Blog 1.23: Days 26 and 27

17th and 18th October

Well, what a pile of droppings this is turning out to be.

What was intended to be just three nights at Javea, prearranged, and just a stopover to allow us to reset, use the pool, and generally relax, do some washing, etc. turned into nearly a week.

I'm not decrying being here at all. Oh no, under the circumstances, it's been a welcome blessing, and I can't thank our generous hosts enough for their gracious forebearance. With my illness, and then Mandi joining in too (although miraculously, unlike mine, the virus or whatever it is, hasn't hit her chest. And that really is a blessing what with her tendency towards asthma and bronchial problems in general) it was exactly what we needed.

Anyway, M seems to be slowly on the mend after just a couple of days. My 'friend' however is still sticking around nearly two weeks after first tentatively showing its face.

Fortunately, M has copious supplies of Ventolin and Paracetamol, and it's my use of these, I think, that has allowed me to get at least some undisturbed sleep over the last two nights. Prior to that it was near perma-coughing broken by short bouts of restless sweaty kip.

Not ideal at all.

Still, the decision has now been made that tomorrow, Wednesday, will be our last full day here at Mas Mañanas (the villa), and we will spend it preparing for onward transit come Thursday morning.

Obviously we need to clean the villa from top to bottom, but we also have to repack the van (we've just about divested it of all its contents over the last few days), and we need to do a bit of serious travel planning.

Obviously,  the extended stay here, coupled with extra days at both el Saler and Xeraco due to me wimping out on the driving, has eaten into our schedule, loose as it has always been, quite considerably.

The planning session, then, will have to take into account whether we now have enough time left to carry on along the Spanish coast as far as the Portugal border as notionally planned, or whether we start to cut corners.

Sadly, I think it could well be the latter.

However, all would not be lost, and personally I quite fancy a bit more inland 'real' Spain, coupled with a toe-dip into Portugal at some point, just to say that the van's been there.  It would also allow me to add a Portuguese flag sticker alongside those of the Council of Europe, England, Scotland, France, Andorra, and Spain.

I'll let you know.