Do You Know the Way to San José?

Well, we do! In fact we walked to this lovely coastal town from our campsite in Los Escullos at Cabo de Gata. We did a brilliant 10km coastal walk to San Jose for our last Sunday lunch in Spain. The walk home was a bit slower.

 

Coast

More coast

San Jose in the distance

I digress as usual. As you may remember we had a second date in Sevilla with our Texan friends which was of course great fun, and yes we showed them our favourite eating and drinking spots. Lawrence first met John in Tibet in 1987.

 

Bulls and Texans

At Plaza de Espana

From there we drove back up to Las Alpujarras for some mountain walking and general exploration. We’d done the western end with the Bimobil gang late last year but I really wanted to see the rest of the region and do some decent hill walking. The weather had different ideas. It was so cold outside that after about 5 minutes I was starting to lose my general good humour. So, we spent 2 nights up there and saw the area but couldn’t see us doing any serious walking. So, after leaving the highest campsite in Spain (allegedly) at 1,560m, we whizzed back to coast and that is how we found ourselves at Cabo de Gata.

 

Snow in the Alpujarra

Trevelez - apparently the highest town in Spain (from the campsite)

This region has been recommended to us by many people along the way and fitted into our plans. Sadly we had to drive through ‘poly tunnel land’ to get there. However the weather was great and we did some fantastic walks. This was really our last place hanging out in Spain before heading north for Barcelona.

Last night was spent in a dreary resort type place, a ghost town in winter. There was a ‘rally group’ there and we wondered why – what would they do? The bar was set up for Karaoke, so we fled.

I really think someone needs to come up with a way of combing Line Dancing with Bingo or Karaoke. It could be a spectator sport – with enough gin.

So tonight we are back in our first ever campsite in Spain! That was November 2011, a mere 3 years and 3 months ago. Blimey, we never thought we’d be back here. It’s just south of Barcelona, and we’ll head in tomorrow. We’ll have a final late lunch in the city and then head to the ferry.

Next stop, Italy (after 20 long hours on a ferry).

PS: I‘ve just looked back over the last few posts and there does seem to be maybe a few too many photos of us eating and drinking! We do cook - honest guv. Anyway, once we hit ‘the trail’ there’ll be no more highlife. Will be good thing for the purse and pants.

 

Sorry - one more food photo of last Sunday lunch in San Jose.

We’re on the Move, Baby.

We’ve finally left El P! All our new chums had left and we managed to catch up briefly with friends from previous years, so we felt it was time to move on, after our planned 6 weeks of 'no travel'.

We had a real blast in Sevilla last weekend, showing Andy and Susan from Glasgow all our favourite haunts and of course finding some new ones. We were blessed with good weather and took advantage by drinking vino in the sun whenever possible.

Favourite new tapas bar cum market.

To celebrate Andy’s birthday, we went to my fave eatery. We all loved our meals and I managed to avoid having the Ostrich this time! My duck liver terrine was sublime, and I think the hit of the day.

Birthday Lunch - yes, we had the same table.

Our planned stay in Grazalema has been thwarted by the damned weather. It’s snowing up in them hills and we just couldn’t face it. So, instead we are checking out some local towns of Rota, Chipiona and Sanlucar de Barrameda (another sherry town).

Sadly we left our bikes in El P. We had always planned on disposing of them before we started our mad trek home and this worked out well. The maintenance engineer on site helped us out with some stuff on Boris (spare wheel fitting) and he was glad to take them for his kids. I was happy they went to a good home. Lawrence is happy they are no longer hanging off the spare wheel. I’ll miss my bicicleta, but once we really get going, we won’t need them.

 

Pintxo Party Chez Boris

And about 4 hours later

We’ll be back in fabulous Sevilla this weekend to meet mates from Texas. John and Travis are having a ‘father and son trip’ to Europe. Fortunately we never tire of this characterful city. Once we leave there we’ll be making our way to Barcelona to catch our ferry on Feb 19 to Civitavecchia. This will feel like the beginning of the end – or is that the end of the beginning? Anyways, it will be the start of the homeward journey.

