemed to last for ages not getting any better or worse before it finally settled. The stabiliser did its bit and stopped any lateral movement at the top of the van taking it of vertical (a proper wobble) and the movement was side to side at the bottom like the van was trying to turn. Wouldn't say a close one but certainly close enough that I'll ease off the overtaking, especially when it's gert big lorries!

In the last few days since getting here we've pretty much just sunbathed, walked the dogs or I've been out on the bike. Yesterday's adventure took me north on a trail around the hills and a lake with a dam crossing thrown in. In the 19 miles covered and 1600 feet of accent I took in some lovely scenery and loved every minute. I did however soon realised the route would be much more fun ridden in reverse. I did most of the 1600 feet of climbing on techy single-track or gravel roads and all the descending on tarmac! I like off road climbing but given the choice of one or the other I ascend on the road and descend on the dirt so tomorrow I'll do the same route backwards! I also bumped into a couple of Spanish chaps out on their motorbikes. A modern BMW Scrambler style thing and a nice Harley. I stopped and chatted while taking photos of the bikes. It was great to meet some bikers but it gave me a real pang for a motorbike. I do miss the motorbike.

Here’s some pics of my last ride in Les Cases on the 31st December when I lost and found (the next day) my spares bottle with £100 of stuff in and the ride above from yesterday: -

Les Cases 29th December

First ride La Vila Joiosa

For most of the ride I could see the mountain "Puig Campana" which I was fixated on during the drive in and constantly stare up at from the campsite. I got to see it from the west this time but it's most spectacular view is from the south. Worth reading the Wikipedia listing about it as it kind of has 3 peaks, two of which are separated by this notch. There are legends about how it got their and one is that the chunk was cut out and knocked into the sea during a sword fight! Some bleddy sword and some bleddy boy to knock that out!!! I'd love to walk up it but at 4613 feet it's a pretty serious day and I'd want to take a proper day sack with a bivi bag in case I couldn't get back down before nightfall. Plus you'd want to climb it with someone and I don't think Erin's keen on going up, plus we couldn't drag the dogs up there. I'll just have to settle for staring longingly up at it and remind myself how much of a bastard it'd be to get up (but worth it!). I took it for granted climbing with Dad when I was a kid and now as an adult I'd love his skills to come guide me safely to the top!

Some photo’s of Puig Campana

Being in between Benidorm and Alicante we're obviously pretty spoilt in terms of what's on offer locally. We had a KFC on the first night, our first takeaway in a month or so, and yesterday we headed out for a lounger and some other bits. The shopping centre / mall type thing was still very much in Christmas mode which was weird! Lights and decorations everywhere and Christmas music blaring out of the speakers. I quite enjoyed having a look about though. I think if I lived in America I'd be like a teenage girl always heading to the mall for shopping and food! Anyway, by the time we'd been into Benidorm for the lounger, Erin had been for a look in the shopping centre and booked herself in for a hair cut, I'd been in the shopping centre for a look and Erin had done the Lidl shop, over 3 hours had passed! By this time it was dark and I was flagging having not eaten enough after my ride, so grumpy Luke came out to play closely followed by grumpy hungry Erin. Big day yesterday and a good sleep was had by all. Today it was sunbathing most the day then a walk with dogs after the worst of the heat had gone. We need to get our tan on as we’re still pretty white!

I’ve just asked Erin if we’ve got any funny stories as I couldn’t think of any which is strange. She’s reminded me of loads, most of which involve me being too deep in “travelling mode” leading onto me doing stupid things. 

1st is the Cockerel here. He’s fucking mental. I reckon he’s in his twilight years and snoozes on his rocking chair too much, losing track of time. Sometimes he does a “cockadoodledooooooo” in the morning when he’s supposed to, but never at the same time. He’ll have a go in the afternoon most days when he loses track of time and thinks it’s morning. Middle of the night is a popular time when he obviously just jumps the gun a bit. He also changes pitch mid performance, almost like a key change but less controlled or deliberate. When he goes off in the day its like he hasn’t cleared his throat. He just wakes suddenly, thinks “fuck I’m late”, and tries to belt one out instantly. Then every now and then he just goes mental and doesn’t stop for half an hour or more. He’s a character, that is for sure, and I’d love to go over and meet him! He’s a bit of a legend in fact.

