Enrique Hendrix Gets His Old Fella Out !!

We started off yesterday with our usual walk down to the beach and along the prom, checking out the villas on the way.

There are plaques outside, most of them stating when they were built and for whom.  Most were built in the late 1800s and were owned by Spanish high society, where they were home to extravagant parties.

However during the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 the owners fled and the villas were converted to hospitals, libraries and cinemas, showing soviet films!

We walked to the end of the platge before chucking a u-ey and retracing our steps ...

We noticed that Bombo had gone a bit lame.  We think he may be older than his supposedly 11 years as he tires very quickly, especially in the heat ... not that it is that hot with the temps in the mid 20s.  He must have gotten used to the temps in Blighty!

After checking his paws for any foreign bodies I decided to carry him back to base ...

He is very happy to be carried and hangs on like a child ...

Is that a sneaky look back, to say 'yep, I've got him wrapped round my little paw' ...

Very happy ... 

There is a dog wash on site so we decided to give them a shampoo when we got back ... which would also cool them down ...

They don't mind it at all ...

Later in the arvo it was time to don the Aussie rugby shirt and break out the bunting and go and watch the rugby on the big screen.  We were outnumbered by the taffies 32-2! 

Of course the Aussies won, they even held out when down to 13 men ...

As soon as the rugby finished we went into the main dining area, which was absolutely packed with old buggers retired folk. 

The staff managed to find us a table and we had a nice 2 course dinner and two carafes of wine for 23.80 Euros (£17.85 / $37.18AUD).

One of the reasons it was so packed was that as it was a Saturday night and they had a turn on.  It was local heart-throb Enrique Hendrix, brother of the late great Jimi !!!!

He started off the gig with the classics ... Oh Diana, My way, New York New York, a quick burst of Viva Espana which whipped the grannies into a frenzy.  The bloomers were being ripped off thick and fast and Enrique was being pelted with M & S extra large from all corners of the auditorium.

This inspired Enrique even more and he started playing the guitar behind his back a la brother Jimi...  

I started to panic as I realised that to truly emulate brother Jimi he would also play the guitar with his old fella...

I was right.  Hey Joe started, the trousers and pants dropped down and the old fella came out.  Then the grannies started to faint.  Within seconds the house lights were on, the gig cancelled and Enrique was escorted off the stage in disgrace.  The oldies are still all talking about the gig this morning.

OK, so now the truthful bit ... his name was Enrique and he did play and sing those songs and he played guitar behind his head but we bolted when Viva Espana started!  It was absolutely woeful but we really did hear the oldies talking about what a great night it was ... all day long!

Tonight we will take the dogs out to dinner to a local restaurant, where they don't have turns on!

On Yer Bike...

Back to yesterday, Friday was a holiday in this area of Spain and Monday is a holiday in the whole of Spain, so on Friday the campsite was partly taken over by a large group of Spanish campers.  They are lovely people and all that, but are they so noisy!  It's not just the kids either, the adults are worse ... shouting and jabbering away!  They were in the far corner of the site but we could still hear them!  They also (as does everyone!) walk past us on the way to the campsite entrance, what a din as they pass by!

Luckily most of the pensioners on the site are deaf so they go by unnoticed :)

Another observation of the site clientelle is that probably 90% of the poms are from up t' north and quite a few taffies as well.  My theory is that they have a larger disposable income, whereas the southerners are tied up to huge mortgages.  It was the same when I worked on the boats in Sydney, by far the biggest customers in boat sales where those from the western suburbs of Sydney, where the prices of houses were a fraction of those along the beaches and city suburbs.

It could also be that it is grim up t'north and they are escaping!  In saying that though if we were to live in England we would prefer it to be up north ... as long as we could escape the weather every now and again.

Back on track again ... after a night of a few, but heavy, rain showeres the day dawned sunny and warm.

We headed off down to the beach and the prom, along with a few of the retirees from the site.  They plonked themselves on the beach, but we went for a walk instead along the prom, the beach here is not dog friendly, which is doing Bombo's head in!

Some of the villas on the front are just lovely, and very, very expensive ...

Just love a palm tree and an empty beach ...

Happy doggies ...

Bombo ... 'why do I have to site and pose on this wall!  I WANNA GO ON THE BEACH !!!

Elaine taking a break with her best mate ...

After tiring out the boys, we headed back to camp where we left the dogs in the van and got out the bikes. The dogs are fine in the van ... we shut all the blinds and open the skylights.  We are also shaded by trees, so the temperature inside the van doesn't get above 25 degrees.

The cycle track runs along an old railway line and it, conveniently, starts behind the campsite. 

Leaving Benicassim ...

It passes through some wonderful cuttings ...

And runs along the cliff tops ...

Being an old railway line any inclines are very slight ...

