Ok we won't close down.

After throwing a hissy-fit over irritating comments from u-know-who I have been persuaded by nice comments from others to continue with my 'diary' as it appears to amuse. I have also set up a new facility now available whereby i can post by email which may solve some issues I've had in the past..so this is by way of a test run. Should it work i will finish off the Croatian trip in the next few days.

ADRIATIC HIGHWAY....

21st.- 24th.September

Left the lakes and headed south through scenic countryside towards ZADAR, turning up the coast slightly to STARIGRAD PAKLENCA and found a terrific campsite on the coast where we were lucky enough to get pitches right on the beach. Only downside is that Paul missed the step getting out of the van (no, he was sober) and has done serious damage to his shoulder and gear changing is agony let alone lifting beer & wine glasses and opening bottles has had to be delegated to Marianne. Actually its quite serious and we are now reorganising things so that he only drives on motorways and rests the shoulder  by stopping longer on sites......

Love STARIGRAD. Close to ZADAR where we took the bus to on Sunday. Nice town. Alfred Hitchcock said that Zadar had the best sunsets in the world and from Starigrad, about 20 miles as the crow flies, I feel he might be right. The bus trip was hilarious. Outward leg charged at 41 kune each, no ticket issued; return leg 5pm on a packed bus taking mostly students back up Rijecka and as we didn't have reservations it nearly caused a riot as we sat tight looking bemused and people with reservations had to stand and the conductor calmed everyone down ( I thinK ) pointing out that we would be getting off in half an hour into a 4 hour journey. In the end I had a long conversation with a nice Croation lad from Zadar whose parents owned a restaurant and who
was returning to uni after the weekend at home to study archeology. Saw no future in Croatia and was planning to emigrate to Canada or Australia and said he was typical of his generation. Scathing about the EU and saw joining the Euro as a disaster. Parents were suffering as tourism, on which this country seems to exist, was slowing and takings were less than 4 years ago. We have seen practically no agriculture and little livestock and he confirmed that most farms are little more than smallholdings feeding one extended family with no surplus for market even though there are fertile regions.....apparently potatoes all come from Moldova.

We feel that Croatians are a very happy bunch of people who are always smiling  and for whom service is a pleasure. Everybody speaks some english, even in country stores and most speak very good english. Campsites are very good and the facilities mainly modern, clean and always an abundance of hot water. We have never felt threatened and everyone we have encountered has been cheerful whilst relieving us of money - the country not being cheap and probably on a par with France (except in attitude). Food is plain, grilled mainly and lots of fish along the cost as you would expect but service is quite exceptional and a pleasure.

Paul's shoulder made the group decision not to go further south an easy one and as a long term decision to spend a few days in Venice had already been made we spent longer in Starigrad than we planned. This was no problem to me as I have fallen in love with the place and will return, I hope, many more times. The national park, Paklenica, is famouse for westerns being made there and I would like to explore more.

We left there with regret, heading north to OPatija and Lovran which we had passed through on the way to Krk and which looked like nice places.

Paul went the long way round on the motorway, we took the pretty route up the Adriatic Highway coast road which was the most spectacular 100 miles or so I have ever driven.
Dramatic coastline, sheer drops, mountains and views across to the islands of Pag,Rab and Krk.Not sure about driving down it, as that would be on the side of the road where the drops are (and the road was unguarded in some Places) but we had a great drive.

Fairly scrubby campsite at MEDVEJA but we all turned up, Paul in pain but a few beers revived him........beers are now bought in 2 litre bottles for about £2 which seems very civilised but which don't seem to last long.

43 YEAR WAIT IS OVER

KRK TO THE LAKES.......20th

A very pleasant sojurn on the island of KRK, some interesting walks past the naturist beaches of which Croatia has a great many.....the sign for one includes the letters FKK....and our evenings have fallen into a very predictable pattern. The sunsets continue to amaze and the weather is very warm and sunny, the town of PUNAT a short walk away and is a pleasant stroll. We did intend joining one of the many cruises out to other islands but they all stopped on the Tuesay we had put aside for it which was predictable as we were leaving the following day.
Stayed on KRK from 15th-18th and then headed inland to the lakes at PLITVICA.

THE PLITVICA LAKES AND NATIONAL PARK

We first heard about the Plitvica lakes in 1969 and planned a camping trip that year to what was then Yugoslavia but events conspired against us and the adventure was postponed for 43 years as it turned out. In the meantime, the lakes became a Unesco World Heritage site, Yugoslavia disappeared, Croatia went to war with Serbia and access to the lakes was denied by the Serbs, who mined the area and murdered the workers, between 1991-995 and we had 2 children, celebrated their marriages and rejoiced in the birth of our grandsons, so a lot of water had poured over the waterfalls..........
With so much baggage I had approached a visit here with some trepidation in case it disappointed. It did not and the 43 year wait was worth it...

There are a series of 16 lakes, fed by the Karana river, which drop about 600 mtrs. through a gorge, like a series of canal locks. The make-up of the water and the limestone is a unique combination which carves out channels and caverns in the rock to produce wonderful waterfalls.  Wooden walkways allow you to cross the lakes and the walk along the lakesides and hillsides; electric boats cross one of the largest lakes and after we had spent 6 hours walking from the bottom to the top there was an electric shuttle bus to take us back to the bottom ( in hindsight, taking the shuttle to the top and walking back down would be a good option, but at least our way meant that although walking uphill we did have the waterfalls in front of us all the time.).

The lakes are a national park now so camping etc is highly restricted. The official site is expensive, large, busy,fairly naff and 7kms from the lake entrance but a shuttle of free coaches arrives at 9am to transport happy campers to the entrance returning at 5pm.. for those not wishing to spend all day, a local bus runs hourly or taxis abound.

We arrived the first day in sunshine but it rained all night, not stopping until 6.30am. We had thought that the visit would have to be postponed another day but the forcast was right and the sun came out and the heavy overnight rain meant that more water was pouring over the falls than usual, so win-win. We were well stocked up with picnics but the catering in the park was of an excellent quality and reasonable price with pig-roast and spit-roast chickens at a huge log cabin complex beside one of the lakes and geared up very professionally for the thousands of visitors......even at this time of the year there was constant stream of coaches disgorging tourists from every corner of the known globe.....I personally took many photographs for young japanese,koreans and americans as you do...but I would not like to be shuffling along in the high summer when the pictures make the crowds look unbearable......bad enough in parts in September. But a great experience and I cannot rate a visit more highly. Go see for yourselves.

Wed. the 20th was Margaret's birthday and a very pleasant evening spent at the restaurant on the campsite where we had a great meal for around a £100 for the 6 of us.

Entrance to the lakes complex was 110 Kune a head 0r £12, which included hopping on and off as many boats or buses as you liked, all of which ran constantly with little waiting about so very efficient and we all thought good value

ALL TOGETHER NOW........

NOTHING WRONG WITH LUXEMBOURG    ....  13th.SEPT 2012

It's a well known fact that fuel is cheap in the Duchy, as anyone who has queued behind 200 lorries trying to get into a Luxembourg service station will attest so any trip south benefits from including a visit.

