Valencia/La Tomatina

Another big day of travel preceeded our arrival to Alicante, Spain where we would spend a night before heading to Valencia. We headed straight for the beach the next day where we soaked up some rays before we had to leave to catch our train to Valencia. The beach at Alicante was quite cool though, with a big castle overhanging the beach behind the beachfront apartments. After the weather we had in Scotland, it felt so good to go swimming and hang by the beach.

After pretty rubbish accommodation in Alicante, we found ourselves staying in a really great AirBnB loft apartment in the heart of the old district in Valencia. But the reason for our arrival in Valencia was so I could take part in La Tomatina. La Tomatina is an annual festival in a small town outside of Valencia called Bunol which involves a huge tomato fight with 20,000 people. Louise wasn’t keen to join as she said she doesn’t like crowds, but I absolutely could not wait until the next day.

I was up early with everything on ready to go. As I navigated my way through the old district to try and find the buses, I was stopped by a young guy from Yorkshire asking if I was heading to La Tomatina with the same company as he and his other mate from Yorkshire, Ewan, were heading there. Once we arrived, we added 2 girls from Canada, and a lady from Adelaide to our crew for the day.

We headed in with the masses, and although we seemed to get lost to our entry point, we somehow stumbled right into the thick of it, and found ourselves by the ham pole. The ham pole is a big (5m) greasy pole with a ham nailed to the top of it. The tradition is to climb the pole in any manner possible and pull the ham off which would kickstart the festivities. If it didn’t come down, the festival would automatically kick off at 11am for an hour of tomato throwing madness. I watched the boys have a crack at trying to get the ham down, but it was pretty brutal to be honest! Both the boys got absolutely swamped and manhandled, so with my skinny frame I decided against it as some of the locals were getting a bit loco. 

We left the crammed crowds by the ham pole to find a bit of space, which made it more enjoyable for us and the girls. At 11am the masses parted and the trucks headed down the street to get the party started. It was absolute carnage, and a huge laugh at the same time. Some of the unrippened tomatoes hurt a bit if you got sconed by one, but most of the time it was pretty good. I found a great possie with these two young guys from Invercargill who I cowered behind while trying to pop off Ewan as he stood out with his 6’2 frame. After 4 trucks you were ankle deep in tomatoes, with the remnants all through your hair, inside your ears and nose, and your clothes absolutely caked with them. After 1 hour though the horn sounded and we traipsed back to the bus grinning with rest of the 20,000 punters that took part. Thankfully the locals all come to the party too and take great pleasure in hosing down the revelers with the hoses as you head off. Our crew of 6 all had plenty of stories to share throughout the afternoon as our tour party took us to a hotel for a swim and some Paella (a Valencian specialty).

The next day was another beach day, and we had the boys from Yorkshire join us for a day of recovery. After sharing a local drink with them that night, they headed off to Malaga while Louise and I used the next day for a walking tour of the city and stocking up on food from the local market. Heading to the markets has been one of our favourite past times throughout Europe, and Valencias market has been the best we have come across with tasty produce, and local meat products to make our lunches and dinners with. 

The city itself was definitely a very beautiful and liveable city. For our last day we did a self guided walking tour and went and had a yum seafood meal along the waterfront. Louise does a great job at finding us the best spots to try all the local cuisine, so im enjoying branching out. Our meal that night consisted of squid, mussels, fish rice, and shrimp dishes. After fulling ourselves up again it was time to prepare for a big day of travel to our next stop - Madrid.

Isle of Mull

I mentioned we took a weekend trip to the Isle of Mull, and it deserves its own blog post, if only to tell the story of our memorable car journey around the Island.

