Take Each Day As It Comes

It made us both smile, during our latest weekly video chat with our Granddaughters, when they greeted us with, “Only 24 more sleeps now” 😂 It made us realise how ‘time’, in their minds, is gauged differently to our own, for we generally think about how long future events are, in terms of either days, weeks or even months. Before we actually do get to see them we have some sightseeing days scheduled in Bilbao first, before we actually board our overnight ferry to the UK, so we actually have fewer sleeps than them before we ourselves commence the start of our own next mini-adventure. We could of course have been with them very much sooner, by departing home and arriving at their house all within the same day, but only if we had opted to have taken a flight directly from Spain to the UK and perhaps, on future visits, that may be the way we will choose to go if the visit is purely to see family. However, this was to be an extended holiday for us, as already mentioned in a previous ramble, where we have chosen to return from the UK via France, and then some travels within Northern Spain before then returning home, so for us, using the car and ferry was to be the best option this time around, travel freedom which has additional advantages over taking a flight, namely no issues about how much weight we are permitted to carry in our ‘hold luggage’, or the size and weight restrictions of any additional ‘cabin baggage’ and of course, using our own transportation will mean having the advantage of a little more available space in the car boot, for perhaps those few little extra’s that we may collect on the return journey 😁 I was thinking French cheeses and bottles of different French flavoured Anti-Covid Vaccines, although that ‘may’ mean that Shazza would perhaps have to limit the size and quantity of any of her ‘little extras’ she was considering purchasing, however, I thought it best not to mention that bit to her just yet as I already knew what her reaction would be, and I am guessing you, my reader’s, would also have a pretty good idea too 😂

But as I started ‘drafting’ this latest ramble, we still had 16 sleeps before we started the outbound leg of our holiday, although 🤔 by the time I get around to publishing this ‘live’ and you get around to reading this, it may very well be less sleeps, I can imagine the excitement that you may be feeling, the thought of all those future rambles about our return trip, dropping like confetti into your ‘Email Inbox’ 😂

The weather has changed once again, after another much briefer spell of the wet stuff and it serves as a reminder to us of one of the main reasons why we chose to relocate here permanently, although, I do have to tell you that after a rather lengthy cold and wet period, we were beginning to start to question that decision ourselves, but only for a very brief moment you understand 😉

The stretch of beach, the bit between the village and the marina, was looking rather green, the rain had certainly encouraged the plant life to sprout through the sand but, as we walked from the marina side towards the town, it was more manicured and ‘beachy’ looking, rather than a lawned park 😂 Now to be completely honest with you, we have not really been up to much, well not ramble worthy content, just our usual daily walks in between the odd periods of wet stuff, with the occasional trip into Estepona, which was just for the change of scenery really. We don’t generally make any advance plans, we just tend to ‘Take Each Day As It Comes’ and then go with the flow, as the saying goes.

On one particular morning, we decided over our morning coffee’s, to just do our usual walking routine, park in the village, walk through the marina into town, stop for coffee, call in at the local fruiterias, Shazza said she didn’t need much, so it wasn’t worth the drive to the Organic farm on the other side of Estepona, perhaps the novelty is wearing off, I thought to myself. Then, like most other days, we would return home for lunch and then spend the rest of the day sat on the balcony, so yes, very much just another ‘Retirement Groundhog Day’ 😁

So, on what was supposed to be, as far as my understanding of the situation was, just a normal routine day, we were sat in the seafront Cafe/Bar just finishing our coffee’s, when Shazza suddenly suggested that we could perhaps walk a little further, as it was such a very nice warm morning and, with the sky literally cloudless, and a lovely shade of blue, with barely a breath of wind, the sea was as flat as a mill pond, only the gentle sounds of it rippling onto the foreshore giving any indication that it was actually moving, it was the sort of day where you could sit on the beach in your reclining sun chair and drift into a peaceful sleep, occasionally waking to the sound of someone letting out a loud snore, although to be honest, that ‘someone’ was generally myself 😂 However, our sun chairs were still in their Winter hidey hole, back in the apartment, rather than in their Summer location in the boot of the car and it was still far too early in the season for the majority of the beach chiringuito’s to have their sun beds out for rent.