The other one was my trip to the campsite shop here. Wondered in, asked for a baguette, bottle of water and bottle of milk. He presented me with a 12 inch baguette, a litre of milk and 1.5 litres of water then asked for 8 quid! As you do in these situations I asked “HOW MUCH”, to which he confirmed the same price which was shortly followed by me giving him the fucking money! I always do that. I just go all dazed and instead of saying “That’s too much, I won’t bother”, I just pay, and wander home in a daze. Then I tell Erin and get a swift bollocking! Would’ve cost about 3 quid in Lidl! Then I get mad and don’t want to talk about it. 

Then there’s my new tactic for scaring off potential neighbours. The pitch next to us is empty and it’s busy here with lots of people walking around with the site map checking out the pitches. If anything big parks next to us they’ll block the 10:30 to 12:00 sun and we’ll have to wait till the afternoon to commence sunbathing. To combat this, I’ve started sunbathing in my pants. I’ll pop up from behind our wind break if I hear folk browsing the pitch next door and have a quick sweep around our flooring thing from the awning. I even went for the classic “man thong” today and tucked as much of my boxers up my arse as I could just to be sure. There’s no real divide between pitches so this tactic works well as I’ll be their view for the duration of the stay. Erin thinks it’s funny but it seems like perfectly reasonable behaviour to me which I think is a bad sign. 

An obligatory pic of Bear. Erin and Charlie have been camera shy this week. I’m the only one taking pics as usual!!!

That’s all for now. Moving on down to the south coast on Tuesday so will post from there.

TTFN!!!!

[desunk]

29/12/2016 - Adios 2016 and Ola 2017 (in a few days!)

FYI – This is take two having spent an hour writing draft 1 only for the site or internet here to crash. I’m now writing it in a word document and I hope my mood doesn’t come over in the post!

Ola folks! To anyone that’s still following us on here, we hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are ready to welcome in the New Year with some good resolutions!

All is fine on the side of the pond. We had a pretty quiet Christmas but it was lovely to say the least.

Christmas!!!

We did our big Christmas shop on the 23rd and were pretty much ready to hunker down. The only thing that I had niggling in the back of my mind was that we were still running the tiny 4kg French gas bottle that had already lasted 6 or 7 weeks. I had a quick feel of the weight on the 22nd and decided we best get some in to save that situation where I’ve got my finger on the spark button of the oven for minutes on end, while looking in at half cooked turkey – sobbing! Then the ensuing cutting up of the turkey and cooking it in bits on the BBQ outside while using the single electric hob to cook everything else! Nightmare.

We set about finding some gas and the required adapters after the big shop on the 23rd having had no luck before that, but to no avail again. Unfortunately, siesta was upon us and I had no time to look any further. I decided to head out quickly on Christmas Eve having spoken to the site owner and taking some advice on where to look. After 4 hours in the car I came back gasless but with some hose and a regulator to fit the local bottles. Pretty measly findings for the time spent on Christmas Eve!  I cut up our own English hose to get one fitting out of that to suit our caravan, made the hose up and spoke to the site owner about using one of the gas bottles that sits outside the bungalows they rent out here. He reluctantly agreed and we were sorted! We got our Christmas dinner without the gas even running out. It was however time well spent on Christmas Eve as we did run out on boxing day!