The Island is known for its wildlife, with many visitors going on photography and sightseeing tours to see the puffins, and basking sharks etc. But for us, we decided to check out Duart Castle, as this had been one of by goals visiting Scotland – to get a good photo of a castle. To be honest I actually got the best photos on a visit to another castle – Kilchurn castle, when Vivian took us on a separate sightseeing trip near Loch Awe. But after catching the ferry we headed to Duart castle and learnt about its history and read the stories about the Maclean clan who it belongs to. The stories and the way the family lived I found pretty interesting, as well as the fact that it had been used as a backdrop to the movie Entrapment with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones.

But this was where the fun really began…After taking some photos I found Louise in the tea room chatting to this Father and Son from New York who I had a quick chat to earlier at the ferry terminal. After hearing that we were heading to Tobermory by bus, they offered us a lift, which we jumped at. He warned us that the rental was quite like his Mercedes he had at home and he wasn’t quite use to the gears being on the opposite side etc, but we didn’t think much of it. As we got began to leave the castle our worse fears began to be realized – the father was a horrendous driver. He slowly backed out before slamming it into first gear and revving the hell out of it, before peeling out of the gravel car park onto the one lane drive way. It took some maneuvering every time we were confronted with oncoming traffic, and each and every time he would rev first gear into oblivion. By the time we got to the end of the 2km driveway, the clutch was smoking and smelling something horrendous. We then headed to tobermory which was an hour away on windy and often one laned roads. He proceeded to drive well to the left and in the ditch, and complained he couldn’t tell where the car was on the road without looking in the side mirror! When we were approached by an oncoming car he pulled into a passing bay which unfortunately was on a hill. He struggled to get it going as he couldn’t hill start and proceeded to slowly roll back towards the car behind us while he was again revving the hell out of it. The car behind us thought he better pass us, and then he got offended and started going off at the car in typical (verbal) New York style as it went past. By this stage Louise and I just wanted to get to Tobermory and get out as we both thought there was the strong possibility of being in a crash that day. Finally after an hour of white knuckling it, we saw the sign for Tobermory. We were relieved to have thought that we had finally made it – wrong! He asked his son whether to go left or right around the roundabout, to which the reply was right. He chose neither, and went straight over the top of it! After more panicking we finally made it to Tobermory where I jumped out and offered to help guide them into a carpark. Was terrifying stuff!

Other than Duart Castle and our ride from hell, we just ate fish and chips, went for a walk at a really nice park near the town, and then waited out the storm to see if our ferry had been cancelled. Needless to say, we caught the bus to the ferry to head back to Kilchrenan.

Kilchrenan

It was a big day of travel to get to the little village we would call home for nearly 3 weeks,  as we had to travel back to Glasgow with our rental car before heading up to Kilchrenan by bus. We took about a thousand photos of the rental car before dropping it off, as I was panicking I would be fleeced of all my savings. The rental car guy was stoked when we heard we had even washed it for him, so there was no need to panic. The bus trip to Kilchrenan was one of the best journeys we have made, as it drove through the Loch Lomond national park passing by the Loch itself, the surrounding mountains, and had castles popping up all over the show as well.

We were picked up in a little town called Taynauilt by David (a Sean Connery lookalike!) and Vivian (a lovely lady of Italian descent), our Workaway hosts, and driven to their tiny little village called Kilchrenan. The village has a pub, a hotel, a village hall, and a school which has 6 students. David and Vivians house was a big house right on the side of Loch Awe, with a big bit of land that their son Phillip uses frequently for his wildlife photography business. We would soon get to know every inch of their land well over the next 2 and a half weeks, as David told us that our main task would be clearing the land of the bracken (weedy looking fern that grows everywhere), and tidying up the area in time for their sons 30th birthday. 

In terms of the Workaway scheme, we worked 4-5hrs a day in exchange for room and meals. We thought it would be a good way to base ourselves for awhile so we could explore the highlands without spending too much money. The work was pretty tough going though to be honest, as we originally thought it would be quite a mixture of indoor and outdoor work, but it was pretty laborious landscaping nearly every day. I seemed to use the weedeater (strimmer as they call it) all day every day, while Louise enjoyed working around the pond.

