Taking a leaf

Taking a leaf out of other winter moorers here at Market Harborough, and elsewhere, we have decided to decamp next winter and head for warmer climes.  We have booked a place in Spain for four months and today I am going to get the ferry arranged. Our plan is to sail from Portsmouth to Bilbao with Brittany Ferries who provide a limited number of cabins that are pet friendly! The crossing will take the best part of 24 hours but we will have a cabin and the boys will be with us. This seemed to us to be the best option rather than the drive across France followed by the drive across Spain.  On arrival in Spain we have  ten hour drive to get to our destination which is self contained, rural and dog friendly and only 45km from Granada - Joe can't understand my sudden fascination with bingo....
I have been looking at flights back to the UK (I will still need to get back to see my elderly Mum) and I can fly from Malaga to Southend-on-Sea (7miles from Mum) which will be very convenient. We need to revisit the dogs pet passports and sort banking, insurance, telephones etc, and learn some Spanish of course, but once accommodation and ferry in place we have plenty of time to organise the rest.

We have been...

We have been enjoying a bit of winter sun...

We flew out to Tenerife just after Christmas, joining friends who have been taking this type of winter pick-me-up for a number of years now and having wandered about in 23-25 degrees of heat, with wall to wall sunshine each day, we can see the attraction!  Roll on next year.

 Joe enjoying the heat

 

 Land lubber friends, L-R John, Libby, Val, Alan and Himself

 

 Mount El Tiede 12 thousand feet above sea level and the third largest volcano in the world with a crater 17 square kilometres.

 

 12k above sea level with snow on the top of Tiede it was time for the fleeces

 

 Porto Crux being battered by the sea

 

Me and friend Val.  We have been friend for over forty years...mere children when we met obviously...