Valencia.

We were awoken early today by out squawking Dutch neighbours!  The women seem to have incredibly high pitched voices!  Our problem was that we moored up in the middle of four groups of Cloggers who all knew each other so they all shout at each other from their respective pitches.

I took the doggies for a walk to the other end of the camp-site, which was split in two halves ... no probs down there as all the nationalities were all mixed in together.  We obviously chose the wrong half, I had a chat to some of the campers from the other end and they loved it. 

We have decided that in future we will check out the site first to make sure that we don't get stuck in another clique, that's twice now and both times they were Cloggers!   

I also took the doggies for a walk on the beach, which was deserted apart from one chap having an early morning dip.

As we left the campsite our neighbours were all having a sing-along!!

This area of Spain seemed to have a lot of un-finished housing - the roads are there, the street lights and pavements are all in place ...

It is a really sad sight and a sight that we have seen to a lesser degree in a lot of other Spanish areas ...

Apparently there are 3.4 million empty houses in Spain!  On top of this there are another half a million half built properties.  In comparison the UK has 700,000 empty houses whilst Australia has 3.

I am no expert, but from what I have read it seems like it will be at least another 10 years before Spain recovers.  Of course in saying all this there are some fantastic bargains to be picked up on some other poor buggers misfortune.  Final bit.....they are still building houses!!  Why?  Because the Ruskis and Norwegians etc. only want new places!!    Okay enough of the downer stuff ...

We arrived at a camp-site just outside Valencia, checked it out as per the plan and it all looked good pretty empty, had a great swimming pool and a bus stop out the front to take us into the city.  We checked in and parked up, then went for a lovely cooling dip in the pool.  The temps have really risen in the last few days, it is now officially 'kin hot!  Today was the first day that A/C in the habitation area would have been nice.  The good news is that it is cooling down to 28 tonight!  Our current pitch ...

We took the dogs for a late afternoon walk down to the local beach and were greeted by lots of men walking around with their 'old fellas' hanging out....I forgot the camera!

Back at the campsite we met our neighbours, a lovely young couple (late 20s) who are Aussies.  He drives road trains back in Oz plus does a bit of work at the mines driving 350 ton dump trucks!  They bought a £900 caravan and a £700 car back in the UK and have been travelling plus working a bit since.  He said he went to get a job with a building company in the UK and they wouldn't let him drive the 5 ton dump truck  unless he went on a driving course and go the correct ticket!  The same happened to me, I have a Aussie license to drive any truck trailer combination apart from a road train but DVLC doesn't recognise it because its not a EU license.

They are also travelling with this little girl.....4 months old, all credit to them I say.  I thought we were mad to sell up in our late fifties (me that is) but to do it in your 20s!  They intend returning to Australia in November ... he said he will work in the mines for 6 months then they will take off on another adventure.  Here is El, having a cuddle ...

We were getting the bus into Valencia in the morning, but the Spanish are not like the poms and dogs are banned on public transport.  They are allowed in a cab, however, so we will do that as it is far too hot to leave them in the van.