6 People 6 Months

San Jose San Jose was our next place to visit. It is a small little village on the east coast. This area on the east is the driest in the whole of Europe. It is very barren and hot with a stiff breeze blowing in off the coast most of the day, which is a relief as it is so hot. And so very beautiful! The colours of the landscape are so vivid – re d d ish-brown of the earth, yellow of the grass, light blue of the sky and deep blue of the sea. Just glorious! We parked in a campervan spot that was just on the edge of town , where we could bike to the sea – only about two minutes away . The sea had breakers crashing onto the shore which made it a little bit wet getting out in the kayak much to the girls dismay! The first day we drove a little further round the coast to another beach which we found packed with sun worshipers braving the strong wind, so we walked up the dunes and over the cliffs to another little beach which had a bit more shelter and a lovely reef for snorkeli...

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 the y 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 F rance with ( almost ) no problem . It was the day before Phoebe’s 13 th 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 15 th . So on the 14 th 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 ...

The Alhambra of Granada This last week we’ve been in the south of Spain. We visited Granada first – the city famous for it’s palace the Alhambra – built by the Moors in the 13th and 14th century. The Moors overran Spain within 2 or 3 years back in the 700’s and there are still many buildings, place names and decorative features that have remained and have become a part of Spanish culture. The city of Granada is huge and we were lucky enough to find a park about 20 mins walk the first afternoon we went into the city center but the next day we had to walk much further. It can be so stressful driving in the city! So many one way streets and roundabouts with many lanes and traffic lights. People in the cities here in Spain love to bheir car horn too if they were irritated (or so we assume)  so we found that a bit disconcerting. I felt we were always in someone’s way! Beautiful graffiti we saw on the way through the city. Granada was filled with professional graffiti style...

All the olive trees growing all over the hills! Spain is one of the worlds biggest producers of olives. So we've begun our trip through Spain again. This time I am enjoying it a little more because the sun is out, it's warmer and everything looks a little bit nicer than before. (Not so many tumbled down industrial areas here.) We've been using a gps type system through an app to help us get from town to town and because we are trying to avoid toll roads we tend to be taken on the craziest of routes. On Sunday we were on one of these journeys to find a petrol station in a small town and the app wanted us to squeeze down a very narrow, one lane, car lined street. Josh said "Do you think we'll make it down there?" and I said, "...Mmm maybe, I guess so.." Not a wise choice. We scraped someones guttering sticking out at a funny angle and we also scraped someones white car. We did hear a noise but thought it was the guttering which looked fine but th...

Algarve Our final place we visited in Portugal was Algarve - a coastal city facing the Atlantic sea. This was the sort of Portugal that I had imagined in my mind - golden sands, clear blue sea and cute coastal worn buildings. Sadly a bit cold yet for swimming - though Josh decided to brave it once after he saw some young men diving in for a quick plunge. Ha- he couldn't be bested! We parked up for 2 euro each night in a massive sandy parking lot at the edge of the boulevard. There we nestled in the corner for three nights - being able to hear the popping of the crabs and fish in the esturary behind us. In the morning we woke to the glorious sound of the seagulls and waves crashing onto the beach. Each of us said how much we had missed the sea. It's not such a familiar feeling when we live in New Zealand to be so far from the sea. We've nick-named our camper 'Pupae' after the word that we kept seeing in the supermarket meaning 'special' (like ...

The view looking over the river at Penacova. This hillside town is where we spent our first few days in Portugal. This last week we've been making our way down to the south of Portugal. The country is a mix of beauty, the old and new, rugged countryside, smart buildings, tumbled down ruins, and fancy palaces. And so hilly! There have been many times that it has reminded us of New Zealand. The people have been friendly and courteous although we do get plenty of stares as we drive about in our rickety old camper! I love the tiny scrapings of vege gardens that are dispersed everywhere among the hillsides. Any spot they can find it is terraced (probably from a thousand years ago when people made an effort with stone walls!) showing off straight lines of corn, brassica, beans, and lettuce. Most of the soil in the garden that isn't planted up with vegetables and also in paddocks around trees is bare - having been rotary hoed.  In Spain and then in Portugal we...

As some of you know, I am a bit of a plant fanatic and so I just have to post a blog to show you some of the most wonderful wildflowers there are out here! For those of you who aren't into flowers - it's ok. You can skip this one if you want! A bunch picked along the rail road tracks to Sarlat Stalks nesting on rooftops everywhere! They are a protected species in Spain. They especially prefer to nest on top of cathedrals. So everywhere on the roadsides in the whole of Europe so far, there are myriads of colours of all sorts - from deep purple to blue, yellows, oranges, greens and whites of all shades. There are plants growing wild here that I've seen being sold in plant shops in NZ for quite a pretty sum! The local council seem to encourage their growth and spread too, as any place they can grow they are not prohibited. (No round-up out here!) My favourite place so far to collect a bunch (we usually have at least one collection in a cu...