The best laid plans... - Those truckers!!

By now we should have been in France!

We are - in fact - still in Fuerteventura!

We spent ten days as planned here:- quite a bit of business, several very pleasant sessions with old friends and very little sunbathing! The weather was very disappointing for a week:- in fact on many days it was better in UK! Amongst the more interesting events was discovering the theft of a saddle etc from one of our bikes stored in the communal garage. We then saw it under a pile of bike parts in another parking space. Thus we embarked on our first engagement with the Spanish practice of "denouncing"! We confronted the neighbour with that parking spot, e-mailed the administrator (Ruth's denouncing Spanish coming on a treat!) and contacted our community's president.

In the last few days the weather improved, but news did not! Yesterday we realised we were going to have a problem or two if we went as planned to Girona to pick up a car with only a third of a tank of diesel and drive to Perpignan. Catalunya was being cited as one of the worst-hit areas for diesel shortage, and the crossings to France had horrendous tailbacks. This is all related to the lorry drivers' strike over fuel. There is talk of a general strike and food shortage. Nonetheless we packed, cleared foodstuff and had a farewell meal. This morning we checked the situation and decided an hour before the planned departure that we couldn't risk it!

So here we are, sitting it out in rather comfortable conditions with no particular place to go! Watch this space!

Swan Lake!

After picking up the car at Marseille on 21st May we had just 10 minutes' drive to the pre-booked hotel, but en route we passed a very long queue at a petrol station and then sat for half an hour on a slip road. At the hotel the reason became clear:- the fishermen's blockade of fuel depots! A bit of a panic! Not enough diesel to get far the next day - but if we stayed, probably no room for the next night!
As it happened we found diesel the next morning and got to Canet Plage, near Perpignan. We chose the lavish 4* site of Le Brasilia and just managed to erect the tent before some light rain started. The next few days were very wet and windy - but we did get a reasonably pleasant half-day in the hillside town of Ceret (Picasso & Dali connections) and the servicing of the bikes. On the Sunday - with constant downpours and a terrible forecast - we booked into one of the site's bungalows. The price had gone down for that week and it was a good deal. Ours was named Le Cygne (The Swan) and from the relative comfort we could watch the lake develop outside.

It was Mothers' Day in France and we celebrated our salvation with a cake!

The foul weather went on for several days! At 3am on morning we were woken by a storm of huge hailstones on the metal roof!

Anyway! Canet Plage is a pleasant resort with a very long beach, lake and marina. We did a cycle ride to Perpignan and back, discovering that the cycle path is only partially complete leaving very hazardous patches which we reported to the Tourism Office!

The city has an ancient centre and a magnificent Palace of the Kings of Majorca.

Towards the end of the week the rain stopped andwe managed some time round (but not in!) the pool. On Saturday we decamped and drove to Girona by a scenic (i.e. scary!) route. There we parked up the car and stayed overnight in a hotel very close to the airport. Just as well! Next morning it was pelting with rain for our walk to the terminal - and again to get on the plane we waded through ankle deep water as the rain continued!

May flies!

Paleochora gradually awkened during mid-May. The ranks of sunbeds were put in place everywhere except in the naturist area. Stavros opened his grill house on a frightful wet and cold evening when no-one wanted to be on the stony side, but was very busy from the next night on. Notable arrivals were Jim and Susan from Wales, and Sam the poet, who couldn't come last year but was very chirpy and just about coping with his total smoking ban! The sea even became bearable in temperature!

We went twice to the taverna at Gramenon with Alain and Pascale - first for their special pilafi, and second for an octopus that we had seen caught.

We needed to get back to Marseille, so found a very cheap charter single flight from Chania to Gatwick. We went by train and bus to Clapham Common, stayed in a cheap hotel, had a couple of pints of Youngs at The Windmill, went to get post from the Balham house, visited the estate agent who had just found us new very keen tenants, took a train to Victoria, a coach to Stansted and a Ryanair flight to Marseille. There we found the car, which strted first time!! So smooth! Nineteen hours on UK soil!