So that was me, back out in the car on the 27th trying to find gas again. The issue is, that you need to have a Spanish address to be able to sign a contract that basically gives you the all-important first bottle for free. You only pay for the contents but are responsible for the bottles as part of the contract. In the UK, you pay for the first bottle and its contents, then either return the bottle for money, or exchange the empty plus some money (for the gas) for a full one. No need for a contract as you own the bottle. That first bottle, be it empty or full, is like trying to find fairy dust here if you’re not local. Once you have it you’re away, but until you have it you’re in deep shit. I’ve noticed campers here trying to score an “empty” from the site but to no avail. I was driving into petrol stations, hardware stores and anything that looked like they might sell gas, but when I told them I didn’t have an empty I was like a 16-year-old wearing bright white trainers trying to get into a Stringfellow’s club. Eye rolling and laughing ensued on every attempt and this was now in fact day 3 of gas-gate. With my fortune having run out and my hope going the same way I pulled into a Ferreteria (hardware store) in Alcanar just after Siesta time for the last attempt of the day. It’s here I found my salvation in the form of a wonderful young man who clearly did not give a shit about “the man” or his rules. His lack of attention and can’t do attitude saved the day. Without a seconds hesitation he handed me the contract and looked on as I filled the first line of the address as “Camping Estanyet”. Within 10 minutes of my entering the building, he had 12 euros of our hard-earned cash and I had an 11kg bottle of Propane. Way too big to fit in the gas compartment of the caravan but who fucking cares. Thank you “man-who-cares-not” about the multimillion pound gas company but about the people he serves. Either that or thank you the man that couldn’t be bothered to argue with the desperate looking bearded Englishman in his shop. If I could just come up with a way of harvesting Bears farts we’d have more than enough gas to keep ourselves going for rest of the trip.

So that was our Christmas. The day itself was ace (eating and Netflix) and we topped it off walking down a lovely Christmas Dinner during sunset. The colours were amazing and it gave everything that surreal dreamy look you get during really good sunsets. It was quite magical!

So what else!

In terms of big or interesting events there hasn’t really been much else going on. As much as I really fought it, this has all now become our new temporary normal. I was wanting this to be one long novelty like a holiday but spread out over months and months. Not that I’m complaining, I’m having a wonderful time but I have to remind myself to not take it for granted at times as it is only a temporary normal! We obviously still do the usual things in life like go shopping, cook dinner, get haircuts etc, which can trick you into thinking everything is normal. It’s easy to forget the whole 40 hours a week of work thing when you don’t have to be anywhere. That part has been replaced by reading, listening to the birds, walking, mountain biking, site seeing and so on.

I had a slack week on the mountain bike front but got back on it yesterday. It was a bit of a trudge at times, as it can be when trying to find new places to ride in foreign territory. It can get a bit annoying riding down driveways into people yards and it all adds up in wasted time and energy when you have a route plotted into the GPS. In hindsight, it was a good ride though. A 20 miler that saw me riding through orange groves, then on roads for an hour and a half, to get me to the other side of the Serra Del Montsia Mountain range with a highest point of 2500 feet. After that it was a progressive climb from sea level, through olive tree fields and past rosemary bushes to just over 900 feet, the highest point of my ride. (Olive trees are great by the way. See the photos below and look at the mounds of earth around them. It’s like they burst out of the ground in an instant!) From there, I was expecting the next mile or two to include some steady descending as there wasn’t really that much mountain left before I needed to be back at sea level. To my concern and with energy levels through the floor (having added miles to the route in lostness), I held the altitude while getting closer and closer to the southern side of the mountain range. Finally, and with tired legs I reached the point where all that climbing paid off. It was time to enjoy some down-hill! To lose the altitude it meant that it started off steep, really steep! Loose boulders and bedrock were served up at god knows what decline which all became too much on a switch back that caught me out and sent me tumbling. After a few hundred feet of this it became more civilised and I had a great time that was only dampened by the fact that I was a bit too close to “the wall” to be really enjoying myself. I’ve had to really pay attention to pre-ride, during ride and post ride eating. I’ve bombed / gone glycaemic / hit the wall on a few big rides before as I’m unfit, forget to rest and forget to eat. I’ve been trying to avoid that here. Anyway, back out tomorrow to do the same ride but without the lostness and I want to check out another decent. What a life!

Erin’s good. She got into a book yesterday and finished it this morning! I couldn’t wake her up this morning and it turns out she was up until god know what hour reading. She got to 91% finished (she reads on the kindle and it tells you how far in you are) and had to give in. Seems like it was a good book by all accounts. Dogs are good apart from Bears farts. We ran out of natural yogurt yesterday and he’s spent today giving us a gentle reminder of why he needs it.

Moving to the next site on Monday. We’re heading down just short of Alicante and Benidorm but far enough inland to be out the way of the really touristy resorts. The next update will come from the hills instead of the beach!

That’s it for now!

