We have spent the last few days preparing to put the boat up on the hard for the winter which is incredibly bitter sweet. We are looking forward to coming back and getting stuck into the shoot season and Wyndham, but we are going to really miss the boat, with it being on the hard and miles away from an airport we won't be able to come and spend long weekends on it like we did laster winter. The sails are off, dinghy is packed away, generator and watermaker are winterised and every rope that is easy to de-rig has been packed up all in preparation for the lift on the 29th. Once she is out of the water we are going to spend one final night on her and then head to Barcelona for our flight on the 31st, stopping of for a night in Tarragona on the way.
Enough of the sad stuff, here is what we have been up to over the last weeks!
After the epic bull running experience we got invited to Mallorca by James & Odile for a week which was a real blessing, at the time we thought my leg was fine and on the mend, but it turned out a few days later, and just as we arrived in Mallorca, it decided to swell up and make every thing but lying flat very uncomfortable! Fortunately the swelling only lasted 5 days and I am now almost fully recovered.
When we got back to Saint Carles my mum flew out to join us for a week and we had hired a car to get us around so we went on lots of day trips out into the mountains and found some really cool stuff! We went to a small village that had to be accessed by a very old wooden car ferry which was powered only by the current flowing down the river it had to cross. As you will see from the photo health and safety was nowhere to be seen, a pleasant surprise from the norm in this overly bureaucratic world!
We also visited a Spanish ham factory on the out skirts of a remote village buried deep in the mountains. They explained the entire process to us and we made some pretty extensive notes so we could try and replicate it back at home! At any one time they have 32,000 hams either in the curing or ageing stages, and they are apparently one of the smallest producers!
Our final road trip with my mum was to Peniscola (I know that is a crazy spelling, but try to stay focused) which was a short drive down the coast back towards Vinaros. We visited there because it has a very old walled village on top of the costal cliffs that was spectacular. However the highlight of the place was a Jamon bar and the crazy guy that ran it. Apparently it is the busiest place in the whole town after 6pm, you can see it's success as it owns almost all of the property on a whole street! After we had finished our plate of ham and a couple of beers Marcus insisted we try some of his rum flamed chorizo, which is not to be missed!
Outside of the exploring it has been a really relaxing few weeks, it's almost got to the point where we feel lazy! We have to remind ourselves that it's meant to be a six month holiday!
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