A sudden burst of Awaydays!

With a couple of weeks to go before migration we suddenly started  going places! More flexibility (!) in the physio schedule and a remarkable improvement in the weather made such jaunts more feasible and attractive! In fact these closing weeks were the best in all the early Aprils that Greyrocks can recall. Almost (but not quite) sea-bathing conditions!

The bad news was that Ruth's knee - whilst good enough for quite extensive painless walking - stubbornly refused to bend enough on the real bicycle - meaning no progress in riding, episodes of depression and detailed discussion about how this knee could be so much more problematic than the first last year! In fact the bike has only been out of our complex once in the whole six-month stay. and that was to be - as it turned out - pointlessly serviced! Still - "things can only get better"!

Plenty of choice for lunch along the prom!

The first of three jolly japes in glorious sunshine was over the sea to Playa Blanca! John and Tracey drove their hire car down from Teguise, and we took the swift Fred Olsen ferry with residents' discount. We had a very pleasant lunch in a randomly chosen restaurant, swapped tales of offspring and heard about their "day from hell" with medical bill and traffic fine, and planned the winter's trip to Goa! So engaged were we in good conversation that the amount of wine consumed by three of us "grow'd like Topsy" and Greyrocks managed to fall asleep for most of the twenty minute return crossing!

Next - to El Cotillo! Greyrocks likes this growing fishing village with its Bohemian vibe, but there is not much to do without a serious walk, so a visit was delayed until this late stage! Almost as potentially interesting would be the return bus trip, which would mean seeing (or even using) the newly-opened stretch of new road:- much behind schedule and controversial in terms of what will ultimately happen to the current coast road and the communities it serves. We got the experience we wanted on the journey, had a walk round, saw the new bus station and had a long lunch in the sun! No longer "sleepy" it receives a serious stream of coach parties, but definitely worth a visit!

Finally there was another visit to our capital - Puerto del Rosario - mainly for a signing-off by the sainted surgeon. Once this was over - with much reassurance and a suggestion of a bit more physio and an adhesive, analgaesic pad - we strolled in the sun (at last!) and went for the season's last lunch with Marco and Elena at El Bounty. This was a long and delightful affair! Once home it was round to the next door neighbours (the nice side!) for an early evening get-together in advance of our respective departures. we don't recall much of the latter part of the evening!

In spite of numerous attempts, varied saddle heights and some mobilisation at the Sports Clinic the final week still didn't bring any success with Ruth on the bike, but we left on Good Friday with hope that the other mount would be easier. Wait and see!