Author: Franco

Old Walking Group

With my legs looking forward to a further work out [should that be walk out?] and with Francine taking drugs and on the mend, we both fancied renewing our acquaintance with the Costa Blanca Mountain Walkers. The really useful thing

Posted in 2017-2018 Winter

New Walking Group

We had been put in touch with a Monday walking group, a group led by Helen who organizes walking holidays under the banner of Balanced Life Holidays. fancine had made contact and we were both keen to join in but

Posted in 2017-2018 Winter

Last of the Few?

On 22nd December, the day after we arrived in Jalón, a search along the local river produce half a dozen or more Darters still active in the warm winter sunshine. Some debate ensued in a Spanish interest group and I’ve

Posted in 2017-2018 Winter

Still Flying in the Marjal

It was a slightly breezy but, having found odos still flying at Jalón shortly after we’d arrived, we thought we’d go and check out one of our favourite haunts, the Marjal de Pego-Oliva. At this time of year, the fun

Posted in 2017-2018 Winter

Christmas Piggy

One of our first purchases when we arrived in Jalón on Thursday 21st Dec, was the main event for our Christmas dinner. There are several pleasant things about running away from a British Christmas, not the least of which is

Posted in 2017-2018 Winter

Sympetrum conundrum

That’s what I call my little December friend in Jalón: Sympetrum conundrum. For a few years now, I’ve seen a Darter at a few points on the river that flows through Jalón. The first time I saw it was on

Posted in 2017-2018 Winter

Traditional Travel

In our modern world one can clamber onto a crammed cigar-tube of a jet aircraft and swap the cool winter clouds of the UK for the relatively warm sunny Mediterranean skies of the Costa Brava in a little over two

Posted in 2017-2018 Winter

Farewell Busby

This morning we bade farewell to Busby, our Mercedes Sprinter 313 CDI campervan/bus. Busby was easy to drive and has served us faithfully without missing a beat – he has taken every opportunity to beat my head. 😀 Busby took

Posted in 2017 New Zealand, 2017 The Antipodes

Quake City

Our Christchurch campsite offers a few suggestions under the heading of, “what on earth shall we do today”. One of the suggestions is to visit “Museum – Quake City”. Well, for our last day in New Zealand, we skipped the

Posted in 2017 New Zealand, 2017 The Antipodes

Levelling Ramp

It seems that Busby may not have been quite as level as I had imagined, so the camp cat came into its own after all. Here’s the camp cat positioned in preparation for levelling Busby. And here’s the camp cat

Posted in 2017 New Zealand, 2017 The Antipodes