Middle-aged flash packers

In our defence, the whole point of a road trip is you can make it up as you go along – if your plans no longer make sense, rather than stick rigidly to them, you can be flexible and do something else instead. Now I know this probably isn’t the attitude that the great explorers of the past would agree with but Captain Scott would definitely have lived longer had he decided that the Antarctic was a bit too cold at that time of year and gone to Florida instead.

And so with us. After scrutinising every weather report known to man, it became clear that the next leg of our road trip, along the east coast of Spain, was going to receive very poor weather. As in rain every day. And this rain would continue all the way until we closed the circle in Bilbao. How about no?

And how about yes to cloudless, warm, sunny days for the foreseeable future in the Costa de la Luz?

About turn and back to where we came from, although this time, rather than Cadiz area, we headed further west, not far from the Portuguese border. We have holed up in a resort called Islantilla which is situated on a long and beautiful beach.

Our accommodation is a little townhouse next to a golf course. It’s fine but the owner is completely paranoid and getting in and out of the property is akin to breaking out of Alcatraz. Plus we are now so worried about marauding bandits who are just lying in wait to burgle us, we are terrified to leave anything of value outside on our terrace for even a second. Perhaps the golfers are just cleverly disguised criminals who jump out of their buggies as soon as our backs are turned and steal all our washing.

On our first night, we strolled into town to check out the beach and get something to eat. The new part of the resort reminds me of Floridian beach towns – a bit sterile but clean and modern, with everything you need.

Venturing into the older part, there’s a lot more atmosphere even though it’s a bit more ramshackle. We ate at a no frills seafood restaurant and it was divine. Perfectly cooked squid, washed down with cold white wine, while watching an amazing sunset. My only complaint was Steve’s glass of wine was fuller than mine – very sexist behaviour from the waiters if you ask me.

Today we wandered along the beach. As in El Puerto de Santa Maria, families and friends were out in force, seated under sunshades, eating and drinking together. Further down, the beach becomes wilder and is backed by sand dunes. The naturists hang out here (literally) which is mildly disconcerting and it is a little difficult to avert one’s eyes at times.

Tonight we will eat in, mussels and prawns are on the menu. The sun is just starting to go down, and it looks like it’s going to be another fab sunset.

Ridiculously, we both feel as if we should be doing something productive and we’re finding it hard to sit still. I think it’s the explorers in us.