Such a Woman

Friday 5th December 2014

Sons Ed & Will are due here in a few hours.

They won’t be here until 1:00am-ish on Saturday morning – they will have their own written instructions on how to get to Camping Playa Granada from Malaga and bloggerlugs (yours truly) will need to stand at the campsite entrance and wave to every passing car – it could be ‘the one’.

1:00am? Bugger, that’s definitely Schoffel Fleece territory!

Today we decided to ‘explore’ the area to the west of our camping.

I wanted to discover the destination of the ‘beach trucks’ and their loads of aggregate.

I did know that by heading west we would be getting very close to Salobrena which is just a couple of miles along the coast.

With thoughts filling my head of the last time that Amanda and I were in Salobrena (2004), we headed out just after lunch.

We’d had another early morning of only 4°c, it was now up to 17°c but with a ‘beach-wind’ that was strong enough to blitz any resident head lice – the hairiest hippy wouldn’t survive 10 minutes on this beach without enjoying this ‘benefit’!

Zoom shot of the Sierra Nevadas from the beach opposite Camping Playa Granada

 

Whilst out at sea this solitary fishing boat could be seen close to the horizon – our zoom camera is OK but this vessel was just too far away to get a clean shot – I had to fiddle around with a photo editor to get the picture looking half presentable

Another picture of the snow capped mountains taken from further along the beach

Eureka! now we’re getting somewhere, the first sign of where those ‘beach trucks’ are disposing of their burdens

Strangely, after seeing the ‘beach trucks’ making frequent journeys yesterday, there weren’t any trucks working at all today – evidence here that those loads of aggregate are being used to form a road base….

and that ‘road base’ plus further tipping points every 100 yards or so carry on all the way around to Salobrena

I am now reliably informed (well as reliable as my interpretation of Spanish gesticulations can be) that the promenade running from El Varadero to just beyond our camping is being extended to join up with a promenade at Salobrena, that must be around 3 miles of promenade if not more?

This area is undergoing development and if the quality of the existing promenade is repeated this will be one very long and beautiful addition to the area.

Meanwhile, back with some of my thoughts of Salobrena….

10 years ago Amanda and I ‘honeymooned’ in Salobrena, we got married at the Lands End Hotel, Cornwall, on the 22nd anniversary of when we started to live together – in fact, 22 years to the day.

Why get married after having 3 children and living ‘over the brush’ for 22 years? Well it was a death-bed promise to my mother who wanted us to tie the knot due to her religious beliefs.

In February 2004 Amanda was diagnosed with the dreaded C and, following an operation, whilst still in recovery and awaiting news from her consultant, my mother suddenly became ill with a different version of C and sadly passed away 2 weeks later on May 1st 2004.

2004 was therefore a bitter-sweet year for us but we kept that promise to Mum and married in September of the same year.

Being here brings back all of those memories.

‘Such a Woman’ 10.5 years ago we didn’t think we’d be here today and be able to take this picture….

Enough already! OK, just one more thing and the reason for the blog title…….when we got married Amanda’s wedding march was to Neil Young’s ‘Such a Woman’, those of you that know this song will know why, given our experiences during 2004.

Here’s the song…

Meanwhile on with the business of our day…..

Another beach-side wilding spot for Coola and Corina…. 36°42’55.50″N and 3°33’11.18″W – worth checking out on Google Maps as there are quite a few ‘avenues’ to this parking

and here is one of them …….. empty!

Close to that parking there is a surf shop and also a surfers bar – by now surfer dude Coola is getting very excited about where he will be in 12 months time! This guy was out there today

Zoomed in to make sure that it wasn’t actually Coola and he was already here – this isn’t Coola…….but could be – well without any hair this could be Coola!

And the another wilding spot just east of the previous one……36°42’55.76″N and 3°32’58.98″W – Google Maps shows that quite a few potential wilding spots exist in this area but the two ‘logged’ here DO still exist, didn’t see those others! – the promenade development work on the seaward side of the bar in this picture shouldn’t affect these parking spots

This is the beach-bar in the previous picture and it is called …………….

Tuareg beach bar and restaurant – terracing and seating cannot be seen in these pictures as they face the Med

 

Returning back to our camping, this is where the promenade currently ends on the western side

and the view eastwards when stood at that western promenade termination

Tomorrow we will be taking a trip to the place where we stood and watched Danny Dyer filming a scene for a film called ‘The Business’ – filmed down here in September 2004.