Oil, Water, Wheels and the Home Again Blues

Why Bob had a daytrip to Gran Can!

Greyrocks is now settled in the winter home, but the weather has been almost entirely glorious so that it feels like it is still summer. One day last week it reached 42°C in the afternoon outside The Blue Rock, but there has been no time for full day trips to the big beaches:- it has been repairs, health checks and jabs, haircuts, re-stocking, intricate financial tasks, ICT changes and renewals of acquaintances! Phew! And then there was the jolly jape (and expense) of Bob having to fly over to Las Palmas for a five minute meeting at the British consulate in order to extend his passport sufficiently for an Indian or Cuban visa. What a farce - and all because of the privatised mess back in UK!

But enough! Let's do the annual rundown on what has changed in Corralejo since the Spring.
The first thing that strikes the returning semi-resident is the relentless inward swell of surf! Yet more schools and camps have opened, each with vans all over town and at beaches, and the punters are evident everywhere. Ruth sat next to two such middle-class Brit women on the flight from Barcelona. Possibly related to the trend is the outbreak of maniacal skateboarding, which, along with new motorised three wheel scooter contraptions for hire is causing some stress in the pedestrian bits of town! At least it looks as if some action has been taken over dog poo, of which there is now definitely less!

And should you want a cup of coffee... well this continuing trend has made it to the complaints pages of the English press! Italian coffee shops are everywhere - many with pavement seating on the high street, but popping up just about anywhere. (An interesting one is the veggie place on the kids' square) There are rumours that Italian settlers are now the most numerous in the municipality. Some have tried to run restaurants and failed spectacularly, but there is some resentment about the take-over of the old town, and when Mike at the Casbah closed down there was huge relief that the replacement is a genuine tapas bar run by a Canarian. (Not the best in town by several, but not bad, and Richard - yes, not Ricardo! - is a great host) It is now pointless to chart the openings and closings of every establishment - especially all these small places, but three key restaurant sites are unoccupied at the point of writing:

• Just down from Hiperdino the former Colombian place has clearly been opened and then closed again in our absence. It is something to do with licenses. As Hemingway´s several years ago it was fairly nice! It is now up for rent again!

• Between Fazz´s and the Antigua del Puerto down at the harbour there is a corner site that has been in Greyrocks´memory Spanish, Chinese, Greek, US style roadhouse, 3 different tapas bars, and most recently a promising-looking grill with cheap fish. It closed suddenly just before we left in April and is still hors de combat although some new plate glass went in yesterday!

• In a lovely position overlooking the bay is what was for many years Castaway. It became "On the Beach" with glorious white and blue floaty decor and a price list to make you wince - possibly to pay for... Well - we also think it may have had something to do with a troublesome neighbour of Greyrocks, so few tears are being shed about that loss. It´s just a shame that such a nice spot is empty. Next door the Sidreria and Banana Bar have melded and emerged differently, too!

Elsewhere all credit to the Council for some improvements in the cycle paths, revival of the mall at Campenario, which looked like it might be a white elephant, and some really interesting events since Greyrocks returned. None of these has - of course - been adequately advertised in any language, but heh!



2014 International Blues Festival

So first was a "manifestation" taking place simultaneously on eight islands in the archipelago to protest at Repsol´s prospecting for oil off the coast. The issues are pretty clear. If you can read Spanish here is Repsol´s side and the other!

One Satuday we woke to a noisy helicopter circling for hours. It was part of the annual swim from Lanzarote to Corralejo. This is a serious swim :- at least five hours, but we missed the key moments like the arrival of the guy with one leg! Next day the swim was only from Lobos to Corralejo and we did see the aftermath with hundreds of youngsters partaking of lunch at the Nautical Club.

Last weekend we were told of multiple serious cyclists and we ourselves had seen a few practising. It turned out to be the 8th North to South ride organised by an infantry regiment in the Spanish army but open to others. 150 gruelling kilometres! Here is some footage from last year!

And finally - with its usual lack of publicity we had - last weekend - the Blues Festival. Somehow we managed to miss the street events on Thursday, and the Saturday evening when eight of us ate at La Plaza for optimal viewing was a bit disappointing, but the Friday night was a stonker! Greyrocks watched the first act (Brits and an Irish guy we know) from the front barrier thus wrecking three out of four knees for several days, but well worth it for a brilliant performance. We then moved to the German bar nearby and paid a fortune for sullenly served wine and an unceremonious closure. The middle act - from Scarborough - we thought good, though others disagree, and then on to some amazing stuff from Malford Milligan  - so good we behaved like groupies and went backstage to shake his hand. Related downloading has since then taken place!

Oh, and now it´s Halloween and the Day of the Dead!

.. and A to B Part 3 - Bulls and Roses!

What a lovely stretch of coast!

 Resuming the account of the more static (and drier) aspects of the migration!
There are several seaside towns between Montpellier and Barcelona that are on the Greyrocks list, but a must is the bit near Lattes, so with thirteen nights to play with - the last of which needed to be near Girona - and some places due to close for the season - and the dreaded storm brewing - the decision was Lattes 10, Roses 3 (leaving out this time Agde as being a bit grim with bad weather)!

