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Published: January 6th 2017
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Kiko Park was a great find for us. It was situated right beside the beach - about 10km long - so many walks and runs and chasing of balls (I walked, Cusco ran and you can decide about the other yourselves) were had. The town centre was an easy walk and Wendy enjoyed going in with her shopping trolley to get bread and 48 cans of beer for your correspondent - oh how she loved those days. Strangely, I had to " go and get my own bloody beer" after her first trip. A great little bar just off the beach called Placebo served platefuls of fresh food, including a ceviche for me. The old part of town offered many windy lanes and old churches to explore and then settle in a bar for a beer. We were not on a tight schedule so we were in no rush to leave, what could possibly go wrong.........
In his short but eventful life, Cusco the Chief Spaniel has encountered the following animals - dogs, cats, ducks, swans, cows and a horse. He has never met a donkey. As I previously mentioned, the beach is very long and for the main part
practically empty. He had played with other dogs there and accordingly their owners walked away when they saw us arriving. On this day we were playing along the surf without a care in the world, when in the distance I saw a small dot coming towards us. In time the dot got bigger and soon it took the shape of a man sat on a donkey which was plodding it's way along the beach looking for directions to Blackpool. It was far enough away not to bother us, but we moved a bit further in the opposite direction just in case. "Just in case " were the operative words in that sentence. Cusco glanced over his shoulder, saw the donkey, froze for a split second and before we could grab him ,he was off at full speed at the donkey - not just at full speed dear readers, but at full volume as well, he could be heard in Moengo, a small town in Suriname with a population of 11,000 people and a lot of parrots.
Cusco skimmed across the sand and covered the distance to the donkey in a few seconds. I don't know how many of you
have seen your correspondent running. It is a slow, ponderous, lumbering sort of approach at the best of times, but when on soft sand I tend to slow down. After twenty minutes or so I made it to the scene. Cuco was circling the donkey barking his head off. The man was still sat on the beast of burden and neither of them moved. Our crazed spaniel could not be caught and was working himself in to a bit of a frenzy. Nothing would stop him and he was impossible to catch - 4x4 spaniels are quite manoeuverable. We kept apologising between breaths and use of an iron lung, but the Spanish man told us not to worry as the donkey lived with dogs and was used to such behaviour. Strangely after another five minutes of it, even he was calling Cusco a bad dog and used several Spanish words which I think were quite rude. Somehow Wendy managed to grab the brute and dragged him away. The man and the donkey plodded off, probably wondering what the hell had just happened. Now, your correspondent has been on the receiving end of a few menacing stares from Wendy but they
were nothing compared to those Cusco was on the end of - boy, was he in trouble.
Before we left the next day after covering all the tracks on the beach,your correspondent had noticed a pair of sandals that were on top of a wall beside the bins. They had been there a week and it was clear they had been left behind by a fellow traveller. "I'll have those " I thought and did just that. Googled them later and they retail at 100 euros - result !!
Looking at the map and the blackening sky and before the police came along to question Cusco, Wendy the Navigator set coordinates for a town called Denia. About 40km down the coast, it would be a pleasant place to while away a few days before our month's stop in Calpe. We left under dark skies, that got darker and darker and then the rain started, then the downpour started, then the deluge started, then the thunder started, then the lightning started....The Donkey's Revenge I presumed. It was terrible. Imagine the worst storm you have experienced while driving along the A7 in eastern Spain, well it was worse than that
!!!! The town of Denia was now a river called Denia when we arrived. The streets were torrents of brown, clay coloured gushing, arks were being built and Wendy said "let's go to the supermarket. " I wept.
The campsite was very rustic and under water and also had friends from previous campsites and blogs. Sarah and daughter Tabitha were in their van and in the next pitch was Team Cummings - Ian, Marit, Bo and Vic - in Rhino. It was fun meeting up with them again and much catching up was done. At evening eating time, a communal cooking took place and everybody joined in by preparing some food. I joined in with communal cooking by drinking beer and watched everyone else preparing my meal. At the site was a Belgian lady who offered to decorate and customise some of the vans. Sarah and Tabatha had rolling waves but the piece de resistance was Team Cummings who had a huge rhino exploding out of the side of their van which is nicknamed Rhino - took me a while but I worked out the connection eventually.
Happily the rain stopped before I had to do any cooking
or other work so we left the campsite and pointed towards Calpe where Alan, Annie and Sam awaited.
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Taffy
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The rain In Spain
Glad you haven't lost your touch and knew the donkey episode would provide adequate fodder the question now is WHAT are you going to do with all these pearls??? And the answer had better be SOMETHING .....?