After days of sweltering heat, copious beers and plenty of wine, we were pleasantly surprised to hear that D&M were in Trieste and closing fast.....an ambiguous text which now appears to have been truncated lead us to believe that they had postponed starting yet again due to illness in the family but this was not the case. As we had planned on moving to PULA on the wednesday, it was decided that they would go straight there and we would join them. Rovinj to Pula was only an hours drive but complicated by the necessity to find a decent supermarket as essentials (beer and wine) were running perilously low, as were luxuries like meat and veg. Croatia does not seem to have a terrific supermarket network and the local Kozumo brand is very disappointing. Pula is the largest city on the Istrian peninsular, has a major traffic problem exacerbated by a major roadwork project on the main through route and signposting to supermarkets/trading estates is abysmal. Paul has a Garmin satnav which made a political decision to ignore the existence of Croatia when we crossed the border from Slovenia so he has to follow me closely or rely on Marianne to read a map ...plus alot of new roads have appeared in Croatia since I last updated the Tomtom and in trying to avoid the roadworks in Pula central by attempting to swing round the city to enter via Pula South, the Tomtom had us in the middle of nowhere for most of the trip. The net result of all this was we got separated trying to find the local Lidl (not my favourite but the only super/m of any size) and they ended up in downtown Pula in the roadworks..........We were eventually reunited at Lidl and fully stocked found the campsite and D&M. Good site on the coast (rocky)and great views. Much rejoicing to be quorate and much beer and wine consumed to celebrate and swap stories.
Mass visit to Pula by bus to see the roman amphitheatre which was rather spoilt by it being set up for a weekend of ice-hockey (it is wonderfully preserved and in constant use as a concert venue.......flooding & freezing it for icehockey is a first but it did detract from the overall view and was somewhat bizarre).

3 nights at Pula then a short trip to the KRK on the island of the same name. D&M shot off to the Lidl for supplies whilst Paul followed me, the planned route being to take the scenic coast road (which was indeed very scenic) but he misread the signs at the first junction and managed to get on the motorway heading back to Italy. This road eventually joined up with the motorway to Rijeka so he took the long toll road through the mountains and a tunnel to meet up with us at the toll bridge to the island of KRK, 46 Kune or about £5 for a motorhome. Island not very exciting to start with but when we reached the town of KRK the views were spectacular again, and we stopped 2 nights at a campsite overlooking the town and within walking distance ( bit of a slog back though). Excellent old town, very busy, lovely harbour where we all had a riotous sunday lunch followed by much sleeping off.

On Monday a short trip PUNAT, the other side of the town of KRK to another lovely site on the waters edge of a very pretty bay surrounded by hills.

Beer has now been found to be quite cheap, especially the local Ozujsko in 2 litre bottles 5% and 22 Kune (£2.40) which disappear very rapidly. Wine is perfectly acceptable but nothing decent under £3.....the girls tried some litres of white at under £2 but were not impressed and they still have 2 litres to get through. Paul & I found a wine shop selling red wine in 5 litre plastic bottles at £2 but as they wouldn't let us try it we gave it a miss.
 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN.....

BEST LAID PLANS....ROVINJ(CROATIA)........9TH SEPTEMBER 2012

This may well ramble and be continued in several parts as I have not put finger to keyboard  since Spain in April and a lot of water has flown under the proverbial.

It's 10am, the sun is hot and the Adriatic is a lovely deep blue and I need to do some catching up.

Sitting in the pouring rain at Hamble in July with Derek & Margaret and Paul & Marianne, the idea of a late summer jaunt to Croatia for 2 months seemed very appealing and plans were best laid to leave on 22nd August. D&M were the first to fall after an operation on D's hand was postponed until 20th August but he thought he would be able to drive after a week so it was decided they would catch us up as we all had already made the ferry bookings. Of course, on Monday the 20th. August, my birthday, after the van was virtually packed and ready to roll, I discovered that I had what was later diagnosed as a kidney stone and spent 3 days in agony, in A&E and being scanned and tested. P&M meanwhile were heading across the channel blissfully unaware that we would not be joining them and Derek was being told that he would not be driving for at least 2 weeks..... first I was told that I would be ok to travel as long as i took plenty of painkillers but then the headman got on the phone and told me not to even think about it and he was so right.....but then the internet sourced old wives recipe of extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice and honey shifted my recalcitrant stone on Thursday and I was given the all clear to go...

So we waited over the Bank Holiday weekend to check that no repercussions were lurking and rebooked the ferry for the following Tuesday only to discover on the Saturday afternoon that one of our newly installed refillable LPG tanks was leaking, turning the motorhome into a potential firebomb.  2.30pm on a bank holiday weekend is not the time to discover things like this but after an hour on the phone I found a workshop at Stowmarket Caravans actually working and willing to sort the problem out immediately. By 4pm they had replaced the leaking bottle under warranty and reinstalled the previously incorrectly installed pipework.......a stiff letter was penned to the original installers with promises that the matter would be taken up when we returned in October. Crisis averted and off at 6am Tuesday and uneventful crosssing and run down to Luxembourg where we stopped overnight at an aire in the village of Redu. P&M had kicked their heels in Luxembourg for a couple of days then moved as per plan to Kayserburg in the Alsace where we caught up with them on Wednesday night sunning themselves in the large aire outside the town.
As they had been there for 4 nights we didn't  linger and set off on Thursday for Kussnacht near Lucerne where we stayed on a farm site for 2 nights in fairly torrential rain and on Saturday headed for Italy via the St.Gotthard which was unpleasant due to an hours delay as they controlled the huge flow of traffic into the tunnel from both sides and the pass being closed due to the bad weather.

Anyway finally arrived at Monzambano near Verona/lake Lugano where there is a sort of aire/mini camp site for 130 vans and which was very full. Stopped overnight and visited the local market on Sunday morning before heading to Monfalcone on the coast near Trieste which was a shortish run and leaving another short run to Croatia when we would try to avoid the Slovenian toll road that would require us buying an extortionatley priced vignette for 18 kms of Slovenian dual carriageway. Montfalcone was very busy,the weather improved considerably and we spent a pleasant 2 days exploring the cliffs  and seashore.

WE had a detailed route of how to exit the motorway after Trieste through a service station and before the Slovenian borderso that we could cross Slovenia on the backroads without the necessity of buying a vignette for the motorway. We even had photographs of the route courtesy of the internet but still managed to miss the correct turning before ending up in the docks at Trieste. However the Tomtom came up trumps, navigated us round the city to the correct road network which was identifiable by the nose to tail trucks,caravans and motorhomes all avoiding the 18 kms of motorway. Fairly slow negotiating the border into and out of Slovenia but we were in Croatia by lunchtime and found a nice but very busy campsite at Savudria on the shores of the Adriatic where we  whiled away 3 days, even cyling around the coastal paths. This part of Croatia still very Italian feeling but the coast looks like living up to reputation. Apart from Fuel which is £1.10 ltr as opposed to £1.43 in Italy, food,beer and wine do not yet look cheap but we have yet to find a large supermarket so that may change.

Moved down the coast, first stopping at Porec but the horrendously busy campsite we headed for seemed more like a Butlins and did not appeal, so on to Rovinj which is a an extremely attractive spot where we are stopping at another beachside site. A water bus runs hourly from the site to the town which is well worth several visits and we had a very pleasant lunch on the harbour on Saturday for about £30 a head.

Weather is extremely hot, the sea is wonderfully warm although the beaches so far have been extremely rocky and stoney, making access to the water a bit difficult at times. The coastline is very unspoilt although it is obvious that tourism is the mainstay of country and the natives are a very cheerful bunch who all appear to speak half a dozen languages, even in small shops. Beer is about £0.90 for a 1/2ltr bottle of 5% lager.(and they still charge a deposit on bottles and cans are much more expensive) Wine so far good, esp the merlot at £3 ......there are roadside stalls in abundance which we have not sampled yet and I think the wine may get cheaper.

