Saturday 7 to Friday 13 September

We are up on time and down to an empty reception. On Irene's advise Tony heads out to the Metro station taxi rank where, even at 6.30am, there is a taxi waiting. No problem heading to Terminal 4 at the airport this early in the morning. The usual nonsense at the automated check in and security. Tony had checked in on line so the machine behaved itself, but so many others had problems. Grab some breakfast, a book from W H Smith, and we head for Section K, gate 88. The CRU1000 Iberia Regional narrow body jet was on the tarmac and left on time. We were in row 26 for some reason, i.e. next to the engine at the back end of the aircraft. Could be noisy, and was on take-off, but OK for the 50 minute flight to Almeria in the province of Andalusia.

We headed for the queue at Europcar and waited in line. Painful, and they tired to upsell Tony for an extra €15 per day. Not happening. A Volkswagen Polo, not a bad car, after we worked out how to open the boot, and start the thing. The drive up the dual carriageway to Vera Playa was uneventful thanks to the Garmin GPS with an Aussi accent we brought with us. Heidi was at reception at NatSun to book us straight in to our apartment when we arrived at 12.15pm. All good, it is set up for as maximum of 6 people with a full kitchen, separate bedroom, living area and veranda overlooking the pool and Mediterranean Sea.

Vera Playa (literally Vera Beach) is on the SE coast of Spain, between Almeria and Cartagena. During the summer it can be very hot, but in September the weather is usually very pleasant. The resort is comprised of a number of apartment blocks, with bars and restaurants along some 3km of sandy beach which is entirely naturist. Although in the shopping areas you are expected to wear clothes, everywhere else it is up to you what you wear. Unlike other countries, in Spain it is not illegal to be nude in public. At NatSun the apartments are spread around gardens and a large pool with two bar/restaurants, one on the beach, the other on the ground floor close to us (the white wine is good!). Our fellow guests come from all over Europe, particularly Holland, UK, Spain, Germany and France.

After our arrival, we walk 45m to the beach bar for some lunch (unfortunately, none of the white wine is to Kathy's taste) and then drive the ~1km to the Consum supermarket to get supplies. We have been eating out in Spain for 2 weeks, and veggies seem to be scarce on the menu, so we will be cooking our own food for most of the time. We are very impressed at the prices we see in the supermarket, with many items up to half the price you would pay in Australia, including alcohol.

The best thing is that we do not have to worry about getting up to meet a bus, train or plane. Just relax, sun, sea, sand and ~28°C for the next week. Great! Of course we see on ABC News live that Perth is 30°C on Sunday but I bet the sea temperature here is better than at Warnbro! The beach shelves, particularly to the northern end, so on Tuesday, when there is no wind and little swell, we pop down from Chiringuito "La Golondrina" further south where we had coffee, and have a sea swim.

We eat out on Sunday at Paso Doble downstairs. The Owner obviously encourages guests to speak some Spanish, which is OK. We have the Menu de Dai for €15 per person including a drink. A little disappointing that some of the options are not available, but the food is good. On Tuesday we return to Chiringuito "La Golondrina" which is at the back of the beach with a shade cloth pergola forming the seating area. We have a variation on paella that is made with noodles, not rice, called Fideua de Mariscos (with seafood). Originally a Catalan dish, it was very good. Another notable bar is on the beach, almost in the water in fact. Known as El Pirata (Chiringuito Cote Zero) it features a human skeleton on the front, a skull & cross bones flag and perhaps more heavy metal music than we are used to.

On Wednesday afternoon a rain front comes through with showers and even a bit of thunder. Seville had suffered flooding from the same system so we fear it may be the end of the good weather for us in Vera Playa.

But not so, the rain stays mostly to the north around Cartegenia so we have sunny intervals. All good!

Our last two days at Vera Playa have been impacted by the storm systems coming from the east, over the Mediterranean Sea. However, those in Cartagena and Valencia further north had really bad storms and two people died. In Almeria to the south, the airport access road was flooded and all flights were cancelled on Friday. For us, yes there were some rain showers, and a blocked drain outside the units caused water to pool on the road, but we also had long sunny periods so we still used the pool and continued as normal. Most rain seemed to be at night, and around 3.00am on Saturday a very active storm cell went over us. It started as rain, then went on to hail, and then it got serious! We watched as hailstones up to golf ball size came down really hard. I could see an insurance excess of $250 coming up for hail damage to the car which was parked in the street.