Leaving La Garrofa our first stop.....Malaga, for just one night. On our arrival here, after an uneventful but noisy journey, the chosen campsite was closed!!!!!!!!?????? Small print is a funny thing and so easily can be overlooked. Not being disheartened we move on with our heads held high and 200metres down the road - redemption. A very nice campsite just putting up it's Christmas lights and a site that had an "almost but not really" ensuite. They also take camping cheques, another bonus. Tired and exhausted after our previous late night/early morning we settled in for the night. We will look at all these surrounding places along the Costa del Sol on our way back from Portugal to La Garrofa towards the end of January.
However, to recap and to also explain our noisy journey we had discovered, at La Garrofa, that Molly was injured and sick.........her muffler had a split in it!!!!! In Spain this is hard, we now appreciate, to remedy and although we spent and arm and a leg to make her healthy nothing seemed to work. Bandages and gunk were not going to cut the mustard and we finally would roll into Albufuiera having lost the lot, plus one wheel trim, which incidentally we hope is at La Garrofa with our new ACSI book? (Malcolm take note here).
But I am getting ahead of myself we are still in Malaga and Gary is under Molly doing another fix - my MacGivor came with back up!!!!!!. This fix suggests you run the engine for half an hour after applying the bandage but to do that in a campsite is just selfish so that is a tomorrow job after leaving the campsite and, I can guarantee, on the side of the road???? Firstly though to get the backing strip off the bandage to expose its stickyness!!!!!! Geez Spanish people are clever or we are just plain inept and guess what?.........now it is pouring with rain.
So next morning we did as above, stopped by the side of the road for 30 minutes, then headed for Isla Cristina, again just for a stopover. After Camping La Garrofa not much stacked up here so, once again, we hunker down for just one night albeit on a mushy, muddy site. The sooner we get to our apartment the better.
Mmmmmmmm.........but things did not work out that well!!!!
Arriving at our apartment at the pre arranged time Gary was met by a very harrassed cleaner and a dirty, partially cleaned, cigarette smelling, cold, "could have been lovely" apartment which initially looked as though it was very much in the very wrong part of town. Negotiating an hours wait till the apartment would be ready we park Molly in the cold shadow of the apartment block and wait. Bad vibes are bouncing off the dashboard!!!!!!!
An hour later and still mayhem reigns but we start to move our necessities in. The oven is black inside and the cleaner is waiting for someone to come to unscrew the glass for cleaning and to look at an electricity point - something to do with the washing machine. It is getting dark and cold (winter here) and the place stinks of stale cigarettes. Finally we are on our own - not sure where everyone disappeared to - but we have been given a fresh air spray to combat the smell, have a filthy tablecloth on the dining room table, a pile of clean sheets, pillow cases and towels to use, 1 toilet roll, 2 squirts in the washing up liquid bottle, 1 squirt in the hand wash bottle but lots of hot, hot water and great Wifi. The apartment is freezing cold so we find an ineffectual 2 bar column heater in the wardrobe and plug that in and BINGO!.........the electricity goes. In the meantime we have been accosted by 2 Portugese policemen with regard to Molly being parked in the road outside the apartment...........someone has complained. This however is temporarily resolved when we explain we are renting an apartment in the complex for 1 month and Molly is our mode of transport........they will get back to us tomorrow - fingers crossed here for a good outcome but resolving the electricity problem is more complex. There is no switchboard in the apartment, no torch, 2 burnt out candles and we realise we have no way of contacting anyone. There is absolutely no information in the apartment re contact numbers etc and because there is no electricity there is no wifi. What to do?
A beer for Gary across the road where he hooks into complimentary wifi to contact Nelson who we booked the apartment through and a candle for me from Molly. Gary waits and waits and waits for a reply but none eventuates and he gives up and comes home. 2 hours later he tries again - yep another beer - but nothing. Asking the barman if he could use his phone to ring the number at the bottom of the email he informs Gary that Nelson lives in Canada and doesn't have a Portugese number. However Nelson's father David is in Albufeira at the moment and he knows his number.........god forbid this is getting soooo complicated. Gary explains we have no electricity so the barman rings David who tells us the Portugese power is weak and we have plugged in too many "things"..........one 2 bar column heater????!!!!! He will be over in 30mins.