MONTSARAZ,SALAMANCA,, OYSTERS AND THE COFFEE INDEX

4TH APRIL 2012

So we left Olhao on Thursday, 3 days ahead of schedule but no point in sitting around in the rain when the weather is better somewhere else. Acting on information received form Colin & Sue who were heading for an aire at a town called MONTSARAZ and promised to send a report via email, we also set off for there. They described the road as 'bumpy' so I took a slightly different route and after an initial very pleasant road came across the worst 36kms of road in christendom.For anybody stupid enough to try the A499/A495, after a town called Cabezas Rubias, there is no A495. What there is has apparently been made by a man with a shovel, a garden roller and a wheelbarow full of asphalt who has devoted his life to demonstrating how not to repair a road for 36 kms. It is probably a civil engineering exam question in that part of Spain where candidates have to list all the mistakes and bad practices and write a report on how to rectify it. On the worst 3km section where a large notice from the local JUnta announced that travellers should proceed with caution as the the road surface was uneven, we were reduced to 10-15 mph and I believe I lost at least 2 fillings.

However, Montsaraz was a stunning find. We parked on the castle ramparts overlooking the largest manmade lake in Europe where the Rio Guadiana has been dammed,and had perhaps the best views we have ever had from the motorhome. A lovely ancient walled village, a lovely man in the tourist office who talked us through what we were seeing and gave me a 25% discount voucher for wine from the local co-operative where a lovely young lady gave me lots of wine & aguadiente to taste and sold me wine at extremely reasonable prices-and if they hadn't run out of the 5 litre boxes I would have bought far more ( €5.99 less 25% !!!)

Rain caught up with us overnight with a couple of showers and the morning view was spoiled by an overcast sky over the lake but the outlook was brighter to the north where we were heading for SALAMANCA which we failed to visit on the way down due to the cold weather. Another campsite recommended by chatting at the friday night sports bar sessions turned out to be a real gem and much better than the 'official' site close to the city. We were furnished with bus times from the very helpful owner and so caught the 9.10 on saturday morning to Salamanca and spent an excellent day exploring a very delightful city. The main square, Plaza Mayor, has to be one of the best we have ever sat in and certainly rivals St.Marks in Venice.

The Olimpia campsite is very new and purpose built almost as a travelodge for 30 caravans/motorhomes. Excellent facilities,close to the motorway, large pitches and a very good restaurant serving a 3 course meal for €10 which we had on sat.night. A great stopover as it is just in the right place to break the journey from the french border to the Algarve into a two or three day journey.

On Sunday a good run in mainly sunshine up to Donastia San Sebastian where the empty aire we had stopped at on the way down was packed with 40 motorhomes, all but 4 being Spanish. It is of course the start of the week leading to Easter next weekend......however, most of them left by 7pm and then there was an influx of french and germans.

On Monday to ARCACHON where we fondly remembered a family holiday about 32-34 years ago in the trailer tent when I first discovered the pleasures of oysters......and they are still as cheap today. We stopped 2 nights at a campsite on the beach in Andernos-les Bains which had only opened for the season on sunday and the premium beach-side pitches were available at no extra charge, there only being about 6 of us there. So nice views over the bay with great sunsets. Great cycle tracks all round so had a nice ride round the bay on tuesday towards Cap Ferret. On Wednesday took the van round to Arcachon and the Dunes of Pylat for old times sake but the Aire was crap at Arcachon and expensive at Pyla so parked in the town after much searching for a parking area and had the most expensive coffee in a smug bar on the front that cost €7 for 2 small cafe cremes.....average price in Spain & Portugal €2.40-€2.60 for 2,(most expensive €4.60 in the posh bar in Salamanca Plaza Mayor) and €4.50 in Andernos....that's the coffee cost of living index.

Finally returned to Andernos where we found a superb aire for €7.70 a night by the Oyster farms where there were half a dozen wooden shack restaurants run by the oyster growers with shops as well. Had a cracking meal at Chez Eliet which also had a jazz duoon tap to entertain as I knocked back a dozen
Grandes followed by 2 grilled Merluchon whilst the GF had a something called a Maigre which looked like seabass or dourade but wasn't. Excellent night.

Up to SAUMUR for a couple of nights at a site on a island in the Loire opposite the Chateau, then an aire on the Seine at La Mailleraye s/s on Saturday and Gravelines on Sunday ready for the tunnel on Monday.

SATELLITES,ISLANDS AND ON THE ROAD AGAIN

28TH.MARCH 2012

When we arrived here we were parked near an extremely large RV that is probably larger than our home at Martlesham and more luxurious. It is owned by Tom & Pam who live in it fulltime and who are quite interesting and spend most of their time in the sunshine up and down the Algarve, only returning to the uk for 6 weeks every year. Tom is a bit of a whizz on most things to do with motorhomes, especially satellites, and in the course of conversation he asked what channels our very small dish could pick up ( his satellite is about 6ft diameter and blots out the sun). We of course are under no illusions and only use the dish in Spain to pick up BBC radio, Sky news and BBC News 24 on a good day. I learnt however that Astra had put up a new satellite a month ago as Astra 2 was overloaded with shopping/porn channels and this had boosted the signal considerably in southern Spain and that we should be able to receive more signals. He then told me that our LNB (the pointy thing in the dish that looks like a microphone) was not set correctly and instead of pointing up & down (as in 6 o'clock) should be rotated slightly to the left ( as in 5 past 7 or 10 past 8). This sounded incredibly technical to me but he assured me this was so ( and a brief walk round the sight showed very other LNB in that position) and it was a simple job and would not even require resetting back in the Uk as this was the correct setting for Astra2 south. So I got up on the roof and it took 2 seconds to rotate the LNB. We then did a reset on the digibox and low and behold we now receive 400 channels of rubbish,porn and shopping as clear as if we were in England. And we still just listen to radio 4 and 4 extra but we watch the 6pm news from Anglian Tv so we know what's going on in suffolk.

A trip out to ARMONA by ferry was a very pleasant day and included an excellent lunch of grilled seabass and a bottle of wine after wandering across the dunes to see the surf on miles of deserted white sandy beach. There are no vehicles on these sand dune islands so everything has to be brought over by boat, The 12pm ferry that we caught over was packed with litle old ladies with enormous shopping trollies filled with the weeks rations from the supermarkets at Olhao and it was fascinating watching them all being loaded by the ferry crew.

We have new boules partners, Rob & Julia, and after 3 months of being a member of undefeated men's teams, I have to report that the Ladies scored their first series win on Monday afternoon when Julia & the GF adapted better to the sand-bunker terrain we had to play on and creamed us 3-0. We were slightly hampered by a mad Belgian called Marc who did not help our cause.

The weather is looking very iffy for the next week along the Algarve so we are going to head North on Thursday instead of waiting till Sunday and will probably spend a few days next week around Arcachon in France as it looks better on the forecasts and there's no point sitting around here in the wind and rain that is now expected from Friday to Tuesday......although having said that, I've forgotten what rain look like ( apart from a shower overnight last Sunday that dumped more Saharan sand on top of us than the average school sandpit contains and necessitated a visit to the roof with mop and bucket to clean the skylights and solar panel.)

MARKETS AND QUIZZES

20th MARCH 2012

P&M departed following a lunch at a restauarant run by an aged frenchman with approx. 3 teeth left in his head. The €7.50 daily menu included a Bacalhau (salt cod) dish that the GF had to try with mixed results and I had the Boeuf Bourguignon which was superb. And these prices include 1/2 litre of wine, bread,olives,dessert & coffee.

