Flying awnings....

Still in the sun although we did have a week of strong winds and I’m pleased to say our awning survived with a few alterations involving jublee clips and a hammer…I’ll leave it to your imagination.  A caravan awning over the way lifted off and landed on top of the caravan and they had to strap the site flag pole but none of the tall palm trees on the campsite came down. Just as we were getting accustomed to the high winds, they’ve departed and so we’re back to summer beach weather.

 During the “windy” week we hired a car to look around the area outside of our cycling range. This included the mountains to the north and Aspe, the coastline to the south and San Pedro and the city of Orihuela. We didn’t like the coast to the south as it is very developed, much more so than around Guardamar de Segura. Orihuela is quite different in character with lots to see within easy walking distances. I won’t go through all the things but the house of the poet Miguel Hernandez (1910-1942) was very interesting. He supported the Republicans during the civil war and afterwards found himself in jail; sadly he in died in Alicante prison. Also the “Walled Museum” below the University was fascinating with our own personal guide around the old city wall and bath house.

El Palmeral in Orihuela, the second largest palm forest in Spain with the Polideportivo  and Saturday football next door. In the background is the steep face of the Serre Orihuela

Otherwise we’ve done little cycling but have joined the gym/sauna etc for a month so usually find time to go over there and make up for all the eating and wine. It is a large facility with modern equipment, some of which I’ve still to figure out as they seem to have a machine to duress every muscle in the body.  We’ve also taken the camper down to the beach and with the calmer weather next week, we have plans to go out and park at the beach in the dunes near La Marina and Guardamar. Also we have some new cycling routes on GPS so we will be meandering along the local roads and tracks, no doubt ending up trying to cross the new high speed rail line.

View of Rio Segura in Orihuela, the old town on the right side.

We get the BBC TV (Midlands for some reason) so have been seeing all the snow and rain in UK.but this now seems to have abated. Also from the Spanish TV we see loads of snow and rain in the middle and north of the country including Madrid and Granada and nowhere has escaped the winds. The site is also getting busier especially at the weekends when many Spanish families come here but having said that, the site is so large, it is difficult to imagine it full. Our two lessons in Spanish a week have been going well as Anita is a great teacher and makes it simple to follow although I suspect some of the words are “latino” as she calls the south American dialect. Anyway, we seem to be understood better and have been getting replies in Spanish not that we can understand them anyway, but it’s encouraging I think. It’s a pity we won’t be able to use Spanish on our planned French cycle ride on velo 1; I think I’ll leave French to Helen and concentrate on hand gestures......hasta luego