Beach, Eat, Sleep & Repeat..........

Bonjour,

Can’t believe it’s that time of the week again, it’s certainly true to say that time flies when you are having fun.  We have decided to stay here at La Franqui now until the end of July and maybe even longer as we have no rush or agenda to keep which is nice.

Well as forecast the weather has sorted itself out and the sun and blue skies returned but the wind did not relent and we continued to have very strong Tramatona winds so have been out having fun out on our small 6m & 8m kites again.  We can’t believe how windy this place actually is, it’s like Tarifa all over again but just on a much smaller scale and less crowded but it’s just crazy as even walking along the beach can be a real workout in the head on wind !!!!

The last couple of days though the wind has switched to Marin so not as strong which to be honest is a welcome relief, we love the wind but sometimes an on/off switch would be very useful.  It’s been nice to just have a chill out on the beach, swim and watch the world go by and we have found a nice little spot all to ourselves by a huge piece of drift wood. It’s getting hotter too and the next few days are forecast to be between 35-39 degrees so being by the sea is the place to be with the sea breeze.

We are the only English people at the campsite except for a guy called Phil a land yachter from Southern Ireland who arrived a few days after us and is here until late August so it’s nice to catch up with him now and then and have a couple of beers and talk about the day’s events.  He has said I have free use of his kite buggy and land yachts in exchange for a kitesurf refresher lesson as he is a bit rusty so that will be something different to try.  Some evenings there is quite a gathering at Phil’s with some of his French neighbours so it’s nice to chat and try out our French and the other evening they were all getting ready for Bastille celebrations (14th July) with their bunting and this attractive wig which I thought quite suited me, as they say when in France do as the French do, viva la France !!!!!

They really celebrate Bastille here in France and have fireworks so we took our sand chairs and refreshments and went and sat down on the beach and watched them, they were amazing and we could also see the ones from the neighbouring towns all along the coast, something we will remember from our travels for sure.

We were also invited to our neighbours to watch the World Cup Final as he had set a TV up outside and was rounding up some of the people from around the campsite, although we don’t really follow football we thought we’d join the party anyway even though we were the only English people.  He’s a French-Morrocan guy from AgadIir who comes here every summer for his holidays, he doesn’t speak a word of English but again we seem to get by.  He goes into the village everyday to play Petanque and then comes back with bottles of wine that he has won.  It was quite funny the other evening as when he came back to camp he waved two bottles of wine at us and I shouted to him “champignon” which Julie quickly told me meant “mushroom” in French, we did laugh but I think he understood I actually meant champion not mushroom!!!

We have met so many nice people/families of all nationalities during our travels and it’s always quite sad when their holidays are over and we have to say our goodbyes - we have quite a collection of addresses and invites now so maybe one day we will be able to work our way through them. 

Even though we have been here now for just over 3 weeks the scenery and sunsets here at La Franqui are amazing and the local french girl (who is also a kitesurfer) who runs the bread stall on site is also simply amazing!!! It was funny that after a few days of me going to get bread and croissants each morning my Julie sussed that something was making me quite keen to go so I said come and meet her she is really friendly well when they both introduced themselves I couldn’t believe it, they both have the same name as she is also called Julie!

We have been doing a bit of up-cycling recently too as I have acquired some unwanted grey vinyl awning roof material so am going to make a set of wheel covers out of it as everyone else seems to have them to protect their tyres from being damaged from the harmful UV sun rays and they are a fortune to buy for something so simple.  Julie came up with another fantastic up-cycling idea too to make some beach pillows out of the internal bag of a 5 litre wine box and I must say they are perfect as you can adjust the size/height by simply adding or releasing air from the tap the only thing is when deflating at the end of the day to put them away in your back pack you tend to get a strong waft of rose wine!!

That’s all for this week.

J&J

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