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Published: November 30th -0001
We arrived in spain excited to tour both the countryside and coast! we were lucky enough to coincidentally catch movistar KITESURF PRO PKRA 2007 WORLD TOUR in Tarifa which was an amazing sight ...these men and women are going superspeed, jetting across the water barely missing eachother, then pulling on the kite wires to launch them 30 feet or more into the air while tweaking, twisting, and twirling about for points..neat stuff. From tarifa we drove along the southern coast, stopping to camp along the way and this is when the adventure really began. our little malbec colored car "malby" began to give us attitude and threw a tantrum that began with our electric windows in front not working at any given moment, then the wipers..gone, then the blinkers...gone, finally...we found that the engine would overheat after just 10 minutes in city driving. this was not the adventure we were seeking in this trip. a ford dealership gave us the bad news of a new fuze box that was necessary and would need to be flown over from england...e.t.a...four or more days..maybe. being the nice mechanics that they are, they were willing to "fix the problem" but would not guarantee the
work. half hour later we were on the road and heading north up the mediterranean...half hour more, we were in the same situation. the fix lasted 27 km! we weighed all our options and decided that we would drive the wheels off this little car...and that is what we have done. with only a sunroof to alert fellow drivers of our turning intentions and a maximum of 10 minutes of city driving..its needless to say that stress levels are high in the more touristy destinations. we have hit many of the fun cities such as barcelona, cannes, nice, monte carlo and venice...but have had the most fun exploring the country sides where the people have greeted us warmly and where we have felt less like a tourist statistic. i feel we have graduated with a degree in cross country travel and camping. 2/3rds of the nights are spent under the stars either in a tent or feet hanging out the back of the car. there is too much to comment on with every destination but in a nutshell...spain-quit exploiting your coast...it looks like condos are being built on the balcony of other condos. recently i read 1/3 of spain's mediterranean
coast is under concrete..its a sad scene for such a beautiful coastline. i actually counted 18 constructions cranes in one small town. france...such amazing wine country....nice tall vines to hide a camping car!!! italy...they are doing something right, the people are great, the natural beauty there is exactly as you would dream it..clean rivers, rolling hills, stone homes with men still growing their own produce. monaco- it made us want to be multi-millionaires for a day...or two. i am happy to say that "malby" was parked one town over and we took the train into town..i'm not sure our little girl could handle sitting in traffic with a ferrari on one side and a bentley on the other..i spared her the embarrassment....and ours. well, the endless stories we have that make up the gaps in time are for those of you back home that request them. from italy, we decided to boot the rest of the boot and head east for a little adventure in eastern europe. slovenia, croatia, bosnia, etc... here we come!!!
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Troy
non-member comment
Nice
Good work Malby - Hey guys, I am heading down to Brazil, Sao Paulo, on Thu 23rd - any memorable bars or clubs? How about Rio? Keep on Traveling - Troy