2 MID-LIFE CYCLISTS IN A MOTORHOME: February 2015

Sunset on Benaulim Beach

Linda, Brian, Iris and Steve with Glynn

February has flown by in a blur of activity. We started the month with a lovely steak night at the Zumbrai Beach Shack where we got to watch the beautiful sunset on the beach before enjoying an evening of good food, drink, music and dancing.As we had our bikes with us it meant we had to cycle back in the dark forgetting that there are no lights on a lot of the roads leading from the beach. Luckily our friends Mary and Terry had a couple of lights to spare and we managed the 4 mile journey back without mishap although I think I may stick to Tuk Tuks next time!

Pretending they have a big catch!!

I was keen to spend a final afternoon at the Riverview at Cavelossim so on 11th February we caught the bus there and spent a great afternoon accompanied by Steve, Iris, Linda and Brian. Brian had brought his compact fishing rod with him and spent the afternoon trying to entice the fish with chunks of bread squashed on to his hook. Glynn decided to help but the fish clearly knew what they were doing and waited until each soggy lump of bread had fallen from the hook before moving in to eat. Still it kept us ladies amused at their antics while we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.

Brahminy Kite at Joe's River Cove

Clive and Mary, Burnley supporters (well somebody has too!!) who we had met at the Sun and Moon, had told us about a really cheap printing company in Margao. We meet so many people on our travels and are always swapping phone numbers, email addresses and my incredibly long blog address so I decided to get some cards printed while we are in Goa. I emailed them a picture of our Hymer and a copy of the wording and an hour later the cards were ready to be collected. It cost 500 rupees for 500 cards (approx £5). Let's hope I meet lots more new

Egret at Joe's River Cove

people this summer!! I had my final appointment at the eye hospital so Clive kindly drove us there before stopping at the printers to pick up the cards. He then drove us to Cavelossim to a lovely restaurant on the River Sal called Joe's River Cove. It was in a wonderful setting and we enjoyed yet another relaxing afternoon, eating, drinking and playing cards.

We did another exploration visit to Margao with Jan and Cliff where they introduced us to the delights of Tato's Restaurant, a lovely contemporary restaurant frequented by the locals. We had a Masala Dosa and onion bhajis, followed by ice-cream and the entire bill including a hot drink was only 250 rupees for the 2 of us!! We will definitely be going back there to explore the menu further.

Farewell meal with Margaret, Pat, Mary and Terry

We had made so many good friends that we suddenly found ourselves booked up with farewell meals right up to the night before our flight. I was definitely going to need to do some extra cycling when we got home. We'd had several of the locals offer to buy our bikes off us when we left so on our last day we dropped them off to Shiva, the Goan equivalent to Alan Sugar, who offered us 20,000 rupees each. This was a great price as we had only paid 40,000 rupees for them and had used

Burnley supporters Clive and Mary!!

them for 3 months. Shiva is your man for anything from bird watching tours to bike hire and even offers cookery lessons with his wife. He is known as the memory man and will ask you for your postcode so he can say where you live in the UK after memorising every postcode area. He is a funny little character who pops up almost everywhere you go in Benaulim and he always has a smile on his face as he looks to see what opportunities there might be to earn some more money.

Lovely flight with Qatar Airways

All to soon we were heading for the airport and after a very smooth flight with a quick changeover at Doha we landed at Heathrow to find the sun shining, although nowhere near the heat we had just left behind in Goa!! My wonderful sister Cheryl had taken a day off work to pick us up and was waiting with a nice warm car to greet us. Although we had skyped each other we had lots to catch up on and poor Glynn didn't get a word in on the journey home as we caught up on all the news.

Needing slightly more clothes than in Goa!!

Our first weekend home we were invited to a party to celebrate our friend Andy's 50th birthday and it was great to catch up with so many of our friends, many of whom we hadn't seen since our farewell party last April. The rest of February flew by as we visited Glynn's mum in Sheffield, Sharon and Glynn in Leicester and all our friends and family locally. We had booked the Eurotunnel for 19th March so all we had to do now was get Herman ready and load him up. Clive and Mary are going to be in Calpe in April so we are going to start off our Spanish tour on the Costa Blanca so we can meet up with them before we head further south. Normally after a holiday there is a sense of anti-climax but with a 6 month tour of Spain and Portugal on the agenda I was feeling nothing but excitement. I can't say I have enjoyed the cold weather since we got back after a winter of glorious sunshine and I am really looking forward to some Spanish sun!!