Moncofa - Spain - Day 32 - 37

New Year's Day  to  6th January 2018

First off, 2 very lucky travellers would  like to wish all our family, friends and readers A Very Happy and Healthy New Year that brings many joys along the way!

New Year's Day for us was always going to be a very quite one, but after partying from 7.30  till 2 in the morning, and following the consumption of a rather large quantity of  C2H6O🍻  🍾🥂 we really didn't have much energy or inclination for anything else!  However, we'd had a fantastic time and celebrated the actual ringing in of midnight twice 🔔🔔 !!


Once with the chiming of Big Ben for England, and then again with the gobbling of 12 🍇 (grapes) for Spain - for each bong of the bell you have to eat a grape (taking great care not to choke on the pips), and that's a charm that should bring  good luck for the forthcoming year!  As well as that  we'd indulged in a lovely lamb shank dinner, we'd danced for several hours, I'd competed in a silly hat completion, and to finish it all off we'd congored with gay abandon around the dance floor picking up a few fellow  party goers as we went!
The picture on the left is Me behaving a little bit badly - and my silly hat did elicit comments concerning the welfare of my 'tits' - but they were  very securely pinned on so they were quite safe!
And as for New Year's Resolutions - well I think our only one is to make sure we continue to have as much fun as possible as we plan new adventures and  journeys throughout 2018 and beyond!


So after our very restful day on the 1st (I even went back to bed for a couple of hours after breakfast) we were quite happy to participate in a return jaunt to the Chinese Restaurant at Sagunt with a crowd of our new campsite mates........

Ian, Bob, Jack, John (invisible me) Liz, Amanda and Julie

......... and following a discussion,  we decided that as we'd cycled 28 miles the calories we consumed wouldn't even count - therefore, another fantastic meal was had without any penalty😂!  However, unfortunately poor John paid a penance because by the time we got home he'd developed a very painful 'pinched nerve' in his neck that gave him a considerable amount of grief!

Therefore, on Wednesday we decided we'd settle for an easy day, but in the end I think John thought he'd got two pains in his neck  (me being one of them)  as we scrubbed and cleaned T4rdis2 and then proceeded to de-stock one of the local supermarkets!

Happily by Thursday my beloved husband had significantly recovered (with the aid of a bit of TLC from yours truly 😍), so another outing was quickly arranged and this one even included a bit of aromatherapy!  We packed our usual picnic and set off for a ride though many miles of orange groves, and as the fruit was being harvested the air was filled with the a pleasant sweet orange citrus whiff.

Early on in our excursion we also visited the 5 'Bunkers' at  Nules which date back to the Spanish Civil War in 1936 - some were in better nick than others, and if I'm honest, they weren't really very interesting - but boys will be boys - so they did provide a bit of a climbing frame!




From there we proceed on towards Burriana where the sea wall provided a comfy seat so that we could enjoy the splashing waves of the Med while we consumed our picnic, and then we completed our 32 mile circuit by riding home through more orange grove lined tracks.

And of course, a little scrumping was an essential activity along the way but I still can't quite make up my mind if the fruits of our efforts are oranges or lemons!

Later our day was rounded off by attending the Site Bar where a Couple of fellow campers called 'The Travelling Wannabies' were providing the evenings entertainment.  Initially we had dithered about deciding if we wanted to go - especially as we'd missed out tea to do so!  But their 'gig' of popular music and 'ballads' was brilliant especially when the lady performed their very own version  of the late Victoria Wood's ode to Barry and Freda - 'Let's do it' - if you've never heard it  it's very funny but she deserved an Emmy for her rendition  🏆- I don't think there was a dry eye in the house by the time she'd done - and if you want to hear it click here, but really it was her actions that made it so hilarious!



On Thursday we could have joined the planned Tapas feast again but that would have entailed me having to conjure up some delicious dish for sharing, and as we'd already over indulged on previous days during the week we decided against it, and instead we settled for a short 10 miler 🚴🚴 and another beach side picnic!



Friday was another hot sunny day - but the weather predictors had warned that it would be the last for a while - so we made the most of it and lazed in the sunshine for several hours before setting off in the evening to see the procession of the Three Kings!  Tomorrow will be the  Dia De Los Reyes or Epiphany which always falls on the 6th January (12th night), and this is the time that Spanish children (and many other nationalities) get their presents for Christmas.  Much like our children eagerly await Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, the children here leave their shoes by the door with hopes that the three kings will have left them gifts in their shoes when they wake the following morning.  Later, King's Day is celebrated by feasting and eating the Roscon de los Reys - a ring-cake that is decorated to look like a crown that a king could wear.  It's usually topped with glazed fruits that represent jewels and often a figurine of baby Jesus is secreted inside it and is said to bring the finder good luck - that is if they don't break a tooth!

The parade itself was something that we haven't seen before, and for a little town it was quite a grand affair with marching bands and off course the Kings!   However,  it has to be said there were an awful lot of 'big children' scrabbling about for the sweeties that were being thrown for the kiddies, but that certainly didn't include us (well not much anyway)!  We watched in a very civilised manner - sat with our friends in the comfort of a road side bar and with a nice cool beer to hand!

And finally Saturday - well, that got off to a dull grey start,  and compared to recently it was cold with heavy rain and thunder later in the day!   Sadly our first mission of the day was to say 'adios' to our lovely neighbours of the last 3 weeks - Bob and Amanda - they left Monmar this morning for pastures new, but hopefully we'll meet up again before we all head home in March.

Next came the rally coffee morning - a time when we're all given our 'instructions' for the forthcoming week's activities, and after that, I devoted some of my time to bread making!  I don't think I've mentioned it before but when Bob and Amanda arrived they told us that Bob is an 'Expert' sour dough bread maker 👨‍🍳, and as this is something that I thought I might like to 'dabble' in, I asked if I could have a portion of his 'starter' so that I could have a go!  Now, very generously, not only did he give me a dollop of his wild yeast gloop, he also provided a demonstration where we both produced a loaf - and for a first attempt mine was extremely edible 😋!

However, it has to be said the process is a bit messy and when I repeated it today I seemed to get in an even bigger mess than on my first attempt!  At this stage the bread needed to be kneaded for 10 mins but getting it off my gloves and away from the board proved to be a bit of an issue - by the time I'd done I was wearing a small portion of it!  And just now it's still proofing so it's difficult to say what the final result will be - for that info you'll have to tune in next time - and if no more posts appear you'll have to assume we've died of bread poisoning😂😂!



Bob - if your reading your very welcome to put comments or advice below!

Bye for now😘😘




Click here to see our Spanish camping spots