TTFN xxx

[desunk]

Photos!

[desunk]

21/12/2016 - Les Cases D'Alcanar, Tarragona

Evening folks! We hope all is well in your lives, that your ready for Crimbo and hopefully already off work, school, college etc. All is well on this side of the pond and it’s update time. We drove down to Campsite Estanyet on Saturday making today our 3rd full day setup on the site. We’ve dropped on again with a lovely site and pretty nice surrounding areas. We’re right on the edge of the seaside village of Les Cases D'Alcanar which is a nice little place with all the necessary amenities, then we’re less than a 15 minute drive from a bigger town called Vinaros where they have the obligatory Lidl and the all important Bizarre shop where you can buy everything under the sun! The drive down was pleasant and for once we didn’t have to “off-road” which results in half the contents of the cupboards ending up all over the floor! We’re 100 metres away from the beach and we can hear the waves lapping against the shore from our caravan (not lapping against the side of the caravan - that would be a bit close). The only issue on the site is the "bastard mafia cats"! I’ve come to realise I don’t really like cats. I’m not sure if thats always been the case in my adult life (we had cats when I was younger and I wasn’t bothered) or if this is a new development having met these little fuckers! We’re being terrorised. They keep making their way into the awning and rummaging around in the recycling bag or generally just swanning around outside in plain site of the dogs as if taunting them. Bear is a changed dog. Usually he just kicks back without a care in the world but now he’s on edge! He feels it’s his duty to be on constant cat duty to keep our little camp safe. I’m doing this on the phone tonight and for some reason you can’t add photos to a text post. Will post pics, including Bear on watch, in a separate picture post. The big news this week is that I’ve found somewhere that sells whole turkeys nearby 🦃🎄🦃🎄!!! Pavi is the word for turkey here and according to the supermarket lady that didn’t speak much English Pavita means baby turkey. This is what they have which has me wondering about the various sizes of Christmas turkeys. Are small, medium and large slightly different variations of turkey but all fully grown, or are they baby, teen and adult turkeys! I’m not sure and I don’t really want to google it as I want my Christmas turkey without thinking about the morality of it all. While we're talking about wildlife (kind of), we find ourselves again in a small haven of nature. There are the "bastard mafia cats" that I don't count, but also some lovely birds, insects, olive trees and orange trees all over the shop. Growing tangerines must be a big part of the local income as there are acres and acres of them growing on trees. It's ace! We've also brought ourselves a little BBQ as a treat. I wanted one like Burt and Mum have at home but couldn't find one. We have something similar and it's perfect for what we want. They have these red peppers here that are twice the size of the ones back home and taste a bit sweeter. They come out lush on the BBQ cooked whole! We saw an older Spanish couple making them on the last site and had to give it try. So glad we did! I need to get some rocks for the bottom of it to create some airspace like you have under the griddle part in a fire. I'm struggling to keep it going which leads to me blowing on the hot coals all the time which has led to me already using a litre of BBQ fluid and burning a hole clean through my fav fleece and t-shirt! Don't worry mum, it's perfectly safe. Bear made himself a new friend the other day in the form of a little French Bulldog called Fletch! He'd been attacked by a bigger dog a while back that almost took him out for good so he now goes on the offensive when he meets other dogs and attacks first! This wasn't the case when he met Bear though and they seemed to hit it off. He does the same as Bear when he meets other dogs and sniffs the face instead of the arse. This led to the weirdest puppy meet that I'd ever seen. Two bulldogs nose to nose sniffing frantically. More hygienic than the obligatory ass sniff but it looked weird! The owners were a nice German couple who only stayed a few days. Apparent fletch didn't like the "bastard mafia cats" either as he flew by the window one morning, in close pursuit of a cat, with a wardrobe clad owner in pursuit of him. Part of me hoped fletch caught his target before his owner caught him! On the subject of meeting people, Erin made a friend when doing some washing the other day! A very stuck up English woman which is starting to make me wonder about our whole outlook on different nationalities. I've worked with people of all kinds of races and cultures so am not so closed minded as to tarnish an entire country or culture based on a few, but so far people haven't turned out how i thought. We've met the below to mention a few:- 1. German - the lovely family that included Marlon! 2. Scottish - some dickhead who just talked about how much money he had for half an hour then fucked off again. 3. German - a nosey old twat I nicknamed Herman. He would stare straight in your window at you as he walked past every time. Very intrusive! 4. English - a couple whom gave me some pointers on campsites to stay. The people didn't flush away their poo at the chemical toilet point. Animals!!! 5. Spanish - the lovely couple next to us at the last site who used to have Boxer Dogs (big talking point between the lady and Erin) and cooked peppers on their BBQ. 6. German - the lovely couple who we're next door here for two nights with Fletch. 7. English - stuck up posh woman and total fanny of a husband. She said some classic stuff to Erin like the following:- Stuck up lady - The roads in were awful weren't they, so narrow we almost got stuck. Erin - We came in through town following the campsite signs along the seafront and it wasn't too bad. Perhaps go back out that way. SUL - Oh no we don't follow the signs they take you here there and everywhere. We have a satnav for lorries to avoid narrow lanes so we don't get stuck. Erin - Why didn't you use it to get here? SUL - We did? Erin - You just said you almost got stuck? SUL - Oh yes yes yes but it works fine most of the time. That was followed by an insult about Erin shoes, telling Erin we didn't come down the east side of France but the west and recoiling at the fact we're staying here for Christmas with the rubbish weather! That's bearing in mind we've had 20 days of sunshine out of 25 in November and December! No idea where she normally winters! Anyway, as you can see the friendliest peeps we've met so far have been Spanish and German. The English aren't doing so well! The weather is lovely again after 3 bad days. We've got sunshine and 16 - 17 degrees now and through Christmas. Having been in Spain in November and December I'd definitely recommend it as somewhere to emigrate if your warm blooded. It's bleddy hansom! That's about it folks. Will post those picks shortly. Will speak to some of you on Christmas Day live via satellite (FaceTime as its now called!) and to the rest of you have a very Merry Christmas from the gypsies in Spain. Merry Christmas and TTFN!!! Xxx

