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Getting into gear

Lesley’s gears have always been a bit clunky and sometimes slip. I missed out on all things to do with bikes as a youngster, I seemed to get into motorbikes and cars from an early age but never learned the basics with bikes. With a bit of research on youtube I made a start, I didn’t expect to still be at it several hours later, but, I feel I now have a good understanding of how they work and Lesley reckons they feel the best they have ever been!

I might have a look at what’s involved in doing a full service now, watch this space.

Rigging day

imageToday I rigged my two biggest sails. That now gives me sails from 8.5m² down to 6.0m², that should cover most everyday situations.

I also rigged a system to hold the sails secure against the hedge using springs and rope. Hopefully, they will be held tight even in strong wind. All I need now is the wind.

 

Great news from Tom today as he FaceTimed us to let us know that he has qualified as an International Certified Personal Trainer. Well done Tom!image

La Manga:Setting up day 3 (final day)

Another day, another run. Still on short runs at the moment for both Lesley and me. Plenty of time to get more serious and I’m really looking forward to getting into the hills. After the run, I joined Lesley for a Pilates lesson given by Paula Denvir. A good session so I’m hoping to join these on a regular basis.

imageThe main job today was to get the trailer built, uncharacteristically I forgot (misplaced) some of the nuts and bolts, fortunately, I had spares. Trolley made and one sail rigged, from tomorrow I’m good to go sailing.

It’s very warm here at the moment and it’s nice to just sit and enjoy the weather towards the end of the day.image

 

 

La Manga:Setting up day 2

Started with another run before tackling the windbreak. Today I ran past the Salinas and wsa pleased to see there were still some flamingos there. Although they’re not pink, they do have some pink tail feathers. I think Dulux would describe their colour as pomegranate white.image

imageI bought some cleats last year which, with some clever rope work allows me to fastened the windbreak very securely. Just as well because people like to lean on it when they’re “talking over the fence” and of course when it’s windy, which hopefully will be frequent. Also put up some pretty solar-powered lights so we can find our way home in the dark.

Next it was on the roof to unload the boards and other bits and pieces and set up the washing line.

La Manga:Setting up day 1

IMG_0770First day back in Spain started with a small run followed by setting up the pitch. It normally takes 2/3 days to finish it off and kindly the wind didn’t blow enough to go windsurfing. Jobs completed so far, outside floor down, tent up, plumbing for fresh water and waste, washing machine plumbed in and tested, WiFi set up, TV set up, numerous cups of tea drunk, hidden chocolate digestive found and opened. More of the same tomorrow.

Journey from Bilbao to La Manga – Day 2.

IMG_0764Well, it may not be the best campsite we’ve stayed on, but we had a good night’s sleep and woke up to a brilliant crescent moon pointing out to a well illuminated Venus. Although the water had been cold everywhere else, the showers were excellent, so a good start to the day.

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More excellent motorway, a little busy as we skirted Madrid but otherwise very easy driving. We had arranged to pick up the hire car at 3:00 so we hoped there would be no delays – and there weren’t. We arrived at Murcia Airport to collect our car, a white Fiat 500 at 2:20, perfect. image

Lesley followed me as I had Sat. Nav., bad move, I went wrong at the first roundabout. A small problem counting to 4 for the fourth exit. Apart from that we made good progress and were on the campsite about half an hour later.

We were saying hello to friends before we even got to our pitch, and lots of our friends, who knew we were arriving came to say a quick hello. It was good to be back.

Journey from Bilbao to La Manga – Day 1, the sunflower trail.

IMG_0752Ferry arrived on time and we didn’t have to wait too long before we disembarked. This is our third time of doing this and with Lesley in charge of navigation we made short work of any potential sidetracks and headed on our way towards our overnight stop at Camping Pico de la Miel.

IMG_0744All together we drove 211 miles, an easy drive helped by the fact that the weather was excellent the roads superb and the traffic very light. The first part of the journey is through very green  and luscious landscapes, undulating and very pretty. Further on and there is a definite change to the landscape, it is now much more open country side, the trees disappear and there are huge areas of agricultural farmland, a prominent crop seems to be sunflowers. At this time of year they appear to be dead and I assume they are waiting to be harvested for their seeds. IMG_0730The hills when you get to them are big, at times we are in excess of 1500m.

Apart for stops for lunch and fuel we drove straight through arriving at Camping Pico de la Miel at about 6:00pm.IMG_0732IMG_0746 IMG_0731

Ferry: Portsmouth to Bilbao

imageAfter a good trip to Portsmouth we queued up (in first place) ready to go through check in in the morning. 4G signal at the dock (in fact most of the way to Portsmouth) meant that we had pretty good internet access so were able to access emails, our blog and social media. The ferry, “Cap Finistere” was the same one we have travelled on before and it’s okay, nothing fancy but nothing missing either. Wifi is free but not very fast. It’s still impressive when you think we are moving and must be locked onto a satellite to get it.

There is a small cinema on board showing a selection of films throughout the journey. We opted to watch “Tha Man from Uncle”, it was absolute rubbish, but on the plus side the seats were very comfortable and we had a good view of the screen.

We had dinner in the restaurant and the food was very good, I can’t remember the names of the dishes Lesley had scallops followed by Sole for the main course and I had serrano ham and a poached egg followed by a sumptious pork dish. Unfortunately as it was now dark and the boat was rocking a bit I started to feel a little off. Lesley had taken some sea sickness tablets and was feeling fine. We decided to watch a bit of telly as a distraction but at 9:00 decided it would be a good idea to go to bed. I felt better lying down and slept quite well. The restaurant’s Petit Dejéuner was basically the full English, it was very nice and should set us up for the day. No delays so far and the sun looks like it could be there for us as we arrive.

La Manga here we come

imageWe left home about 11:30 in beautiful  weather with blue skies and bright sunshine. We were in no rush so we took our time. It was just as well as the weather conditions became very mixed and traffic quite busy. We found a good services to stop at at Tothill in Newbury where we had tea and watched telly for a while. The final final leg of our journey took about an hour and we arrived just-in-time to queue up ready for tomorrow. We actually managed to be first in the queue.

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