To cut a long story short he arrives and turns the power back on at the switchboard in the next door studio apartment but it keeps tripping off. We have been without power now for 4 hours and are frozen solid. Ironically the food that should be in our state is rapidly defrosting - including our precious salmon. Eventually it stays on but we are instructed not to use anything so we just go to bed to get warm ....David will be back in the morning with an electrician. This he does and there is a fault.......with modifications recently done a nail or screw has gone through an electrical wire so the whole circuit is isolated. If we need to use the washing machine we have to use an extension lead and please remember electricity is expensive here in Portugal, the sun will warm the apartment?????.....mmmm......the only room to see the sun at all is the bedroom which incidentally is the only room to have a wall heater - very strange - and the walls are just painted concrete designed to keep the place cool in summer but not warm in winter. Oh, and by the way, Lena the cleaner lives on the floor below should you need anything.......better late than never to be told this.
Is there anything else we can do for you before we head back to Canada tomorrow? Yes please, we would love a clean tablecloth and a torch please. (We got the tablecloth but no torch) We continue to have ongoing problems with the electricity but Lena the cleaner or the people now in the studio next door are there to "reboot the mains" when necessary. At this point we begin to have a sly feeling that the studio apartment and our apartment share the same, small hot water supply as cold showers now seem to be the order of the day and we never have hot water!!!!! However Christmas Eve comes round, the studio tenants leave, Lena comes to clean, uses the studio washing machine and bang - the electricity goes again. Lena is going away for Christmas so she kindly leaves a studio key so we can continue to reboot - our cold water problem surprisingly is remedied with no tenants next door and for a few days hot showers are back.
Oh I forgot to mention that throughout this I have been hit with food poisoning which incapacitates me for a week and leaves me weak and grumpy as we try to begin to explore this very hilly township. And the dog downstairs should be shot.
Over the course of Christmas the electricity fails for no apparent reason on numerous occasions and I am fully prepared, after Christmas, to jump back in Molly and drive into the sunset. Gary wants to ride it out and in the end I agree. The policemen never reappear so we assume Molly is safe.
Albufiera is actually a very nice town and we are positioned perfectly on the edge of the old town, 5minutes walk to the beach and within easy reach of shops, supermarkets, restaurants, cheap Chinese shops and whatever else you might need. We are on the top of a hill and four floors up with no lift so coming home is sometimes quite hard but we have grown to like this place, Albufeira, over the one month period. We have also figured out how to keep ourselves warm in the evening in the apartment - light the gas oven and leave the door open - and how to preserve a supply of hot water for us which I am not authorised to talk about. Things are on the improve.
When we initially arrived here the town was empty and dead. On Christmas Eve everything changed and the place was invaded by the Brits. Restaurants and shops reopened, everywhere was extremely busy. The weekend after New Year everything changed again and there was a mass exodus. Restaurants and shops have gradually closed again and only a few tourists remain. When we leave on 12th January virtually the whole of the tourist industry in Albufeira will have shut down until March.
We have covered a lot of Albufeira on foot over a month. The weather has been fantastic and it has been much warmer out of the apartment than in. This has been our incentive to get out each day. Strolling towards the Marina one Sunday we stumbled across this most amazing restaurant where we had a home cooked roast dinner at a very reasonable price. This is where we decided to celebrate Christmas and where we had our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve which included live entertainment and quite a few bottles of champagne. It was a fantastic evening although the walk home took over an hour due to several wrong turnings!!!!!!! Christmas Day morning father xmas found me and we drank champagne and ate chocolates together and Christmas Day evening we found a hotel with live music and we danced the night away. It was a good but different Christmas for us.
