CUEVA MARJERIC

The first time that we visited Spain was in May 2006, we stayed in Castella which is a town aprrox 30 mins inland from Alicante airport. We stayed with our friends Sheila and Rob, who had emigrated from Devon a couple of years previously.

I never really had much interest in visiting Spain, maybe put off by Monty Python and the thoughts of warm ‘Watneys Red Barrel’ However we instantly fell in love with inland Spain. We stayed for two weeks, and knew we would have to return.

We had a package holiday booked in Bulgaria at the end of September 2006, with the intention of investing in a cheap property, but thanks to our tour operator it was cancelled at short notice (thanks very much).

We decided to take another break in Spain instead, not knowing where this was going to lead………… Carole scoured the internet, and decided to book a holiday with Spanish Inland Properties, who rent as well as sell properties in Southern Spain.

Something a bit different, we would be staying in a cave, in the village of Galera.

We had heard of these caves during our previous stay in Castella, and thought it sounded interesting! We spoke to my brother in law Paul, and his wife Pauline and decided to make it a foursome.

We arrived at the village of Galera, and were not disappointed. The scenery was amazing with hills and mountains all around, bushes and giant Cacti were dotted about and apart from the caves, carved into the hillsides there were no blots on the landscape.

This area was where the Spaghetti Westerns were filmed and they still look much the same now as when Lee Van Cleef was attempting to knock Clints cigar down the back of his throat!

During the early part of our stay, we decided to go on a couple of ‘no pressure viewing trips’ with SIP (they even knocked off two days rental on the cave) Everything was great, we loved the rental cave and Sean from SIP showed us around some really impressive caves. Our brief was, something that required some improvements, in a good location and CHEAP!

Off we went armed with digital camera and video. Sean came up trumps, after spending a full day looking at various properties we were really excited, but as written down in the ‘estate agents guide to selling’ there was one more to come, left until last and slightly over our budget…….Wow! it was incredible, loads of potential and such amazing views. Carole looked at my big grin, and knew that we were about to become Trogladytes!

We returned to our rental cave and discussed the purchase of ‘Cueva Papi’ , as it was called, in great detail, for about 3 minutes! An evening trip back out to the cave was made, so that we could see it again on our own.

The following morning we skipped down the hill to SIP, I was armed with my notepad with a list of questions that I’d managed to think about during the night. All my questions were answered very efficiently by the staff in the office. While trying to contain my bladder activity, I made an offer, rather lower than the asking price, not realizing that Craig would contact the seller immediately! The seller (a French vet, living in France) accepted and the deal was done! Both Craig and myself were shocked. 

Even though it was only ‘verbal’ at this stage, we were given the keys. We visited several times during this stay, and even went and had a barbecue one evening on the patio, it was just great.

We returned to Castella in the following November, and brought Sheila and Rob down to the area, we stayed at Cueva Pedro, a cave B&B in the village of Castillejar This fabulous Bed and Breakfast is run by Mother and Daughter, Sally and Kate. Its highly recommended, a really cosy cave with good home cooking and a fine selection of drinks!

Another trip was made to sign paperwork, making use of cheap flights as usual. This time we stayed both at Cueva Pedro and also another rental cave near to Spanish inland Properties.

Now don’t believe that Spain is hot all year around, in fact it can drop to well below freezing during the nights in winter. In a cave with your log burner stoked up and roaring away it gets rather hot though. I think that we were noticed sitting outside in minus 6 degrees in our pj’s trying to cool down!

Really impressed with the effect of the log burner, when we saw one on offer in our local Ferreteria we just had to have it. Our first purchase for our cave! We borrowed the keys again from SIP, and put our new log burner in one of the walk in cupboards.

March was the first time that we actually stayed in the cave. We managed to complete the sale at a time that the exchange rate was to our advantage, and so, we saved a couple of thousand pounds when we transferred the payment from the UK to our new Spanish bank account. This was all arranged by SIP, they opened a bank account for us, and advised who to use to transfer funds etc.

We had no furniture yet, but we crashed out on some old camping beds that were left by the previous owners.

The next day our bedroom furniture arrived from ‘Little Britain’ an English run shop (you may have guessed) in the town of Huescar. That night we slept on our new bed in front of an open fire in the lounge.

On our return journey this time, we made a slight detour………..We landed at Bristol, crashed out for the night in the airport, so that we could jump on the next available flight to Southern France. From here we drove back to the UK via the Roscoff ferry in my new addition…..a VW  Syncro Transporter, in ‘cracking’ condition, left hand drive, and a rare full length factory sunroof, I had to have it!

