Snail Tales

Ah, the Spanish campsite of a weekend: feral children in abundance and constantly barking dogs. Fun for all the family, but perhaps not so much for us. Certainly not fun for Dusty, who keeps retreating to the parcel shelf in the van.

I was hoping that he would have plenty of outdoors time today and be ready for bed when the time comes. Last night he dozed the evening away and I knew that he was going to be a problem later…

Indeed, the wee chap was very perky in the early hours, setting off the four-way flashers, playing with his jingly toy and asking for food. 04:45 hrs. He was up and at ’em again, looking for a way out of the van as dawn broke. We had left the blinds open to prevent his wrecking them in the night but the extra light admitted woke him too soon for our liking.

Blinds closed tonight, we think and I shall be prodding him every time that he looks like nodding off…

The flies here are sending all three of us demented but I shall be cooking outdoors anyway – we are having curry and I do not plan to stink the van out. We might eat early before the evening chill settles so that we can also eat outdoors.

All being well we shall be away on Monday and Dusty can look forward to some grass, a few pine trees and far more peace and quiet. No doubt the flies will be hellish. Also… the expected overnight temperature at our destination when we arrive is forecast to be -2°C. Can’t have everything, eh?

Looking forward to Portugal now, with its lovely empty and peaceful campsites. Let us not forget the curry either – Holi Diwali, here we come! Then of course there are the well-known custard tarts (and the lesser-known but equally appreciated chocolate-filled doughnuts..)

The decision has been made (hope it sticks) that we shall stay at Ribamar for another week and will depart next Monday, heading towards Sagres (probably). I feel much happier about this plan as opposed to the earlier departure that had been mooted for Wednesday this week. If Chloé isn’t back by next Monday we can be confident that she is not returning and may leave without guilt.

Yes, far happier with this plan, which also offers opportunity to get more out of our stay here… once the wind dies down.

I like it here and would be happy to stay longer but I understand Mr Snail’s need to put this horror behind us. We will go.

The original plan had us arriving here at Ribamar today and then we had hoped to stay for a month. We arrived a week ago yesterday and find ourselves already thinking about moving on.

Chloé is gone and tonight will be her 8th night out. It has been 7 days since she was reportedly sighted at 05:30 on a neighbouring van’s roof, since when there has been no trace. We have to conclude that she will not now return. Our stay here has been marred, the windy weather is affecting some moods further and on top of that we feel bad about cooping Dusty up in the van. All in all, the time would seem to have come for us to depart.

There is a window in the weather on Wednesday that would make for better driving.

Yet there remains a feeling that we will suffer guilt if we do go. Should we stop longer, giving her more opportunity to return?

If we do go, perhaps sooner is better than later as the weather is set to cool and we are considering cutting across country, which means hitting some elevation. We don’t have snow chains.

An alternative would be to take the longer route down and around the coast, which means of course… the bloody Costas! Mr Snail has found a promising looking site in a national park in the far south east of Spain but it would require an overnight stop somewhere along the way and two reasonably hefty days of travel.

I can place a stake in the ground here and now and state that I flatly refuse to stop at Benicassim – or anywhere remotely similar!

A wild night last night. We shut the vents down but found that the permanent air circulation was rattling the blinds. We didn’t get much sleep between the van shaking, the blinds rattling and various objects rolling about the site.

I found myself feeling nostalgic and longing to be back on Orkney. My mind wandered about some of our favourite parking places and I think that before I dropped off for a while I was mentally settled at Harray Loch, in the Ring of Brodgar car park. I also thought much about the night that a ferry cancellation left us stranded on the big island and we slept at Finstown. We had put the steadies down to minimise movement but the van was bouncing off the stays and slamming back down again… all night long! Sufficient to say that in comparison to that night, it’s really only a stiff breeze here 🙂

Chloé is still not home. It grieved me to think about her out there, all alone on such a wild night. I miss her so much. It isn’t the same without her snuggled up to me in bed and waking me up at three a.m. with a little kiss, a head butt or three and her demands for ear scratches. I love that poor little broken cat and her funny little ways.

Last night’s Paella in the site restaurant wasn’t too bad at all and the wine was very nice indeed. A pleasant evening. Tonight we are eating in and making inroads on some of the more elderly food items that we brought from home. We have a bottle of Campo Viejo Crianza to wash it down with, a snip at 3€99 in Consum yesterday, where we also found some proper pork scratchings (very Keto!) for Apero.

Not sure when we plan to move on now. Dusty is behaving well so we may linger on in hope of Chloé returning. I doubt we will stay the full month that we intended though, I should like to be somewhere quieter where the wee boy can go out and run about a little.

One current problem is that boy is now sounding the vehicle horn. We have rigged up some protection with a wire basket and Mr Snail is researching the location of the necessary fuse to effect it’s removal. It was 7 am this morning when the horn was going off and we do not wish to make ourselves unpopular!

We cycled down to the closest little supermarket today. By the time that Nell had been walked and both cycles assembled it was actually quite late when we set off and twenty-five past one when we reached the shop… to discover that our research had yielded duff information; they close at one-thirty in the winter, not at two.

Ho, hum, we cycled away to Consum. Consum turns out to be quite a good supermarket by comparison with other shops that we have visited. Oddly though, no fresh olives in store – and we were too late for Antonio’s deli so have come home with a tin.

We filled two rucksacks with one or two necessities and a lot of unnecessary items. Then we cycled off to find a cash machine, picking up wolf whistles for the bikes as we went by a local lad sitting outside a bar. At least I think it was the bikes that attracted him and not our lovely legs!

The mile of unmade road that is involved in both directions is distinctly uncomfortable and dusty riding but apart from that it’s a nice ride on quiet roads and (illegally) through the marina and along the prom. A lovely day for it, sunny and warm but not overly hot. High winds are sweeping in soon for the remainder of the weekend, hence today’s shopping trip despite plans to eat (definitely non-keto) paella in the restaurant tonight.

Chloé remains AWOL, Dusty okay but still subdued and not keen on being outside at all.

Low carb regime is under threat from a sudden realisation that we are once more in The Land of Turron and apparently, Navidad is coming… SO many varieties to choose from; whole trestle tables full of the fabulous stuff.

On the positive side – Don Simon make a Tinto Verano without added sugar. What a find!

The weather has taken a bit of a nose dive. Almost started up the heating this morning, with only 10° outside. We had rain this afternoon and we have a Yellow Warning for wind tomorrow and Saturday.

We had hoped to go into Alcossebre for dinner on Friday but it is a walk of over 4 km in each direction to the restaurant and would be in the dark and unlit through trees. Dinner isn’t served until 8 pm so the walk back would not get us home much before midnight. We have decided that discretion is the better part and have ordered Paella here on site instead.

Not entirely sure what we are going to do with our time but we called into the site library this afternoon and picked up a handful of books. Maybe I will make mugs of Keto Hot Chocolate.

I really must find out where I stashed my knitting.

Chloé still missing. Dusty improved but still depressed. We have no plans to move on just yet but an outline plan/route exists in readiness for our electing to leave.