New Years Eve was live music and fireworks down on the beach but it was very chilly and very crowded when we got there so, after a while, we walked up the hill to the apartment and watched the fireworks from our bedroom window. Eat your heart out Auckland - these were spectacular and we had the best view in town.
As I said earlier we have walked for miles over this town, north, south, east and west and it is by no means small. We have eaten or drunk beer, coffee or wine in most of the retaurants here. We have shopped in most of the supermarkets here and strolled in both the new and old towns. Regardless of where we are and almost every day George and Mildred pop into view. Now George is a very loud, obese, British gentleman who uses a mobility scooter rather than his legs and Mildred is his equally loud wife who trundles along behind him in a daze but who does use her legs. We first met them at The Lemon Tree and had a passing chat there but seriously.........it has become quite spooky because whatever time of day, wherever we are G & M are there. Supermarket - half hours walk away - G & M! Middle of back street in Old town - G & M! Local newspaper shop - G & M pop up again! On our way to the Marina today - oh look - G & M!!!!!!! We will probably find them ensconced in Molly when we drive off tomorrow and his mobility scooter on her roof! Lol.
Anyway although Albufeira did not start well for us and the apartment is not the best we have decided we wouldn't have swapped this month for anything. We have met some amazing people, including the sister and her partner (Sue and Dave) of a couple (Alex and Dave)who we met earlier on in our travels and who are currently travelling NZ. We have had some great experiences here as well, have managed to relax on the beach with a book or two, stolen a few hearts to take away with us, twisted a few Portugese people round our little fingers in the course of having fun together, have laughed lots and almost cried a little and really wouldn't mind returning one day.
Tomorrow we pack up and leave and I guess we may be a little sad but move on we must. First stop Tavira to hopefully get Molly's muffler welded and to meet again with Sue and Dave.
We will bring you an update on Molly's condition just as soon as we can. Currently she is serious but stable.
Sunday, 11 January 2015
Saturday, 3 January 2015
Spain 4th Edition
Granada by day and the main attraction of course Alhambra.
Firstly though we catch a local bus into Granada Central with the object being to find the Old Town which has become our favourite area to explore within these large cities. So, wandering through a maze of narrow streets backdropped by red, gnarly mountains, occasionally happening across a fruit stall here, a trader in leather goods there, we realise we are in the Jewish district of Granada. I cannot express or paint a written picture as to how it looks and feels to be able to wander through a communities habitat and daily life soaking up the richness of it all. The memories and the beauty are in our heads and hopefully expressed in photos we upload to Facebook and I am forever humbled by the fact that we are lucky enough to be able to do this. This feeling particularly hit home in Granada and, as is our norm, we became so engrossed in our surroundings and wanderings we realised we were quite lost in the back streets of this huge, huge city........but never fear, it was lunchtime and we had espyed a graffiti covered cafe with truckloads of attitude, on the corner of a dilapidated street that just begged us to come on in. So we did. As Gary will say - we went in as strangers and came out as friends - wine soaked and bellies full with another adventure and experience under our belts.
An hour later and a long uphill slog we finally arrived at the ticket office at Alhambra. Now the fun started as there are only a certain amount of people allowed through each day and only 30% of these tickets can be bought at the ticket office and the queue was.......well, not too bad to be honest. Senior citizens are cheaper too, but not us we are from New Zealand (go figure that one and hey what about our budget?), so begrudgingly paying full price we entered the wondrous world of Alhambra.
Alhambra is a palace and a fortress complex, originally constructed in 889 as a fortress and then rebuilt firstly in the 11th century, when the palace and walls were added and then converted into a Royal palace in the 14th century. In the 19th century it was saved from dereliction, restored and is now the most amazing piece of arcihtecture I have ever witnessed. The buildings are basically quadrangles with rooms opening on to a central courtyard and all quadrangles are joined by connecting rooms and passages. The columns, the filligree, the reflecting pools, the very prominent water features, whether within the quadrangles or flowing down the sides or centres of a bank of steps all make you feel you have stepped into another world. The outside walls of Alhambra are austere, plain and, to be honest, uninviting but once you walk through the immaculate gardens to the inside you feel as though you have walked into paradise on earth. We spent hours here in the sunshine which made the light perfect for photography so please go to our facebook pages and view the pics - just couldn't stop snapping.