Lattes is within striking distance of the edge of the Camargue. On the Sunday before the storm we drove to Le Grau du Roi, just over the departmental border into Gard. With the sunshine and what we later discovered to be the morning event it was heaving, and restaurants were very full. As we wandered round looking for a simple bar we began to notice heavy barriers and cowpats, then something was revealed by a notice on the bridge! We had arrived too late  - or was it too early (?) to see the Camargue bulls being driven through town to the beach or whatever else horses, bulls and males do in the streets or on the beach. Extensive research since with Monsieur Google has failed to distinguish the abrivado from the encierro, or the fete votive or re-vivre; let alone establish how much mindless cruelty is involved versus local cultural heritage! Here is some YouTube footage of something similar last year.

Neatly dodging this moral dilemma Greyrocks settled on eating - rather than running with - bull! After the French Sunday lunch rituals were over we went in search of ours and found a beauty on riverside. Click for the Trip Advisor link.

Either side of the big storm we made trips to Palavas - twice, Carnon, and Perols by bike and to Montpellier by tram. With Ruth's knees feeling the effect of a previous day's trudging through mud, on one of these occasions - actually her name day in France - the afternoon's activity was a jolly trundle through the historic bits and banlieues armed with a network map. Very good value and further confirmation that public investment works!

"Yes - there is an R in October!"

Then it was a straight run down the autoroute and over the border to Roses in Catalunya. We stayed for the third time at the same hotel and were given a particularly nice room. The sun shone most of the time, but with a chilly wind, so bike rides were a bit short! In searching for a launderette we saw more of the backstreets of the old town, and were tempted into a modest establishment by a display of oysters. A delightful lunch, and having been given a rose by the jefe a French lady next to us emptied a wine bottle, filled it with water and handed it to us! But next day it was clearing and repacking Yvette (in the rain) for the closedown. Space was tight so the rose was left in Roses!
 

La Grande Inondation de Montpellier 2014

And where is Montpellier?

After the rain on Greyrocks' arrival day there was a let-up and we were able to cycle down to the sea on one day and go to the cinema on a slightly wet day; but it  was only a matter of time. All the talk was of what was to come on the Sunday or Monday. The warmer the weather over the week the worse the forecast for the coming storm. Thus the glorious Sunday when we went to Le Grau du Roi (more of that later!) was both an unexpected delight and a foreboding!
In the early hours of Monday morning the rain started and it did not stop for almost 24 hours. Greyrocks had a plan: cagoules, drive to the Carrefour car park, tram to Comedie, long lunch somewhere nice and a V.O. film to get us through the afternoon!
It started OK, torrential rain as we waited for the tram,, but when got off at the station to either change lines or take a short walk it was worse! We stood for 10-15 minutes in a bit of shelter at the tram stop and watched as water poured down the slope of the tram line and cars elsewhere were going very tentatively though increasingly high puddles. All we could do was run across to the Brasserie de la Gare, which had closed off a few tables and just run out of its plat du jour! It bore some resemblance to a transit camp, and as we slowly ordered and consumed a reasonable late lunch the clientele was being moved into a smaller and smaller space as the outer room went underwater and a couple of waiters attempted a Canute or Hans Brinker with brooms! A waiter said it was only the second time on fifty (or was it fifteen) years that this had happened. Eventually there was some easing up and Greyrocks got to the cinema. They watched  Mick Jagger's' "Get on up" in version original in the presence of one other punter. It held the interest whilst we now know all Hell was being let loose outside!
Believing that the hypermarket where we had parked would close at 8pm and in need of supplies we scuttled down to the station. The tram track was now like a river and the digital display gave ominous warnings about the inondation on our bit of the line, but after about 20 wet minutes a tram arrived. It went a few stops and we could see that  road traffic was at a complete standstill. Soon so were we and we were all thrown off at a major station with no trams going anywhere at all. So we had to walk!

Part of our campsite! One tent is out of shot!

This started off OK on a broad modern boulevard between carriageways and with good lighting, but we new from numerous rides that the cycle path and walkway would soon deteriorate after going under the A9! The map shows one is close to the river Lez and it was this breaking its banks that had led to the city being put on Red Alert at 4pm. In increasing gloom and decreasing path width we trudged along in our shorts/cropped trousers and sandals and decide to go the other side of the road for greater ease at road junctions. We came to a fence and had to go back across the completely jammed road traffic to the other side. The path went down to nothing and we were wading. Coming the other way was a group of women in work clothes and shoes. We had a discussion about viabilite and one of them promptly fell into a hole and went over completely. When we got back to the car all businesses on the site were firmly closed but a thousand cars were still in the car park - including Yvette. With great difficulty and several times in the wrong direction we got out of the flooded car park and by back roads to the campsite entrance, which was blocked by a towed caravan and a couple of cars. This was eventually resolved and we hunkered down in our comfy mobil-home with a scratch supper. The events were now national news! Montpellier was the centre of it all and had come to a complete halt. Here are some relevant links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjZ_g1JlZuM
http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/galeries-photos/photo/20140929.OBS0599/photos-inondations-spectaculaires-a-montpellier.html
http://www.weather.com/news/montpellier-france-flash-flood-vigilance-rouge-20140929

Things were more or less back to normal by Tuesday morning and the rest of the stay was an Indian summer. See next post for how Greyrocks spent it!