Saturday, December 12, 2015

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 :)

Monday, December 7, 2015

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!

Friday, December 4, 2015

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.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

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.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

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!