But it is getting late, the light is fading -we must retrace our steps back home to Molly.
Deciding to catch a bus back down into Centro rather than walking we got off the bus........somewhere????? (Wherever it was it was the last stop so we had no other option). Getting your bearings in a place this size and locating your bus stop as well takes some doing but, true to form, my trusty GPS (Gary) got us right there and well within the 2 hour time limit!!! LOL.
We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Granada and our stay in Granada given it is a big city but after 4 nights at this campsite tomorrow we will move on. We are still looking for a base to stay for a while so maybe, just maybe, our next port of call just outside of Almeria will be the place.
This 4 hour journey was beautiful. After dispensing with low cloud and heavy fog at Venra del Molinillo we climbed to 1400metres - the highest we have taken Molly so far - skirting the eastern side of the Sierra Navada mountains. The photos posted on facebook cannot do it justice it is like driving through a wonderland. We have been sooooo cold but now we are back in brilliant sunshine and warm again. We love Andalucia. Driving through La Peza Lopero there is a light dusting of snow on the mountains and then we find ourselves on a mountain plateau cruising at 1100metres through plain, arid countryside where nothing much is able to exist or be supported except.........fields and fields of windfarms as far as the eye can see and surprisingly they are beautiful. Majestic arms slicing through the atmosphere. Doris telling Agnes...."you can do it! Keep going, don't be so lazy", but her arms are hurting and she has to come to a slow halt as Doris looks down on her and continues her own neverending motion of arms. It is a glorious sight and yes we are on the Spanish plains. There are small villages dotted here and there embedded in the folds of these spectacular mountains which look like the layers and frills of flamenco dresses basking in the sunshine.
At Dolar we descend a little into a basin of agriculture. Plastic greenhouses and wigwams sheltering tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant abound, from the road to the horizon. The surrounding hills are now sparten and there is only tussock to view. Then grapeviness and olive trees come in to view - kilometres and kilometres of well looked after vines - and the mountains take on the frills of the flamenco skirt again. I have never seen such beautiful scenery in my entire life and the light was perfect for photography.
And so we descended after our long journey into Almeria and Kate (gps) and Molly took us to Castell del Rey and to our next campsite - La Garrofa.
Next update:
And so 2 weeks and 1day later we are still here at La Garroffa and what an amazing time we have had and are having. The weather is fantastic and we are positioned directly overlooking the beach. The shore is stoney and stormy - wave wise - and the sound of the pebbles crashing to shore lulls us to sleep at night. This is the most amazing place ever. A tiny cove nestled between Almeria and Roquetas
Next update:
If you have been faithful enough and been an avid follower of our blog you would have realised by now that all has been very quiet on our blog spot for well over a month.
What happened was that we got stuck in La Garrofa. This is a place that you either "get" or you "don't get" and we definitely "got it". We finally stayed here for just over 5 weeks!!!!!
