30 August 2022 – Stuart and Family Visit – Week Four

24 August 2022

The Imperial in Calpe has long been a family favourite

Even 8 year old Chloe could remember our last visit four years ago

Stuart and family had a selection for four

Jan and I settled for our regular menu del dia

Great evening and as always great value for money 

27 August 2022

Chloe was the weakest swimmer at  school and nervous of swimming when she arrived three weeks ago

Today she was diving to recover weighted toys on the bottom at the deep end

Also Stuart’s (waterproof) phone which he dropped at the deep end

29 August 2022

On the last night of their visit we all went to Jalon to wear the kids out for an early night

They would have to be up at 3am tomorrow for the drive back to the UK

Georgia and Chloe were all over the rustic play area

Jack was content to sit and talk to his dad, either too old or too tired for such childish activities

This has been their longest visit yet, and gave us all a chance to get to know each other again after the long break due to covid

The house will be very quiet tomorrow, but we have Christmas to look forward to

21 August 2022 – Stuart and Family Visit - Week Three

15 August

The family spent an evening at Javea

15 August

The children had enjoyed the waves at Calpe

15 August

But agreed that they were much better at Javea

15 August

They ended the evening with a meal at the Wok

 

15 August

This quickly became their favourite restaurant

16 August

Stuart and Michelle has an evening in Calpe and a drink at Tango

17 August

Our second evening meal together was bar Estufa in Parcent

 

17 August

We had planned to walk, but took the car when it started to rain

17 August

The restaurant has changed hands and unfortunately no longer offer their tapas menu del dia

17 August

It was also a shame that we had to sit inside due to the weather

17 August

Despite this we had a very pleasant meal

17 August

And a very enjoyable evening

17 August

The kids were still full of energy

17 August

So we walked around to the children’s play area

17 August

Where they could get rid of some their excess energy

18 August

Next morning we found Jack and Georgia fast asleep in the sitting room, driven there by “someone” snoring in the bedroom

20 August

Jack bought as skate board at the Ondara centre, and spent hours practicing on the road

21 August

On Sunday the family spent the day at Mundomar

21 August

They had been there on a previous visit

21 August

And the kids were looking forward to a return visit

13-18 August – Vall de Laguer Fire

On Saturday 13 August there was a long electric storm with lightening, but no thunder or rain.

During our early morning walk on Sunday we could see a lot of smoke in the hills towards Benichembla and Castells

By Monday photos were appearing on Facebook, such as this one from Benichembla

Or this one taken from Pedreguer

Or even more worrying this one from Orba

This map shows the situation on Monday 15 August.

By Tuesday 16 August the fire has spread from Pego to Castells and there were reports of up to 2000 people being evacuated

Pego, Benimassot and Atzubia were particularly mentioned for evacuation.

This photo was taken in Pego

This one in Atzubia

As we started our early morning walk on Wednesday 17 August we could see a large new fire which seemed to be in the direction of Orba and Rafol

Throughout the day there were large numbers of helicopters flying over Parcent towards Orba 

There was also a strong smell of smoke, and a lot of ash which covered pools and cars

Facebook kept us up to date with the latest information, and photos like this one from Rafol

Or this from Beniarbeig.....

....Tormos....

.....Fleix...

...and Alcalali

The long awaited rain arrived on Thursday 18 August, particularly heavy in Pego and Pedreguer

On Friday 19 August we were delighted to see this post on Facebook.   Everyone is so grateful to the firemen and other emergency staff who worked for so long and so hard in such terrible circumstances.   Temperatures were 36-38c and it was too hot to do anything outdoors after 0900.   Imagine what it must have been like for them to fight raging fires for five days.