Mini Road Trip

We have had a busy few days!  

We left on Thursday to go on a mini road trip to Cabo De Gata, which is about an hour down the road.

Before we go there though I must put this pic on from a few days ago....

They reckon that there aren't a lot of sparrows in the UK anymore.....they are all here!

Our main reason for visiting Cabo De Gata was to catch up with Peter and Margaret, (NB Kelly Louise).  They are staying at a campsite in the Cabo De Gata national park.

Cabo De Gata  is very different to Mojacar.  There are very few poms around and therefore no English spoken in the bars and restaurants, but with our  limited vocabulary we get by!

After lunch we went for a walk and ended up in this great beach bar ...

It's a pretty good view from the bar ...

There were a lot of motorhomes wild-camping, they even leave a water tap turned on just for the motorhomers ...

Cabo De Gata also has a small fleet of fishing boats, which they drag them out of the water with a winch and cable but we didn't see how they launched them ...

The water front is very, very quiet ... it makes Mojacar look busy! 

The sunset was just superb ...

On the way back to Mojacar we went to a Bodega that Peter had mentioned, where apparently they sold good cheap wine and you could taste before you buy.

We went in and found that the place was packed with with wine in vats and barrels, so we asked if we could try some reds.  There was one surly Spanish lady 'serving' (who spent most of her time on the phone and serving anyone else apart from us guiri's).  Finally, she came to us and gave us a taster of a red, which we politely told her we didn't like and asked if we could try something else ... her answer was a categoric 'no' - so we left!  

Our general impression of Spanish customer service is that it is absolutely woeful.  They have no idea what customer service means, whatsoever!  The friendliest service we have received in shops here is from Indians (and then, of course, the English!).

It's not a problem though as we are here for the nice weather and there is plenty of that.

Today we had breakfast out then went and checked out a Christmas car boot sale.  Elaine bought up big and spent a mighty 6 euros!

We also bumped into and had a chat with seven people we now know in the area.  It really is a very easy going place and so easy to meet very friendly people ...

We then stopped by a bar where we booked and paid a deposit for our Christmas lunch at Samber restaurant on the beach front.  None of this slaving in the kitchen malarkey for us!  We will be joined over Christmas by Elaine's old bestie from Macclesfield, so we are looking forward to showing her around the place.

It is a very nice bar that sits right on the beach - this is the mirrored reflection of the beach from the bar - quite lovely!

In the afternoon we took a drive up to the watchtower at Macenas.  The road is a dirt track but it is well graded, the only problem with it is that part of it is single track with no crash barriers, all good fun! 

Once we got there we left the dogs in the van whilst we walked up to the watchtower.

We have a yoga mat on the dashboard so the doggies can sit there in comfort and don't scratch the dash ... 

It's a brilliant view from the tower, you can see the road running along the cliff ...

There was one other person there, a German tourist, but he was afraid of heights and wouldn't come up the tower ...

Elaine slowly going back down, holding on tightly and trying not to look around!

Elaine's artistic shot ...

The weather is still absolutely superb, but is getting chilly at night - we have had the heater on a couple of nights.  Here is our selfie of the day ...

Lovely blue back drop ...

Elaine walked ahead on the way down to get some shots of the van ...

There is plenty of room as long as you don't meet another vehicle but we are bigger than most, so they can back up!

Back on the flat with Mojacar in view ...

All in all another lovely day in paradise!

What A Load Of Rubbish

Life continues in the slow lane in sunny Mojacar, although it is getting a wee bit cooler especially at night time.

We went for a drive up to the Pueblo (town) on Saturday, which was quite busy and the restaurants were doing a brisk trade.  The Spanish chapter of HOG (Harley Owners Group) were in town so they made up the bulk of the punters ... and bulk they were, they were all on the rather fat bastard large size.

I was in the Sydney HOG chapter back in the early 90s, back then I was a fair bit slimmer and even had my own hair!

    

Back to the Pueblo ... the first time we came here was October 2013 and the surrounding area was like a lunar landscape but on Saturday it was quite green, not England-lush-green but very green by southern Spain standards ...

This was the view back in 2013 ...

Yesterday we joined up with a local group which we have joined on Facebook ('Mojacar Forum') who were having a working bee, to clean up a section of the beach on the outskirts of Mojacar.

It was amazing how much crap we collected in just one hour.  I think it was a bit of an eyeopener to the local Spanish residents to see so many 'immigrants' cleaning up their beach!  The Guardia even drove past, giving us a wave!

Before the event one of the local cafes gave us free coffee and bacon sarnies and after the event we were met by more forum members at a roof top restaurant/bar.  At the end of the day we ended up at a bar at the bottom of our road with a few people!  During the day we got to know a lot of the locals and learnt a lot about living in the area.  It was a most enjoyable and rewarding day.  They intend doing the cleanups every month, so we should be able to get a couple of more in before we leave ... 

