Still in Spain...

Have come a little farther down the coast and are now in a place called Peniscola (raised a few laughs when i told the boys where we were going..that and the garden centre...penis green, yes really, not making that up!) We had a very difficult drive here. We had really bad side winds as we went past the mountains (which were all snow capped) and then when we got to Peniscola we went to the Carrefour supermarket and stocked up on supplies. Once again there was an interesting array of dead things on display. Notably the little piglets (half a dozen or so) sitting on top of one another (literally piggy back!!) I took a pic on my mobile, but Joshua was less than impressed.

We have a new vegetarian in our midst. Joshua has managed to avoid anything meat based since then. Not sure if I will be able to persuade him to try my stuffed aubergine recipe!

We had great fun at camp. They had a collection of very tame parrots which loved to be stroked and talked to and squawked at you when you stopped. We got the tennis rackets out and had a few games of fairly informal ball hitting and running around after them...wimbledon...no, not really. Good fun though. Apparently the weather is unseasonably cold.

Moved on again to Oliva, another 200km down the coast. The camp site signs run out as you get closer which makes finding them pretty difficult. It was cold and raining when we arrived and there was sand all over the coast road.

It turns out that there was a monster wave which removed half the beach and deposited it on the road. The sun came out today...really warm, us all in shorts, fabulous (well the warm rather than the shorts). So, we went scavenging on the beach and found the most amazing shells. Murex (i think) with long points on the shells, cone shells, urchins, starfish, coconuts and even an octopus. There were sea cucumbers and these huge long worms (which may have been the contents of destroyed razor shells). I tried to put as many of the still living shellfish back in the water to give them a chance, but there were too many to make that much difference...the guilt, the guilt! I even have a sponge which I am attempting to clean so that I can use it. If anyone has any suggestions I'd be glad to hear them. I have washed it over and over and removed as much debris and dead prawns as I can...nice...

So, we are heading south again tomorrow towards Almeria, probably around Cabo de Gata, which is where all the lovely beaches are and not too touristy. Hopefully we will have better weather from now on.

Hope you are all still enjoying the blog and hearing our news. Just in case I'm not on the internet again for a while, hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and New Year.