September was the first trip over for Caroles Mum and dad, (Lona and Dave) With no surprise, they fell in love with the area, and their fears of a dark, damp smelly hole in the side of a cliff were put to bed.

They would have been quite happy sitting on the patio watching the shepherd with his herd as he covered the hundreds of acres each day. However, we did drag them out each day and forced them to drink the cheap beer and wine, and take advantage of the free tapas. Sometimes you just have to do these things!

Our next visit was in May, and the countryside had been transformed. Green fields, blankets of bright red poppies and yellow camomile flowers. The view from our cave was more breathtaking than ever.

Big changes at the cave for us now, having spotted a remarkably cheap return ferry crossing from Plymouth to Santander (£250) we decided to drive a van down loaded with tools and furniture, only one problem, we needed a large van, something reliable and luxurious! Having enquired at several van hire companies, we discovered that the cost was bumped up to about £900 for the week due to travelling abroad! The answer was the purchase of our trusty 'Spanish Flyer' a luxurious cast off LDV from Parcel Farce. In its splendid coat of white Dulux gloss, it looked the part. A 100 mile test drive around the sleepy lanes of Devon, a set of brake pads, and we were ready!

We took out European recovery with ADAC, so all we really needed to do was to get it off the ferry in Santander, if it blew up we would have been piggy backed down to Southern Spain.

We boarded the 'Pont-Aven' and relaxed for the crossing, a fantastic meal was had in the restaurant, (well recommended).We didn't know when we would next get a good rest or meal. As it happened we need not have worried, the van didn't miss a beat, 750 miles and 14 hrs later we were there, A great journey on some brilliant roads with some huge hills.

The hill out of Santander was amazing its self, unbelievably climbing for mile after mile up through the clouds.

After a rest we unloaded the van. what a difference, just having a few items of furniture had transformed the cave, and more importantly we now have a fridge to stock up with wine.

The next day I took a trip to Castillejar to pick up my newly made doors and windows from Antonio 'Carpinterio'. If you need any carpentary work doing, I highly recommend this guy, he speaks good English, his work is superb,and he rides a Triumph Bonny................need we say more. 

A couple of days spent doing not a lot, however I ripped the old kitchen door out and put the new one in and likewise, I got rid of that old skanky gate!

A couple of friends met up with us and stayed over. Jule's and Dave. Jules ive known for years, I met her in the Naafi while serving with the Army. No RSM could keep me under control, but Jules claimed she could!

Daves a professional photographer, and took some brilliant shots while he was with us. For Christmas they gave us two montage's made up of local snaps. We've hung them on our lounge wall in the UK. It reminds us of our 'Spanish Utopia'

The journey back to Santander loomed, being empty, the van was a fair bit quicker, we whistled our way up to the ferry port in a snip, 12 hours to be exact, again no problems. I slept the complete ferry journey (18 hours), landed in the UK and took a phone call from my brother in law who asked to buy the van. Bought for £600....Sold for £600, Mission accomplished.

In the November, we went over for Caroles birthday. Our neighbours made Her a cake and arrived at the door one evening, singing ‘happy birthday’

We went out for a fantastic meal , loads of drinks, coffees and complimentary licquors….total cast for four people 30 Euros. Not bad!

We travelled across in January with our friends Chris and Anne. Now Anne is a professional wine taster in her spare time, so we forced her to sample some of the really cheap red’s ‘in the interest of science’ I’m glad to report that there was no change in her abnormal behaviour. Must invite her over again, we’ve bought some really cheap electrical fittings.   

Chris came in handy too, top fella, I spotted a ‘rustic’ wooden beam for the lounge, it wouldn’t fit in the car, three hours later he turned up at the door with it on his shoulder. I’m sure the hospital will get his collar bone patched up in time for us to invite him across when I’m concreting the front patio. Their hard work was rewarded by us cooking them a meal on top of the log burner. Those roasted chestnuts certainly affected Anne that evening

This trip was a bit different, and one that we had really been looking forward two. We loaded up our motorbike with everything that we could squeeze into every storage space possible. After an early morning trip down to Plymouth we queued to board the Pont Aven, Brittany Ferries flagship. Along with many other bikers we went through the customs routine and had our bike sniffed, not for drugs, but for money! Like we were going to take a huge amount of sterling to change to Euro’s………Not at the present exchange rate, I don’t think so.

Once on board we stripped out of our clothing and relaxed with a couple of French ciders while we waited to book a table in the restaurant for that evening.

The day drifted away while we were entertained by the ships cabaret and magic show. We had a most fantastic meal with superb service while being entertained by a very high classed (I’ve got a yacht, don’t you know) English women. You can always find one on every journey. (Picture Mrs Bucket from keeping up appearances).