[desunk]

14/12/2016 - Same place!

Hello folks. Really sorry for the long gap and hope your interest in our little adventure isn’t wearing off with the lack of updates. Reason for the lack of update is that not much has gone on again. No moves or anything just the usual fun in the sun!

We’re still in L’Estartit at Camping Les Medes. When we leave on Saturday it will have been 3 weeks here but we aren’t going to get in a habit of stopping this long in places (unless they’re really nice!). The only reason we have is because the rate drops quite significantly for every full week you stay and we wanted a decent break from packing up, driving and setting up again after moving fairly quickly through France. This place also turned out to be really nice and we’ve got into a good routine here as well as having a great run of weather. It’s been beach walks, mountain biking, cosy evenings, rinse, repeat, and we’ve bleddy loved it. 

The Mountain Biking

Obviously, as I’ve mentioned before, one of the big things on my to do list is to enjoy some of the great mountain biking Europe has to offer and in order to do that I need to get in shape. While the belly isn’t really shifting yet, my fitness levels are getting much better and by the time we get down to the Sierra Nevada just off the south coast between Granada and Almeria, I’ll be ready for the great mountain biking on offer down there. Not that it hasn’t been good up until now but the areas I’m looking forward to riding are the Sierra Nevada, Pyrenees and the French Alps (among others), all of which will be enjoyed more by a man in shape. 

