Broken Things and a Birthday Girl

On the Cabo de Gata coast

Our sweet little campervan ‘Pupae’ is doing rather well considering how much time we are driving and how many of us are in this little space, but there are a few things that are not working anymore or just fall off or break. Last week it seemed like they were all happening at once, the worst being that we ran out of gas (for the fridge, cooking and hot-water showers) which ordinarily wouldn’t be so bad – one would just get a new gas bottle right? Well that’s what we intended to do as we had already replaced one in France with (almost) no problem.

It was the day before Phoebe’s 13th birthday and she had told us she’d like to be at the beach and go snorkeling, which we thought would be easy as we were on target to be at the coast for the 15th. So on the 14th we were about 4 hours away from our destination when the gas ran out. Luckily we were in a big city and so there were plenty of options to get the bottle exchanged. Only we found out after going to about four different petrol stations around town, that actually it was the whole of Spain which didn’t have the same type of bottle we could exchange, and after looking for an adapter for the bottle in stressful driving conditions (small streets, no parking, beeping cars) we finally figured out we wouldn’t be able to sign up to get a gas bottle cause we weren’t residents of Spain. So it was with sadness that we discovered we’d have to go without a fridge, hot water and the stove until we get back to France. We bought a small gas cooker to cook on instead which makes me feel very grateful for what we already did have. Funny how that works isn’t it? Here I was thinking it was hard work cooking on the two tiny ones we already had in the camper and having to shower in the tiny bathroom/toilet and now I’ll be appreciating them so much when we can use them again!

That day was also made tricky because as we thought we’d be at a campsite for a few days near the beach we could do all our washing (all the sheets, duvet covers, towels and jumpers, jeans and stuff that are hard to wash by hand) at the laundry mat before hand and hang it once we got there. So we’d made this pressure for ourselves that we really needed to get there because the washing was going stinky after we’d just spent all that money getting it washed, and because we wanted Phoebe to have her first summer birthday waking up at the beach. But instead because of all the fluffing around with the gas we ended up parked in a parking lot for the night.

Poor Pupae was smothered!

Josh trying to cook amidst the washing

But it was all ok really. We hung all the washing out on ropes that Josh constructed in and around the camper and on our little clothes horse, and had it out for a couple of hours before the sun went down. We got plenty of looks from people passing by but I was past caring about it. Back home in New Zealand there was quite a lot of grumbling by locals in the newspaper about freedom campers hanging out their washing in public places (also for nudity and general messiness). Now I have become one of those freedom campers! (Except for the nudity part!)

Phoebe’s birthday ended up being good after all as us girls went to the mall (because we were still in the city) and Phoebe used her birthday money to buy some cool clothes. Then we made our way to the south east of Spain – Cabo de Gata. We traveled on a very treacherous road - hoping we’d get back up again- to reach a beautiful little cove where we could swim for the first time in the Atlantic ocean. It was a bit cold for me (what a surprise!) but Josh and the girls enjoyed themselves. It was also a first for the girls to see people sunbathing without clothes, which was a bit new for our prudish New Zealand eyes! But now that we’ve been at the beach for a few days its all very normal. Don’t know if they’d like it if Josh and I decided to join in with that part of the culture though!

Phoebe on her 13th birthday

The vista over looking Motir and Almeria. Thought I'd put this picture in as it was fascinating driving through this part of the country. For miles and miles  we saw plastic tunnel houses creating a home to many vegetables, fruit and sometimes trees like Avocados! They have dry and bony soil here so everything is planted in little fiber bags and fed a nutrient through water. And we thought the red apple coverings in Motueka was bad! This really was quite an eyesore on the landscape. Lots of plastic rubbish hanging around too.