Sunday saw the previously forgotten trip to Cacela to meet Bob & Carol which was a great success.Cycled to the station and caught the 9.41 train, the return trip €3.60 each which can't be bad for a 45min journey along the coast.. Bob & Carol had not forgotten and were there to meet us and show us the monthly street market that takes place on the 3rd sunday.Largest market I have ever seen and undoubtedly selling everything you could wish for and a few other things beside such as a horse,a new honda rotavator, live chickens & ducklings,snails,clams,salt cod by the ton,cheeses,meats,fruit&veg,clothes etc.etc stretching all round the town. Lunch was taken communally at long trestle tables under awnings erected for shade, in a large square where huge oil drums were bbq'ing whole chickens split in half and pork chops & ribs. You picked up plates of meat & bread as often as possible and refilled your cup from a wine box as required and when you had enough you asked someone how much you owed which was €5 a head. Great fun. Bob & Carol have a super apartment in the town bought 6 years for €125,000 when the euro converted to £85,000. 2 bedrooms etc, balconies and access to the flat roof from where you can see the beach and sea about 15 mins walk away whislt you cook lunch on the BBQ. Very nice. So we repaired to the bar downstairs for a couple of glasses before catching the 16.20 back to Olhao where our bikes where still chained to the railings.

Quiz night. I said I would explain the unusual quiz. First you play Bingo or not. Then you buy a quiz sheet for €5 which contains 4 games of 25 questions each. However, each game on your sheet has only 20 numbers and the 20 numbers are listed randomly. The questions are asked randomly so that in any game, 5 questions will be asked that do not have space on your sheet for an answer. Winner is the first person to correctly answer & complete a block of 5 consecutive questions on the their sheet for that game. Do keep up. So as people complete a block of 5 they go up to the front to be marked and if, as happens frequently, they have not got 5 correct answers in a block, the game continues. No alterations are allowed on sheets. The randomeness of this means that you can have blocks of 4 and still have to wait for the right question to come up in order to complete the blockand it gets very frustrating. Last week we got nearly every question right but never had anything like a block of 5. Anyway, this week not only did we win one game for the magnificent sum of €10 but we had another win on the bingo of €26 so we are well ahead of the game here, our winnings now totalling €71. Roll on Las Vegas.

EGRETS,ISLANDS & ILLNESS

13th.March 2012

The weather continues improving in that the days are hotter,the evenings longer and the nights warmer although the wind lurks around to discomfort the the GF whilst I merely think it is an occasional nice breeze to stop it becoming too hot.

Olhao is in the Ria Formosa, an area of marshes and sandy islands which provide 80% of the clams & shellfish ( 7000 tons annually) that Portugal consumes, and the campsite is next door to the nature reserve from which I derive my knowledge, having walked many interesting trails & read the information boards erected for the education of the unwary. It is home to Fiddler crabs (those with one claw larger than the other but so far unseen), terrapins which bask in the sun in pools,all sorts of birdlife and the remains of the last of 300 Tide mills, which was in use until 1970, restored in 1980 but now sadly in need of further restoration ( we have a working Tide mill at Woodbridge which operates at holiday times).

At sunset there is a spectacular sight as 1000's of Great White Egrets return each night to roost in the trees surrounding a small lagoon about a 30 min walk from us and is wonderful to watch. One minute the sky is empty and sun is sinking over the tree tops and then suddenly it is full of birds flying in from every direction for around half an hour,wheeling and diving,searching for perches until all the trees are so covered with them that they look like magnolia trees in bloom. And then almost at a signal the whole cacophany ceases and an eerie silence falls over the lake as the sun dips below the horizon, bathing the whole scene in a deep golden glow. And it happens every night.

The islands, or huge sandbars, have some settlements on them, fishermen and shellfish farmers, and are well served by ferries so with P&M we bought spit roasted chickens with Piri-piri sauce,bread,salad and wine at the supermarket and caught a ferry to Culatro at 11am on Friday. From there we walked across the dunes to the sea where we picnicked in the sun on an endless beach of golden sand with hardly a soul to be seen. In the spirit of adventure we walked to the end of the island, Farol, where we caught the returning ferry which calls in there on its way back to Olhao - the return trip costs €3.60 each and took about 50 mins outward and 30 mins back from Farol.At low tide the ferry sails between the sandbanks which are the shellfish farms which look like very hard, back-breaking work.

Dinner at Smokey Joe's on wednesday was €16 for an excellent variety of grilled fish, and lunch on saturday at Sergios along with a jolly crowd was the usual excellence for €8.50 a head all in.

Unfortunate news from Derek & Margaret that they will not be joining us but heading home from Spain as M. is unwell which is sad news, especially since P&M return to the uk at the end of the week......and P has been out of action with a virulent cold since Sunday, leaving me with no-one to play with.....

PORTUGAL,WINE & ROBBERRY

6th March 2012

Easy run into Portugal, and onto the N125 to avoid the tolls after the bridge across the Rio Guadiana - obviously the correct thing to do as the road was full of foreign motorhomes, although later talking to Bob who lives in Calcelha (who we met in Conil and came over to see us on Friday), the latest situation vis-a-vis tolls is that the post offices have no documentation to register foreign vehicles for the electronic toll system but the police are still stopping & fining vehicles without the registration. And as he lives here he obviously knows. ( to make matters worse the French have now enacted a law making it compulsory to carry a breathalyser in your vehicle and illegal to have a satnav showing fixed speed cameras even though every french road map shows their location.)

Anyway, arrived Olhao after stopping for fuel ( Diesel is €1.50 in Portugal, €1.35 in Spain) and supplies at the Intermarche, found a great pitch in the sun and found Paul & Marianne when wine was taken - it rained for a while, the 3rd time in 2 months but the grass needs it, whilst we swapped stories of the last 2 weeks. M is not well either so she and the GF swappped histories and compared medicaments.

On Friday, Bob & Carol came over and with P&M we all went to Sergios for the €8.50 menu of the day which was as superb as usual - I had the mixed grilled fish which was a large Dorado, 3 something else and 2 huge sardines, dishes of fried potatoes, boiled potatoes,green & mixed salads. Fresh pineapple as dessert-(mousses,flans & ice cream available) and coffee.Including bread and a litre of white,litre of red and bottled water the bill for 6 was €8.50x6 =€51 or £43.50 and was more than enough to eat. And of course the place was as packed as always. Back to P&M's afterwards where I was introduced to the latest wine experience which comes from the local bodega they have discovered in town, more of which later. A very jolly afternoon of which I have only a faint recollection and no recollection of arranging to visit B&C 18th March by train to see their house and go to the local market which only happens on the 3rd sunday of the month.

Saturday was no better. We went into town for the rather fine market held on saturdays (So much better than Spanish ones, full of fresh food and local produce at silly prices - I bought local honey made by bees that frequented the orange groves for €3 which would have cost £5.75 in Martlesham farm shop). Paul & I cycled, the ladies took the shuttle bus and by the time we met up several beers had been consumed. After a bit of shopping for veg and some meat from the indoor market, we repaired to the aforementioned casa for lunch, where a huge plate of serrano ham shaved from the haunch, a whole cheese,a basket of bread and olives and a litre carafe of the house wine came to €12 for the 4 of us. We then purchased 5 litres of this wine for which they filled empty water bottles from a huge barrel for the princely sum of €5.50 although I decided to go upmarket with the 'especial' for €7. The girls headed home on the bus but missed it and had to walk (it's only a mile), Paul & I cycled back via Smokey Joe's and had to stop for liquid refreshment so we didn't get back till 5pm when we discovered that M hadn't taken her keys to the van so couldn't get in and wasn't feeling well and the GF was convinced I was in hospital as I wasn't wearing the cycle helmet ( it not being Spain so I don't have to) so we were in deep shit.........we were not allowed out to play together on sunday apart from making inroads into my 5 litres whilst watching the France-Ireland rugby.........

