The Incident.

On our last day at Conil Ann and I went to watch the paragliders. While we were watching from the cliff tops police arrived beside us. "Do you know where the accident is?" asked one of them in excellent English. We said that we had just arrived.

Then we noticed some figures on the beach. The sand had been seriously eroded by the recent storms leaving a very high sand cliff.

A figure was lying at the bottom while others looked for help.

The police started to run down the track towards the beach as emergency vehicles appeared below.
We continued to watch as a figure was carefully placed on a stretcher and taken away. We returned to the site and left Conil the following morning so we never did find out what happened.

La Alpujarra

We have now arrived in La Alpujarra. The journey here was quite uneventful until the last 7 miles. Then it became rather interesting as we left the main road to travel the narrow twisty roads into the mountains. The drive through the narrow streets of Orgiva wasn't much fun either.

However now we are settled. Our first 2 days here were very wet and we didn't stray far but today it was windy but dry so we walked up to town. It's a strange mix, old world Spanish mixed with new age travellers and lots of English voices. We picked up lots of information at the Tourist Office and are now excited about all that there is to see in the area. We will need good weather and clear skies to enjoy the mountain villages at their best, Trevelez, for instance, at nearly 1,500 metres high is considered the highest village in Spain. Fingers crossed.

Moving on.

Just to prove it didn't rain all the time Vikki was here.

Time for my final message from Conil. I haven't had so much to write about this year. The wi-fi has been difficult and we just haven't done as much. This is partly due to the weather, which has been poor, and partly due to the fact that we just sort of live here for a few weeks now. Yesterday the weather was glorious, hot and sunny, last night was very windy and today it's pouring! It's meant to be our temporary home in the sun, but it's just been our temporary home this year. The enjoyable aspect of wintering here is the number of friends that we spend time with. Because you tend to move about the site all the time, doing chores or just getting from a to b, you are constantly meeting and talking to people. You tend to have different groups of friends for different activities, gym, boules, paddel tennis, cards, walking, watching the rugby, and of course running the quiz on a Wednesday has widened our social circle considerably.

But it is now time to move on. On Friday we head off to Orgiva in the hills near Grenada. We don't know what to expect weather wise but we are looking forward to the change of scenery. I think it has wi-fi so I will do my best to keep the blog up to date.

Visitor

Well, for the first time we've had a visitor. Vikki came for half term week and slept in a tent in the awning. It was mainly rainy and cloudy but she did see a little bit of sunshine on Friday and Saturday. Her week however went out with a bang. Saturday night was torrential rain and strong winds. We all got up on Sunday morning feeling tired and then we drove to Malaga. The rain was terrible, the storm drains were overflowing and filled with raging torrents. We saw one car that had been washed off the road. We managed to get Vikki to the airport on time and waved goodbye as she went through the boarding gate. However on our way back to Conil we got an text saying her flight was delayed - by 4 hours! This meant a missed connection to the Isle of Man and an overnight stay in Liverpool.

However she did seem to enjoy her stay although I got it wrong. I planned to show her the sights of the Costa de la Luz but what she seemed more interested in was meeting the friends that we had made down here. Everybody was very friendly and she mixed really well with all of the oldies on the site.

She even came up to quiz night in the bar. We had 100 people packed into the bar and a great night was had by all, even those who can't remember walking back to the caravan at 1.30am.

We took Vikki to Montenmedio for the Show Jumping. The 2 photos show Montenmedio this year and last year. Sorry about quality of last years image but they give some idea of the amount of rain we've had.

Rain

I am currently sitting in the awning with Vikki who arrived from England yesterday. It is 11 0'clock in the evening. We were talking but now the sound of the rain on the awning is so loud that we cannot hear each other speak! Since she arrived it has rained just about non stop. We have put her tent up inside the awning to give as much protection as possible but none of us got much sleep last night because of the rain and wind. Vikki foolishly expected temperatures to be above freezing but up to now she has been disappointed. She is going to bed tonight wearing all the clothes that she has brought with her, including hat and gloves. We are desperately hoping for an improvement so that we can show her some of the delights of Conil before she returns to sunny UK.

A special evening.

Monday night is buffet night. The site put on an 8 euro buffet and we usually go up because it is good value for money. Then it is usually bingo and salsa but this Monday it was followed by a 'chiricoro'. This was one of the groups of townspeople singing the songs they sing at Carnival. It was a group of about 30 and they lifted the roof. The audience were enthusiastic as well. Francis, the local satellite dish rental man, was up videoing the performance and it was announced that it was live on the internet. So I texted Vikki to go to www.coniltelevision.tv and sure enough she replied that it was online. I managed to get myself in the picture a couple of times but I really found it amazing that I was sitting in a small bar in Southern Spain and my daughter in the Isle of Man was sitting watching the same show. When the group finished after many encores we were further entertained by 2 young ladies who performed some modern Spanish dances. They, too, were excellent. The atmosphere was electric as audience and performers enjoyed a memorable evening. We had gone with no great expectations but circumstances conspired to give an evening that will long be remembered by all that were there.

Romeria

Sorry about the delay in posting but the wi-fi here has been a bit temperamental.

On Sunday the Romeria took place. It was cloudy but quite warm. We went to the site entrance to see them congregate and watched the procession as it slowly passed. There were prizes for the best horse and carriage, the best float pulled by a tractor and the best float pulled by a rotavator. But we also had decorated shopping trolleys filled with drink or mobile barbecues. When the procession had passed we set off with our picnic to follow but they were so slow that after 2 miles we had passed through. The atmosphere was very friendly and we were frequently offered food and drink as we passed by. We met friends at a food outlet and sat a while and ate and drank before we all decided to head back to the site. At 10 in the evening we went back to the site entrance to wave the returning revellers on their way. It was a lovely friendly day with no sign of trouble and everyone just out to enjoy themselves. We thoroughly enjoyed the day as well.