29th January 2017. Las Negras, Spain.

This morning (it could only just be classed as the morning) we walked along a coastal path to San Pedro.

The beach path went along the Rambla, Jane and I were lagging behind talking and noticed the men had stopped and were aiming their cameras at something, as we approached we saw a large bat swooping around them, it was a brilliant sight.  None of us had ever seen a bat out in daylight before, was he being radical? Perhaps he’d realised he could catch far more bugs at that time of day when all his mates were still in bed asleep!

As we walked up the dirt track we were over taken by a car.

 

1 km later we spied a motorhome parked in the distance overlooking the sea and 1 km later we came to a car park!

 

A few minutes later we saw a family start walking along the same route we were taking the mum was wearing a rucksack with a Union Jack painted on it (we noticed when we caught up with them that they were Spanish)

We stopped to take photos as we came in sight of the castle at San Pedro down in the next bay.  That’s when we discovered Steve suffers from vertigo and understandably wasn’t keen to stand anywhere near the cliff edge.

He wisely declined to go on to the castle because the path became quite narrow at that point in the walk.  He assured us his phone said it was only 100 m to the beach, naively we believed him.

He and Jane sat on rock to await our speedy return.

After we’d gone about 100 m and the castle still didn’t look much closer we decided Steve had fed us duff information and began our conspiracy theories.  One of them was that Steve had told us it was that close so that it would give them an hour’s head start to get back to their van and make their get away!

After clambering over the rock strewn path,  we walked along part of the narrow path which had rope strung between posts against the rock, in case it was slippery perhaps and winding our way through the shrubbery and past small make shift houses in the entrance to the bay we finally found our way on to the beach half hour later, I had almost chickened out a couple of times and Darren had to encourage me to carry on down to the bay.  As we began to realise how far away the beach actually was we sent a couple of messages to Steve and Jane to say they should forget about waiting for us, we’d meet them in a bar on the way back.

The bay was beautiful, well worth the walk and there was some interesting architecture scattered around the area which had been lovingly made by the owners from things they’d gleaned round and about.  There was a cave like house right up on the farthest cliff which must have had great views of the bay and of people walking along the cliff path and the ruins of a castle and some other old buildings.

On the beach the first thing I did was take my shoes off to air my aching feet then we sat and ate some cheese and nuts.. The minute we got food out we instantly gained some new friends.  Some very brave sparrows hopped right up to our feet in the hopes they’d be fed then a dog walked up and sat staring mournfully into our eyes waiting for a morsel to fall his way.  He eventually laid down beside us and carried on watching.  Darren put a slice of cheese on the dog’s paw which was gone in a gulp.

While we were eating we received a message from Steve saying they had numb bums and were heading back to the town.  Apparently they received our messages straight after they sent theirs.  Darren took a photo of them up on the cliff.  We weren’t sure what Jane was doing but she informs us she was looking at a bee buzzing around a flower!

It was very hot on the beach so I had a paddle in the refreshing/freezing water and then we made our way back along the path.

We upped the pace when we noticed black clouds forming over the mountains ahead of us.

We walked back along the beach path when we reached the town in the hopes we’d see Jane and Steve in a cafe but instead we bumped into Gabriella and Paulo.  We told them where we’d been and I thanked Paulo profusely for suggesting we went there.  He told us they hadn’t been able to go there because their rucksacks were too big.  I suggested that perhaps they could go by boat (we’d seen one arrive at San Pedro when we got there and arrive back in Las Negras as we stood talking to Paulo) but he said he didn’t do boats, he’s petrified of water.  Gabriella pointed in the direction we were heading and said our friends went that way so we thanked them and carried on our search through the many people sitting at the restaurants eating.

We were getting some very strange looks from people and when we eventually found Jane and Steve sitting at the last bar beside the beach I mentioned this to them, Jane pointed out that everyone else was dressed for the winter in their thick winter coats and I was walking along in jeans and a sleeveless top because we were sweating from the long walk back.

We hadn’t been seated for very long before I understood why everyone else had their coats and jumpers on as the shirt and cardigan I’d since put on really wasn’t cutting the mustard against the cold wind.

Jane was also feeling the cold so we went and sat at the only available tiny table inside beside the open door.  We’d only been sitting there 10 minutes when Jane spied someone leaving a better table so we moved yet again!  How the barman was able to keep tracks of us is beyond me but he was obviously very good at his job.

We ended with coffee and ice cream then went in search of food but everywhere was closed until later that evening so Steve offered to cook a curry for us all.

We headed back to the vans and stopped at the roundabout as an Italian registered motorhome drove towards us.  There was a family inside with a cute smiley little boy sitting on his mummy’s lap.  She called out and asked us the way to San Pedro, she’d been told about the car park there but they weren’t sure how to get to it.  Steve and Darren showed them on a map and they drove off very happy.  We all hoped they weren’t going to walk to San Pedro that evening.

We went over to Steve and Jane’s van later on in the evening (just as the restaurants opened as it happens) and had a lovely meal with them again.  Darren tells me I have to drop Jane in it.  She was telling us that the man in the van next to her was playing a stringed musical instrument the evening before and he played it beautifully.  She wasn’t sure what it was other than she knew it wasn’t a guitar so we started guessing, Darren’s was the winning suggestion, a mandolin.  Jane’s reply was “Yes he could have been playing the mandarin”  Sorry Jane the story had to be told!

We had a great evening with lots of yummy food and lots of laughs.

We walked round to our van under the starry sky.  Five minutes later I was walking under the starry sky back to their van to retrieve my camera that I’d forgotten.  I think Steve was pleased because he was just in the process of putting on his shoes to return the camera to his stupid neighbour!