The Start Of A New Life

A year ago today we signed up on a six month lease in Bollington in the UK. 

A few days ago we signed up for a one year lease on a villa in Mojacar Spain!

We really enjoyed our six months in Bolly and I am pretty sure we will enjoy our one year here, although to be fair we won't be here for the whole year as we will be going off on excursions in the motorhome and will probably cruise north for a wee while in the hotter months.

We have been busy lately, sorting out the new place. The owner left a few days ago and, in his words, 'do what you want with the place'.  He left everything behind, including all  the white goods, furniture, bedding, absolutely everything.

So today we just about finished sorting everything out.  We will personalise it a bit more once we collect all of our stuff from storage in Manchester and from my mum's house in Milton Keynes.  I'm not sure how we are going to get the goods here yet but we will find a way. 

We started off the day with, once again, a fantastic sunrise.  Sometimes I get up, watch it then go back to bed.  Actually, most times I go back to bed!

We then took the dogs for a walk along the paseo, as you can see the crowds haven't arrived yet. 

To the left ...

Middle ...

And to the right ...

We walked right to the end of the paseo then backtracked, walking along the beach ...

After the walk we headed up to the villa, where I took a few indoor shots.

This is the lower deck leading off of the bedrooms, it looks straight down the cliff out to the sea.

The framework is a flyscreen which covers all the outdoor areas. It looks a bit strange but the owner said he got so fed up with the flies and mozzies that he had it built and now you can sit outside all summer without getting eaten alive.  It will also allow us to have all the doors and windows open in the house, without having any nasties buzzing around ...

The upper deck leads off of the lounge and kitchen. This also has a perspex roof over it,so that we will be able to dine outside in all weather!  Once again, glorious views of the med ...

It also has a roof terrace which has 360 degree views. It was hot up there today so in the summer it would be unbearable, but it will be very handy to dry the washing! 

Looking up the hill which is a dead end, so very little passing traffic ...

You do get the best views from up there though ...

The main living room ...

Looking back towards the kitchen ...

Upstairs dunny.  It's all very Spanish in design, as is the whole villa ...

Laundry and store room (still being sorted!) ...

Ditto ...

Downstairs bathroom ...

Main Bedroom ... 

En suite ...

The smallest bedroom, which Elaine is making into her massage room.  She just needs her massage table in it now and she will be away ...

Ditto ...

The third bedroom, which will look a lot nicer when we have sorted it out a bit more ...

I had to take a pic of two passing tugs as the sea for the last few days has been so flat that you can't pick out the horizon!  It's just above the tugs ...

 Other news, very quickly cos it's getting late ...

Tonight we have been to a house warming of a couple we met a few weeks ago.  I went go kart racing yesterday with some local lads whose average age was about 25 ... they flogged me and I came last!  I was so knackered I had to go to bed at 19.30!   Finally we have another visitor arriving tomorrow, Elaine's old school friend, Jane, from Macclesfield who is joining us for Christmas.

We have the keys to the Villa!

We woke to a lovely sunrise this morning ... in anticipation of an exciting day ...

We went down to the Real Estate agents at noon, to sign the lease and pick up the keys to our new villa!

I took a pic whilst down there, ours is the place at the bottom left ...

- and zooming in further ...

It only took a few minutes to sign the lease and get the keys and then we zoomed up to the villa in the van!

Elaine started sorting out the lounge room while I took some pics.

This is the view from one of the outside areas ...

We are totally on our own up there.  These neighbours are below us ...

And this is the view behind us ...

I also bought his motorbike ...

It will be so handy when it gets busy here ...

We will post some photos of the inside of the villa when we have sorted it out a bit more!

So how did we end up with a fully furnished villa in the best place in Spain, you may ask??

Basically I met a bloke down the pub that I frequent!   I also met him last year when we were here. He is a very nice chap and extremely generous.  He owns a few properties around the world including one in Brisbane. 

He is moving to Australia for the next five years or more but didn't want to sell the Mojacar villa or leave it unoccupied.  He was living in Ireland so flew out here a few times a year.   

He offered it to us as 'caretakers', as in we live in it and look after it, pay the electric, water and gas ... and that's it!

We have a lease for a year, just to make everything legal and above board.

We are so happy, we can't believe our luck ... and we now have the 'base' that Elaine has been desperate for!

It also means we will keep the motorhome and use it to explore Spain, France and Portugal etc,. but just for short trips during the year.  

The moral to this story is ... 

Go to the pub as much as possible, you never know who you will meet!

