With most of the Middle East and Northern Africa in the midst of a revolution, we are off to explore Europe. We settled on Pierre. A 1998 Peugeot 306 Metallic Blue (67,000 miles), with all the options including power steering, sun roof and cassette player. He set us back 1,000 quid.
It had been quite a shock to be back to 4 degree maximum temperatures of London, after living around the equator for 2 months. So we can now say that Simon and Sarah's postman arrives at 12.20pm (with our insurance certificate) and we were then off to Dover to catch a 4pm ferry to the continent. The security guys had a quick glance in the boot, the passport control waved us through like they were controlling traffic and the ticket office man checked our tickets and passport. The trip takes just under 2 hours, and we lost sight of the white cliffs 10 metres from shore, saying goodbye to the English rain and fog.
We arrived on foreign soil at Dunkirk and thought we would just find a road-side hotel for the night and begin the drive the next day. Unfortunately, road-side hotels don't really exist in France (as a side-note, they are everywhere in Spain). So we ended up driving in the darkness and rain, for about 2 hours, until we reached the town of Rouen. Where we finally decided we had to start looking a bit harder, so we headed off the highway. We found an Etap hotel. We checked-in with a vending machine and had a sound night's sleep.
We headed off the next day after a delightful breakfast at the local boulangerie, pain au chocolat et cafe for around 2 euro (Chocolate Croissant and coffee). Welcome to the continent. We drove for around 7 or 8 hours, mostly on expensive French toll roads. Great, quiet roads but we spent at least 60 euro on tolls that day. We made it to Hossegor. A surf town in the south-west corner of France. After spending about 2 hours checking if any of the 6 camp grounds were open, we eventually found out no, and then found a cheap hotel.
The next day we drove through the rainy mountain country in northern spain and then through the wide open nothingness. We made it to Merida and found a camp site open. From here, it was only about 3 hours to our first workaway destination of Zahara de la Sierra. A Pueblo Blanco (white town) in the Sierra de Grazalema. A cool town, perch on a hill, over-looking a lake complete with spanish castle on top. This was to be our home for the next two weeks. Awesome.
To make our money go further in Europe we are using a website www.workaway.info. It connects people in Europe who need some help around their place, whether it be a farm, B&B or whatever. They usually provide food and accomodation, in exchange for about 5 hours of work per day, 5 days a week. Work can be anything from gardening or housework, to helping with construction. It suits us as we get a chance to explore the more rural parts as we have already travelled some of the big cities filled with museums and churches.
Our first hosts were Anja and Gonzalos, a spanish/german couple, with a 3 year old boy and a new born girl. They have a small little B&B and farm with around 60 olive trees. It all went really well. A little bit of work and plenty of time to explore to area, which was great. Lots of little villages and mountains to hike around in. I spent most of my working time on the end of a wheel-barrow, but also helped removing the plaster from the wall on 100 year old stone farm house. Bella did a bunch of things, from housework to sewing to babysitting. We had a mixed bag with the weather, a few rainy days, but also some great sunny days too. Much improved upon London.
The roof of Cinco Lunas, our hosts.
We did two major hikes in the area. One into Garganta Verde, a cool gorge with vultures flying around over-head and one to the top of El Torreon, the highest mountain in the area (around 1600m).
The photo below is of a nearby town called Ronda. They certainly like to build them in dramatic positions.
The little things that make the day's great. Some supplies from the local panaderia (bakery), awesome pastry with custard and covered in icing sugar. 80 euro cents.
We spent 2 weeks in Zahara. We then moved to another workaway in the area, but this time a coastal change. A little town called Los Canos de Meca. It's just south of Cadiz and it is the off-season, so it's very quiet.
I think we should be able to handle it.
Photos
