Pearl Jam and Pot

Pete again, It’s only a quick update and not as good as the title would have you believe I’m afraid.

Today marked the occasion of my return to hospital here in Ronda for what I thought was my pot removal and “stitches” out. Sue and I have been counting down the days to the time I had a little more freedom. Clearly I’d still be restricted after the pot comes off but at least I’d be able to scratch an itch and put my hand in my pocket.

Post Op Pete

Happy New Year!!!

Well, as I’m out of hospital and as I'm not allowed to much at all I figured it was my overdue turn to update the blog.

Unforseen circumstances

After visiting Casares on Saturday, we headed to Olvera on Sunday, to another free overnight stop.  There also happens to be another Via Verde there, part of which we intended to ride with Powell before heading to the other end of it at Puerto Serrano and doing the same.  Unfortunately fate intervened.

Leaving Marbella for the mountains

It’s Saturday 27 December and we left the campsite in Marbella this morning.

On Boxing Day, Ash and Mand came over for a final supper and Pete made us a scrummy casserole, which went down well with everyone.  Ash and Mand provided the dessert, Christmas pudding and custard; even in Spain we managed not to miss out on those little British Christmas foibles!  As we were all departing the next day, we managed to not make too late a night of it and were all in bed by midnight....a first all week I think!

New friends and Christmas on the beach!

Christmas has been and gone and we’re still in Marbella.  Well, when I say we’re in Marbella, we’re actually about 5 miles from the centre, but we’re still in the same campsite we were in on Monday!

I'm (not) dreaming of a white Christmas

Following the interesting sights in Orgiva, we made the decision to stick to the countryside for our second day in the area.  We had initially planned to ride out to Lanjaron, around 11km from the campsite we were staying at.  However, I had second thoughts after realising how much uphill cycling was involved so we stuck to the valley instead!

Bikes, booze and bohemians

We finally left Almerimar on Monday, with slightly heavy hearts, but good memories to treasure.  Having eventually spent just over a week there, it was our longest stopover by far.  We’d have been happy to stay for longer, but had decided we needed to move on soon before the restlessness kicked in.  We were also on a mission (well, Pete was...).  After he discovered that his bike is starting to fall apart, he worked out that it would make far more sense to replace the bike than upgrade his exisiting bike and during his internet search, had seen a bargain in a shop in Malaga.  Conscious that it wouldn’t stick around forever and having already spent extensive hours looking for THE perfect bike, he convinced me that it was enough of a bargain to warrant an excessively long drive to go and get it.  Although to be honest, even if I’d objected, I couldn’t have done much anyway as I’m not the driver!

We're Still Alive!

A lack of decent wifi access recently has caused me to neglect the blog a bit, hence the 13 day gap since my last update.

A week in the life...

Sunday 22 November saw us head inland again to a free stopover in Morella.  We were treated to some amazing views, along with some more hair raising bends and sheer drops en route and arrived to an almost empty aire.  It had capacity for at least 20 vans, but there were only 3 of us there and one of those vans left shortly after we arrived, leaving us and another Brit couple from Scotland.

The chains in Spain break mostly when the shop's shut

So, we're nearly at the end of our first week in Spain and haven't had much wifi access.  However, we currently have free wifi so I'm making the most of it...