Wednesday 19th – Tuesday 25th August

After spending the afternoon by the pool which was situated next to the camperstop at Jalance we settled down for the night but unfortunately once everything else went quiet the local teenage lads decided to start having good time around us. We had experienced the late night antics of the youth of different countries before and decided the best thing was to get out of there and try and find a quieter spot along the road, unfortunately we drove along and didn’t find any suitable spots to pull off the road. We ended up almost to Denia by about 2.30 am and we were getting desperate to find some place to get some sleep. We pulled in to an industrial area where it seemed quiet and finally got to put our heads down. Only early the next morning it was truck central, with all the Lorries coming along to pick up and drop off their loads. We decided not to hang around and although we were quite close to Mikes holiday apartment we thought we would wait until midday until we caught up with him. We parked at a large car park adjacent to the beach which was in our camper stop book as being a motor home parking spot. So we spent a couple of hours by the beach, had a swim and a walk until Mike phonedand arranged to come and pick us up to take to his place. Mike’s apartment is in a enclosed group of 40 surrounding a lovely shared garden and pool area, it is in walking distance from the beach and is a nice quiet place to hang out. Staying in the unit with Mike was his girlfriend Eva and her sister Marlise, two very attractive and nice young girls.

So what have we done all week? We have spent a lot of time at Mike’s apartment during the day, coming back to the beach to sleep. At his place there are 2 swimming pools and so we have been able to make use of them quite a lot. Mike took us on a drive to see a small quaint Spanish village and we ended up sitting in a café/bar that was owned by an English couple for the rest of the afternoon. It was a really friendly atmosphere, there were a lot of expats there and we were made to feel like regulars, there was the Ashes cricket on the TV, free internet if we wanted to check our emails and a small bookshelf all of English novels that I was encouraged to take anything that I wanted. We also had a lovely chat with a couple of ex-pat Scottish ladies and they were very friendly and curious about our travels. So what started as a quest for a can of cool drink became an all afternoon relaxed hang out and eventually where we had our dinner. Another night we went out to a late dinner and had tapas at a very atmospheric café in the town, the locals here only start to come out for dinner about 10.00p.m. and you can see that the cafes and restaurants have a few seatings for dinner, and early one for the Dutch/ English, a later one for the German/French/Italian and then later again for the Spanish and the others who have switched to Spanish time.

A couple of nights we went out very late to a Blues bar and spent a very enjoyable couple of nights listening to bands playing blues and rock music. The atmosphere was fantastic and we were treated to some really good music by some very talented musicians.The music didn’t start until 12.30 and lasted until 3.00, but we seem to be adapting to Spanish time very well, staying up really late and getting up late in the morning, having a breakfast and then lazing by the pool or the beach.

Mike and the girls left on Monday morning and he offered us his unit for the next day and we were very pleased to be able to spend some time there but unfortunately he had it rented out from Tuesday night so after spending the day by the pool and then doing a bit of cleaning up we stayed to hand the keys to the next tenants and left for a night on the beach. We are starting to feel a bit like beach bums at the moment but we have had the best of both worlds and have had million dollar views.

Today we have to get some new tyres on the back of the camper as one has lost some tread and the rest are of the same vintage, so it is better that we get them all done and then we won’t have to worry about it again for a while.They tyres cost much less here in Spain so it is a good time to do it. We will then leave Denia and head north probably to Barcelona and then across inland and up to France later in the week.

So until next instalment