On Monday we went to the quiz. A weird format but fun and I might explain it next week. We were robbed however of the top prize over the question of 'What does a vintner sell ?' Completing our sheet with a run of 7 answers, I confidently handed it in expecting to receive €22 or thereabouts only to be informed that the answer of 'wine' to vintner was wrong and that the correct answer was 'fish'. 'oh no it isn't' I said.'oh yes it is' they replied. A spirited exchange took place when I was informed that I was thinking of a victualler (?) . As I had been a licensed victualler for 30 years I told them I was not thinking of victualler and that I had bought my fish from a fishmonger and my wine from a vintner........we were not given the prize despite nearly everyone in the room agreeing with me when the answers were read out.

This morning an apology was offered as I passed the quizmasters van..but not the money..... and a lame excuse about reading the wrong answer in the quiz book but I am aggrieved. I would have been furious but I had won €35 on the bingo so the night ended up in profit anyway.

THE GF IS UNWELL.................

29th.february 2012

Did I mention that the GF has been unwell ? it's lasted 3 weeks and comes and goes, more coming than going. Every time she feels better we go out for a bike ride and the rather persistent cool breeze knocks her back again. So she felt rough on Saturday after the ride across the salt marshes when the return trip was into the breeze and by Sunday morning I had to do something. Phoned our medical insurance and explained the situation and then spoke to a nurse. They had a dedicated Spanish desk and they looked up our location and advised that we went to the Ramon Jimenez Hospital in Huelva which was on their list of Ok places. Huelva is 35 miles away so our friendly taxi was summoned again at 10.30 and off we went. Checking in was ok after I shut her up and told her that my muy poco espanol was better than her no habla espanol so let me do the talking for both of us..we were soon whisked into the system and taken to the classification room ( as we later realised ) where a very nice lady nurse/doctor spoke no english whatsoever - and why not, it is Spain after all. Having established the language barrier, the lady clutched her chest in the bosom area and said 'Dolores' ; The gf clutched her bosom and said 'Felicity'; the lady pointed to her back and said 'Dolores'; the gf said 'Felicity' and smiled. This continued for some moments, until the lady had pointed to most of her upper body, crying 'Dolores' and the gf smiling and crying 'Felicity'. Sensing a misunderstanding, I was thumbing through the Berlitz Useless Phrase Book until I discovered that Dolores? means pain? and that she was not introducing herself in a friendly fashion as the gf had assumed, merely trying to locate any pain in a businesslike manner.Gosh how we all laughed.

Start again with acting,pointing and muy poco espanol until some sort of diagnosis was reached. This is when we discovered that we were in classification and not in front of a doctor. We could have been sent to Area A which was empty, Area C which had 4 customers or Area B which had about 50 people .......no prizes for guessing where we were sent without any idea of the system. Time revealed that the system was train-station type loudspeaker announcement which sent people through swing doors to oblivion. After an hour and a half of wondering whether we missing something and my muy poco espanol eliciting that time as we know it ceased to exist in this place (although, strangely enough, not in the carpark where the taxi meter appeared to function in real time quite satisfactorily). However at the precise moment I was enquiring how long it would be, the station announcer launched into something which included ' Felicity Joyce'so we crashed through the swing doors. Our Only problem was that we had failed to understand the subsequent instructions and now stood in the midst of mayhem in the A&E ward like spare pricks at a wedding. Fortunately we were rescued by the man who was probably next in the queue who had watched our hesitant entry and now followed us in to say 'Cuatro' and point down the corridor where there was indeed a Room 4 and a young lady doctor expecting us.

To cut a long story, after no hablo inglese, and my offer to ring the insurers who had said that they would translate if we had a problem, a dishy young male doctor was located who spoke english. The GF got her wish of someone to shine a light down her throat and she was told she had Pharyngitis. The antibiotics she had been taking since wednesday (supplied by her dentist before we left the uk in case an abscess flared up) were pronounced the correct treatment but the dosage was inadequate and probably useless. So we given a prescription for 875mg tablets ( hers were 125mg), a new linctus for the cough and tablets that fizz in water to help the bronchial relief and sent on our way. The berlitz useless phrasebook does not tell you how to say 'thank you, you have been very helpful'but it does supply you a number of phrases on how to pick up gay men in a bar. I just bowed,smiled and said gracias a lot.

Our taxi driver was still waiting and for the 70 mile/3.5 hour journey charged us €70 and wouldn't take a tip which seemed fair enough on a sunday morning. So the Gf spent 3 days in bed, and is now up and about again although still sniffing but not coughing and feeling like **** and the white spots in her throat have all gone. The insurers rang on monday and tuesday to check progress which was nice, and have now closed the case.

NB. For interest, I did take the tour of the fish markets and, as it turned out, the finer old buildings of Isla Cristina. The fish port is the main one in Andalucia, with a fleet of over 300 ships and is a rarity in that every catch is sold daily in total, so that everything is fresh. The auction is computerised, boxes of fish on a long conveyor belt which are weighed with details of the trawler they come from and as each box reaches a red line it stops whilst a dutch auction starts counting down . Buyers in the stand press a button on their hand held controllers to stop the auction when they feel the price is right and they want to buy. The variety of fish is enormous, and some boxes only have 1 or 2 fish in them. A lot of buyers are from local restaurants and they are looking for relatively small lots. The area is famous for its clams of which tons are landed daily. There's a lot of fish in the sea.

ISLA CRISTINA...THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

23rd.February 2012

Weeks in Isla Cristina are like Dave Edmunds albums - you really only need one. To call it a bombsite is being unfair, but since a great deal of Spain resembles a bombsite, it is being fairly accurate. IC has 2 sources of income : Fishing and Tourism.

The Fish Harbour is a hive of activity with 2 fleets coming in daily......Sardines are netted overnight, the small trawlers festooned with more floodlights than Colin McRaes rally car and landed from 9am with the auction starting from 10am. We inadvertently wandered in and watched for an hour, only discovering that this was strictly forbidden for tourists when we read the notices on the way out. (This notice did however promise that should we present ourselves at the Tourist Office, close by, we would be offered a free guided tour. I did so, and now have a ticket to go back at 16.30 next monday to see the second catch of the day being landed and auctioned. And this free tour has only cost me €1.50 - a bargain ).From the amount of sardines we saw it is a surprise that there are any left in the sea round here. The sardines are hauled up from holds in huge barrels and then sorted into polystyrene boxes apparently by size. Anything not a sardine is tossed onto the quayside and whilst tourists are not allowed on the harbour, the locals hover like vultures to snatch up the many and varied discards. Whether this is a current social trend or a traditional perk long established, I do not know, but we saw a huge amount of fish going into plastic bags,and certainly in many cases enough to supply medium size restaurants with todays pescados fritos on the menu de dia.

After lunch the offshore trawlers arrive with everything else, especially clams, the local speciality. We have watched these trawlers from the beach as they go backwards appearing to scrape the clams off the seabed...I shall no doubt learn more on monday. From this, it may be deduced that every eatery, of which there are many, specialises in fish. Perusing the english version of one menu, my favorite mis-translation under Eggs & Scrambled Eggs

is " Shaken with the seaweed and spawn of the sprocket wheels with prawns".

Unfortunately the GF was just recovering and whilst tempted settled for a spanish omelette to be safe - I had the fresh baby anchovy which was delicious. So fishing is big here for quite a small town.