On Monday we went to the village hall for tea and scone morning, which seemed to be the big local event of the week. It was pretty good though I must admit. But while we were there we met a bunch of other workaways, mostly from Spain, and others from the Netherlands and Aussie. We decided to meet them at the pub on Wed night for a drink, which was a really good time. But over the next two weeks we mainly hung out with Migual and Noella, a really nice couple from Ferrol in the NW of Spain, and Endena who was from the Basque country. They were a great crew to hang out with, and gave us plenty of ideas for when we got to Spain. They were there working to improve their English to help them secure jobs.

Other than working and a weekend trip to the Isle of Mull, we spent most of our days taking David and Vivians dog Mya for a walk in the afternoon where we would also pick the blackberrys that lined the road. We grew really fond of Mya, as she was definitely one of the most obedient and friendly dogs we have both ever come across. Louise also grew fond of Phillip and his wife Lizzies triplets! They were a really great couple, and we enjoyed hanging around with them, but it was also pretty full on when the triplets were about. They seemed to be very fond of Louise, but would cower when they saw me. The triplets pram also looked like an armoured patrol vehicle as it was so big, so that was pretty hard case.

To top off our time there, David and Vivian threw a 30^th birthday party for their other son Aron, who lives in Glasgow. He was a real nice guy as well, and about 15 or so people had an amazing lunch prepared by Vivian with dishes inspired from all around the globe. It was a good way for us to finish as well, because as we were sitting at the table pretty proud of all our hard work in the garden. After stuffing ourselves to the absolute brim and going back for seconds of haggis, we went and met my second cousin Wayne for a drink and another bite to eat the Taynauilt pub. Its always good to meet or catch up with family when you are travelling, and be able to swap stories. After finishing one last (and probably the best) pub meal we had in Scotland, we shared one last drink with Migual, Noella, and Endena, before we packed and looked forward to some warmth and sun in Spain.

Note: The weather in Scotland is as bad as they mention…it rains, a lot, and the

maximum high it got to (in summer) was balmy 14C!

Loch Voil

After signing my life away at the car rental place in Glasgow and not understanding the rental dealer because of his thick Glaswegian accent (which I reckon was a great marketing ploy) we headed for Loch Voil via Stirling to the north of Glasgow. Outside of Stirling we passed the William Wallace monument (William Wallace was made famous in Mel Gibsons Braveheart) before finally arriving at Loch Voil to be welcomed by our host Les. Les was a white haired, pigtailed wearing, gumbooted hippy who had lived in this spot for a number of years where she had worked creating animations before being bought out by BBC producers and recently setting up the land into a small hostel.

The Loch was surrounded by craggy Scottish hills which immediately made me feel at home and relaxed. The lake was bloody freezing though, so no swimming and although its apparently got good fishing I didn’t see one person fishing the entire time and was unable to get a line in the water.

I woke up on the 4^th of August as a 28yr old and enjoyed a quiet day exploring the Loch with Louise. We spent the day dodging the rain and collecting firewood to keep the fireplace going and keep ourselves cosey in our cabin. She spoiled me with a cooked breakfast, my fav lentil dish for dinner, and then pulled out a cake with candles just before bed. Being out in the boonies and surrounded by the beauty of the Scottish mountains was a good way to spend my 28^th birthday, as for my 27^th birthday I was up Ruapehu in a mountain hut with a great bunch of mates on a mountaineering course, so maybe I might start a birthday tradition of being out in the wilderness for my birthday each year.

 

The next day was spent exploring the Loch by walking the tracks surrounding it with a nice British girl called Annie. She was a really interesting girl and had gone to Loch Voil to get away from London for a few days. We arrived back from our walk to find our cabin full of life with 2 other groups of people arriving, including two French guys from Nantes. They were a great couple of guys who were mates from home travelling around enjoying the Scottish Whiskey distilleries and the highlands. Needless to say the night was a good celebration as they found out it was my birthday the day prior and proceeded to provide me with plenty of their whiskey supply. Events throughout the night included the many games of chirades that had to be played to understand each other fully, and the arrival of Kermit the frog which one of the boys had picked up off the ground outside to scare the weird Norwegian girl who had joined us.