To refresh your memory, as I doubt you have the details etched on your brain, the plan is:

Split on March 1^st by ferry, then south to Dubrovnik, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, NE Greece, Northern Turkey, Georgia (by April), across the Caucasus, Chechnya, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (please try to keep up), back into Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia – to Vladivostok by mid September – or something like that.

Lawrence is working on setting up a GPS tracker thingy so you can see where we are at any given moment. That way you can let us know!

Paul and Carol (new chums) gave us a bottle of emergency gin in exchange for one of our ground mats. I think we’re gonna need it!

 

Men At Work - the United Nations step in to help with spare wheel problem.  Spanish, Dutch, German, Scots, Aussie - (I had to supply in some much needed input)

Why Wasn’t I Told??

Why didn’t anyone think to tell me that Joe Cocker died? I only found out a couple of days ago, by a casual remark from a neighbour, that he died just before Christmas. I'm still reeling from the shock. My teenage hero – RIP. Really though, it's amazing he lasted this long.

Anyway despite this news we managed to have a fabulous birthday celebration. Turning 59 didn’t seem so bad in my favourite city with the sun shining. Yes, my birthday treat was 2 nights in an apartment in Sevilla and lunch in my favourite restaurant.

 

Lunch Day 1

Birthday Lunch - Day 2

Birthday lunch

Lunch Day 3

We did all our favourite haunts again, and even found a new bar – a very Spanish bar, that hadn’t been redecorated since 1932, approximately. The food was outstanding.

 

Sevilla Alcazar - just to prove we didn't just eat and drink

We really thought this would be our last visit to this gorgeous city, however as fate would have it we are destined to return, not once, but twice! Friends from Texas announced they’d be in the vicinity 2^nd week of Feb, and then friends from Glasgow emailed to say they’d be around for the first few days of Feb. Who are we to say no?

The weather in El P continues to be sunny and warm, but a storm is forecast for the next few days. We’ll just hunker down and wait for the sun to return. It is a really social campsite this year and we have made more new chums, and with friends from previous years about to arrive, it’s going to be a fun last 2 weeks.

 

Nearby Cadiz

Enough of me raving about our lifestyle in sunny Spain. The pics say it all.

PS: Lawrence bought me a new vegetable peeler for my birthday – last of the big spenders. But check it out! This little shop in Sevilla is a treasure trove. They now have an online option - could be dangerous. After all, how could you resist a gadget that will produce square boiled eggs!

Vegetable peeler that slots onto you finger...

Ferreteria/Kitchen Shop
www.bazarvictoria.es

And a Happy New Year ...

Our Christmas lunch was fabulous and we felt so very smug when we learnt that Sydney had the wettest December 25 since 1942. We were in 23 degrees and sunshine.

 

Christmas Lunch in El Rocio

Back in El P we settled into our pitch and prepared for New Year. The campsite this year seems to be mainly Poms, Germans and French. We met a really fun bunch of Brits and decided to celebrate NYE together, starting with a fabulous late lunch in a nearby restaurant.

The speciality of the house is steak and you can choose your meat from the fridge. Lawrence and I both decided to try fighting bull meat. Now, before you rush off to ring PETA, let me explain the philosophy behind this. The bulls are raised in ideal conditions, free range, grass fed and well cared for. OK they do meet a grisly end, and I’m in no way defending the ‘sport’ of bull fighting, but all cattle meet a grisly end and these have had a good life – better than most. Do you really want the meat to be thrown away or put into dog food? It was good, and we took the leftovers home to make a steak sandwich.

 

NYE lunch with the Brits

The aim was to have a very late siesta and head into to town for midnight and see the Spanish New Year in. We arrived about 11.15pm, and were surprised to find that all the bars were closed. The place was deserted, you could have shot a gun off and not hit anything moving. A ghost town. We found a couple of policemen and they said the bars won’t open until 1.00 am. 

 

Deserted El P at 11.30pm on NYE

So, we walked backed to the campsite and partied with the Germans. They were all wandering around with bottles of Cava and having a grand time. We did lots of “Gutes Neue Yahre” and joined in the fun.

The French slept through it all.

We entertained an Australian couple of new year’s day and had prawns on the Barbie for lunch.

 

Prawns on the Barbie

Our weather continues to be amazing and we'll stay here as long we have sunshine.

Celebrating our new windbreak - for when the chilly breeze arrives.