Why? The place is nothing special - small sites, salt water showers, a bit old and tired (it actually was the first Spanish campsite on the Southern coastline) - but the people, oh the people who get La Garrofa, form this amazing bond of happiness, helpfulness, fun and contentment. Those who don't fit in with the place hurry up and leave for better, more modern climes. Swiss, Scottish, Dutch, English, German and of course New Zealanders - some with amazing skills and eyes to die for - come together at planned and impromptu get togethers, which can last all day or to the early hours, creating memories that will last forever for everyone. Throw in long walks over the barren hilltops to a Tapas bar in the next bay; Thursday morning English breakfast gatherings on the seafront in Roquetas; girls day out to the Grand Plaza buying up all the specials; the Curry evening; the Chilli evening; the fresh fish evening; the guitar, harmonica and country music evening (amazing couple to watch and listen to who run a back packers on the Isle of Skye); the bonfire on the beach evening, with burnt sausages and marshmallows and cans of beans popping in the fire; the Ukeleli evenings with the La Garrofa song written by the amazing Gary and put to music by Markus and Sabrina from Switzerland (boy those two could dance): the leaving evenings - the saddest of them all. We fell in love and stayed. It was so easy. A local bus going left would take you to Almeria which boasted an amazing beach to stroll along, up to date shops to shop at and a castle called Alcazaba which was free to enter. A bus to the right would take you to Aquadulcie, for food shopping, and then on to Roquetas where we both had a tattoo done - another tick off our bucket lists.
We had been looking for a place to stay for a while for a while and as we eased Molly under a low hanging tree on a parcela overlooking the beach we were welcomed by the sun and these amazing people. Next day the low limb of the tree was cut off to allow us more room. We are unsure how this came about but it was the conduit to our falling in love with the place as people had been trying to get the branch lopped of that tree for years. Instantly we were a hit - we had achieved the impossible.
Mo and Jim from the UK, Jurg from Switzerland (he arrived in July and is still there), Margarite and Peter from Germany and Holland repectively, Lisa and Brian from Scotland were all La Garrofad but a steady stream of previously La Garrofad couples would soon arrive to swell the throng. Annie and Tons from Holland, Ellie and Steve from the UK, Dawn and Graham from the UK and the "kids from Switzerland"- Markus and Sabrina - who would soon be La Garrofad as well, who would leave and then return for more. All of these beautiful people made our stay at La Garrofa magic.
And then there is MALCOLM!!!!!!!
Malcolm is the cornerstone of La Garrofa without whom the place would not be how or what it is. Malcolm is a wiley Scottish jack-of -all trades who charges 5euro for most things - or at least suggests he should. Malcolm has a heart of gold and would do anything for anybody. He came to La Garrofa many years ago and never left and is now one of the few employees La Garrofa has. To be honest there is no need for many more when you have a Malcolm at your disposal because he has everyone's interests at heart and visa versa. Malcolm calling in for a cup of tea, orange fanta or a home cooked meal for later is a regular occurance. Malcolm is the camp Father Christmas and everyones friend. Thankyou Malcolm for enhancing our stay at La Garrofa and looking after us. We will be back.......soon.
Oh I forgot to add - he is extremely good at blowing up engines too!!!!!!!
So upward and onward and we finally left La Garrofa after 35 days and after the most amazing farewell. The wine, brandy, whisky, music, dancing and food flowed and three of us were the cabaret. Mo, Sabrina and myself, with a little bit of Annie thrown in, reminding us that I still have a little bit of "the wild child" left in me. It was definitely a night to remember and next morning, after battling through a human line of resistance we drove out of La Garrofa and towards Portugal for a month in an apartment over Christmas and New Year.
Firstly though we catch a local bus into Granada Central with the object being to find the Old Town which has become our favourite area to explore within these large cities. So, wandering through a maze of narrow streets backdropped by red, gnarly mountains, occasionally happening across a fruit stall here, a trader in leather goods there, we realise we are in the Jewish district of Granada. I cannot express or paint a written picture as to how it looks and feels to be able to wander through a communities habitat and daily life soaking up the richness of it all. The memories and the beauty are in our heads and hopefully expressed in photos we upload to Facebook and I am forever humbled by the fact that we are lucky enough to be able to do this. This feeling particularly hit home in Granada and, as is our norm, we became so engrossed in our surroundings and wanderings we realised we were quite lost in the back streets of this huge, huge city........but never fear, it was lunchtime and we had espyed a graffiti covered cafe with truckloads of attitude, on the corner of a dilapidated street that just begged us to come on in. So we did. As Gary will say - we went in as strangers and came out as friends - wine soaked and bellies full with another adventure and experience under our belts.