Waking a little worse for wear the next day the plan was to head to a nearby town called Killin as the highland games were passing through. The highland games pass around towns throughout Scotland where they compete in different events such as piping, Scottish dancing, caber toss (log throw), weight throw (shot put), and the best of all – the hill run. I had seen a mate had competed in the hill run at another highland games a few days prior so thought id take my shoes along in the off chance that I might be able to join in as well. I asked an older Scottish guy about the race where he showed me the course – up to the pylons at the top of the big hill in front he said. It was a big climb but definitely manageable at about 1mile in total. So I decided to register and get involved.

I thought I better do a bit of a warm up as to be careful with my Achilles problem still nagging at me, and noticed that it seemed quite a serious little event in the community. The race started and we headed on up with the pylons in sight, and I stayed in second most of the way thinking I might be able to bag a sneaky win while on holiday. We made it to the first pylon only to be told in a thick Scottish accent “Keep going, and head for those clouds”. Over the next 20mins I found out that the pylons were approximately one quarter of the climb, and the old fella at the registration either was having me on, or I misunderstood him as it just kept going and going. It also got steeper to the point where I was literally on all fours. At the top I was in 10^th place. I was relieved to have made it to the peak and looked down at the village below laughing at the thought of the story I had for Louise when I got down.

The downhill was just as mental, as they flew down the same hill with a recklessness that I admired. I would finish about 20^th after cautiously making my way down. Even though it was a hard slog, I really enjoyed myself and got a good laugh out of it. The whole town and all the spectators at the games really support it and cheer you down the entire way. Louise got a good laugh when I arrived after admitting she was getting a bit worried when I hadn’t arrived back earlier. So after watching a bit more of the games including the impressive caber toss, we headed back to Loch Voil for some rest before getting ready for our Workaway experience in Kilchrenan.

Glasgow - Commonwealth Games

As we said goodbye to Francois family we boarded our easyjet flight bound for Glasgow. I was really looking forward to catching up with and watching some mates compete in various events. We were staying at a makeshift campground quite a way out of town at a sports field in my famous tent. My tent has been through a lot and kept me safe and dry while staying in Arthurs Pass a few years ago during a massive thunderstorm while training for Coast to Coast, so I am very fond of my tent and its abilities. But others not so – The last time I had shared this tent with a gf, she was no longer my gf a week later after a tough weekends camping while there was a slight leak. So I was worried I might once again find myself single after 6 nights in the tent.

Our first event we checked out was Laurens 400m freestyle final. Louise had bought me tickets for my birthday which I was stoked about. It was very expensive to get tickets to certain events, and as much as I wanted to go to watch Lauren race I didn’t think I could really afford it, so was happy when Louise surprised me a few days before Glasgow with tickets. We had awesome seats about 5 rows back, and I could see Smally and the Boyle contingent on the other side of the arena. Laurens race was first up, and just was so stoked to see her win gold. I have known Lauren since I was about 15 when we were both on the Don Oliver Sports Foundation, and know how hard she works so was so happy and proud to see her win gold. We were sitting with a NZ contingent and a family of another swimmer who told me to go down when Lauren was doing her victory lap, so was great to be able to give her a big congratulatory hug.

