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Published: October 11th 2010
After a 10 hour flight from Rio in Brazil and & overnight in
London, where we caught up with an old friend Paul O’Mahony for some late night drinks - we then got a connecting flight to Marbella in Spain to meet up with Nicola’s family who were on holiday there for a week.
Marbella
Marbella was all about down time, after just over a year on the road. We flew into
Malaga, where we stayed overnight, and the following day got a bus to Marbella, a beautiful town in the south of Spain. There we met up with Nicola’s family who had arrived to relax and enjoy their time off work.
Marbella, once the home of the property tycoons, seemed to be quiet for this time of year; with the aftermath of the financial crisis, and Spain taking as hard of a hit as Ireland on the property front. The Dom Perignon will likely stay uncorked for a little while longer and the golf courses will remain empty, as the high flying developers and über-rich who used to grace these shores, stay away.
What did we do for the week? Lots and lots of pottering around, including
eating out in Marbella’s finest restaurants and drinking the local brew (where we had one too many too often!).
Paella and
Tapa’s were the order of the day, and one could spend the entire week choosing various local Tapa dishes to sample.
It turned out that we had arrived in the middle of the
San Bernabé Feria, which is a festival in honour of Marbella’s patron saint San Bernabé. This meant lots of music, dance, and women donning magnificent flamenco dresses.
Whilst here we took time to get the ferry to
Puerto Banus for a day, to sample the finer side of life, as well as wander along the pomades and look in awe at the giant yachts, which had pulled in for a few days.
The rest of the lads headed off for fun at the water theme park, visited the picturesque local village of
Mijas, as well as going on a day trip to
Gibraltar no less… to get some bargains (nice jacket Jerry!!). Gibraltar is a British owned territory which is located on the southern tip of Spain, and is most famous for its iconic landmark -
the Rock of Gibraltar.
Meanwhile,
I spent some time doing reading for Africa and trying to figure out where we were heading next for the last leg of our trip. Looking back on our year on the road, it seems extraordinary how much we have covered; but it’s not over yet!
We take the final six weeks to head down through
Morocco, fly to
Jordan in the Middle-East, then cross into
Israel via the West Bank hopefully with no issues, and afterwards see can we get down overland into
Egypt.
Then fingers crossed, it’s a flight onwards to
Kenya for a few days, then overland to
Tanzania where we intend to climb
Mount Kilimanjaro at 5,985 meters, and then its time to fly home after a 14 month adventure around the world!
First off it’s a ferry connection from the local Spanish town of
Algeciras, to cross the short 9 mile stretch of water that separates Europe from Africa. Word has it that we can buy ferry tickets at the port… we’ll soon find out…
Africa here we come… !
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