“How far do you want to walk ?” I asked, which was a reasonable question under the circumstances, I thought. “Oh I don’t know, until either one of us decides that we have had enough” she replied, which I guess, she thought was a reasonable enough answer 😂 Now Shazza likes the warmth, but on a scale that measures somewhere in between it being not ‘Too Cold’ or not ‘Too Hot’, the only defining difference between the two is generally her personal level of ‘Lethargy’. So we started walking towards the river bridge that defines our ‘Municipal’ boundary, which is actually something that we often do anyway, when we are in no hurry to return home but, on this occasion, as we approached the footbridge across the river, just when I was mentally preparing myself to do an about turn, she asked if I fancied walking a little bit further 😲 It wasn’t so long ago that walking that ‘little bit further’, into the neighbouring municipalities back yard so to speak, was actually quite a regular occurrence, but since the previous two years of drought, with scorchingly Hot Summers and very Warm Winters, and probably much more importantly, with the lack of convenient ‘watering Holes’ on that part of the walk to take some shade, or refreshments, we had stopped doing these longer walks and had let lethargy take over completely. “How much further do you want to walk ?” I asked, once again a reasonable question I thought, although probably a little more relevant than the last time that I had asked her the same question, considering that this was part of the Coastal Path that ran virtually the full length of the Eastern Spanish Coastline, and almost, if not all the way, to the ‘Pyrenees’ and the border with France 😲 “Oh I don’t know, until either one of us decides that we have had enough” she replied, followed by a mischievous chuckle and a wink of her eye. “Perhaps we should stop at the ‘Decathlon’ store when we get to Estepona” I mentioned casually, “I’m not walking that bloody far !” She exclaimed, but at least now I had some sort of vague idea as to just how far our wanderings may take us, although Estepona was still some 8Km away !! After a couple of minutes she suddenly asked, “Anyway, what did you want from Decathlon ?” I laughed, for I had wondered how long it would take for her to ask me that question, “I don’t, but not knowing how long this walk would be I didn’t know whether we would need to pick up some camping gear en route”, she laughed and gave me a gentle nudge in my ribs with her elbow, “Daft Bugger” she said.

We reached the footbridge across another river (Storm Drain) that marked the area known as ‘Caceres Playa’. This footbridge, come cycle path, had a tendency to collapse every-time their was heavy rain, the fast flowing river water, from the mountains, would wash away the sand that secured the rickety wooden foundations, that was often the excuse to end our walks at that point. The Council must have finally realised the false economy of regularly having to repair it and had since built a proper bridge, with more permanent concrete foundations, although that had actually been done some time ago, I had simply forgotten about it, which would prove to be to my disadvantage on this occasion. From this point we could see, on the cliff in front of us, the “Torre de Sal” (The Salt Tower), we have previously walked up to it, in fact we have done so on numerous occasions and, in previous rambles, I have included Photographs of it and the stunning views from it, but the fact that I had not anticipated a walk this far when we had left home that morning meant that I had not come out with either my phone or camera, so you will have to seek out those earlier rambles if you want to see any photo’s 🤷‍♂️

We both agreed, that although it would mean walking up a bit of an incline to reach it, that that would be our end point on this particular day, although we have walked much further on some of those previous occasions, but decided that that would be the extent of our ‘exercise walking’ for that day, and it was more of an exercise walk as we had upped a gear from the ‘Sauntering’ pace, and also because the temperatures, like us, were also beginning to climb and we would still have to walk all the way back 😮‍💨

I had forgotten how beautiful the views were from the ‘Torre de Sal’, with 180 degree views of the Mediterranean Coastline, North beyond the Estepona Bay and up along the peaks of the coastal mountain ranges, then South where, from here, Gibraltar was clearly visible although it looked more like a stand-alone Island and, on such a bright clear day, we could clearly see the whole mountain range on the Northern Coast of Morocco. Behind us there were stunning 180 degree views of those Andalucian mountain ranges with the small whitewashed villages stuck to the sides of them. Near silence surrounded us, only the chitter chattering of a few small birds that hopped and skipped their way through the bushes that grew out of the cliff side rocks and the shrubbery that surrounded it, combined with the gentle sounds of the sea, washing over the jagged rocks below. I closed my eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face and arms, listening to these unobtrusive sounds of nature and it felt so calm and peaceful, this is why we prefer being out and surrounded by nature, rather than in the hustle and bustle of the modern world with all its constant physical and technological noise, you don’t appreciate the beauty and the silence until you are surrounded by it. If only we knew, twenty year’s ago, what we know now, probably our choice of where we would live would have been very much different to what it is now, probably somewhere a little more remote, but close to the sea, as in being able to actually see it and walk to it, and living more or less a self-sufficient lifestyle, although within a reasonable distance of the essential modern day necessities, unfortunately you cannot live without them completely, with almost everything these days being so reliant on Technology, but as we reluctantly had to agree, you cannot turn back the clock, or look into what the future may bring, mores the pity…………….