An hour later and a long uphill slog we finally arrived at the ticket office at Alhambra. Now the fun started as there are only a certain amount of people allowed through each day and only 30% of these tickets can be bought at the ticket office and the queue was.......well, not too bad to be honest. Senior citizens are cheaper too, but not us we are from New Zealand (go figure that one and hey what about our budget?), so begrudgingly paying full price we entered the wondrous world of Alhambra.
Alhambra is a palace and a fortress complex, originally constructed in 889 as a fortress and then rebuilt firstly in the 11th century, when the palace and walls were added and then converted into a Royal palace in the 14th century. In the 19th century it was saved from dereliction, restored and is now the most amazing piece of arcihtecture I have ever witnessed. The buildings are basically quadrangles with rooms opening on to a central courtyard and all quadrangles are joined by connecting rooms and passages. The columns, the filligree, the reflecting pools, the very prominent water features, whether within the quadrangles or flowing down the sides or centres of a bank of steps all make you feel you have stepped into another world. The outside walls of Alhambra are austere, plain and, to be honest, uninviting but once you walk through the immaculate gardens to the inside you feel as though you have walked into paradise on earth. We spent hours here in the sunshine which made the light perfect for photography so please go to our facebook pages and view the pics - just couldn't stop snapping.
But it is getting late, the light is fading -we must retrace our steps back home to Molly.
Deciding to catch a bus back down into Centro rather than walking we got off the bus........somewhere????? (Wherever it was it was the last stop so we had no other option). Getting your bearings in a place this size and locating your bus stop as well takes some doing but, true to form, my trusty GPS (Gary) got us right there and well within the 2 hour time limit!!! LOL.
We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Granada and our stay in Granada given it is a big city but after 4 nights at this campsite tomorrow we will move on. We are still looking for a base to stay for a while so maybe, just maybe, our next port of call just outside of Almeria will be the place.
This 4 hour journey was beautiful. After dispensing with low cloud and heavy fog at Venra del Molinillo we climbed to 1400metres - the highest we have taken Molly so far - skirting the eastern side of the Sierra Navada mountains. The photos posted on facebook cannot do it justice it is like driving through a wonderland. We have been sooooo cold but now we are back in brilliant sunshine and warm again. We love Andalucia. Driving through La Peza Lopero there is a light dusting of snow on the mountains and then we find ourselves on a mountain plateau cruising at 1100metres through plain, arid countryside where nothing much is able to exist or be supported except.........fields and fields of windfarms as far as the eye can see and surprisingly they are beautiful. Majestic arms slicing through the atmosphere. Doris telling Agnes...."you can do it! Keep going, don't be so lazy", but her arms are hurting and she has to come to a slow halt as Doris looks down on her and continues her own neverending motion of arms. It is a glorious sight and yes we are on the Spanish plains. There are small villages dotted here and there embedded in the folds of these spectacular mountains which look like the layers and frills of flamenco dresses basking in the sunshine.
At Dolar we descend a little into a basin of agriculture. Plastic greenhouses and wigwams sheltering tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant abound, from the road to the horizon. The surrounding hills are now sparten and there is only tussock to view. Then grapeviness and olive trees come in to view - kilometres and kilometres of well looked after vines - and the mountains take on the frills of the flamenco skirt again. I have never seen such beautiful scenery in my entire life and the light was perfect for photography.
And so we descended after our long journey into Almeria and Kate (gps) and Molly took us to Castell del Rey and to our next campsite - La Garrofa.
Next update:
And so 2 weeks and 1day later we are still here at La Garroffa and what an amazing time we have had and are having. The weather is fantastic and we are positioned directly overlooking the beach. The shore is stoney and stormy - wave wise - and the sound of the pebbles crashing to shore lulls us to sleep at night. This is the most amazing place ever. A tiny cove nestled between Almeria and Roquetas
Next update:
If you have been faithful enough and been an avid follower of our blog you would have realised by now that all has been very quiet on our blog spot for well over a month.
