Just five weeks to go.. or is it the start of our FIVE-week holiday?
December
CLT What’s not to like about Camping Las Torres? The site is full of friendly, interesting and helpful people, it’s set amongst a flourishing orange grove (including one tree per pitch on sector A, the weather is freakishly good and, as we settle in among the regulars who’ve been coming here for years, we feel increasingly that this is a place we could come back to year after year. We’re seeing more and more of Sue and Gordon who are lovely company. Over coffee, we mention that we’re looking for a WiFi booster, specially for motor homes and Sue says that her daughter and her husband run the company. A few days later, having ordered a system from their website (www.motorhomewifi.com), we took delivery of a new booster and, miraculously, we have doubled the speed of the site’s already decent (and free) WiFi. If all it gave us was trouble-free access to British Radio, like Ken Bruce and the news programmes, we’d be happy but it’s good enough to stream U.K. TV, too. Not that we need to, of course. One of our neighbours, Dougie from Southampton, casually asked us one day if we’d like satellite TV... for free. Sensing there was a catch, we said a cautious “yes” and the following day Dougie and his mate Dave (“Two-Hat” Dave...say it quickly and you’re starting to catch on to the idea that everyone has a quirky nickname around here) pop round to wire us up to their communal satellite dish. Hey presto! We’ve got full Freeview! This turns out to be a mixed blessing as having unlimited telly means we fall into the trap of watching too much rubbish – Tipping Point, The Chase etc – and spend too little time keeping ourselves entertained with more productive pastimes. Still, better to have it than not have it, eh? As Christmas approaches, the social functions around the site gather pace, along with invitations to meals out with our new crowd of pals. Over the weeks of Advent, we discover some of the best places we’ve eaten at in the whole of the past two years, particularly Gran Mundo, an all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant in Puerto de Mazarron. Then, on the Sunday before Christmas, we embark on the five-hour drive down to see our great friend Sarah and her partner ‘Bucky’ at their lovely apartment near Marbella. The journey takes us via Granada and the snow-capped mountains of the Sierra Nevada... perfect for getting us in a Christmas-y mood. After a day or two of settling in, Christmas Day dawns and, after a lovely breakfast, we join Sarah and Bucky on a little tour of their friends and family, including Bucky’s niece and her husband at their fabulous villa near Estepona. With a Bentley Continental in the drive and an infinity pool in the garden, this is our first glimpse into the rarified world of Marbella’s well-heeled ex-pat community. They might not quite qualify as the jet set but they work hard for their rewards and, more importantly, they were very welcoming to a couple of interlopers like us. On Boxing Day, we headed off back to Las Torres, dropping Sarah off at Malaga airport where she was catching a flight back to the UK to collect her son Zack. After our farewells, we got back on the road north and made it back to Mazarron for early evening. The pre-Christmas pattern at the campsite was pretty much repeated in the run-up to New Year. Typical of the festivities was a lovely lunch/afternoon party thrown by Dan and Gloria in the lovely garden they have created around their caravan next door. Wine, beer and spirits flowed, and there were lots of goodies on offer, too, thanks in part to their success in the campsite Christmas hamper draw which saw them carry off a basket full Spanish cheese, hams and cakes. The following day, we joined them, and Gordon and Sue, for a pre-New Year dinner at Gran Mundo. New year’s Eve itself saw the six of us back at Gran Mundo before we took to our bed before the chimes of midnight. Well, we had a busy day ahead of us on January 1... Tuesday, January 1 Ryde Road, Knowle, Bristol And so to our mid-winter break when we flew back to the U.K. for a wedding. As I might have hinted at before, we wouldn’t have missed it for the world but, inevitably, there was a price to pay! I was hoping I could still get in my only suit, which I stored in a friend’s loft before we came away two years ago. Sadly, like the Picture of Dorian Gray in reverse, it now mysteriously only fits a thinner, younger man and I had to buy a new one from M&S. Then, with our flights obliging us to stay in the U.K. for a week, we combined the nuptials with a tour of friends and family. Cue huge ‘welcome back’ meals, sometimes two a day, one lovely, boozy night at The Cock Inn at Mugginton and two lovely get-togethers with family at The Coopers Arms in Weston-on-Trent and the King’s Corner in Oakwood. In the midst of all this unhinged, post-Christmas bingeing, we also had to deal with the news that Jane’s 96-year-old grandmother had been hospitalised by a nasty infection. By the time we flew back to Spain, after the usual indignities going through security at Bristol Airport, we were both in bits. Chatting about our experiences with friends, they said my wife should have her blood pressure tested (mine already being kept in check by a daily ACE inhibitor). As it happened, they had a device to hand and it revealed her BP was off the scale! The following day, we threw ourselves on the