There is also a very long tunnel along the route ...

Nowhere near as claustrophobic as the canal tunnels, I really don't like them much!

At the other end of the line is the town of Orposa and a large marina ...

We did a u turn then and headed back.  Elaine did very well to get there and back, having not been on a pushbike in yonks.  She did get aggressive on part of the ride though when a tortoise tried to overtake her ... joking :)

(El here ... he gave me a lot of grief about going slow but my backside was killing me, despite putting a folded towel on my seat.  It didn't help when a wasp landed on my head either .. I went to brush it off and it stung me!!  Paul reckoned if I was going faster it wouldn't have been able to land!  Hmmm.....)

Once back at base we cooled off by going for a swim in the pool, we were the only ones in it.

When we returned after our swim we noticed a Spanish family walking around our van saying something in Spanish and gesticulating what we could only make out to be 'a small thing'!!  We soon found out what it was when they retrieved their siamese cat from under the van.  It had escaped from their chalet .... lucky tey found it, the boys would have loved to have discovered a cat underneath the van!   It escaped again later in the afternoon, with the family all out hunting for it but this morning we noticed it was being taken for a walk on its lead!

In the evening I went to the bar to watch NZ vs Tonga in the Rugby World Cup, while El stayed in with the dogs.  There was a massive crowd there of me and a Welshman in the bar but, to be fair, there was a big parade and fireworks going on down at the Playa, so most of the people were watching that.

Tonight it is Australia vs Wales.....Come on you Aussies!!! 

Market Day

I was chatting to our neighbour this morning, he was heading off back to Newcastle after being down here since May!  He also wanted to have a look around our van as he would be very interested in buying it when we get back to the UK!  

I am starting to see the attraction of this place, although it isn't for us just yet!!  The neighbour was telling me that the longer you stay the cheaper it gets ... he was paying 10 Euro a day (£7.30 / $15.86 AUD) and that includes water, electric and full use of all the facilities.

He also told me it was market day in the town so we went alng to check it out.  It was mainly a food market but there were also stalls selling clothes and shoes.

We bought some fruit and Elaine bought a couple of fringed tops (for Cropredy next year, so she tells me!) ...

This photo doesn't do the market justice, but you get the idea!

The rest of the day was spent doing absolutely nothing, we even had a very long siesta - just getting into Spanish mode!

I went to the site bar for a drink tonight, purely to show my support!  There is also a nice restaurant attached, check out the price!!

Two courses including wine or beer 11.90 Euro (£8.68 /$18.86 AUD).

As I said you can see the attraction and, of course, the biggest bonus the nice weather is free ... as I sit typing this it is pouring with rain....doh. 

We were going to go for a bike ride today but the rain stopped play, so ... mañana !!

I Should Have Worn A Crash Helmet

Re yesterday's post when I mentioned the size of some of the satellite dishes on this site, this is a pommie chap's set up.  He has brought bloody Jodrell Bank with him...its dynabolted to the bedrock!!

After a morning of not doing too much, Elaine was finishing the final chapters of a really good book, (we have both been ripping the through the books the last few weeks) while I gave the bathroom a good clean up and removed and cleaned up the mixer tap so it is nice and smooth now!

In the late afternoon we went down to the site pool.  I was adjusting my position on the sun lounge when I went a bit too far back, I went base over apex, smacked my head on the wall, grazed my elbow and hurt my shoulder!  I nearly knocked myself out!  The amazing bit was that no one laughed, they were all concerned about whether I was injured or not.  I did feel a bit of a nob, Elaine laughed later though!

As  mentioned yesterday, it is a very nice pool.  That is my little baldpate in the middle of the pool ...

I then returned to my sun lounger, this was my view ...

This evening we took the dogs for a walk around the town and ended up at the same bar as last night!  The waitress greeted us with 'Sammie'!!!  We are locals already!!

Benicassim

We had a chat last night and decided we would head to a nice campsite today ... and have a holiday within a holiday, if you know what I mean?!

Last year we stayed at a nice site in Benicassim and as it was only a 45 minute drive away we decided to head there.

And here we are at Bonterra Park campsite.  It is in the ACSI book but it the most expensive at 18 euro a night (£13.14 / $28.56 AUD).

The place is rammed!  We have found the Poms, Germans, French and of course loads of Dutch, they are all here, we haven't seen any Spaniards apart from the guards staff.

We were only going to stay for a couple of days but the check in girl said that this weekend is a big Spanish holiday with days off on Friday and Monday, so we decided to stay for 7 nights and have a good relax!! 

It is a quality campsite but is reminiscent of a retirement village!  We are probably the youngest here.  The pool is lovely though, as are all the facilities. Talking to a few of the retirees most of them stay here for months and have mega setups including massive satellite dishes so they can still watch Corrie.

