As for the planned boat jobs, well, suffice to say that nothing major took place. January tends to be a strange month here in Spain, New Years Resolutions are quite tricky since the big “return to work” doesn´t happen until after the 3 Kings celebrations on 7th or 8th January. By that time ideas of turning over a new leaf usually get forgotten and it´s the most we can do to catch up on things that get left undone over the lengthy Christmas period.
We had some extremely high winds, hurricane force I believe, on the second weekend in January, this meant that whilst we were at the boat for the weekend we had to stow everything away as if we were at sea because the boat was heeling so much (yes, even inside the marina!) It was quite exhilarating if a little disturbing so not much sleep was had that weekend!
Luckily the following weekend was much better weather and we went on an activity adventure !! The Saturday morning started with us dropping of Tines at the dog sitters, then meeting our friends before driving up into the Sierra Espuña. There is an amazing little hotel there which organizes activities and we met a group of our friends there for Quad Biking and Laser Clay Pigeon Shooting. After a coffee and catch up the group was split into two – Nigel and I were in different groups, so Nigel went off shooting in the morning and I went off as part of a group of 4 quad bikes plus the leader. It was the first time I had been quad biking so I was a little nervous but our guide was fantastic and it wasn´t as difficult as I expected. The hardest part was not trying to put my foot down every time it got a little tricky (remember, it´s not a push bike – I had to keep telling myself)
The scenery for the quad biking is stunning and we were incredibly lucky with the weather given it was January. We went out down towards a beautiful turquoise blue reservoir and back through pink and white almond groves and orange orchards.
We all met up for a snack lunch before switching activities. The Laser clay pigeon shooting was next for our group. The guns are real guns which have been adapted to fire light beams rather than bullets which is ingenious. The activity was much more fun than we had expected and although the guns are really heavy on the arms I can recommend it. We all said we´d give it another go. To be honest, I was absolutely terrible at it – and managed to score zero on the last round – but once again it was in stunning countryside and we were treated to a lovely warm day.
After we finished we jumped back in the mini-bus and headed back to the hotel where we enjoyed a couple of rounds of karaoke before our evening meal. The majority of us had chosen a delicious chicken and ham pie which didn´t disappoint.
Sunday morning came round all too quickly and after breakfast we had to say goodbye to some of our group. It seemed like we had been there for much longer than 24 hours thanks to all the action we managed to pack in to a short space of time. The rest of us went off for a walk in the opposite direction to the day before, we climbed up to the top of the hillside and were rewarded with fantastic views over the hotel and beyond into the valley.
All too soon it was our turn to depart so away we went, exhausted but very happy after a fabulous weekend, I can highly recommend the Hotel Mariposa and I am sure we´ll be back before not too long! Next time downhill mountain biking 😉
The Adventures of Gemini J 