Well here we are again (finally). We have had no wifi and not the best 3/4g lately hence long silence (it was nothing you said). To make up for lack of blogging there may now be 2 or 3 in short order, so ……
Thursday and Friday, 30 and 31 March – Sen Sleep, Cuesta Blanca – We stayed at Sen Sleep with John and Saskia throughout this period. Most days we took the bikes out and revisited the 12K ride just because the scenery is so lovely and the combination of up and downhill just suits our current (un)fitness levels. We have had a few conversations about the balanced life John and Saskia are creating here with a very small, easily serviced business, enough land to build a degree of self-sufficiency and plenty of time to integrate with the local community, enjoy life and just ‘be’.
Sunday 1 April – Cartagena – Decided to brave the cycle into Cartagena to witness the Easter celebrations and processions. We took the quick route in so that we didn’t miss anything and then came home by the scenic route – longer, a loooong steeeep hill but so worth it for the spectacular views of mountains and sea!
Cartagena is a truly beautiful city with some awesome architecture and beautiful little plazas as well as some quite astonishing giant trees (type unknown but working on it). It must be lovely to visit anytime but on Easter Sunday the city centre is madness in a good way. Literally hundreds of people take part in the processions and everyone else and their pet cat comes into town to observe the fun. All the streets are lined with chairs from local businesses and public services and the colours and variety of the marchers and the floats, the mismatched music from a dozen marching bands, the shouts of the young men as they shoulder the weight of the floats for the for the next period of march and the applause and encouragement from the crowd are a glorious riot of noise, colour and community.
We eventually got procession fatigue so we headed down to the harbour to be met by a much more peaceful but equally beautiful scene. The bay of Cartagena is gorgeous, nestled between the surrounding mountains, the water was sparkling blue and the sun shone down on us (so we’re not righteous but it still did ok?). We watched a street performer doing tap dance / flamenco on a half metre square pallet accompanied by a couple of musicians playing traditional Spanish music and we saw what must be the oddest posh yacht in the world. It’s apparently owned by a Russian billionaire, is a one-off sailing design (it looks like something between Star Trek and Nelsons Navy) and is plagued by continuous technical problems so it never goes to sea. A brilliant day and some more great memories filed away.
Monday 2 April – Our last day at Sen Sleep, consisting of a farewell ride round the 12K and another shared meal with new friends on the site. We now have two invitations to stay when/if we visit Holland (with the rather lovely Max, Mineka, Govert and Rianne).
Tuesday 3 April – Almerimar – Bessie started up in her usual faithful style and we trundled off armed with some great tips of places to stay (and to avoid). After a few hours of fabulous views climbing into the mountains we decided to drop down and catch the toll road as that kind of driving in Bessie does take some concentration and pushed the old girl somewhere near her limits.
The most striking aspect of the coast here is the swathes of plastic poly-tunnels – acres and acres of them – twixt mountains and sea. Probably very efficient and necessary but a real eye-sore and we did wonder about the environmental impact of all that plastic (as we rumbled past in our elderly dirty diesel).
The site at Almerimar was ok if very basic. Right near the beach so I had a paddle (very cold) but we decided this part of Spain doesn’t really float our boat so we moved on after one night.
NB: struggling with the technology and connection so unable to access camera and gopro images to wordpress – oh well onward and upward!
Namaste
Paul and Sam x
Finding the Elephant 