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!