Mad Dogs and Englishmen......

Our final day here was another scorcher, so we just dossed about thinking of home and saying things like "This time tomorrow....". Yes, we are really looking forward to seeing the family again and catching up with all our friends!

We've learnt a bit about ourselves on this trip, when we first started this touring by van lark, we usually only stayed one night at each place. We have forced ourselves to slow down and several times have stayed 3 nights or more in the same place. I think we've now realised that we enjoy seeing different places and aren't like many of the campervanners over here who will spend weeks, or even months in the same place. Everybody to their own, but our thing is more a relaxed travelling approach, so the 2nd leg in 5 weeks time will be a different kettle of fish. 

When we walk along beaches I find skimming stones and Rachel finds these!

The final bit of bull you will see on here until our return!

We have very pleasant conditions for our last 2 days of winding down from the stresses of European travel.

The Heat is On!

The road from where we are into Alicante was a tad dodgy so it was best all round that Rachel didn’t brave the tricky cycling conditions. I navigated my way around the city with ye olde fashioned methode of ‘line of sight’, and felt I got a flavour of the place, albeit a little brief.

At the marina I was surprised to come across an old galleon by the name of Santisima Trinidad as I’m sure you’ll all know is a 140 gun first rate ship, being the heaviest armed ship in the World at the time of refit in 1802. Of course it didn’t stop her being wrecked by the mighty British Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, don’t mention the war.

Onwards and upwards to the Castillo de Santa Bárbara, I was in full flow on turbo as I entered the castle gates, but what was that whistling I kept hearing? As I looked around there’s a cop in full stride chasing me. Ooops, another brush with the law beckons. Being the fairly law-abiding guy I am, I immediately stopped (as I should have done at the stop line/gate house), and had a friendly conversation with a rather puffed Officer Dibble, or Spanish equivelant. He politely showed me where to put my bike, after which I had a look around the amazing castle. If ever you get the chance then it is well worth the climb, unbelievably it’s free and the views alone are worth the effort, but the castle is actually immaculate.

Having done a Whatsapp video call (from the highest point) back to Rachel, who was just in view on the beach 5 miles away, I returned through the valley of death where the roadworks on the dual carriageway made the one lane a tad entertaining. Not wishing to hold the traffic up, even though I was hitting a constant 16mph, I kept diving into the roadworks section, just like old times on the police bike! Anyway, on about my 3^rd deviation back out into the traffic, with the appropriate arm signal of course, there was a guy on a moped who waved me out. ‘Excellent work Diego’, he overtook me (just) and I acknowledged him. The traffic lights ahead changed to red and Diego had to stop, ooh this will be fun when the lights change to green methinks. As I roll up alongside him he breaks into Spanish, to which I reply “Lo siento, no hablo Espanyol”, so we had a short conversation in English,as is usually the case, before the drag start on the green light, he left me in his dust.

Getting back to the van in one piece, we were both hoping for a relaxing afternoon sunbathing, unfortunately we got sand blasted off the beach. So we made the 17 mile return trip south to where we were yesterday and got some shelter from the wind. En route we stopped off at Lidl to re-stock with a little alcohol, well it is chilli tonight, but definitely not chilly as it’s 25c as I type this!

View across to Alicante from our parking spot Sunday night

Santisima Trinidad

It was weird cycling over some of the paved areas
which gave the impression the weren't flat!

Whistle stop tour of Alicante.
With correctly parked bike, Officer Dibble and me.

Bumble we did, a mere 17 miles to a beach plot just south of Alicante, and just north of the flight path to the landing strip of the airport. In search of our reserved airport parking I actually rode more miles on the bike than I drove. We are only 3 miles from the company’s site but somehow with a lack of technology, but mainly old age, I managed to travel on every road around the airport until I eventually found the place 20 miles later! Thankfully I took the direct route of just 3 miles back to the van.

We have a good view of Alicante across the bay and hope to visit tomorrow. Although it’s forecast to be cloudy the temperature is due to be 26c so I suspect it’ll be t shirts and shorts again.

Handy for the airport

And Then There Were Three

One advantage of living ‘up North’ during winter is you don’t have the pests we have down here. There are 3 of us sharing the van at the moment – Rachel, me and Mustafa the Mozzie. Mustafa’s had a few of nibbles of me, but I suspect it’s going to come to a messy end.

Neil and Kath departed this morning after 3 nights with us, they’re starting their the long leisurely drive back to Gretna, hoping to arrive home in about a month.

You will have noticed that the blog entries are winding down as the first leg of our trip draws to a close. We’re just parked up by a beach waiting for our flight home with our lives being pretty much dictated by the weather which, this afternoon is rain. It’s also not particularly warm being just 16c, but the forecast is better with our remaining days predicted to be between 20 and 26c.

I treated Rachel to a meal out this afternoon as reward for enduring yet another football match, we had that well known Spanish delicacy again - pie, peas and chips.

Tomorrow we will bumble up the coast a few miles edging ever closer to Alicante airport.

La Marina del Pinet

We have had two days here, which have consisted of walking along the beach (including a spot of paddling) and as hoped, meeting up with friends. It gets breezy in the afternoon, so this morning I took the opportunity of the calm sea and went for a short swim along the coast The water temperature is 16c, which is fine when wetsuited up, but would have been refreshing if just in a cozzie.

Another heart find by Rachel!

Late afternoon drinks with friends, just the two bottles of wine.

Early evening and it's getting chilly so David outdoes
my in the hat stakes with some kind of dead animal.