Now for Tourism. I use the word tourism in the sense that Great Yarmouth mentions tourism ie not the international variety but the local homegrown sort. I doubt that you'll find an entry in the Thomas Cook's or Thompsons' brochures for Isla Cristina although it does boast a Barcello hotel and several others of good quality but I may be proved wrong by an uppitty offspring with too much time on his hands. And,re tourism, despite the dutch here and the germans wildcamping in the beachfront carparks, it is still the off-season and whilst we all stroll around in shorts and t-shirts (apart from the GF who is always well wrapped up), no self respecting spaniard has yet removed his hoodie,fleece,jumper,scarf,jeans and boots, it still being winter and bloody cold and all that. So there are very few homegrown tourists about ( this week is an anomaly though as it is both half-term and carnival week so there are a more than usual, I suspect) but most of the shops are not open or not on a regular basis. Of course that ignores the fact that spain (and france) do not do shops and shopping like we do. Napoleon nearly got it right - we ARE a nation of shopkeepers but also a nation of shoppers unlike anywhere else in Europe. I think ex-city euroland basically dislikes shopping and the shopkeepers collude in this by opening at such weird times as to make it as difficult as possible.

So Isla Cristina looks like it is suffering badly in the hard times afflicting spain. Off the main streets there is much decay and deriliction. Lots of men and youths standing around doing nothing and lots of closed down businesses and a general air of depression............which made the scale of the carnival on Sunday even stranger and the Burial Of The Sardine Parade and fireworks on Wednesday night even more incomprehensible than it might otherwise have been.

FRIDAY......and then we cycled through the saltpans & marshes to AYAMENTO which just proved all the above wrong. Lovely vibrant town, bustling with tourists and shops everywhere and I even bought a shirt. Lovely lunch and brilliant cycle ride with flamingos, spoonbills, herons, cranes, storks, curlew, snipe, avocets, stilts, godwits, plovers and that's just the ones we can now recognise.

MISSION STATEMENT AND THE GF IS UNWELL

February 21st 2012

The adverse comments left after the last post have caused me to review and recalculate the whole raison d'etre of this blog which was only started after pressure from offspring who expressed a desire to know where we were and which replaced the daily journals which I used to write as a diary of our travels. Those journals which now number many notebooks were written up each evening with a glass of wine and rambled on with what we had seen and done that day and contained the minutiae of travels in a motorhome and the trials and tribulations of daily living.

The Blog has changed that, as I now write it up every once in a while since I can't be bothered to get the computer out each night. The posts contain a lot less than the journals ever did, and far less detail of places visited, simply because I can write faster than I can type and I get bored with typing. I am also conscious that other people read it, which was never really intended with the journals (not whislt we were living, anyway) and have become increasingly dissatisfied with the thought that I now try to find 'interesting' things to share with a wider audience rather than describe the problems of replacing the roof-light winding mechanism which I did last week;the efforts to stop the water tank overflow pipe from syphoning fresh water;the investigations into the erratic behaviour of the battery charging system and the solar panel;the day spent with Paul sourcing a cheap battery charger in Conil & rigging up an alterative charging system for him;the hilararious games of boules;the fun Roy and I had trying to convince an LPG depot to replace the Cepsa gas bottle with a Repsol cylinder since Cepsa is only available in Spain not Portugal whilst Repsol is available in both ( I only discovered this last year when needing a new Cepsa gas bottle and vowed to rectify it this year) and we only managed to persuade the manager after taking an interest in the dozen Goldfinches he had in tiny cages staked out in his garden as lures for other finches which he caught with a net;the discovery that some Terry's brandy bottles are 36% and some with identical labels and prices are only 30% and you have to check very carefully as they are all togther;the english hippies we are parked next to at Isla Christina with the requisite number of tattos and piercings,two dogs called Tequila & Tia Maria, who have been parked there for 18 months, are leaving for Bulgaria in October for a job offer and who are a wonderful source of information and have been very helpful;the apparent demise of my ereader;details of the many fascinating people we have only met for a short while (Harry who played in then coached the GB Water-polo team)

....and those are just a few omissions that spring to mind as I type with time on my hands.....

To those who posted the comments I can only say that a straw-poll of other followers produced a 100% positive response - thank you, William -(who,incidently, spotted the point of the article and went straight to the nub of the matter by highlighting the ridiculous situation whereby the Spanish can ignore EU legislation unilaterally at their leisure. The Portuguese tolls will be of interest, I am sure, to Derek & Margaret who are heading down to meet up with us at Olhao and who may not have been aware of the situation.........

The GF has just read the above and told me to go back to writing in the notebooks so I am going to have to reconsider my position.

(the GF says he is a pompous git !!)

And now to the latest news..........

We left Conil after the Valentines Night Dinner Dance which was raucous rather than romantic and great fun with a Spanish blues band..

Headed down to Tarifa in bright sunshine which turned to rain when we got there. Didn't like the campsite we were headed for & the GF didn't like the wild camping spot on the beach full of German windsurfers in beaten-up ancient Hymers and VW-campers so went into the town and had lunch in a car-park overlooking the Straits to north Africa and the Atlas mountains whilst we thought out plan C.There was a very nice looking campsite just outside the town on the beach but when we got there the wind was blowing hard (as it usually does in this, the southern-most point of Europe where the Atlantic meets the Med.) and the GF who is still not 100% decided we should push on back up to Isla Cristina which we did. Rain stopped, sunshine returned and arrived at Camping Giralda without mishap about 5pm. Site similar to Fuzeta last year, ACSI €16 a night with 12 nights for price of 11.Only about 15 kms from Portuguese border adjacent to beach which stretches for miles. Site very busy and all best pitches in the sun taken by long-stay dutch & german plus one english van as above. Other pitches are under the pines and will be best pitches in the summer. Lots of permanent spanish shanty-town caravans which fill up at weekends with wonderfully noisy spanish families who arrive en masse....this week is local Carnival and half term.

The GF still not recovered from bad throat so by sunday we bit the bullet and got a taxi to local health clinic where we saw a doctor with 2 minutes and with much thumbing through the Berlitz Useless Phrase Book, gesticulation and method acting I think we conveyed the gist of the problem. Industrial strength paracetamol were dispensed and a prescription for a codeine linctus issued. We had timed it right as when we returned to recpetion the place was in chaos. Our french-speaking spanish taxi driver had waited for us and knew the duty pharmacy luckily and for the first time abroad a chemist asked if I had any medical cards and accepted the EHC111 in lieu of payment for the prescription with a bright smile. Unlike France. So the Gf has stayed indoors for 2 days and is getting better..............

THE GF IS UNWELL........

Last night at Conil was a very jolly Valentines night Dinner & Dance at the restaurant which was hardly romantic but enormously good fun with a rock n'roll spanish blues band who were surprisingly authentic and lots of wine was taken.

The following day we took our farewells and headed down to Tarifa where it was raining.

A-FRAMES IN SPAIN AND TOLL ROADS IN PORTUGAL

14th February 2012

2 topics of conversation:

One of the great topics of the moment is the status of A-frames. A-frames are devices mainly used by motorhomes to tow small cars behind them and are much favoured more by the british than any other nation - and manufactured by the british. Other countries tended to view them with suspicion as they ranged from a simple frame device to tow a small car with any braking system and only a towing board with lights hung on the back to super sophisticated systems with wireless telemetry to activate brakes & lights. Eventually a standard was established and they were tolerated abroad but mainly because an EU ruling said that any device that was legal in the country of registration would be recognised as legal throughout member states. Consequently, all owners of A-frames carried with them the translations of their units legality as provided by the manufacturer and we have witnessed tow-ers being harassed by the Spanish Policia Traffico at service staions and kept hanging about for a long time whilst their documentation is studied minutely. And everybody we know with an A-frame has been stopped in Spain at least once.So you can imagine the consternation when it was discovered last month via an article on the Madrid embassy website(which is most informative for travellers) that the Spanish authorities had at last decided, unilaterally in the EU, that A-frames were illegal and could not be used in Spain, wherever you originated from. There are at least a dozen A-framers here alone, who now face (and this could be urban myth) 1.heavy fines 2.Heavy fines and tow-car impounded 3.all the previous plus motohome impounded 4. all the previous plus the spanish inquisition and eventual death by public burning to compensate for the banning of bull-fighting in some areas.