What happened was that we got stuck in La Garrofa. This is a place that you either "get" or you "don't get" and we definitely "got it". We finally stayed here for just over 5 weeks!!!!!
Why? The place is nothing special - small sites, salt water showers, a bit old and tired (it actually was the first Spanish campsite on the Southern coastline) - but the people, oh the people who get La Garrofa, form this amazing bond of happiness, helpfulness, fun and contentment. Those who don't fit in with the place hurry up and leave for better, more modern climes. Swiss, Scottish, Dutch, English, German and of course New Zealanders - some with amazing skills and eyes to die for - come together at planned and impromptu get togethers, which can last all day or to the early hours, creating memories that will last forever for everyone. Throw in long walks over the barren hilltops to a Tapas bar in the next bay; Thursday morning English breakfast gatherings on the seafront in Roquetas; girls day out to the Grand Plaza buying up all the specials; the Curry evening; the Chilli evening; the fresh fish evening; the guitar, harmonica and country music evening (amazing couple to watch and listen to who run a back packers on the Isle of Skye); the bonfire on the beach evening, with burnt sausages and marshmallows and cans of beans popping in the fire; the Ukeleli evenings with the La Garrofa song written by the amazing Gary and put to music by Markus and Sabrina from Switzerland (boy those two could dance): the leaving evenings - the saddest of them all. We fell in love and stayed. It was so easy. A local bus going left would take you to Almeria which boasted an amazing beach to stroll along, up to date shops to shop at and a castle called Alcazaba which was free to enter. A bus to the right would take you to Aquadulcie, for food shopping, and then on to Roquetas where we both had a tattoo done - another tick off our bucket lists.
We had been looking for a place to stay for a while for a while and as we eased Molly under a low hanging tree on a parcela overlooking the beach we were welcomed by the sun and these amazing people. Next day the low limb of the tree was cut off to allow us more room. We are unsure how this came about but it was the conduit to our falling in love with the place as people had been trying to get the branch lopped of that tree for years. Instantly we were a hit - we had achieved the impossible.
Mo and Jim from the UK, Jurg from Switzerland (he arrived in July and is still there), Margarite and Peter from Germany and Holland repectively, Lisa and Brian from Scotland were all La Garrofad but a steady stream of previously La Garrofad couples would soon arrive to swell the throng. Annie and Tons from Holland, Ellie and Steve from the UK, Dawn and Graham from the UK and the "kids from Switzerland"- Markus and Sabrina - who would soon be La Garrofad as well, who would leave and then return for more. All of these beautiful people made our stay at La Garrofa magic.
And then there is MALCOLM!!!!!!!
Malcolm is the cornerstone of La Garrofa without whom the place would not be how or what it is. Malcolm is a wiley Scottish jack-of -all trades who charges 5euro for most things - or at least suggests he should. Malcolm has a heart of gold and would do anything for anybody. He came to La Garrofa many years ago and never left and is now one of the few employees La Garrofa has. To be honest there is no need for many more when you have a Malcolm at your disposal because he has everyone's interests at heart and visa versa. Malcolm calling in for a cup of tea, orange fanta or a home cooked meal for later is a regular occurance. Malcolm is the camp Father Christmas and everyones friend. Thankyou Malcolm for enhancing our stay at La Garrofa and looking after us. We will be back.......soon.
Oh I forgot to add - he is extremely good at blowing up engines too!!!!!!!
So upward and onward and we finally left La Garrofa after 35 days and after the most amazing farewell. The wine, brandy, whisky, music, dancing and food flowed and three of us were the cabaret. Mo, Sabrina and myself, with a little bit of Annie thrown in, reminding us that I still have a little bit of "the wild child" left in me. It was definitely a night to remember and next morning, after battling through a human line of resistance we drove out of La Garrofa and towards Portugal for a month in an apartment over Christmas and New Year.
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