 There is a supermarket across the road accessed by a zebra crossing, so there is little chance of getting squashed by the Spanish drivers. This is about as far as most of them venture as it is a bit scary outside the confines of the village.  If they do get squashed there is a in-house funeral director and crematorium.

 There was a turn playing in the bar this arvo, who were described as a folk band....they were absolutely woeful.  Thankfully they finished at 18.00, which is way past bedtime in the village!  A few of the oldies died of boredom during the performance.  I contemplated suicide but after a couple of San Miguels I changed my mind and decided we should escape the village and check out the town.  After filling out numerous forms and promising to be back before sun down we were allowed to leave.

The beach and prom were lovely and, of course, deserted  because up the road 2000 old biddies were safely ensconced in the village. 

The photos don't really show how lovely some of the beach side villas are.  Most of them were built in the late 1800s ...

Prom walk ...

We stopped at a beach bar on the way back for a couple of beers, they then chuck the tapas at you and before we knew it we decided to stay for dinner ...

It was a very nice restaurant.  Don't be put off by the shutter behind me, it just wasn't the best seat in the house!  The food was lovely though.  We had all sorts of tapas a few beers, fish for Elaine, steak for me and finished up with some champagne (gratis).  We were guessing it would be reasonable at about 60 euros, but when we got the bill it was 28 euro (£20.44 / $44.43AUD).

Oh and it was dog friendly ...

It was well after dark by the time we got back to the camp so rather than answer a million questions on why we ate outside of the camp, we bribed a hearse driver to give us a lift into the complex ... he was on his way to pick up another load!

Sammie Goes Walkabout

There are about 60 motorhomes and caravans moored up on this site, and out of all those there are four Autotrail Motorhomes including ours.

Late yesterday afternoon we heard a lady asking people if they had lost a dog, I looked out of the side hatch and she was carrying Sammie, we didn't even realise he had left the building!

She said she heard a bit of commotion between a couple of dogs then the next minute little Sammie comes running into her motorhome.....they had a Autotrail! What a clever doggie!  (Yes, he is a lucky doggie too!)

Elaine crashed out early last night so at midnight I grabbed the trusty 2-wheeled steed and went to the local restaurant to watch England vs Italy ... it was a good game and England should have won it. 

As I mentioned yesterday it has been so hot here for ages but whilst I was watching the game, the wind got up and really started blowing hard.  When I got back to the van the wind just started there, so I quickly wound in the awning before it took off and took the side of the van with it.  There were quite a few people about in their nightclothes at 02.00 securing their awnings.

The good thing is that it dropped the temp down so we had a fantastic night's sleep.

After a lazy start and taking the doggies out for a walk to the town, we went for a bike ride along a cycle track that runs behind the camp-site.  It is on an old railway track and it goes for about 6 ks to the next town.

Looking back at Benicassim ...

Really good path ... 

It runs along the coast past lots of little bays and a few forts ... 

There weren't many people using it ... 

Not bad eh! 

There was a marina at the end.  There are many marinas along the Spanish coastline and all of them with excellent  facilities.  Like the majority of marinas around the world there were very few people on their boats or taking them out ... 

We headed back through one of the longer tunnels ... 

I was trying to outrun the light! 

Here comes Elaine steaming out of a cutting ... 

We came back to the site and just managed a drink within Happy Hour then a quick dip in the pool to cool down, although today was a much cooler 30 degrees!

We went down the town looking for a restaurant for dinner.  We passed Sue and Vic's new venture ...

We chose a really cool 'bohemian' type of restaurant.  The furniture was made of old timber pallets, the wine list was printed on an old wine bottle and the clientelle were very alternative.  El particularly liked that they had lavender, mint and basil plants all around the surrounding walled garden.

I have a smug look because I have a gob full of food!  

Pallet sofa ... 

Very nice restaurant... 

The front door, which leads into the garden-restaurant ... 

Benicassim is a very Spanish town.  It was amazing to walk back through the town after 22.00 on a Sunday night and to see all the restaurants full of the Spaniards having their dinner ... don't they realise there is work tomorrow!  (Actually it is Spain, so there isn't a lot of work).

Tomorrow we head off to the Bay of Roses.

Where we are now ...

Where we stayed:

Bonterra Park, Benicassim

Avda de Barcelona 47
12560 / Benicasim, Spain

Coordinates:  N40°3'25"            E0°4'28"

Brilliant site - the best yet.  Has great facilities and large, private pitches.  Also has two big doggie wash baths.  Very dog friendly but not in July or August, it seems?  Beach is just 4 mins away.  Loads of restaurants and bars.  Nice village close by and lovely bike riding path out of the back of the site ... just a lovely spot!

In the ACSI book so it was 18 Euros a night plus 4 Euros a day for Wifi or 12 Euros for 7 days ...