Evening Sun
Rain over Valencia
The rain in Spain does get down to the Med sometimes…I was up at 6am yesterday morning to furl the awning. We had an early thunderstorm and I didn’t want Mavis to blow away.
Padel
The sun came out after a bit and Adrian and I went for a knock around on the Padel courts. Padel is a bit like tennis but played with smaller bats and on a court which has some perspex walls which you can bounce the ball off…something like squash. Best played in doubles, we’ve had a few good games now and met a few other ex-pats.
The Petanque Queen
We are playing Petanque (boules) several times a week. The idea is to get the boule (heavy metal ball) as close to the cochonet (small round target ball, aka the piglet) as possible. The other players are a mixture…French, Dutch, Belgian, Swiss, German and so on, so its a right mixture of conversations. We often don’t know what’s being said….probably just as well. I think the guy in the picture is advising the Petanque Queen (her in the white hat) where to place her boules. He’s a braver man than me.
Pimientos
Catral Market
Catral Market
Catral Market
On Saturday we cycled in to Catral for the market and picked up some rather nice stuffed olives, some five star pickled onions and a selection of other Spanish delicacies.
Hot Dates
We cycled back along the side roads, past these date laden date palms and then through the tiny village of San Felipe Neri.
Church at San Felipe Neri
Flooded Fields
Irrigation in Spain can be low tech…often they open one of the large sluice gates which are dotted around the countryside and just flood the fields. These egrets are taking advantage of a free cold bath in a field by San Felipe.
Los Caballos
On Sunday we cycled to La Marina, a small town on the Mediterranean coast about 15 miles away. We passed these ponies dozing by the roadside.
Las Cabras
And a herd of goats munching their way across the countryside.
The Med
We had a nice downhill bit for the last mile before the sea.
Lunch at Pinet
We turned left at La Marina and had lunch in a shady restaurant overlooking the sea at Pinet Marina, a little further east along the coast.
Pinet Beach
In the distance is the coastal town of Santa Pola.
Parque el Fondo
We cycled back through the El Fondo nature reserve. It was a bit hot for the Krays but they ran for a bit.
Adrian and Jan
We’ve had a few evening drinks with Adrian and Jan, our neighbours. Colin is trying to persuade Adrian to feed him tapas, using the jumping up and looking cute technique.
Sunset
Rambling about Europe with the Kray Twins (Colin and Penny).
Travels with Mavis 
Nice to see you have a good time on Marjal, we hope to meet again one time or if you ever visit Belgium 🙂 the wetter will be maybe not that nice…:) kris & nico
It was lovely to meet you both…let us know when you are on the road to Spain again….P and N
Maybe we come back in mars to marjal, but first we go visit barcelona for a couple of days, there is also a new camper place also for big size like concorde, you can find it in this link of Campercontact, http://www.campercontact.com/en/ en search in barcelona. greets, kris & nico
Thanks Kris…we’ll look at that site. We like Barcelona…P & N xx
Great to have found your blog, via nomaggsrush. Interesting text and beautiful pictues. Love to see those blue skies, it’s mainly grey here … ;-((