The next day we headed to the track to watch Lennie compete in the 3km. Lennie ran at Rice in the girls team while I was there, and recently got engaged to one of my best mates from Rice, Matt. We met up with Matt, his family, and coach Jim (Womens coach from Rice) prior to the race, and it was awesome to see them. But it was race time shortly, so after seeing Lennie warm up on the warm up track we headed to our seats. Louise and Mine were right in front of the start for the 3km steeple, and was able to wish her luck and give her a high five as she was led out. The atmosphere at the stadium was awesome, and since Lennie was racing for Scotland she got a massive roar from the crowd which mustve been a huge buzz. She ran a great race and was able to finish 9^th just outside her PB, and although I think she was a touch disappointed she loved the experience to compete on home soil. The next day we were able to catch up with them again and enjoy a coffee and then went out for beers that night. Was like old times. We were joined by Lennies sister Katie and husband as well who were both Rice athletes in athletics, and baseball. Katies husband also went on to play Major League Baseball for the Angels, which Rhys and Amber will be proud of.

Our last day in Glasgow was a big one. Louise convinced me to head to the Hockey semis with her which really surprised me. Being someone who was never really been into Hockey, I really enjoyed it. Like the Tour, it’s the speed of the game that really impress youes. We saw the Aussies take down England in a good game, and then were surrounded by another loud Kiwi contingent and team members families for the black sticks game. Although it was about 10C, drizzly, and the Black Sticks lost to India after being 2-0 up, I really enjoyed it. It was great to have Louise at a sporting event she enjoyed and see her passionate about, as she was also able to fill me in on a few of the rules and tactics too.

In between events our days consisted of walking to and from the campground and enjoying the cheap pub meals in Glasgow. I mustve had about 3 stake and ale pies in 3 days, and Louise reminds me that I had 3 chicken bakes (chicken pie pastries) from Greggs (much to Matts disgust) in 24hrs. But after one last pub meal in Glasgow we headed to Hampden Park to watch the final session on the track.

The stadium was rocking for the last session as Usain Bolt was making an appearance in the 4*100m in the last event of the night. But I was most looking forward to the mens 1500m final with Nick Willis and Julian Mathews both racing. I had grown up and raced against both guys, tangling with Julian at Sec Schools on occasion, so was great to see them qualify and ready to take it to them. I was really confident Nick would pull of the Win as he was in such good form leading up to the event. But as what happens in championship racing, tactics didn’t quite work in his favour and found him caught on the inside before having too much work to do kicking down the straight. Julian had done awesome to make it to the final, but couldn’t quite click into another gear when the heat went on. Was great to be able to watch them, and again we had awesome seats just at the turn heading into the straight.

 

Thankfully we were undercover though as it was bucketing down the whole night! The runway for the Pole Vault was flooded and required officials to use giant squeegies to dry it out enough to compete as athletes would hurt themselves otherwise. But the whole time it was raining I couldn’t help but think of my tent back at the campground and whether I would still have a girlfriend tomorrow.

We enjoyed the rest of the night watching Stu Farquhar compete in the Jav. I had met Stu a few years ago when I was lucky enough to go to Noumea to race up there. His folks were sitting two down from us, so was good to have a chat to them as well even though I was wary of not bothering them too much as no doubt they were feeling the nerves along with Stu.

The final event of the night finally arrived with the man himself- Usain Bolt, making an appearance. We were just fortunate that Usain was competing the same night as the 1500m final. He showboated his way around and entertained the crowd all the way until the starting gun, even dancing along to the Scottish theme song, The Pretenders – I would walk 500 miles, which was played all over Glasgow while we were there. He absolutely blew away the competition in his leg of the 4*100, and although it was over in a flash he really was incredible to watch live.

We finally headed back in the drizzling rain to the campground where I had said to Louise that I would check the tent first before she took a look so I could survey the damage (if any). While we were away a peg had broken causing the rain to get in, so we had a big puddle in our tent. I let Louise keep warm in the clubroom while I fixed up the mess which involved shifting bags into the clubrooms to dry out, emptying the water out, drying out the tent with a towel, fixing the tent, and getting our sleeping gear back in. Long story short I fixed the situation, we had a dry nights sleep, and Louise remained with me the next day as we headed to the highlands where we hoped for a roof over our head and a warm fire to keep us dry and warm.