From good friends and bad weather

We are at Malaga airport to pick up our dear old friends Sandra and Micken who are coming to visit us for a few days. What we didn't know is that there is a surprise guest with them. I nearly burst into tears when our friend Annette suddenly stands next to me. What a wonderful surprise 😍. We gather the three of them and drive to our campsite in Motril where they will stay in a bungalow. We spend great days together, chatting, drinking copious amounts of coffee, and taking a trip to Nerja to visit the cave and old town. It is so lovely to suddenly have such good old friends here in Spain. We meet many people while traveling, but nothing compares to friends you’ve known for 30 years. Thank you so much, dear friends, for your visit. We truly enjoyed seeing you. 

This week, friends are also arriving who we met last winter in Tarifa. Hello Kai, Andrea, Björn, and Lara 😊 They will stay with us for two days at the campsite, we celebrate Andreas' birthday and gather in a large group. We really enjoy having so many familiar faces around us.  

At the same time, in Valencia, which is 560 km away from us, the world is collapsing. There are many dead and injured as the floodwaters sweep into the city. Here too, it is the farmers and civilians who step up to help. There is no sign of the military and no financial aid available. The royal couple is pelted with mud and chased away. Large demonstrations are taking place where Spaniards are insulting the government and the monarchy. We see many parallels to the Ahrtal disaster in Germany. The cleanup will take months, and after large areas in the mountains were re-naturized last year under the EU's orders, everyone is curious to see how things will develop now that many dams have been decommissioned. 

In many other places around us, cars are floating down the streets, and rivers are overflowing. So far, we have always been lucky, and apart from one day of rain, we have been spared. 

In the meantime, we have said goodbye to the campsite and are now with our friends in Salobrena right by the beach. Here, many dropouts and van lifers can be found. Everyone is trying to make ends meet and offering services. I treat myself to a massage from a professional from Romania right on the beach. The petite Reka works my body as if she were Hercules. Afterwards, I feel as light as a feather. Kilian finally gets a proper haircut from Lara. Thank you both 😊. 

We are sitting by the sea at 24° with a cloudless sky and are curious about what awaits us tomorrow because heavy rain is forecasted. Schools will be closed, people are advised to stay indoors, and we campers are preparing for a lot of rain. I hope that we will be lucky this time too and won't drown in our lovely beach parking spot. 

However, we have been hit a bit. In the evening, it starts pouring rain, and in no time, our parking spot turns into a lake. Some campers choose to move, but we, with our big tires and all-wheel drive, decide to stay. In the morning, we are greeted by a muddy, dirty lake, and we are standing right in the middle of it. Fortunately, this is no problem for our truck. The access road is also underwater, making it a bit of an adventure until we all get our campers out. Kilian drives our truck as a water displacer in the lead, and the others closely follow behind. 

Fortunately, this time it was just property damage, and there were no further casualties. Under radiant sunshine, we leave Salobrena and set off for the next leg of our journey to Tarifa. Everywhere we see clean-up efforts. We hope this was the last storm, and that Spain can recover. Tarifa, here we come 😊