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Whilst working at OUP I'd met Peter Eagles - a very quiet peaceful guy - very intelligent (as you're about to see) - and for some reason we decided to go on holiday together.
By this time I'd got "a plan" - to drive all along the Mediterranean coast, from Gibraltar eastwards - missing only the coast of Albania ('cos we were not allowed in there at this time), right the way round back to Morocco. Being a struggling lad, with only a couple of weeks holiday each year - as many miles as were possible - had to be crammed into each summer holiday - and this was the starting year.
So reliable 977 TKL was pressed into service and off Pete and I went..... on the first leg of "the plan" - Gibraltar to "somewhere"..
Boulogne, Abbeville, Rouen, Le Mans (we drove round the track!! down the Mulsanne straight at 72 mph!!) - Tours, Angouleme, and...
This was our first (not very salubrious) camp
site in south-west France - somewhere around Bordeaux. Bear in mind we're back
in the 1960's and Camp Sites were not all that well organised as they now are -
but more importantly - the sort of "guide books" you got from the AA, weren't
greatly helpful in finding your next camp-site 40 Kms up the road in
Chalon-sur-Marne - or wherever. As a result - we just pulled off the main
National road then looked for a clearing or piece of open ground - what we found
here was perfect - nice peaceful first night - and in the morning - heavy dew,
but "my man Pete" making the coffee.... in a Top Hat!! Where did that come
from?? And why had he brought it along??? The intelligence is becoming
apparent!!
We bombed on... not much to see, but I can remember the "prioritee a droit" rules being a bugger to get a handle on. You'd be on "the" main A road, knowing "you have priority", enter a small town or village, and all of a sudden "you don't have priority" - but the tractors and 2CV's that are creeping onto your piece of road - from their B, C or gravel-road - do!! You're doing 70 mph, they're doing 3 mph - AND THEY HAVE PRIORITY!! Crazy!! Often there were no signs telling you, you'd lost priority - you just got the impression, from the body-language of the car/tractor/truck - on your right!
Bayonne, Biarritz (had a tea-stop there in a nice cafe overlooking the sea) passed through San Sebastian and then further on into northern Spain where this piccie was taken of me - with my appropriate hat on! It should have been a Ferrari to go with that pose - don't you think??
Basically we were making a bee-line for Gibraltar - so Vitoria, Burgos and Madrid were right on our route. The next 2 piccies were taken somewhere towards Madrid, which we just drove through, not a single picture!!
A couple of "Spanish idiosyncrasies" I became aware of.... gleaming white villages, perched atop a hill, the one below was conveniently situated, right at a petrol station where we filled up - and I can remember the filling-rig was just about the most antiquated I had ever seen - with glass containers getting filled up with petrol - and from there through a hose into the car petrol tank - you could see dead cockroaches etc... floating inside the glass containers! Another "idiosyncrasy" was miles from anywhere, two lane road, us bombing down one lane at maybe 70 mph, and far up ahead in the distance would be 2 Guardia Seville policemen standing facing each other, one on one side of the road, the other, on the other side, just standing - looking straight at each other... nothing would happen as we bombed by... didn't understand it other than from a "we're here" sort of reminder to the locals...??
The other idiosyncrasy, which for some reason I never took a piccie of - were the big "Black Bull" advertising signs, which you'd be able to see miles away on the horizon - do I remember "Cuervo"?? was that what they were advertising?? And if so... what was it?? Booze??
After Madrid came Aranjuez (is that the town that the Concierto d'Aranjuez is named??), Madridejos, Valdepenas, Linares, Cordoba, Sevilla, Jerez, we didn't go into Cadiz but as you can see below - the countryside was getting pretty dry and arid...
And then we got our first sight of Gibraltar..... that's it in the middle distance...
We got a bit closer (at La Linea), bear in mind that Spain and the UK were having one of their "spats" over Gibraltar and crossing from Spain onto The Rock was a full-blown Passport/Customs etc... check - and the Spanish didn't make it all that speedy - so we stayed on the Spanish side for a night.
Then spent a morning climbing all over The Rock, this is looking down, into the harbour...
Around lunch-time we decided to get on a plane to Tangier, I think it was an old Dakota, but what I do remember was that Jimmy Edwards (do you remember him?? big guy booming voice, big moustache, used to be on all the comedy programmes on the radio and TV) and his wife were passengers. We hired a cab for the afternoon and our first "sight" was a lighthouse that separates Atlantic from Mediterranean seas...
bit out of focus.. but do I detect a Moorish influence there...??
This apparently is taken from the "British" section of the city and looking towards Tangiers proper..
Our taxi-driver (second from left) took us into the Casbah where Peter posed with these lovely ladies, outside their houses
So after a quiet couple of days - we were on the road again - up the coast. San Roque, Estepona, Marbella - this was our camp-site at Marbella..
Fuengirola - this is Peter having a fag, and contemplating the seascape towards Torremolinos - isn't it empty....??
Well, if he can contemplate... so can I!! This is nearer to Malaga.....
Towns en-route from Malaga to Alicante included Almunecar, Motril, Almeria, Sorbas, Vera, Aguilas, Mazarron, Cartagena, Murcia and Elche - these next two piccies were taken "somewhere in amongst that lot"...
So we're about 1 week into the trip, and I have to own up to some rather unsavory facts.... We hardly ever stayed in Camp-Sites, so washing and hygiene were not up to much. I can remember we didn't shave at all, and only showered when we could find such amenities...
This is the beach at around 18:30 at San Juan d'Alicante, lovely long shadows, lapping sea... perfect!!
We did come across some development (but nothing like the scale you see now) - our route now went... Villajoyosa, Benidorm, Denia & Javea (Eric Richford and Jan Richford have a house in Javea now), Gandia, Valencia, Sagunto, Moncofar - the next 3 piccies were taken on that stretch..
And into a pretty dodgy looking camp-site at Moncofar.... there again I am not too sure what looks more dodgy... the camp-site or us!! Oh... and we didn't wash the car either!!
We were running out of time... we'd arranged to meet some ladies from ICT/ICL at Putney who were boogeying on down in Estartit on the Costa Brava - our route had to be.. Castellon, Oropesa, Vinaroz, Amposta, Perello, Tarragona, Sitges, Barcelona, Arenyas de Mar, Palamos and Palafrugell..
this is "towards the Costa Brava"
Whilst this has to be "sunset in Costa Brava"...
I think there are two Callelas - a big one and a smaller on - we really liked the small one - all of these piccies were taken there whilst during the evenings we returned to our campsite in Estartit - got vaguely cleaned up - and went disco'ing with the ladies.. I can remember the The Who's - My Generation was "the hit" of the moment - what rocking times we had!!
And an "Arty" piccie in Callela...
I know we did a bit of exploring around Estartit - this is the next bay round the headland...
And then I walked up into those trees - and took a look back at the bay...
And these two are just "near Estartit"...
And then it was all over - we had to bomb-back through France - this is Southern to Middle France...
Whilst we're nearing Boulogne in this last one - and already the leaves are turning...
And then it was back to OUP..and work!!
Shortly after this Peter married Wendy a secretary at OUP and they moved west (was it Trowbridge??) and Virginia Sammon and I went and visited them for a weekend.