It had been suggested we should go along the weekly quiz organised by the Camping and Caravanning club. Julie whose idea it was obviously didn’t realise how inexperienced and weak we are at this sort of thing. In preparation I watched Pointless much more carefully in the hope that some of the answers might be useful in the quiz. Alas, it didn’t work. In spite of help from Derek and Anne we came last, but I think we all enjoyed the evening and at the moment it looks likely that we will have another go next week. Brian (Julie’s husband) says that the questions all get repeated over a period of time and the longer you go the better you get. The winning team got about 56/7 compared to our lowly 39. In our defence I would add that we only had 4 in our team compared to 6 in the others.
Category: Trips
Car Hire in Spain 2014-15
In September, before we left the UK, we booked a hire car (website) on the internet. After doing some research we managed to get a good price for three months hire (300 Euros) but we also decided to purchase ‘collision waver damage’ insurance in the UK as Martin Lewis advised (£180) so we wouldn’t have to buy it when we picked up the car (website)
On Saturday 1st November our friend John (Dixon), very kindly took us to San Janvier airport (about 35 minutes drive away) to pick the car up. It was completely straight forward and we drove away in a 4-door Opel Corsa with only 8000Km on the clock, a very nice clean car. We did a small detour on our way back to La Manga to explore the town of Torre Pacheco where we will be doing a half marathon race on December 14th. After some shopping in the Mercadona and Aldi supermarkets we drove back to the campsite.
Our first trip out was on the following Tuesday when it rained heavily all morning after a windy night. Derek and Anne came with us to the Parc Mediterraneo in Cartegena where we did some shopping and browsing around the shops there – Decathlon, Leroy Merlin and Carrefour etc. We bought a vacuum cleaner for the motor home!
It is very handy having the car to go shopping or to visit new places we haven’t been to before. Also it has enabled us to enter a couple of races, the half marathon in Torre Pacheco as mentioned before and a 14Km race in Cartegena on Sunday 23rd November. Derek and Anne have also been able to do some shopping with us so that they don’t have to carry it all on their motor bike, like we have done in previous years.
On Sunday 16th November we went out for lunch to a restaurant called Meson Galindo, which a friend recommended to us. It is in a village called La Puebla about 20 minutes away. We hadn’t booked a table but they fitted us in at the back as we had arrived early enough but very soon the whole place filled up with mainly Spanish people. The food was very nice and reasonably priced, 10 Euros, 12 Euros or 15 Euros for a very substantial meal. (website). We hopefully will be going there again.
Portman to La Unión
Lesley suggested a bike ride today so we set off for Portman. Mostly main roads passing the renowned and exclusive golf club “La Manga”. Into Portman is a long uphill trek which at its’ peak has panoramic views of the surrounding countryside and the start of the steep descent into Portman. The countryside here is not pretty, many years of quarrying has left many scars as the minerals have been mined from the ground; it has also left Portman beach contaminated from the effects of this industry. As ever, from the destruction of the hillside, the creation of challenging and prolific off road cycle challenges have been born.
We were at sea level and whatever we did we had a big ride up. After some thought and discussion Lesley convinced me that we should explore the off road track. There was a map at the start showing a 6 – 7 km route to La Unión. It looked steep but then so did all the alternatives.
It wasn’t long before we realised the true nature of the challenges that lie ahead of us. Not only was it technically challenging from a riding point of view, but there were many choices of route, no more maps and someone thought it was funny to destroy the few finger posts there were. The only option was to rely on our vague sense of direction. Fortunately we didn’t make too many errors but it was certainly more challenging than we expected.
There weren’t many people on route but near the summit we did meet a couple who didn’t understand our Spanish and asked if we spoke English. They were from Sweden and spent about 5 months a year here but they were uncertain which was the route to take to La Unión.
Dropping off the top we soon hit a concrete road and, brilliantly, a small coffee shop. The Spanish definitely know how to make a café con leche. The reason for the road was that the old quarry buildings and mines had been converted into a mining museum. They joined all the points of interest with a road train which we saw full of school children.
Into La Uniónand we caught the train to Los Niétos, €2.70 for the two of us. We had a final stop for lunch at Mar de Crystal before finishing the ride home.
The Strava app kept turning itself off, but I’m guessing the cycling was somewhere around 25km and over 500m of climb.
Summary 13 – 19 October
General
Mostly hot and sunny with a couple of wet periods. Flies are a pain though. I have made a fly trap but they don’t seem interested. I don’t think the attractant is impressing them.
Running
Lesley.
Starting to feel a bit better, one run was definitely quicker than at home.
16.3 miles in 2.54 giving an average of 10:43 Mins per mile and about 1600 feet of climb.