I should add that Mojacar isn't some filthy dump.  On the surface it looks immaculate but the Spanish council cleaners only clean up with machinery so if it's rocky it gets left.  A lot of the crap we picked up had been there for years. 

Gotta go now - the beach is calling!

Boaters Brekkie On The Beach

I said I would do a daily blog unless something special happened, well yesterday something special happened.

A few days ago we received an email from Cathy and Martin from NB Moriarty.  It turned out that they were in Mojacar and asked if would we like to meet up. We last met them back in the winter of 2013 at Aston Marina.

We arranged to meet up at first light (10.30am) in a local cafe.

On the way there we went to check out a townhouse that another couple of Aston Marina boaters are interested in renting for next January.

It looks lovely, it's just around the corner form us, plus it is in an elevated position so the views are as below ...

We walked along the prom to meet up with Cathy and Martin, the sea was absolutely dead flat without a breath of wind ...

We had a lovely long catch up and chat and it turned out that the only reason they came to Mojacar was because we had spoken so highly of it in our blog!  I am pleased to say they absolutely love it here and are looking at coming back next year for about six months, this trip they are here for about two months.

The only downside to the meeting was that the new coffee machine broke down so we had to go to the bar next door and drink beer and wine instead!

Bombo felt very much at ease with Cathy ...

We did chat about narrowboats, mainly inverters and toilets! 

It was good to see you guys, we will see you next week at the Spanish lessons! 

If anyone is interested in coming here for a winter break, the cost of a fully furnished unit is approx 400-425 Euros (£285-£300 / $620-$650AUD) a MONTH!  Electric and gas are charged as used.  All you need is your clothes, everything else is supplied.

It really is a cheap way to escape the grotty English winter, unless you like the winter of course!  As I have said before Mojacar is the best place in Spain as long as you don't want amusements, high rises. crowded beaches and large shopping centres :)

Another Week In Paradise.

Our friends, Kathy and Phil, returned to the UK last Friday.  We had a fun week with them and they enjoyed their break in the sun.

Our next guest arrives just before Christmas, then in January we will be joined by some boating buddies.

Before Kathy and Phil left Elaine treated them to a foot massage and ear candling!

On Sunday we went on a mini road trip inland to the village of Arboleas ...

Quite a few poms live in the surrounding areas as they can buy large villas for the price of a two bedroom unit on the coast ...

You just have to love the Spanish building standards ...

They do build nice churches though ...

We headed back to Mojacar via Huercal-Overa, which is a larger provincial town about 40 minutes drive from Mojacar.

It has a population of 20,000 and has all the up to date amenities including a large very modern hospital.

Being a Sunday lunchtime the streets were deserted ...

Even the church was shut ...

After a nice walkabout it was time to return to the beaches.

The white buildings on the hill are Mojacar pueblo ...

The hilltop village of Mojacar Pueblo (town) dates back thousands of years but due to drought and lack of employment the village population dropped to critical levels.  In the 60s the population of the hilltop pueblo dropped to about 1000 people but at its peak in the mid 1800s it was 10,000.  Local leaders in the 60s decided to give away land to anyone promising to build on it, an offer which was too good to refuse and so Mojacar playa (The Beach) was developed but mainly by 'immigrants' with an artistic bent ...

This resulted in the Mojacar that we love today.  It is just so different from the rest of Spain.  It has a magical edge to it a bit like Byron Bay back in Oz had.

And here is Bombo posing on the Playa with his new haircut ...

There are also a couple of outdoor gyms along the oceanfront, which we have a play on when we are down there ...

Believe it of not there are now even less people here!  Quite a few of the pommie 'immigrants' head off to Thailand to escape the winter!! 

We are loving the low to mid 20 degree weather ...

We walk along the beach most days and most days Elaine picks up rubbish, a lot of which is left by the Spanish fishermen.  They head off to the beach at dusk and stay all night, unfortunately when they leave in the morning they leave a lot of crap behind.

It's nothing like the litter problem in the UK but still annoying, especially when there are so many bins about ...

The van hasn't had a really good clean since June, so as we have plenty of time on our hands we have started to give it a good going over. We have done most of the interior, including polishing all the wood and cleaning all the curtains etc.  Yesterday we started on the outside ... we went up the local servo where they have five car washing bays, including one with a gantry which was perfect for cleaning the roof ...

I ended up climbing up on the roof as it was very dirty and understandably one of the most overlooked areas when cleaning a motorhome ...

That was the easy bit.  Now we are back at the unit we will spend the next few days waxing it, luckily there is a step ladder in the unit so I can get to the high bits.

Other news......they accidentally  cut through a water pipe at the bottom of the road whilst doing some road works yesterday.  Half of Mojacar (playa) lost their water but as we are in Spain, where the work ethic is a bit relaxed, it wasn't classed as an urgent fix!  The water has just come back on after 23 hours!!  We were OK as we used the drinking water from the van plus used the van toilet!

Finally........