On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED About This Page:

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Tuesday 14 September – part two: it’s not really like a millpond out here...

As we got outside of the harbour, suddenly things became a lot choppier and I was having to hang on for dear life at the front of the boat. I decided it was time to head back to my seat, as standing in these conditions was not my idea of fun. There was a guy outside with me and he made a similar decision at almost the same time as me!

Not long after I returned to my seat, suddenly the guys in charge of the boat undid the ropes, which had, until then, stopped us going to the bottom of the boat to see the ocean beneath us. All of us headed down there, except for Barb and Frances, who were adamant that they were happy where they were.

It was a few steps down there, but boy, you knew about those and then you had tiny stools to sit on, from where you could watch the underwater world beyond unfold in front of your eyes. At first, there was lots of ribbing, as, clear as the water was, we couldn’t see any marine life. Where were the fish we’d been promised? Aaah, there they were!



To begin with, we only saw one species of fish, which was a bit disappointing, but suddenly we found shoals of the creatures, mainly tiny fish, which was fascinating to see. I felt very privileged to be invited into their underwater world.



We could also see the bottom of the sea, which I guess wasn’t too surprising, as we were still quite close to the harbour. I’m not sure that you can see it in these photos, but it was wonderful to see it for yourself. I loved the dark and light patches you could see in the water. There was something mesmerising about watching those colours change.



From the moment we went down there, I thought it was hot down there and it got hotter, the longer we sat down there and the more people that came down. It was soon getting unbearable and, added to that, the boat was starting to go up and down, which wasn’t helping my head. Perhaps I should have taken those sea sickness tablets after all...

Eventually, after keeping my eyes as firmly fixed on the deeps for as long as I could and trying to ignore the fact that, every so often you could see over the waves, which I found really messed with my head, I gave up down there and headed back upstairs, figuring it would be cooler up there. Boy, was I wrong!

I later found out that the crew had closed all the windows upstairs for some completely unknown reason and it was like a sauna in there. I literally was dripping with sweat and, as often now happens with my chronic fatigue, when presented with real extremes of temperatures, my body almost seemed to stop functioning. Suddenly my arms and legs felt like they had ten ton weights attached to them and I couldn’t move them.

I desperately wanted to get outside the boat to feel a breeze and cool me down, but I just knew I didn’t have the strength in my body to do that. Eventually, I managed to reach across into our backpack and pull out an ice cold bottle of water that had come straight out of the fridge and was able to rub it over my neck and head in a bid to cool me down. The problem was it did the job a little too well and I actually started to shiver so I thought perhaps I’d better stop with that idea...

We changed direction and then there finally was a breeze – Hallelujah for that! Finally I was able to start cooling down enough to appreciate the ride a bit more and the views of the coastline outside. Sure, we were bobbing up and down a bit, but it wasn’t too bad and at least I could now start to appreciate the views.

Mark was outside at the back of the boat, and as soon as I felt able to, I went out there to join him. It was so nice to feel the wind again and cool down. He got some nice shots of the coast from out there:



Even better, we could now see that we were heading back towards the sanctuary of the harbour, not a moment too soon. We went back inside and Frances and Barb still weren’t looking at all good. They were huddled in pretty much the same positions that they had been throughout the ride, both looking rough. I wasn’t mean (unlike some – Dave? ) and decided taking photos of their suffering wouldn’t be very fair. They didn’t look in a good state. :

We finally docked back at Calpe and very gratefully headed back on to dry land, avoiding the encouragement of the girl who’d taken our photos as we boarded the boat to go and see our photos. However nice they were, I suspected this was one voyage that perhaps we wouldn’t want a souvenir of....

Barb had her own souvenir and wasn’t in a good way at all, as she was feeling the effects of the bobbing around and had the startings of vertigo. We all agreed that we should do whatever she wanted, as we didn’t think that going back to the villa straight away was necessarily a good plan, not with all those twists and turns.

Instead, we headed over to a nearby restaurant to get some Sprite, with Peter and Frances joining us a few minutes later. Fortunately, she didn’t suffer any lasting effects from our adventures. Soon, Dave was joining us, with Barb feeling well enough to at least sit in the car on her own, while we all got some Sprite. After that, and the use of an ice cube to try and cool myself down, I think we all felt a lot better. I was relieved how quickly the feeling did return to my legs and arms, after I got a bit cooler. Finally, I could move around again, without feeling like an old woman.

Eventually, we felt well enough to head back to the villa and we followed Dave, who was driving gingerly through the twists and turns. We lost count at 43, as we thought we’d reached the turning for the villa, but it was, in fact, a couple of miles down the road, so we ended up guessing at about 60 turns maybe?

We stopped at one point, as there was one tree that I just had to get a photo of, as it was so stunning.



At one point, Dave pulled off the road, so we assumed Barb wasn’t feeling too well, but we kept going, as we were on a mission – to get lunch for everyone. Having told everyone how good the pizzas were yesterday, we ended up going to stock on those for everyone. We also got a huge slice of watermelon for just €1.50. ($2) Bargain!

It turned out to be a lovely lunch and exactly what we all needed. My goodness, the watermelon was good. We figured we’d take some of that, along with some sandwiches, for our dinner tonight, when we headed to our hotel at Onda, which would be our first stop on the journey home.

Next: I think it might be broken...