The people already here have to make the choice of returning home and hoping they won't get caught,buying a trailer or teaching their wives to drive a small car or a motrohome. It's a great source of amusement for those of us who could not afford to bring a small car..............

The Portuguese started an enormous program to introduce tolls on the motorway network last year. We saw toll booths being built last year for the proposed introduction on 1st April but it was obvious this would not be completed on time. They did however introduce tolls on Dec 1st and the system is chaotic by all accounts. Even the Portuguese don't know what the regulations are and the Govt. website was certainly incomprehensible on the matter when I looked before departing. There appears to be nowhere at the start of the motorway on the spanish border to purchase the correct vignette, day pass,week pass, or monthly pass or 'hire' the black box for the cab of motorhomes over 3.5t (us). People are being told to go to the nearest Post Office and stories of 3-4 hour waits have been verified by frustrated tourists who tried -unsuccessfully- to become legal. So everybody is avoiding the motorways as (urban myth) stories abound of huge instant fines and impounding of vehicles. We are heading into Portugal on 1st March and have usually used the motorway but we can avoid it and would have done so now without the chaos as we don't have far to go. The problem is that everbody is avoiding the motorway, even the Portuguese, and the already really crappy road that is the N145 is now the really busy crappy N145, with potholes like dustbin lids and a surface like corrugated iron.......

Brief Encounters .......

February 11th 2012

After the great weather we are now in a spell of clear blue skies and sunshine with extremely cold temperatures overnight or if the wind starts blowing as it is from the north. Last weekend saw some bitter winds and most of Europe including northern Spain was experiencing freezing conditions. Snow seemed to cover most places even down to La Manga but the wind was the killer. We went out a couple of times and the Gf ended up with sinus trouble and a cough ( of which there is a lot of around here) and took to her bed on Monday.She is still not 100% but was up and about by Tuesday, only missing out on the Buffet in the restaurant on monday which was jolly, even without her.

As well as whist which we still play on Thursdays, we have re-learnt Canasta with Harry & Joan, along with the sweetly named Shithead which is a fun card game much loved by students and the rules of which I had downloaded from the net but not played until we found The above couple who knew it from their children......harry was a surveyor and has renovated what sounds like a great house in the Vendee where they now live......not far from Don & Sandra who live in the Charente - Don being a mad scotsman who has lived in france for the last 15 years, mainly Normandy, having been a translator for estate agencies selling to brits.

The quiz on Wednesday......the winners scored a very creditable 50/50; we scored 47/50 and tied for 2nd and if the Gf had known that a pearl wedding was 30 years, not 35, we would have had a straight second place and €32.

Everybody knew we were going to lose the tie-break - 'what is the running time of the film Brief Encounters ? ' I wrote 90mins. & the other team wrote 90 mins so there should have been another tie-break question but the Gf over-ruled me at the last minute and wrote 100 mins. As the predictable answer was 86 mins we came 3rd and €15 and lost another tie break which is now the source of much amusement and comment.

On thursday we had a lads day out at the Jerez race track watching F1 pre-season testing courtesy of a lift from Roy the welshman next door. Very pleasant in the sunshine watching Hamilton,Vettel and Alonso blast round a racetrack that should still be in the championship. Alonso naturally plays to the spanish crowd, sopping to milk the cheers and burn rubber to get them excited.On the way back, Roy was so busy taking the piss out of his friend Will who had taken the wrong turning on this road and ended up in the back streets of Cadiz with his motorhome that he managed to take the wrong turning and we ended up in the back streets of Cadiz and took half an hour to get out of.This caused much hysteria, especially when his wife Joy heard about it on our return as Roy had been going on about Will's error for 2 weeks.

On friday we had a delightful walk through the back lanes, joining Paul & Marianne, John & Jean & Bryan & Cissy en route to a Venta near El Colarado for lunch. Had a cracking 3 course meal with drinks for a total of €64 for 8 people which seems remarkably good value and set us up for the hours walk home.The same crowd plus others are the lets-get-pissed-at-the-sports-bar

stalwarts so friday was a very pleasant interlude.

We've now been here for 4 weeks, don't know where the time has gone and its been a laugh a minute and now thinking of moving on......or not. We shall go to Olhao on March 1st but we may go to Tarifa for a few days and then Huelva and Isla Christina before heading to Portugal.......

FINANCE AND QUIZ NIGHT.....

February 2nd 2012

For avid followers of this drivel, the good news on the Caxton Card saga ..(do keep up, it was all detailed in the post of Jan 18th)..is that the money has finally been returned as I deem it, or no longer put aside as pending as they would explain it. The strange thing is that they told me it could take up to 16 days, a strange number, and lo and behold,it popped back into the available balance exactly 16 days after it had been removed. So how did they know it would take 16 days unless Shell had told them it would reverse the pending request in 16 days and if so did Shell or Caxton have use of that money in the meantime ? It's not just Caxton, who expressly warn of automated fuel pumps, car rental firms and hotels who want to swipe a card at reception, as I noticed a Carrefour pending charge of €120 remained on a debit card for 7 days after using a pay-at-the-pump last year(the card being debited with the actual fuel purchased immediately but the sum for the total amount of fuel that could have been purchased ie €120, being sent as a pending request and reducing my available balance......wake up at the back, questions will be asked....I think that this is a big issue as in certain circumstances it could mean that you cannot withdraw funds as these pending requests effectively block legitimate access to your account. And with the Shell garage episode this was not a pending charge in case the funds were not cleared but a commuincations error that sent 3 requests for the same transaction. Are we being ripped off again by the retailers and card issuers

or merely grossly inconvenienced ?

And the news that all are waiting for, it being the night after the Quiz...

Well, 30 teams last night, 120 people. We scored 44/50 and irritatingly knew the answers to 5 of the questions we got wrong, but argued over which were the correct ones. And I have to hang my head in shame at plumping for Graham Hill after crossing out Mike Hawthorn as first British F1 champion (well there was only 4 years between them) and what made it more galling was that the Good Fairy kept wittering on about Hawthorn and is now looking very smug and sniggering every few minutes. This meant that we came second after 45 won the top prize of €60 and had to settle for €40. But as was pointed out, if we'd tied again for 1st we'd still have lost it on a tie break so we repaired to the bar to spend our winnings...........

Weather continues to be exceedingly sunny and warm, and a mass electric bike ride-out...including a home-converted electric tandem....resulted in such ribald comments as Hell's Grandparents and brought terror and confusion to the local countryside.

WINE IN PLASTIC BOTTLES......

I swore I never would. For 4 years I have avoided it here in Spain and anywhere else for that matter. But friday night's lets-get-pissed-at -the sports-bar event was cancelled due to a day of inclement weather which briefly cleared around 5pm but returned at 7pm and a decision was made to seek alternative entertainment. Paul & Marianne drew the short straw and we piled round there for an evening of drinking which included home-made Sloe Vodka and Cherry Brandy.During the course of this debauchery I refused the wine out of the 2 litre plastic bottle and was then forced into a blind tasting, the no-brainer outcome of which was that I chose the said wine from plastic bottle as the best of the bunch and continued drinking it for the rest of the evening.

