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A cracking boat and well proven live-aboard, check it out,  its a cracker. 

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Lest We Forget

Photograph I took at the Australian war memorial Villers Bretonneux

Say No More

First Week In Mojacar...

Our first week in Mojacar has gone pretty much as expected, with plenty of walks along the beach and checking out the local bars and restaurants.

 We had some friends coming over from the UK so we went down the local supermarket for a big shop on Thursday. The Spanish supermarkets are stocked with food to supplement the Mediterranean diet as in fish, olives, legumes, fruit, veg and, of course, wine.

There is a fairly large UK contingent in Mojacar, who are well catered for with pallets of Heinz baked beans! 

I loved supermarket shopping in France, they were very quiet and the staff very friendly and obliging.

It's very different in Spain.  The Spanish shoppers (and staff) will just shove you out of the way and when you reach the checkout you will be treated with total contempt, no matter how much you smile.  I would have to say, in general, Spanish customer service sucks especially if you are a pommie immigrant.

Although I don't condone their behavior I can slightly understand it.  They are working, probably on a crappy wage, and here are all these middle and old aged poms, swanning around without a care in the world.  It probably all seems a bit unfair to them.

We carried on the stereotype and went down the beach!

Our friends from Macclesfield arrived on the Monarch flight from Manchester last Friday.

Consequently we had a very busy weekend with Phil and Kathy, eating drinking and going down the beach.

 And, of course, walking along the Paseo Maritimo ...

The weather has been superb since they arrived and the forecast for the rest of the week is for wall-to-wall sunshine ...

The sea is a very pleasant 22 degrees at the moment as the fat bald man can confirm (me) ...

Another report will follow in about a week!

Weekly Post

This is the forecast weather for the next week.

In the middle of this pic there is one lady walking her dog!!

Mojacar is such a special place at this time of year! 

Slowing Down.....

In between walks along the beach we have had a pretty busy day.  Elaine has been sorting out the inside of the flat, unpacking, sorting and washing, washing and washing ... bed linen and clothes that is (that we have been saving up for a while!).  We have just about caught up.

I have been cleaning the inside of the van, which is starting to look like new again.  It is very difficult to give it a good clean when you are constantly on the move.

Our plan whilst we are in Mojacar is too slow down even more!  So our plans for the next few months are to do very little.

As a consequence of this we are going to give the blog a rest for a while.  I will still do a post if something exciting happens or if we go on a road trip etc.  I may just do a weekly post.

I could keep showing daily pics of the glorious Mojacar beach!  This is how it looked this morning on our early walk ...

(Incidentally, we were so early none of the cafes were open!!)

This is how it looked in the afternoon ...

And these are the evening shots.... 

We figure endless pics of Mojacar beach aren't going to cut it for a travel-themed blog, so we will resume properly when we travel again!

As always we very much appreciate our readers and any comments and, as always ...

... we love you heaps ... xxxxx  

(If we get 1000 likes we will do a daily post!!! :) )

Absolutely DisGUSTed....(Massive Rant)

Last night was the famous Tito's Beach Bar end-of-season party.

As per usual Clive Sarstedt was playing.  Clive is the brother of Peter Sarstedt and is now a resident of Mojacar and plays at a lot of the pubs and bars ...

He is always accompanied by his mate Maurice and they always put on a good show ...

The place was heaving with a mostly older crowd, who were all getting into the party spirit ...

We had been told the night before that there would also be some dancers making an appearance and the night would end up with fireworks on the beach.  As we were in Spain we presumed we would entertained by some classic flamenco dancers and we were both really excited at the thought of this.  Elaine was drinking brandy (for medicinal purposes), whilst I knocked back the icy cold lagers. 

They cleared some room on the dance floor for the dancers.  We were so excited we were nearly wetting ourselves. ...

And then this thing appeared ... we were shocked, she was virtually naked!! 

There was certainly no room for her maracas and castanets! 

Where was the flowing red dress with the black dots?

It got worse - she stuck her bits in my face!!! 

We were outraged and started chanting 'We want flamenco na na na na na'.

It was to no avail, the hussies carried on wobbling their tits bits all over the place ...

Then she was joined by her mate!!!! Goodness gracious what a debauched show.

I hope I am  never ever subjected to such a disgraceful and disgusting show again.  Franco would be turning in his grave!! 

Oh and some bloke was dancing as well ...

So to today!  We have moved into our flat and it is lovely.  As much as we love living in the van we have been in it since mid June and were really looking forward living with a bit of space again.

Main bedroom ...

Guest room ...

Bathroom ... (El has been in the bath all arvo) ...

Lounge/diner ...

Kitchen ...

After unloading the van I took the boys for a walk down to the beach, where the staff were packing up Tito's for the winter ...

The wind has died right down but the surf is still up ...

Tonight we will be reclining on the settees .... oh, the luxury !

Mojacar...The Bestest Place in Spain!!!

We left Cabo de Gata camping yesterday and headed back towards Mojacar.  We chose to go back by the coastal route which is a lot more interesting than the inland motorway route.

Through the desert ...

Up and over the mountainous cliff road ...

We stopped for lunch by the beach close to the unfinished hotel near Carbonaras.  Building was stopped in 2006 after it was found that the Hotel was being built illegally!

You can see the road high up above us ...

Nearly there ...

Nice view from the top ...

We parked up on the beachfront opposite the Emerald Isle pub and then went for a walk on the beach before the start of the Australia vs NZ rugby world cup final ...

As the title of the blog post says, in our opinion (which of course is always correct!), Mojacar is without a doubt the best place in Spain. 

Fantastic beach ...

No crappy fun parks or amusement arcades ...

It's just perfect ...

An added bonus was that Tito's beach bar was still open - we thought it had closed for the summer.  So, it would have been rude not to pop in for a swift one ...

That early beer was the start of my downfall - I went to the Emerald Isle bar a bit earlier than the kick off at 17.00 to get into the mood (and watch some football).   There was a really good crowd watching the games.  Elaine and the dogs joined me for the kick off but took the boys back to the van at half time (as they were all getting a bit fidgety!).   I stayed and watched the rest of the game, of course, with the inevitable outcome of the kiwis winning.

Somehow it went all a bit strange and I stayed in the bar far too long afterward and soon ended up with a very wobbly boot!

I staggered back to the van in one piece and have very little recollection of what happened in the later hours of the evening!

Today I awoke feeling fine.

So, after walking the boys along the beach we went to Tito's for lunch ...

The food was superb, but strangely I didn't fancy a beer and stayed on the OJ ...

Sammie sat on a rock next to our table, keeping one eye on the food - he is a good boy though and never begs ...

Unfortunately today is Tito's last day as they are closing for the winter and they don't reopen until March.  Although they don't stay open in the beach bar, they do operate out of their Cantina, which is at the back of Tito's, so we will still get a 'flavour' of Tito's while we are here!  We just love it.

The good thing is that tonight they are having their 'last night' party so we will go and check it out.  We went last year and it was fantastic. 

Unfortunately, as the day has been progressing so has the wind ...

It is now blowing a gale and the sea is very rough ...

This is Tito's. just a few feet back from the beach.  

It will all be kicking off about 17.00 until very late ... 

We are parked up in the car park just behind it, so we won't have too far to go home tonight!  Tomorrow we will take up residence in an apartment for a few weeks :)