Back down to the cabaret / quiz night to wind up the day before we retired to our cabin for a good night sleep.

Morning arrived and we just had time for a coffee before mounting our trusty steed and setting off for our ‘long journey down’. I had previously made a route card avoiding the motorways, maybe it would take a bit longer, but we wanted to take several short breaks and see some of the villages and towns.

We left the port and headed on the A623 for Enedo and Las Cabonas. As we climbed and climbed the weather got worse by the mile. We entered the clouds and visibility was down to about 20ft. I began to wonder if we had been on the wrong ferry and landed in Saltash! We persevered very slowly and climbed some more, eventually the weather cleared and we decided to stop and have our first ‘coffee con leche’ as we left the café after about 15minutes, the sun broke through. This was more like it!

Our speed had now picked up and we were ‘on a roll’. It was around the city of Burgos that I started to think we had a problem, the bike was buzzing along beautifully but I could feel a banging on the back of my helmet (ooh err misses). I glanced back and was not shocked to find that Carole was fast asleep…….at 85mph.

We passed some fantastic scenery on terrific roads with several more breaks for drinks and to stretch our legs. By this time it was scorching, around 38-42degrees.

Before the journey we had booked a room in ‘Hotel Real’, Teledo for our overnight stop. The directions said to head straight for the centre and it would be easy to find………We entered the city and headed for the centre. Hesitating somewhat, I rode through the city gates into this medieval walled fortress. To our amazement the hotel was immediately on our left. We parked up and booked in. The hotel was fabulous with suits of armour standing in the reception. A private car park underneath was to be home for our trusty steed, a lift from there took us to within a couple of meters of our room. http://www.socranet.com/hotelreal/default.htm

We got showered and changed and headed out. What a brilliant place this was, we sat in the park in an out door restaurant and had many, many cold beers and bite to eat. Heading back to the hotel, we passed some very friendly bars that ‘hoovered us in’ and we had more drinks. We didn’t remember our heads touching the pillow and we had a good night’s kip.

The following morning we went down to the reception and asked if we could book another night. At £49 for a double room including breakfast it was a bargain.

We spent the next day doing our tourist thing, slithering around in and out of the local hostelries. In the late afternoon it was time for a little siesta, the heat had exhausted us.

Now we didn’t realize that the hotel had en-suite entertainment. It would appear the walls were quite thin and there was a poor women next door in some sort of pain, I told Carole it was almost certainly asthma, as she was struggling for breath. Her hotel door was open but Carole warned, if I entered I would be struck down with some sort of illness or injury too. Not once did this woman have an attack, not twice or three times but several. She needed help, and I’m sure I could have done something, but with Carole by my side and that suit of armour looking down at me, I thought maybe she would get over it.

The next morning I braved my bruises and hobbled down to reception passing ‘the door’, a do not disturb notice hung on the handle, I flipped it over to say please service room, im sure I did the girl a favour in case she would have another unexpected attack.

Seriously, if you would like to stay in Teledo, this hotel is excellent, they are very friendly, it is very clean, the breakfast is good and the rates are very fair. We would be very happy to stay again, if Carole would let me.

We continued our journey down through Ciudad Real, Linares, Jodar, and the amazing Castril area before arriving at Orce.

The following day we popped around to visit our friends and arrange for our evenings out. It’s always good to meet up again and catch up on things while sampling the local food and drink.

Not a lot of work was carried out at the beginning of this trip due to us ‘chilling out’. This was the first time we had visited during July, and it was incredible to see changes in the local villages. They had a real buzz, with loads of people sitting in the squares enjoying a drink or four and their free tapas.

I did however crack on with some work for a couple of days. Another alcove was hollowed out of the wall in the lounge and a shelf added. Some channels were chased out for the conduit and a start was made with pulling the cables through.

I have tried a couple of methods for chasing, chiseling with a bolster is tiresome and slow and cutting with a diamond disc creates too much dust. I’ve got a Bosch breaker with a chasing gouge, and this is perfect. The gouge happens to be 25mm diameter, the same as the conduit, so it’s a nice snug fit, and just needs a dab of yeso rapido to hold in place before plastering over with yeso contralado. If you are doing this yourself, remember to take photographs before plastering. If you need to know where the cables are, you’ll know. Handy when hanging pictures! More details and pictures can be seen in the 'ongoing improvements section'.

Final job on the cave for this break was to make a hook to hang the dog lead. We haven’t got a pooch at the moment, but just preparing for the future!  

Kez downhill skating near Hescar. Writeup to come soon!