Donana National Park

A boat trip in the Donana National Park with the family on a lovely sunny day, proved to be a hit all round.

This park is ranked among Europe's greatest wetlands and is renowned for its bird life.

This area was once the hunting ground of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia, as the land was never suitable for human settlement.  In 1969 the area became officially protected, and now only guided tours are allowed into this sensitive area. We saw wild boar and Fallow deer around the last remaining few homes left on this park

 

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Medina Sidonia and Laguna

Medina Sidonia is a beautiful whitewashed hill top town with the lovely Gothic church of Santa Maria which was home, on our visit, to a breeding group of Lesser Kestrels and at the very top of the town stands the ruins of the castle which has Roman, Christian and Moorish influences. The views from up here are outstanding.

From here we took the opportunity to carry on towards Jerez to visit the Laguna de Medina, another peaceful setting with a large lake with boardwalks and bird hide.

 

 

Valentines night

Valentines night was upon us and the so was our first official Performance with our acoustic band "Unwired"

Phil and Hazel who have played in previous years have joined Sarah and myself along with Dave our pal from Sicily to form our own group, with Dave's wife Liane as our Musical Director.

I thinks we were all nervous, but apart from a few little errors we gave a creditable rendition of ten songs and received a good round of applause.

 



Tangier

The campsite organised a coach trip and ferry for us to visit Tangier for the day and as we never quite made it in the van this year we decided it would give us a feel for the place.

The weather was not too good but the party were in good spirit despite the early start, 7.30am, an unknown time for most of us.

The fast cat ferry took only forty minutes and we arrived and were met by our guide and a coach which took us on a scenic drive through the countryside. We passed many palaces and residences of Kings and Princes from all over Africa from when it was an international Zone.

We visited the Cave of Hercules and saw the Berber style of dress. Our guide, and Carmen our camp receptionist and host dressed up in the robes.

We then went back into the city for a walking tour of the Medina and Kasbah.

The maze of narrow streets were filled with shops of all kinds, butchers, bakers and possibly candlestick makers. The street salesmen were persistent to say the least and many succumbed to the lure of fancy goods and clothing. Usually a bid of a quarter the asking price was eventually  begrudgingly accepted.

We had a very nice meal at a local restaurant with the usual Mint tea with wine or beer as an option, thankfully.

Our ferry departed at 3.00pm and we were all ready for a sit down, after a very pleasant day.

I'm not sure if we could cope with the city life for any length of time but hopefully out in the countryside it would be less stressful.

 

 



Tarifa

Today we took a trip to look at Tarifa and parked down by the docks. From there we wandered around the old town for a while. The harbour and its fortifications were very interesting with a statue of someone looking like Nelson in the square. We decided that it was possibly not him as the Spanish would have considered him a Pirate and so it was probably Napoleon ( another Pirate )

The jury is still out on that one. The weather was kind and we need another visit to explore more fully.

 



On into 2014

Well, we are still here in Spain and Christmas has been and gone and a Great New Year party had by all. The wine flowed and the band played through Two new years, One for the Spanish new year and an hour later the UK New Year. Sarah and I sang our Fairytale of New York  with the band and received a great round of applause from all our new pals.

The weather is not so good at the moment and we have hired a car for a few weeks and  for when the family visit later this month. We had a lovely surprise when my cousin Kathryn and Tony popped in to see us for a couple of days, it was nice to catch up again.

We got some good bird pictures on the way to Zahara de los Atunes a week or so ago. A dead cow had attracted a flock of over forty Griffon Vultures to a field right near the road, it was amazing to watch, if a little Gory.

We are now heading into Valentines night and have a little group of our own now, called Unwired.

We have been playing acoustic numbers for fun and have been asked to put together a set for the start of the evening before the Rock band come on. I will report after the event if we have not been lynched.

 



Approaching Christmas.

Hello again. Everyone here now is preparing for Christmas and New year.

Christmas meal is organised at our site restaurant, also New years bash with said band and all comers doing their own thing. Should be a good do and I will report in the new year when we all sober up.

The weather is still very good if a bit windy, but still able to sit outside in the sun most of the day enabling impromptu BBQ's with pals.

 

 



The band are getting it together with regular practice sessions and gig's at the local bar, La Aceitera de Trafalgar.

Yesterday saw us there for Sarah's birthday with our pals and ended with her on stage as a backing singer.  New career possibilities ?