There was an unexpected advantage to agreeing to do this slightly longer walk, for it was now beyond the time we would normally be eating lunch, and it was now very much nearer to the start of the Spanish Lunchtime hours. Shazza announced that she was ‘muchas hambre’ (very hungry) and suggested that, instead of waiting until we returned home, that we should eat a ‘proper’ lunch out, with the bonus that she then wouldn’t have to cook that evening, if we were hungry later she could warm up some of her pre-prepared Spicy Red Lentil soup which we could have with a large chunk of her home-made sour dough bread. Now of course, I thought that that was a bit of a cop out by her, and of course I should have perhaps remonstrated with her 😂 “Sounds like a great idea to me, you choose what and where you would like to eat” I responded happily, for I knew that being an ‘Omnivore’, I could eat at any establishment, whereas Shazza has much more limited choices.

I do believe that it was the mere thought of food, that caused Shazza’s pace to definitely quicken on that return walk, she was somewhere between a fast pace and a jog now 😲 She selected one of our favourite Cafe/Bar’s, ‘Annie’s’ in the town, the one that we often stop at for our morning coffee’s which is located in a nice little sunny Plaza, although one street behind the seafront promenade, it still provided good partial sea views and decent people watching opportunities. Annie was outside wiping the tables when we arrived, she greeted us with a big smile and in the usual Spanish tradition. Because of the time of day she already knew our drinks preference, ‘Radler y Vermut’, she said, more in a confirmatory way than a question, but we also asked for ‘La Carte’ (The menu). “Acabamos de regresar de un paseo hasta la Torre de Sal” I told her (We have just returned from a walk up to the Torre de Sal), she feigned mopping her brow and gestured to us to sit down, our legs certainly appreciated the relief. Annie disappeared inside, a few minutes later she re-appeared with a cold bottle of ‘Radler’ (Lemon flavoured beer that is only 2% alcohol) for Shazza, and a rather larger than usual measure of Vermut, with ice and lemon, for myself, I looked at it and then back at Annie, she just smiled and gave a wink.

Shazza actually has several different food choices here, but to my surprise she went for her usual ‘Goats Cheese Salad’, “Annie’s cook does one of the best I have had” she said, almost apologetically, “You eat whatever you enjoy my love” I replied, I ordered two of my favourite dishes, although to be honest, I do have a lot of favourites here, whether they be individual Tapas, or a main meal, or even the ‘Menu del Dia’, but on this occasion I ordered my usual ‘Ensalata Rusa’, which for me is the best I have tasted, either here in town, the Marina or even in Estepona and, for my main, ‘Braised Pork Cheeks in Sherry Wine Sauce’ which just melts in your mouth, no chewing required and it came with Patata Frites (Chips to you and me). The remaining tables filled up around us very quickly, as the Spanish arrived for their lunches, we had arrived just in the nick of time otherwise we would have been left trying to decide on a ‘Plan B’.

We paid the bill, €33 (£28) and then with full bellies and weary legs we had to complete the last part of the walk. It was a long hot and very much slower walk back, through the marina to the village, where our carriage awaited us, and we were grateful to get home, we both just plonked ourselves into our comfy seats on the balcony and agreed on what an absolutely fantastic day we had just had. “We should do that more often” Shazza said, “What, eat lunches out” I replied, with a cheeky smile on my face, “No, the longer walks” she said, with a pretend scowl on her face, followed by, “Although I suppose the lunches could always be a bit of a reward afterwards”.

You may not be surprised to hear that, by mutual agreement, the following few days walks were of the more usual, sedentary version 😁 I cannot foresee me publishing any further rambles now before commencing our road trip, but hey, you just never know there is still time for ‘periods of contemplation’ which I may just feel the need to share with you 😂

So, until my next ramble………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena