Day Fifty-eight 11.5.05 Disappointed with the last site we moved on again to near Denia. On the way William spied a 2CV garage with loads of 2CV's in various states of decay. We stopped even though it meant doing a U turn on a busy road. There were some nice examples and the best (Not as good as ours.) was selling for 4500 euros, perhaps we will turn ours into a profit some day. We have travelled quite far in a short space of time and are looking forward to meeting up with Sheree and Kate in Valencia. We have found a brilliant site right next to the beach and we can see the sea from our van. The owner of the site is also really friendly even though we disturbed his lunch to book in. We pitched up and had an uninterrupted view of the sea. Moments later our neighbours arrived in their snazy motor home and parked in the spot just in front of us. Fortunately their pitch is slightly staggered and their van also protects us a bit from the sea breeze. They are a very friendly German couple, Peter and Wilmer, and their dog (Can't remember the dogs name.). They advised us to use rubbers on our guy ropes as it does get windy here apparently. They even lent us a couple. We will stay here for a while and explore the area and travel up to Valencia tomorrow for the day. The beach here is lined with some very nice beach houses and not built up with high rises. Because of this there are not many people about and the long stretch of sandy beach is nearly deserted. Day Fifty-nine 12.5.05 We went to meet Sheree and Kate today in Valencia. It was about and hours drive from the site and we left at 10am. Getting into Valencia was relatively easy, finding the hotel where they were staying was not. We decided to park up and walk to find a Tourist Information centre. We walked about half a mile and were then given directions to the hotel which was about 100 yards from the car park. We had a bit of time before we met the girls at 5pm so we did a walking tour of the city and discovered that is fairly big and does not appear to have an obvious centre or area where the interesting bits are together. When it started raining we headed for El Corte Ingles and nearly bought some trendy pants each but decided that 41 euros was a lot for one pair of pants and instead we went for a bottle of aftershave at 65 euros. We met the girls and had Gin & Tonics on their roof terrace, we had decided to drive back as the hotel only had one room left and because of the lack of availability added 100% onto the normal price. James gallantly offered to do our first bit of night driving so was not drinking. We went for a superb meal after struggling to find a decent bar for more aperitifs and we all had a lovely time and left the girls at midnight as they had an early flight. On the way back we took the A7 not the AP7 by mistake, we realised we had gone wrong and tried to rectify the mistake but made it worse and this time we only realised after driving nearly 100km in the wrong direction. We eventually worked it out and got back to the site at 4am. On arrival at the site we discovered that there had been some sort of freak hail storm that had thrown our awning across the site and wrecked it. This is a real disaster and upset us both very much. All our stuff was wet and filthy dirty including our clothes and bedding. We were very tired and left most of it to deal with tomorrow. Day Sixty 13.5.05 Friday the thirteenth lived up to expectations. After going to bed at 4am we awoke at 8am as we knew we had to survey the damage of the freak storm in the light of day. The awning suffered badly and is torn and damaged in several places. Some of the poles are bent beyond repair and it has got very dirty. We set about dismantling it and hung it out to dry. The site is popular with windsurfers and there is a large drying rack for the windsurfers gear. We made good use of it today. As we were tidying up a few of the other campers came over to tell us what had happened. It transpires that around 4pm yesterday a storm suddenly erupted and there were hail stones the size of golf balls and massive gusts of wind. The other campers were unable to do anything to stop the awning being whipped away as it all happened in about five minutes. They explained that their vans all have damaged roofs due to the intensity of hail and looking at the vans around they all have pitted roofs. After the storm had passed they gathered up our belongings which were strewn across the site but that was as much as they could do. Some of the campers have been coming here for years and have never experienced anything like this others said that the storm was so localised that just a mile away they only had a spot of rain. We guess its just really bad luck. Our neighbours kindly lent us their drying racks to hang out the wet clothes and we washed and dried the things that got dirty. Fortunately today was sunny and windy so by 5pm everything was dry and repacked. Everybody has been so nice and concerned for us which is really heartening. It seems as though we were the worst hit but even if we had been here because it all happened so quick we probably wouldn't have been able to save the awning. We have not let it dampen our spirits though and we keep reminding ourselves that is just an awning and at least nobody was hurt. We still like the site and want to stay a bit longer but it's a shame that we won't have the use of the awning until we get back to the UK and sort it out, hopefully the travel insurance will be able to deliver as the enquiries made are promising. Day Sixty-one 14.5.05 After the trials of yesterday we had a good nights sleep and a lie in (Well James had a lie in anyway.) The weather is completely different today and there is not a cloud in the sky. The only plan for today was to go to the supermarket as we have eaten E.R.I.C and the thought of tuna, pasta, rice or tinned tomatoes was not worth contemplating. We took the short drive to Denia got our provisions (And a few unnecessary bits.) including fresh Dorada (Gilthead) for BBQ tonight. We then stopped at a typical English bar for a typical English breakfast with a typical English speaking Spanish girl and then back to the site to enjoy the sun and sea all day. The site appears to be popular with the Spanish at the weekend apparently they come from as far Madrid for the excellent windsurfing. The sea is shallow and there is a constant onshore wind. It was fascinating (For a bit.) to watch the surfers go back and forth and also use kites to propel themselves along. It must need a lot of strength to do this for any length of time although you wouldn't know it by looking at their bods. We are both into our books (Will, 'Monday Mourning' and James 'Fear Itself') and have hardly said a word to each other all day. Will is now finishing off the Port and James has cracked open a fresh bottle of Martini Rosso, as Will says 'it is Saturday and we're not going to any bars or nothing.'