Unable to believe this the following day, I went and bought a 2 litre bottle for the princely sum of

€2.19, a picture of which can be seen on the right. Far from consigning it to the kitchen I have found it very palatable at 13.5%. It is labelled as Dominio de Borgia which may conjure visions of Lucretia who I believe was Italian and poisoned people but it does slip down remarkably easily. I am prepared for the storm of derision which will descend but the sun is shining, the sky is blue and I'm sitting in my shorts drinking wine from a plastic bottle with my friends........what are you doing ?

...AND THE TIE BREAK QUESTION IS.....

.......IN WHICH YEAR DID BLONDIN CROSS THE NIAGRA FALLS ON A TIGHTROPE ?

This was to decide who came 1st/2nd in the quiz last night. The Good Fairy plumped for 1878 and our opponents went for 1864.

So did we win the €50 or the €32 ? Our record in tie-breaks to date has been dismal..........you'll have to look the answer up yourselves

FUN IN THE SUN

January 20th 2010.

How time flies when you're having fun.The sun is shining and Conil looks better than ever, prosperous even and a buzz about the place with more new shops opened than shops closed and at least one big new hotel that has gone up within the year.....and although it means a slight detour on the walk to beach, they have also landscaped the cliffs in front of it with boardwalks through gardens and some great viewing platforms. Conil remains essentially a spanish holiday resort, refusing any high rise blocks, Irish pubs or all-day english-breakfast emporiums and all new developments blend in very nicely with the andalusian 'white town' concept. I can recommmend it.

The local festival of San Sebastien was set for Sunday and the site management put on a very nice free lunch on Wednesday which was very well attended and at which an extraordinary number of jugs of Sangria were sunk...which may have accounted for a dismal showing in that night's quiz - our first - when we only managed 5th place by a whisker, should have been second and could have been first. Honour was somewhat restored on Thursday night when the Good Fairy took the Whist Drive by storm, winning a €1.46 bottle of wine for coming first ( as opposed to €50 for winning the quiz).

Friday night was lets-get-pissed-at-the-sports-bar night where all the drinks are a €1, things got out of hand and getting home by torchlight is hazardous.

On Saturday we cycled up to the fruit farm for oranges and veg and ran foul of the Polizia Traffico who pulled me over at a roundabout, where they were stopping motorists,because I wasn't wearing a cycling helmet.... I couldn't believe there was a law making helmets compulsory but I was let off with a caution. Subsequent investigation revealed that you don't have to wear one a)in town b) in hot weather or c) going up hills and that there is a nice shop in Conil seeling helmets from €40 upwards. I later counted 15 people not wearing helmets on the same stretch of road but when I went to buy one later in the week and spoke to the cycle-shop owner he said that they fined 3 people on Sunday at €100 a pop so you have been warned..

This disruption to my equilibrium may account for what followed. When we arrived back at the site and I was recounting this tale to much hilarity from the usual suspects I discovered that I had inadvertently left my rucksack full of veg and oranges at the cafe we had stopped at for coffee and had to make an another 11 mile round trip to retrieve it.

Most afternoons are spent playing Boules (in the sunshine), the ladies have yet to win a session.

The festival of San Sebastien on Sunday was much bigger,noisier and more colourful than previous years, the popular reason being that the warm winter has made everyone very happy and the population of Conil were all up for a 5 mile walk in the sun drinking sherry and sweet wine and sharing it liberally with bystanders-which seems to be part of the tradition. The very large carpark at the entrance to the site is the traditional first picnic stop out of a town and was soon covered with rugs,food,drink and horse droppings in equal quantity. And they were all very happy as they then departed for El Colorado and a massive BBQ under the pines..

On Monday we walked with Paul & Marianne along the cliffs to the port of Conil, about a 10 mile round trip relieved by a couple of glasses of beer in the cantina and a huge plate of fried anchovies (before they are salted variety) which are called Boquerones and highly reminiscent of whitebait and which were very tasty.

BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN......

January 18th 2012

Now well and truly embedded at Conil after a fairly straightforward and uneventful trip. Left home on Sunday 8th for CC site overnight at Folkestone and Eurotunnel on Monday morning. Booked on the 07.50 but arriving at 07.00 caught the virtually empty 07.20 and therefore on the A16 in Calais by 08.00 or 09.00 as it is in Central European Time. Pleasant run down to Lemans and the aire at Suze s/Sarthe and by arriving mid-afternoon managed to get one of the 3 hook-ups thus saving gas on heating and running the fridge. Outside temp chilly overnight and fairly foggy in the morning.

Tuesday to Bordeaux in mostly sunshine and Acsi campsite on the lakes north of the city and just off the ring road. Site looking definitely sad and evidence of itinerants and migrant workers especially in the chalets.....lot of coming and going at 6pm and 8am. Still, the site is very handily placed.

Wednesday, a shortish run down to San Sebastian and aire on the university campus. Topping up with fuel at a Shell station in Bordeaux there was a problem with the card at the cash desk-not a card-only pump- when the machines appeared to have a problem. The terminal said "paiment accepte" then blanked out and repeated this message another twice..the managment was summoned and put the card through another machine much to my annoyance as I subsequently discovered that although I was only charged once for €59.80 a further 2 requests were left pending on the card (Caxtonfx prepaid card) and the 'available balance' is €119.60 lower than the actual balance. I specifcally avoid autopayment pumps for this very reason as advised by Caxton and did not expect to encounter a problem in a manned station. Phone calls to Caxton revealed that they could see the transactions but could only say that they should drop off the transactions pending radar within 16 days and the balance would be restored.....lucky that the card is loaded with sufficient funds to make this an irritation rather than crisis.

Arrived San Sebastian early afternoon, met a charming Spanish couple who gave us chapter and verse on buses into town etc and spent a great afternoon exploring a very nice & classy resort. Very similar to Biaritz and St.Jean de Luz with a very striking town overlooking a wonderful horseshoe-shaped bay with great beach.

Off early on Thursday down to Salamanca. Very easy run on nearly toll-free motorways (€21 to just south of Burgos then toll free). Mixed weather but foggy at first then sunshine after mid-day. Arrived Acsi campsite in Salamanca and plan was to spend 2 days and explore city. Temp -3 overnight and awoke to very thick fog. Waited till 10.30 but no sign of fog lifting or temp rising above freezing so decided to give sightseeing a miss as it would not be much fun even if we could see anything.....Salamanca is quite high...and head on to Caceres. Fog disappeared as we dropped down and blue skies and sunshine were order of the day as we arrived Caceres early afternoon. We stopped off at the aire here last year when the old town centre was having a makeover and we said we would like to return to see the town in its full glory . And very pleasant it is too. Aire again was overflowing.

Saturday was a beautiful day and the last leg to Conil, arriving at 3pm. Site very busy this year (there is a CC&C rally here for 2 months) but our pitch awaited us, next to Roy and Joy who have been out since November and Paul & Marianne who arrived the day before us having used the Santander ferry for the first time...still can't justify the cost personally. So many old faces here that it was like going back to school after the hols and getting settled took for ages as we kept stopping to chat. First stop was the van wash shed to hose the dirt and grime of 1500 miles in lots of fog

off the van. Then a few beers as we caught up on the news. It has been a good winter here with hardly a drop of rain and everybody looks tanned already.

Ate in the restauarant on Saturday night. On Sunday we got really settled and put the sun-lounge up which is just about on its last legs. Good job we did because then it rained for 24 hours and naturally everybody blamed us.

Monday night we ate in the reastaurant again with P&M as they had a Flamenco evening which was excellent and lots of alcohol was imbibed.

By Tuesday the weather was back to 'normal' with clear blue skies and warm sunshine. Cycled down to the beach which looks better than ever and walked on the sand for miles........