A Bed Post

The guys are  hill walking without me, my fitness regime is on hold, I've been struck down with the lurgy, what started out as debilitating man flu has now got a strangle hold on my lungs.

Here in Spain as well as being able to get my BP tablets over the counter without a prescription, you can oddly enough do the same with antibiotics, hopefully they will quicken my recovery.

Our friends Martin & Cathy are heading back to their boat on Monday booo!, - we will miss them, but our other boaty friends Gordon & Dot arrive on Monday - hoorah!, we are looking forward to catching up with them.

Buddhist of the Sierra de la Filabres

Todays trek started after a drive to the quiet mountain village of La Serena literally translated as calm or peaceful.

After parking the car the first impression is of a time gone by when we contemplate the scene of an old woman doing her washing at the village fuenta (launderette aka fountain)

 Walking out of the village we use a well worn track used in the extraction of iron ore by a large scale 19th Century mining operation.

We did a circular route with one detour, which took us around three hours to complete.

It looks like a lot of effort went into flattening this piece of land to grow a few almond trees.

Perhaps an old smelter.

Rugged landscape

Roly and Barry

We detoured off the track and on to a tarmac road to take in a Buddhist temple high up in the Sierra de la Filabres.

Temple

You can see a couple of thin steel chimneys close by, the monks live in cave homes below.

Centre of picture is a new Buddhist retreat being built

Our most enjoyable walk to date - may do it again before we leave Spain.

We celebrated

 Bev's unnumbered birthday (don't try to guess or you'll 'go in the book') with a meal and a few beverages.

England's rugger team have had close encounters with France last week and Wales yesterday, coming out on top on both occasions. 

It was a close game between two rivals 'who ever concentrated hardest would win'

 A little birdie told me.....

Stuart & Pauline may be visiting family and friends in GB this year. I'm so pleased they are coming, it will save me the airfare of going to Canada to see them as we haven't met up for quite sometime a good catch up is long overdue. 

Big Mac & The Darling Buds of May.

Went along to the Big Mac( Mojacar Area Cancer support) fundraiser at the Puerto Marina Hotel, probably the biggest yearly event held in Mojacar. 

An all day event of music food and drink, 16 local bands and singers entertained the crowds on two stages. My favourite was an ABBA tribute band( two girls only),they got the most people on to the dance floor.

Arthur Abba

An enjoyable lunchtime feast, reminiscent of a scene from The Darling Buds of May was had in Sapalmo with family and friends.

'Perfeck' as Pop Larkin might say.

Visitors and a visit.

Our friends have come for a short visit,

Christine & Glyn

 We took our guests along to the fish market to see the famous Garrucha red prawns being auctioned although since a ruling by the EU in 2015 they must now be called Balearic Island prawns even though they are caught around the Mojacar sewer outlet.

Christine's cousin lives in Spain and after hearing about their worldwide adventures aboard their yacht, which they built themselves we were looking forward to meeting up with them in Roquetas de Mar.

What a fabulous day we had, a  90 minute drive got us to Alan & Margaret's flat overlooking their secure marina- fingerprint scanner to gain entrance here.

An excellent Menu of the Day was had at a local restaurant while this unassuming couple had us in stitches talking about some of the situations they found themselves in during the two year around the world voyage they undertook. 

 After lunch we went aboard Ocean Lady, a fabulous craft built for a reason, to navigate around the globe in comfort.

Marina

Christine, Alan, Margaret & Sue.