127 On to La Manga

Sunday 28th Oct
A pack up day today, pending setting off for La manga tomorrow. After the few days of rain and moving site, this one was a lot more hospitable with a gravel base.

Getting ready to strike camp the next day

It was a nice sunset though.

Monday 29th Oct
A long 330 km trip toward the East side of Granada. It was a long drive and there was loads of these. There were people packing parachutes in the middle of fields, in peoples driveways and beside roads. They were all over the place.

They were everywhere that there were any hills.

More Moorish architecture.

We parked at a campsite just outside Granada at an elevation of 1100m. We were expecting it to be cold but it was OK. Leon had fight with the local ginger tom and lost. We had to rescue him from under a caravan and calm him down till his little ball of sticky up hair (that most cats would call a tail) returned to it's normal size.

Tuesday 30th Oct
Another long driving day, this time 320 km to La Manga. As we set off we saw this. Its the Sierra Nevada mountain range. A fair snow fall for the end of October.

The Sierra Nevada mountains

Autumn was in full swing and there were whole forests of these pretty yellowing trees.

We arrived at La Manga at around 5:30 and were met by Dick Gullen, a guy we had previously  made friends with the last time we were here two years ago. In one of our previous posts, number 28 of Nov 2010 we mentioned that Dick had made "doing nothing and laziness into an art form". Well I have to report that nothing has changed except that now the art form is two years older it has gained in value just like a dodgy painting. Only joking, Dick is priceless and took us out two hours after we arrived to a smashing Italian restaurant where we caught up on the latest gossip in the British enclave of 'Caravaning La Manga'.

Wednesday 31st Oct
We had a trip out to the local Caravan dealers to buy some more chairs as mine was about to collapse under my considerable bulk. Unfortunately the weather has done it's usual trick and the rain has followed us.
The next 2 weeks were abysmal, with every other day, rain running down the gravel road in front of the tent. We spent most of the time hiding in front of the telly. We even bought some headphones and had to use them when it rained to hear the telly. When it was not raining, it was overcast and gloomy or cold. 
I kept asking if we were indeed in Spain. One thing that was funny was that Dick seemed to be going into depression [ ;-) ] for not being able to sunbathe.
We also tried (again)  to get some tyres for the trailer and the bike and we even had a bit of a warning by a cop for it when we were waiting in a petrol station near the tyre shop, for it to open. No joy with the tyres ! To commiserate we went to Paddy Wacks Irish bar for a curry - fantastic.

As for the tent. That was till leaking but not quite so bad. During a lull in the rain I shoved some more glue on the seams and I have finally cured the leaks - Yippee...

Water leaking through the tent seams.

When the sun comes out, so do the line dancers, just the same as they did in 2010 !

Karen enjoying a beer on an rare warm day at the campsite bar

Wednesday 14th Nov
I wanted to go out today. The 14th of November is an important day for me.
We started out doing some much needed shopping in Cartegena, including a new air bed for Karen as her's had sprung a serious leak. We then drove up the coast to Torrevieja for a spot of lunch and a walk along the promenade. It was nice and quiet whereas normally it would be full of Brits and Germans on holiday.

To give you some idea of the weather we have had, this is the Mediterranean and it does not normally do surf except when we are here - remember post 20 in October 2010 when the beach disappeared.

We then drove along the coast and ended up in Brambles bar for a little celebration. 

An idiot abroad !!

Thursday 15th and Friday 16th Nov
We are now starting to plan our trip to America and have spent 2 days poring over maps and guide books. The weather was starting to improve so on Friday was onto Wallace and off back to Brambles for Fish and Chips and it was excellent.

Saturday 17th Nov
The weather today has finally broken. Today it finally warmed up a bit as well as the sun shining. We have noticed that a good indicator of the weather is the sight of Dicks nearly naked body laid out flat in the sunshine. Just how we remember it.