Topic: Europe
We kept on driving south till the thermometer in the car hit 20 deg. After a beautiful week in France it's decided to turn a bit like Spring in Melbourne, and we could have stayed home for that. On the way down to my Cousins house in Spain the temp hit 28 Deg at one stage. That's a bit more like it. We arrived just as Brian and Pat where packing up, and after some quick instructions on how to run the place left to go shopping and to try out the local tucker.
There are 6 different types of supermarkets in town, and the food is good and cheep. We had the local Menu next door 10 euro for a 4 course meal with a carafe of wine, and some sparkling mineral water. Roses has about 200 little cafes all offering great meals. We have adapted ourselves to the local time. This means getting up at 9, breakfast, walk, swim, shower, Lunch(about 1), eat to much, siesta, TV, Dinner (about8.30), evening drinks,sleep. This is pretty much what the locals do to, every thing opens at 9 closes between 12.30 and 4, then stays open till 8.
Brian’s house is in a National Park, just 2 minutes walk from the beach. It was owned by a Spanish family so it's pretty typical of the houses around here. Barbecue, veranda, well for water. The beach has a big caravan park and cabins for visitors. They have an all you can eat smorgasbord every night for 15 Euro, it includes as much red as you can drink in one and a half hours. After that there's a bar on the beach. Heaven! The house has two small problems. Ants and water. If you leave everything in the fridge the ants aren't a problem. It's been really dry around here, so the well level is really low. It,s 11 meters from the top to the water, and the pump struggles to lift it that high. Mick and I have been hauling water up in buckets but it's bloody hard work and you use a fair few buckets in a day. We went off and bought a couple of cheap mountain bikes at the local sports mall, and next door was a giant builders suppliers. After a bit of looking we found a cheap sump pump and brought it home. It wouldn’t pump the water high enough either. We tried to get it to siphon down the hill no luck. We where just about resigned to hauling water when we hit on the idea of using one pump to fill a bucket half way up the well to supply the house pump. A bit of rope, a few loose bits of stuff from around the house, and a bit of electricians magic, we now have automatic hassle free water. Mind you we still shower and swim at the beach, but it's now out of choice rather than necessity. Love to say more but I'm off for a siesta.
Click the pic above for more of Carla Mountjoi or below for a short cilp of us on the beach.