Melvyn
I have felt sluggish this week, possibly not yet used to the heat and may be still feeling the effects of the journey here. However, although low mileage is slightly up on previous weeks.
24.77 miles in 3:35 giving and average of 8:41 Mins per mile and about 2250ft of climb
Windsurfing
Melvyn
Two windsurfing days this week first day was overpowered on 7.5, rigged the 6.0 and gained some control. Next time the 7.5 was right but on neither day did I feel completely comfortable.
Lesley
None yet!
The new Ferretería (Cabo de Palos)
Felt like starting the day a little differently today so instead of a run we decided to get the push bikes out and cycle into Cabo. We made our first trip to the ferretería in Cabo. It is an ironmongerists heaven. Restricted ourselves (myself) to buying a few bungees to hold my boards onto the trailer, but in the words of Arnie, I’ll be back!
This picture is the old premises, it’s now housed in a new building, lots more space and easier to navigate.
First full day of sport
Lesley was going to Dance Fit and Pilates today (10 – 12), so I left early for my run. Conditions were good, sun low and a little breeze. Still feeling the effects of the journey and not ready long runs into the hill so like my previous runs today’s was just over 5 miles.
Lesley set off for her classes only to find that the instructor had cancelled due to illness.
After lunch I started to rig sails but was compelled to check out sailing conditions. The wind had picked, about a 4 – 6 beaufort from the South West. Sailors were planning, I had no choice but had to go out, I had only rigged the 7.5m² so that was my sail of choice. Mistake. Not only is a SW wind at La Manga difficult to gracefully sail away from the beach but I was seriously overpowered. I worked at it for the best part of an hour an although there were lots of excitement it was never really comfortable. I decided to come in and rig a smaller sail. A bit of a rushed job but I shortly returned to the water with my 6m² Tush Rock. A much better marriage, especially as I was now able to use my 103l Synchro.
Overall I count today as a good sailing day (and the first in La Manga this time) and came off the water feeling very tired. I was also dehydrated and drank copiously before going to bed. All in all a good day, just need to get myself re-used to the running and sailing routine.
Day 3: Ferry and road trip
Always nice to start the day with a cooked breakfast. Wifi is very slow but at least it’s free so able to use the internet while we wait to dock. We are reassured that the ferry is on time and we should be in Bilbao at 11:45 uk time.
The crossing was quite rough with the ferry pitching and rolling throughout the night so we’re both feeling jaded, not the best start for the drive ahead. This year we plan to stop at Pico de la Miel which at just over 200 miles shouldn’t be too demanding.
Because of our position on the ferry it took an hour and a quarter before we were able to disembark. Travel conditions were good although there was some rain and about 4 hours later we arrived at the campsite. Campsite was fine for overnight stopping, good shower block close to our pitch and wifi available too.
Day 2: Onto the Ferry
There were a few more people arrived overnight. The ferry doesn’t leave until 11:45, gates open at 9:00 so plenty of time for something to eat and a bit of breakfast TV. There’s a lot of hanging about at this stage, once through the gate we had to queue again waiting to board. I’d love to learn the science of boarding. They have to make sure that the ferry is stable all the time. It’s fascinating watching them take off the incoming vehicles and choosing which vehicles to load and where to put them, it’s definitely not a case of sort it out for yourselves. Most impressive are the drivers that maneuver the large lorry trailers that have been dropped off for delivery.
Boarding was no problem, once on we were on we took our bags and set off to find our cabin, unlike the ferry from Venice to Greece there is no camping on board.
Lesley took to travel tablets to ward off sea sickness, perhaps foolishly I didn’t, I quite like a bit of rock and roll and was fine until we returned to the cabin for something to eat. I had a nauseous half hour but was fine once I got horizontal. Sleep was difficult because the boat was all over the place.
Day 1: Travel to Portsmouth
Although the weather has been wet and windy for the last few days the drive down to Portsmouth was good. We left around 2:00 pm and the drive took about 5 hours with no significant hold ups. We’re not allowed to queue up at the port until the last ferry of the day has departed which usually means we can get in line from about midnight. Having safely completed most of the journey we decided to look for a pub with a carpark big enough to hold the motorhome while we had some dinner and a drink.
We came off the motorway and headed into Gosport. Although a busy and built up place we found a suitable pub, the Coach House. The landlord was not only happy to let us park up there, but he was also a fan of motorhomes and was keen to share his experiences of living in Europe.After a three course meal, we settled into the motorhome and watched some telly until about 11:30 and then made our way to the port, about half an hour away. Parked up (about fourth in the queue) and settled down for the night. A good first day.
Leaving La Manga – day 3
From Narbonne to Valance