mercy of the Spanish health system and found it more than lived up to its billing as one of the best in the world. Firstly, we queued up for an appointment at a large health centre in the little Spanish town near our campsite. After the E111 formalities, we were allocated a slot with a nurse and a doctor and within 20 minutes my wife had been seen by both. She had an ECG and they gave her a couple of tablets, told her to wait 40 minutes while they took effect then retested her BP which, thankfully, had come down to less than crisis levels. The following day, the same nurse and doctor took more tests then prescribed her medication which cost us the princely sum of €0.25! On day three we went back for another check-up and next week we have two more appointments booked for another consultation and a blood test. On none of these occasions have we had to wait more than 20 minutes to be seen and to my mind the health centre is an absolute paragon of efficiency with everything, except emergency and in-patient services, under one roof. Okay, it might not offer the warm, fuzzy feeling you get from seeing the same GP you’ve seen since you were a child and it might, at times, feel like a medical conveyor belt but, by crikey, it works and is funded principally through social security payments. Spanish people have one of the longest life expectancies in the world and, of course, the weather plays some part in that but there are other factors, too, which we can all adopt. As they sent my wife on her way, they reassured her that she would be fine if she adopted a “Spanish” way of life... “eat lots of fish, fruit and vegetables, cut down on your caffeine and alcohol, stop adding salt and sugar to your food, exercise more and learn to manage your stress.” She might have simply said: “Come and live in Spain for the rest of your life... lots of your compatriots do!” Friday, January 18 Camping Las Torres The time since we returned ‘home’, as we’re now calling CLT, has been spent readjusting our lifestyles to take into account Jane’s high blood pressure. We’re trying to cut back drastically on alcohol, cut salt and caffeine out altogether and eat more fruit and vegetables. After a week, though, Jane’s BP is still high so the excellent staff of the medical centre see her virtually every day until, by Friday, it has stabilised. After the early morning appointment, we finally make the trip to Cartagena that we’ve been planning for a week or so. The KA, meanwhile, has been traded in for a lovely Seat Leon which we picked up on our return to Murcia airport, soon to close and be replaced by a new facility at Corvera, so that’s our ride for the 25-mile journey north to one of Spain’s key Mediterranean ports. After we’ve had the obligatory 20-mile detour, thanks to me taking the wrong exit off the motorway and heading back towards Mazarron along the toll road (insult being added to injury), we finally make it to the marina area of Cartagena and park in the discreet car park built under the swish, futuristic passeo – all university buildings and museums. There is a strong Roman presence in the city, thanks to the existence of an amphitheatre and other well-managed ruins, as well as the more modern arsenal, attesting to Cartagena’s status as one of Spain’s most important naval ports. Before lunch, we ventured out into the harbour on a tourist catamaran. For just €8 apiece, we had a bracing ride out into the Med’, a mini-cruise which gave us a close-up look at one of the world’s greatest superyachts, the S-1, belonging to a Russian billionaire. With its three enormous masts and stealth bomber lines, it’s probably one of the ugliest boats in the world. Ah well, each to his own. Back on dry land, we explored the park around the historic castle and took in the impressive views it affords of the city, before venturing down and investigating some of the smarter shops of the old quarter. On Saturday, we repositioned our new-to-us German awning and tried to get the van onto a more level footing, just to make the last few weeks of our time on this trip a little more comfortable. It dawned on us back in the UK that we have just six or so weeks left before we head back to the U.K. and begin our new lives as camp wardens in the Gower. With that in mind, it’s tempting to get a little despondent but, instead, we’re taking a different approach. After all, if someone offered you the chance to have a six-week break in Spain, lounging around on a campsite with a nice indoor pool, its own private orange grove and a host of lovely ex-pats to keep you amused, you’d jump at the chance, right? So, our final holiday (actually, a five-week one because we catch the Brittany Ferry back to Portsmouth on February 24) begins now! |
Pictured, from top, the dramatic ‘erosions’ of the sandstone cliffs at Bolnuevo are just one of the many attractions of the Costa Calida; some views of Murcia, another fine Spanish city; Jane with Sarah and Bucky on a sunny Christmas Day; Tim and Shani at their fantastic wedding bash in the Forest of Dean; Dan hams it up for the party-goers at Las Torres just before New Year; the Derby gang on their annual night out, this time at Cock Inn, Mugginton, near Derby; the snow-capped mountains of the Sierra Nevada, captured through the car window on our to San Pedro for Christmas. Below, images of our day in Cartagena... we’ll be back one day to see it properly
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