Slow Camper : And a Happy New Year ...

Our Christmas lunch was fabulous and we felt so very smug when we learnt that Sydney had the wettest December 25 since 1942. We were in 23 degrees and sunshine.

Christmas Lunch in El Rocio

Back in El P we settled into our pitch and prepared for New Year. The campsite this year seems to be mainly Poms, Germans and French. We met a really fun bunch of Brits and decided to celebrate NYE together, starting with a fabulous late lunch in a nearby restaurant.

The speciality of the house is steak and you can choose your meat from the fridge. Lawrence and I both decided to try fighting bull meat. Now, before you rush off to ring PETA, let me explain the philosophy behind this. The bulls are raised in ideal conditions, free range, grass fed and well cared for. OK they do meet a grisly end, and I’m in no way defending the ‘sport’ of bull fighting, but all cattle meet a grisly end and these have had a good life – better than most. Do you really want the meat to be thrown away or put into dog food? It was good, and we took the leftovers home to make a steak sandwich.

NYE lunch with the Brits

The aim was to have a very late siesta and head into to town for midnight and see the Spanish New Year in. We arrived about 11.15pm, and were surprised to find that all the bars were closed. The place was deserted, you could have shot a gun off and not hit anything moving. A ghost town. We found a couple of policemen and they said the bars won’t open until 1.00 am.

Deserted El P at 11.30pm on NYE

So, we walked backed to the campsite and partied with the Germans. They were all wandering around with bottles of Cava and having a grand time. We did lots of “Gutes Neue Yahre” and joined in the fun.

The French slept through it all.

We entertained an Australian couple of new year’s day and had prawns on the Barbie for lunch.