¡Hola! from Cachuna

25.01.15    ¡Hola! from Cachuna

We have made it to the south of Spain and are on the Mediterranean  coast in a little place right by the beach about half way between Malaga and Almeria called Carchuna. We have had a week where we have been sitting and reading and doing a pile of washing. It is Tee shirt weather from about 10am to 3pm and then we need long sleeves. The sun is so forgiving and we can sit outside for hours without getting burned. 

Camping DonCactus @ Playa del Cachuna.

Camping Doncactus @ Cachuna - camper van Alley, just 1/4 of one calle of five!

Towards the hills with hundreds of acres of cucumbers growing under plastic!

Cachuna beach, could be gannets.

Cachuna beach walk couple of days ago, yet another clear blue sky!

The local village is very small and we are far enough away from Malaga not to get all the UK stores and fish'n'chip shops. There is a weekly English version of the local paper and English radio stations. So this is the wintering over coast for Northern Europeans. This camp does not have many Brits but big groups of French, Italians, Germans and Spanish as well as people from Switzerland and Norway. The area around here is covered, well over hundreds of acres, with a series of large greenhouses with the ones on either side of the campsite growing cucumbers. Except there are none for sale in the local shops, everyone must get the rejects. This camp has a pool which is open but it has not been warm enough to swim in unheated water. The beach is long and stony, the Mediterranean Sea is a beautiful colour and the water is clear. We get amazing blood red sunsets over the Moroccan Mountains.

So all is good. We had an interesting trip south. Spain has changed a lot since 1977 and now has amazing roads, mostly 4 lanes and good supermarkets. One Spaniard we spoke to said that in the last 40 years the country has gone through the type of change most countries take 200 years to go through. Of course in 1977 Franco had only been dead a couple of years and his dictatorship was being dismantled. Other things are the same, the Paella is yummy, the tapas are really nice and the people still just want to have a good time. We often hear people singing or whistling in the streets. The Spanish are very forgiving of our attempts to communicate which is good! 

We had a night near some snow topped mountains about an hour north of Madrid (Riaza) in a brand new campsite with excellent facilities. People use this as a camping place to go skiing from. Actually all the campsites so far have been great with free hot water and clean facilities. 

Camping Riaza, more than 500 sites - only us and three other vans!

Riaza, Sierras de Ayllan in the immediate background and…….snow!

Riaza walk at 5pm.

Riaza walk at 5pm.

We wanted to go back to Toledo and had a couple of nights there so we could catch the bus into the old town. As we had seen all the sights in the 1970s we were able to just wander the narrow streets, jumping into doorways to let the cars pass. Wonderful town. Enjoyed an exquisite pastry shop and had lunch in what we think may have been a gay bar. The food was great.

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We had not been south of Toledo before and had always wanted to visit Granada. It is a beautiful place and the campsite was about half an hour by bus out of town with an amazing view of the Sierra Nevadas which are heavily covered in snow. 

Ancient Toeldo from Camping El Greco where we stayed in '77!!

Typical old Toledo.

So many beautiful old cathedrals within the city walls.

Larger street in Toledo!

'Modernisation' of the ancient city.

Typical Toledo town Door.

Gems hiden behind rustic doors.

Detailing is magnificent.

Our lovely lunch in Toledo gay bar!

What the, I know they make swords etc but….…????

Whatttttt?????…..again, hope that PJ and Richard taylor know about this shop!

Looking from Toledo to the hills around.

We visited the famous collection of palaces called Alhambra which is really exquisite and we walked and climbed around the old town which looks like those pictures of Greek Islands with all the white buildings clinging to a hillside. There was a guy busking, playing the classical guitar just to add to our experience. 

Entrance Gardens to Alhmbra.

Iglesia de Santa Maria de la Alhambra.

Puerta de Vino.

Puerta de Vino detailing.

Alcazaba, Torre del Cubo.

Alhambra map!

Towards the surrounding ancient wall.

Nasrid Palace Court of the Myrtles.

Nasrid Palace Court of the Myrtles, detailing.

Marg and Nasrid Palace Court of the Myrtles, detailing

Nasrid Palace, Court of the Myrtles, further detailing.

Nasrid Palace Court of the lions.

Wonderful arches - Nasrid Palace with more exquisite details in Court of the Lions.

Nasrid Palace, Court of the Lions detailing, looks almost Maori-Pacifika.

Nasrid Palace Hall of the two sisters.

Nasrid Palace, Hall of the two sisters, celebratory circumcision poem in a cartouche, one of several.

Alcazaba view.

Us and Alhambra.

Meet some couples from the campsite on the bus into town and we all had dinner together that evening. There was a couple from Dublin and the wife spoke French with a strong Irish accent and a couple from France who did not have much English. So the Irishman was telling jokes that we were all trying to translate for the French couple. Very funny evening!

Camping near Granada with Sierra Nevada mountains not far away

Camping near Granada and those magnificent mountains…..still 'coolish'!!

Originally we were going to meander down through Portugal to get to this south coast but with coughs and colds that would not shift quickly we decided to travel more directly to the sun and we are glad we did. The weather in Granada when we left was 2 degrees and an hour later we arrived at the coast and it was 15 degrees. The road is downhill all the way so we dropped from a fairly high altitude. 

WOW and hitting 74mph, pretty atypical economy!!!

Typical lunch stop on the road where we were away from speeding traffic and a chance to stretch our legs.

