10. Oct, 2021

10. Oct, 2021

SUNDAY 10-10-21

Well last night wasn't too bad. Although it was noisy it all came to an end by 23:00 which was a pleasant surprise.

This  morning we were up in good time to scrub up and get the vehicle ready for the road. The wheels rolled at 10:30 but we were delayed at the dump station by a Dutch couple who faffed around for ages, doing what should only take about ten minutes if you have to dump everything and take on some fresh water. By the time they had finished there were three of us behind them in the queue.

The Chef had managed to buy a baguette from Reception before we left, this being Sunday and the shops not open.

Our first stop was at Cape Trafalgar where Admiral Horatio Nelson died during the famous Battle of Trafalgar, the anniversary of which is coming up in eleven days.

What a mad, busy place it was. There was limited parking yet the car park attendants kept taking the money and letting people in. Due to the winds there it is a very popular location for kite surfing. I don't exaggerate when I say at one point there were about one hundred of them in the sea, with more arriving all the time we were there.

.............. And the wind! I only had swimming shorts and a short sleeved shirt on. Three-quarters of The Chef's legs were covered, but no matter, it was like having your skin sandblasted by a machine, and yet people were flocking there just to sit on the beach. They must have skin as thick as rhino's, or are just thick.

I had come to lay a wreath in commemoration of that battle and acknowledging that a lot of Spanish and French sailors would have died in the battle I wrote the words in both French and Spanish at the bottom of the card. I laid it up in the dunes where nobody was venturing and staked it down with a good tent peg, so I hope it is still there on Trafalgar Day.

The return trip was in to wind and that was even more painful. I tore the cardboard box in half and shared it with Rosina so that we could shield our faces from the flying grains of sharp sand. Back at the motorhome we had lunch before moving on. I was keen to get out of our tight parking space as drivers were now starting to park even more irresponsibly than usual. The car parked next to us was hit by another that was manoeuvring , and we only missed the cab-over of the motorhome parked next to us by a fag paper, as we had to squeeze out.

So why the effort? Here's the story of the Battle and Nelson's death.

 THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR

 The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement  fought by the British Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish during the war of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).

As part of an overall French plan to combine all French and allied fleets to take control of the English Channel and enable Napoleon’s Grande Armée to invade England, French and Spanish fleets under French Admiral Villeneuve sailed from the port of Cádiz in the south of Spain on 18 October 1805.

They encountered the British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson, recently assembled to meet this threat, in the Atlantic Ocean along the southwest coast of Spain, off Cape Trafalgar, near the town of Los Caños de Meca (N36.179394º W6.151092º). Villeneuve was uncertain about engaging, and the Franco-Spanish fleet failed to fully organise. In contrast, Nelson was decisive, organising the British fleet into two columns sailing straight into the enemy to pierce its wavering lines.

9. Oct, 2021

SATURDAY 09-10-21

Well I have to say, this is the best experience we've ever had on a campsite during a Spanish weekend. We had a young family with a caravan turn up and park two pitches down from us and they were soon off out. I didn't hear them come back and I thought they'd be turning up late, cooking a meal and running riot until very late, but when I went for a little walk there they all were. A lovely Spanish family with well behaved children, we've found one at last. To be fair there are now a few Spanish families on site, most have very small children and everyone is well behaved. Even the dogs on site, which are now numerous, are quiet and well behaved, though a lot of them look quite old. This is such a different experience from the Costa del Boy where Brits are normally in abundance dragging along their neurotic yapping balls of fluff with them, though I do have to say what we have noticed on this trip is that a lot of dog owners, I prefer to refer to them as dog owners rather than dog lovers, think nothing of locking their dogs in a hot campervan or motorhome and taking themselves off for a meal or a walk around town.  Back home the police would be called and they'd be breaking windows to get the dogs out, over here it's the norm, though in fairness, it's more noticeable on the Camperstops than on campsites.

They say that there's nothing worse than a reformed smoker, and I think they're right. I didn't start smoking until I was just turned seventeen in the navy where just about everybody smoked. I thought there must be something in it and so I bought a packet of ten Embassy and a box of matches. I remember going in to a toilet cubicle and lighting one up. What a ghastly taste. I felt awful and my head spun, so most of the ciggie went down the pan. That left me with nine more cigarettes, and so over the coming days I persevered until I had become a smoker. What a fool I was.

I didn't give up properly until I retired. I did try having the odd fag when things weren't going well while doing DIY jobs . Standing back and having a smoke would so often help with the stress level or finding the solution to the problem. But after just one puff I couldn't believe just how bad the taste in my mouth was. I look back now and realise just how bad I and my clothes must have smelt to others. These days I can smell a burning cigarette at a hundred paces.

........................ I digress.

Yesterday evening the nice Slovenian couple next to us both turned out to be heavy smokers, and the smell made me want to gag as it wafted around us and in to the vehicle, I don't know what it was they were smoking, dried camel dung maybe. We had actually parked incorrectly, I can only assume because a close neighbour had  also done so before we arrived and I was respecting their privacy by parking the same way. The only problem is when they up and leave the next day you're left looking like the selfish individual who parked wrongly, and last night we had our outside space facing the Slovenians.

So this morning I asked The Chef to help me to turn the vehicle around in the pitch. It didn't take long and it felt so much better having done so. Now we have our privacy and they have theirs.

Today is Rosina's birthday, and we've done nothing but laze around all day, though I did do a little bit of housework this morning. I have promised to take her for a meal at a venue of her choosing. I had earlier proposed 'Alberts' at Cabopino Marina, but we'll see.

Those who read this rubbish regularly will have noticed that I have changed the title of this 'chapter' to 'To Manilva' this is because we needed to stay hooked up at the time of creating it, but the gas leak is now sorted and I have sent an email to Truma Customer Support in the hope they can arrange a mobile fitter to come and sort out the boiler. I have told them where we will be on Monday for a few days. The outcome of a fix to the boiler will shape the rest of this trip. If we can get it repaired  then I would like to pop back down the road about twenty miles to Gibraltar as this will be our farewell tour of Spain. If it can't be fixed then we'll have to hang around campsites so that we can use their hot water and I'll buy a small electric fan heater to help us keep warm as we travel north and it gets progressively cooler.

It was a barbecue again for us this evening even though the campsite prohibits their use. This is Spain and everybody seems to ignore the rules. The campsite is now pretty much rammed full with a lot of new arrivals today. It is now dark and is getting louder. I have a horrible feeling this place will sound like an overcrowded refugee camp later on. Never mind they can't take last night away from us and fingers crossed we'll be back on the road again tomorrow.

8. Oct, 2021

8. Oct, 2021