Exciting News!!!

It's all been happening in sunny Mojacar!

Santa is about, but the Christmas spirit is nowhere near as frenetic as back in the UK or OZ ...

Carols were being sung in the shopping centre this morning.  It is a bit of a sun trap and a lot of the singers were overheating so were having to fan themselves with the song sheets ...

It was nice to have a singalong ...

Other news is that we moved up to the back of the block.  The unit we are in now is a little smaller but we now have a nice view of the med ...

Now for the exciting news!!  Due to me having a friendly chat to one of the locals, who happens to have properties here in Mojacar, Ireland and Australia (and who is moving to Australia for the foreseeable future) we have been offered an amazing villa in a superb location in Mojacar.

This is the view ...

And this is the pad ...

All going well it should be all sorted by this Tuesday.

We are absolutely stoked to put it mildly :)

Xmas Af-fairs...

It's Christmas time, so we have been checking out a couple of the local Christmas fairs!

We went to one on the beach on Saturday, which was predominantly a Spanish affair ... resulting in loads of noise!  They do seem to like to make a god-awful din but it's their country so they are entitled to make as much noise as they want :)

Today we went up to the hillside village of Bedar where they were having their Christmas fair.

We had a extra doggie with us today as his owners had gone away for the day and asked if we would mind having him for a few hours.

Maxx is a a Canadian dog and has travelled extensively around Europe with his owners before settling in Mojacar only a few weeks ago.  It's certainly a tad warmer than Canada.   

Here is Elaine in the village of Bedar with Canadian pooch Maxx ...

The Bedar Christmas fair was predominantly English, with Spanish overtones!  Apparently we just missed Santa being dragged along by a donkey!

Our new friend, Sara, was displaying her home made jewellery.  Sara and husband, Ian are newcomers to Mojacar and have bought a villa on the playa ...

It was a nice, well organised Christmas fair held in the village square ...

We had a group dog shot on the way back to the van ...

One more....smile! 

Maxx seemed happy to sit up front with Elaine on the way back down the mountain ...

When we got back to Mojacar we were a bit peckish so we called into one of our fave cafes (Angie's cafe) in the Parque Commercial, which is especially dog friendly!  A good day out was had by all!

Another Mini Road Trip

Before we left on our little road trip on Wednesday Elaine put up the Christmas decorations in the flat.  No expense was spared ...

We set off, travelling up the coast road, checking out some of the old mining sites along the way ...

We also stopped to check out a nice little village called San Juan De Los Terreros.

We spotted a little cafe on the beach, so we had no option but to check it out ...

And what a perfect spot it was to chill with a nice cup of coffee ...

We then made our way up to a castle on the hill overlooking the village.

The water was crystal clear ...

We were the only tourists walking around the castle ...

Elaine doing her superman or should I say woman pose ...

Finally we pulled up at Playa La Carolina, which is a beach frequented by motorhomes from all over Europe.  It is a top spot ...

There are numerous cave houses cut into the cliffs ...

It is a beautiful, peaceful spot ...

These guys from Holland are travelling the world in their six wheel drive MAN truck.  It's all new, but is suffering from teething problems!

Close by we found our des-res, it just needs a bit of TLC ...

We actually think it must have been an illegal build and has been abandoned ...

Large kitchen ...

Nice large garage ...

And a view looking across to the motorhomes ...

We then took ourselves for a walk up a hill overlooking the beach ...

Elaine and her boy having a rest half way up ...

It was worth the hike ...

We are now back at our base, until we embark on another trip before our guest from the UK arrives for Xmas.

Mojacar - the Narrow-boaters Winter Escape of Choice!

We have now been here a month.  During this time we have met Martin and Cathy (NB Moriarty) another couple, whose names escape me, from NB Bimble. 

In the last few days we have found  a couple of flats for Ray and Diane (NB Ferndale) and  Andy and Sue (NB Festina Lente), who will be joining us in the new year.

And who can blame them!  The weather is superb, the cost of living cheap and you can rent a nice unit for 425 Euros a month or £300 a month!

For these two flats we have used a local rental company in Mojacar, which is run by two very helpful English ladies, Wendy and Linda, plus John who has been running us around, showing us properties.

You can see their web site here.  It also transpires that Wendy also comes from Macclesfield (as does Elaine)!

This is the unit we chose for Sue and Andy today ...

This is what Mojacar is all about ...

Chillin in the sun! 

Tomorrow we are going away on another mini road trip in the motorhome.