We now plan to stay a bit further west along the coast and then meander up through Portugal before driving across to Barcelona and then heading north through France to stay with Sarah in Brussels. So still lots to see and experience.

We have been sorting out arrangements for coming home and shipping Peedie to NZ. Hard to believe our adventures are coming to an end. The van will be sailing near the end of March, the shipping company said the date is still to be advised. We fly out of Heathrow on and after a stop in Sydney arrive in Welly near midnight on 10 April. It will be great to catch up with everyone at home and to see how big our house will feel!!

Finish this blog with a few sunsets from our evening walks at Playa del Cachuna……inevitable!!

 

Kaixo eta ongi etorri from the Basque country, and

Hola y bienvenidos from Spain, and Happy New Year!!

We are in a wonderful campsite at Zarauta near San Sebastian on the north coast of Spain. I’m sitting in the sun with the computer on my lap wondering if I’m going to need to change into a tee shirt! We still need the heater at night but it is great to be outside for more than a brief time. We are parked on a cliff overlooking the town and a large surf beach set in a beautiful bay. 

Zaratauz Sunset even fishing boats inthe bay show up

Zaratauz in Spain, 6 nights to relax

Zaratuaz Sunset from campground

Colin has a heavy cold and we both need to just blob for a bit so we have been here 6 nights so far. We also had to fix our GPS that seemed to have ‘lost’ the Spanish maps , ie the first offer finished, it had when we first set it up last May. This is all done now with a 5 hour download without higher speed internet!

Christmas was just great with lots of lovely family time. Sarah arrived safely on Christmas Eve and we had a great night celebrating with friends of Marg’s brother and sister in law. Wonderful being together the next morning to open presents that are usually posted.  

Doug...Marg's brothers Chorus in action before Xmas

Sarah, Marg, Col……you light up my life!!

Xmas tree1

Xmas tree2

Xmas tree3

It is certainly tempting to go on eating and drinking when the weather is cold and the food is delicious. 

Special xmas day games!!

Tom, Sarah and Jessica on Xmas day walk through Panal

Ahhhh, those special xmas slippers!!

Yes or no only …we had to guess who each of us was!!!

The Xmas day walk…a bit muddy in parts but a beautiful day.

On Boxing Day we went to Sheffield to Marg’s brother-in-laws’ for more delicious food. The timing of the meal had been moved forward as snow was forecast. Just as we had finished eating the snow started and we left quickly. It was a long trip home through snow that was heavy in places. Later we learnt that Sheffield had received the heaviest snowfall. A full coach of passengers ended up staying in a church the night as the snow was too heavy for the bus to ‘safely get through’.

Boxing Day snow

Cold!!!

There were a few more snowfalls but mainly at night and we had cold crystal clear days so we went on several walks along icy tracks and passed frozen lakes. We rounded off our time in Harrogate by attending a pantomime at the beautiful Harrogate Theatre. The performance was really well done with heaps of audience participation by children with led lit up wands, parents with ice creams and some very motivated grandparents!

Other walks around Harrogate, this time in winter…

Washburn valley walk1

Washburn valley walk2

Washburn valley walk3

Washburn valley walk4

Road to Washburn valley walk

Fountains Abbey walk….coolish day

Fountains Abbey, always beautiful.

One of Fountains Abbey's frozen lakes ice about 3cm thick

We drove with Sarah down to Hitchen to stay with our friends John and Sue. Sarah caught the train to London to spend New Year with her friends. We will see her again before we sail back to the UK at the beginning of March. It was wonderful to be with friends for New Year and in the couple of days we spent there some of the time stocking up for our trip (gluten free food is hard to find, however Sainsburys and Tesco seem very good).

Last lovely sunset of 2014 from John and Sue's in Hitchin England on new year's eve.

 Then we stayed one night in a campground near Dover and had a sunny day for the sailing, we could see the white cliffs all the way across to France.

Ready to cross back to Europe - White Cliffs in background.

Very pleasing signs on board as were at the very front (bow) and do remember some very bad incidents with ferry doors from a few years ago!!!

White Cliffs just visible through the salt encrusted stern facing windows on an extremely smooth and relaxing crossing.

So many crossings…traffic lights needed, we had at the best of seats looking towards France.

Our research had told us that there were not many campsites open in France so we decided not to sightsee and to just drive south. This was a pity as we had not been to the west coast before. France not only has lots of campsites but they also provide parking places for campervans called Aires de Service. Unfortunately not many of these provide continuous electricity so not much good for keeping the heater going in the cold. We stayed one night with cousins of Colin’s who have retired to Champagne Le Sec, a small village near La Rochelle, and were so very well looked after. Their old French house has been beautifully done up and we enjoyed catching up sitting around the fire. 

 Brian and their house in Champagne Le Sec

The old bread oven that would have been shared by 4 other  families attached to their house!!

Three family amigos……Sally, Brian and Marg
Much trading of family information in that Colin and Sally share the same great grandfather who worked in India for 19 years returning to the UK in the late 1870s! Included are two small pieces of newspaper cutting from his retirement 'gathering' in 1877. We hadn't seen Sally and Brian since traveling with Nick and Linda in 1977!!

Great Grandfather….#1 clipping

Great Grandfather…... #2 clipping

To get there we chose to use toll roads for efficiency, proved to be correct with the one exception……the actual tolls!! These turned out to be frequent and efficient!!

We have started to make arrangements for shipping Peedie back to NZ from the UK and firming up the dates for our flights home at the beginning of April. We know it will all go very quickly from now.