Rough Seas & Wobbly Knees!

With the news being complete doom and gloom at the moment and with no end in sight I thought I would blog about how we came to be in Tenerife.

I first visited the island back in the late 80's with my parents and various other family members. It was when cabaret bars were getting going, live entertainment was in full swing and karaoke was just in its infancy. We would stay in Los Cristianos, usually Paloma beach as my dad knew someone that had an apartment there, or sometimes we stay at Royal Palm at the top of Cardiac hill. Many wonderful holidays were spent here over the years and we all loved the island.

Eddie and I lived in Mallorca before we relocated to Tenerife, and we had four wonderful years there, however, the summer season was gradually getting shorter and the winters were getting slightly longer, so we took a holiday to Tenerife and the decision was made that we would move there.
With pretty much all year round good weather and all year round tourism it seemed the perfect place for us to go. 

In Mallorca we lived in a resort called Alcudia.  Leaving was just awful as it meant leaving behind many friends and guaranteed summer work, but it was the right decision for us at that time. We packed up our belongings, put them in the hands of the removal company, and packed up our Renault Kangoo until it was full to the brim and there was just enough room for Eddie and I.

The journey was meant to be an early fast ferry crossing from Palma to Denia and from there we would take a leisurely drive down to Cadiz and catch the once a week ferry to the Canary Islands, disembarking in Santa Cruz, Tenerife. We even worked out that would we able to take a look at Gibraltar on the way down.

This is what actually happened

The Van was packed, we had handed the keys back to our apartment and we left Alcudia in an horrendous storm. It was raining stair rods and the wind was howling around the car buffering us from side to side. We arrived at the Port in Palma with plenty of time to get the ferry to Denia. However, when we got there, every single ferry was cancelled, except one. It was a Trasmediterania ferry leaving for Barcelona at midday. This meant we wouldn't get to the mainland until nearly midnight that night. We had no choice but to take this ferry as we were now homeless, the car was packed and we had no other option. Add to this that funds were low so there was no option of staying in hotels or bed and breakfasts along the way. It was bad enough that we had to use some of our savings to purchase a new ticket for the only ship that was sailing. 

After a lot of waiting and hanging around we finally drove our car on to the ship and set sail. 
In all the years and of all the ships I have sailed on this is the most memorable ferry crossing I have ever taken, and sadly not for the right reasons.
I never knew the Mediterranean sea could be so rough, it was no wonder there were no other ships sailing that day, and to this day I still believe that the one we were on shouldn't have sailed either. But it did, and we were on it.
I have never seen so many cups, saucers, glasses cutlery and other miscellaneous objects flying around in my life. I have also never seen quite so many people being ill as we saw that day. Eddie and I are pretty hardy sailors and what food and drink was in our bellies managed to stay there but the smell, as you can imagine was horrendous.

Eventually we arrived at Barcelona, never have I been so happy to see land. Barcelona is a massive port, and as nice as it was looking at all the enormous cruise ships, we could not wait until we got on dry land. We weren't even sure if the car would be in one piece, luckily it fared better than many people did.

From the port we had to find our way out of Barcelona and on to the correct motorway that would take us on our journey. we had no Sat Navs back then, Mobile phones were basic so there was no Google maps etc etc, our journey was in the hands of an enormous map book and my navigational skills.

During our journey through Spain we encountered just about every weather phenomenon going, you name it, we had it. Torrential rain, hail, thunder, lightening, even snow at one point.

Because of the cancellation of our ferry it now meant we had just about enough time to make it to Cadiz to catch our other ferry to Tenerife. If we missed it, there wasn't another one for a week so this simply wasn't an option. 
To this day I don't remember much about that journey.  Probably because I had my head in a map book for most of it. We literally stopped for a few one hour power naps along the way and made it to Cadiz with an hour to spare before we sailed. One other thing that I should or maybe shouldn't tell you is that we drove all the way across Spain with no car insurance, not something I would advise, especially when at one point we were being followed by the national police.

We boarded the ferry and fortunately the Atlantic ocean was like a mill pond compared to the Med and it had been this one that I had been more worried about with it being a 36 hour crossing. This crossing was pretty uneventful and we spent most of it asleep. We had the odd game of Spanish Bingo, watched some dodgy entertainment and ate and drank at the set meal times that were included in the price.

So there you have it. 
We have had nearly 18 years here, have we looked back?

At times, yes we have and I would be lying if I said any different.  The journey was almost as if someone somewhere was telling us not to go. However, here we are 18 years on, we have a wonderful son, we've made some wonderful friends and have so many fabulous memories.

I wonder what the next 18 years will bring.
Until next time, stay safe, and be nice to each other

H xxx

I had to share this photo. It was taken one afternoon in Mallorca just before some hefty rainfall. you can see the sun is out but the sky was black! It has not been photoshopped! 

Who remembers these????