I’m getting out 2 or 3 times a week and my last 2 rides were 20 miles long which I can cover in around 2 1/2 hours. As I always have I’m enjoying and putting some decent times up on Strava (online sports GPS FaceBook thing) for the descents but my climbing speeds don’t compare well to the Enduro riders that frequent these parts. There’s a descent I’ve done 4 times now that’s named on Stava as “Corriol de la casa del guarda” (Corriol of the guard house?) and I’m trying to rack up a good time for it online. People mark sections which are called “segments” on the Stava site and every time you ride it you get a chance to get on the leader board. If you top it, you get the illustrious title of KOM - King of the Mountain! People who top the leader-board on popular segments are awesome on a bike or are the best locals who ride the segments the most often, usually both. Needless to say I don’t have any KOM’s, at least not on decent segments that don’t only have a handful of people on the leader board. On the Corriol de la casa del guarda, which is 0.7 miles of mostly downhill tight single-track through a forest, I am currently 146th out of 539 riders. For my age group I’m 37th out of 124 and for my weight group (over 200 lbs which I am by a lot!) I’m 4th out of 22 riders. Not bad when you consider that the downhill section is 10 miles into my ride and I’ve only done it 4 times. I reckon I could get right up the board given a bit more time. My home downhill section off Carn Brea Castle is my most frequented downhill section (although it’s pretty crap in the big scheme of things) and I’ve never really pushed it there for some reason.  On that segment I’m 17th out of 121 overall, 9th out of 47 in my age group and 4th out of 27 in my weight group. All very boring I know but given I’ve never really been in great shape since I started mountain biking in 2008, I reckon if I give it a push I could rack up some KOM’s about the place. Hopefully anyway. Then will follow the sponsorship deals, the competitions, the glory and so on..........

The good news in all this is that I’ve stopped throwing up and retching all over the shop. My last sick episode was about 10 days ago when I threw up on my shoe. I don’t get off my bike if I have to puke as I like to crack on, I just aim, but this one came out of nowhere so I couldn’t even do that hence the shoe getting a coating. I did something else gross while out riding the other day which made Erin laugh. The retching and sickness that comes with exercise for me (when I’m out of shape) is due to my post nasal drip which gets faster when I exercise. The only way to combat this is to clear my throat and spit which I do a lot on the bike (gross I know). I do it so much that I pretty much go into autopilot and don’t even notice. Anyway, this lead to the incident the other day when I was looking on my Stava app on the iPhone for directions. One second I was looking at the screen the next there was a massive fucking flob running down it. In spitting auto pilot mode I’d managed to flob squarely in the middle of the screen while I was looking at it! Lucky I was in the sticks. If someone had seen it they’d of probably thought I was having a particularly bad FaceTime argument with someone!

Anyway, some snaps from my adventures on the bike:-

The view of L’Estartit from the cycle route near Torroella De Montgri:-

A lovely building at the end of the climb just before my fav downhill section:- the view from it is pretty much as per the last pic. Great place to live!

The snow capped Pyrenees from part way up an absolute bastard of a climb:- I started somewhere down in those woods and am still nowhere near the top

The Beach

We’re still heading down to the beach every day and we’re never disappointed by the view that greets us and the lack of other people or dogs. The islands off L’Estartit are called the Illes Medes (Medes Islands) and they look great from the beach in the evening with the sun leaving a shadow on the eastern side. The only issue we’ve had down there is Bear eating seaweed! He was having a munch the other day and we were already 50m ahead of him. Instead of turning around then and there to stop the gutsy little twat, we decided to try a bit of reverse psychology and ran in the opposite direction. After running another 150m only to look back and see him still enjoying the tide line buffet, Erin decided to run back by which time he’d had a good fill. Dogs don’t digest seaweed in our experience and as such Bear has been leaving little piles of sick about the place for a few days! 

Some beach pics: -

Christmas Time!

You’ll also be glad to hear the caravan has been hit by that Christmassy feeling with the addition of a tree and some fairy lights! We found a Bazaar in town which is now Erin’s favourite shop and I managed to get an 18″ tree for 4.20 euro and some fairly lights! Unfortunately I thought the roof lights we multicoloured but they’re just white so we might get some more but the van’s looking nice. Our Christmas presents from each other have been ordered online and are arriving in the next few days. We just need to find a turkey crown at the next site and all will be well in the world!

The tree!

Apart from that it’s just been sunbathing, days out, trips to the amazing supermarkets where they have wine in barrels that you just help yourself from for 1.49 euro per litre and cosy evenings in! Bear’s tan is coming on nicely but he’s been borrowing my hat to keep the sun out of his eyes.

That’s about all for now folks. We’re moving on down to Camping Estanyet on Saturday which is about 4 hours driving to make up some distance. We haven’t gone very far having been in Spain over a month! We’ll post after a few days there to update you and fingers crossed the site is nice as it’s where we’ll be for Crimbo!

Will leave you with another travel quote!

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”

TTFN!