Benalmadena Part Four – and final!

Thursday in Spain was beautifully chilled and spent doing what we had become accustomed to; sun bathing, swimming and keeping hydrated with Sangria... see I told you there was a theme!

Friday was my favourite day of the holiday! Through the Sunset Beaches excursion team we had all booked a trip to Gibraltar. Still part of our “British Empire” Gibraltar was beautiful but to be honest I knew nothing about the place... so much so when we booked the trip; Mike and I decided to go Dolphin Safari, whilst the rest of the family decided to explore “The Rock” and I asked “Which rock?”... I surprise myself sometimes!

THE Rock!

Anyway, we had an hour and a half coach trip to the town – I was a sleep for most of that!  The week overall was catching up on me, this all might not sound a lot but I generally spend my days, doing a few little bits and resting in between, nights out and holidays take me days or weeks to recover from!

When we arrived in Gibraltar, Mike and I were taken straight to the harbour; we had half an hour to kill so we went boat shopping..... just choosing our yacht for when we win in the lottery, and before I get any messages, yes we do play it!

Once we got on the catamaran I was parked at the back of the boat, and had no intention of walking around the rocky vessel. Within minutes of leaving the harbour we were being followed by a small pod of common dolphins, these were tiny to what I expected only 1-3metres in length but they were mesmerising never the less! As the engines were fired up and we moved faster through the sea, the dolphins were leaping in the waves behind us! They were almost impossible to photograph, although Mike took the money shot! I did a lot of filming instead.

Mike's money shot!

During the excursion we were told about Billy the Bottle Nose. Usually this breed and common dolphins do not get on, with the bottle noses actively bullying their smaller counter parts. In 2006 the Dolphin Safari team noticed a young Billy swimming with the common guys and it seems they have adopted him and/or he’s a bit confused and thinks he’s one of them!

Half way through our hour long trip, Billy made an appearance, at 3-4 metres in size he wasn't hard to spot amongst the others. As mentioned I was parked up at the back and Billy seemed to be at the front on the opposite side of the boat. I didn't think I’d get to see him close up, then one of the crew next to me pointed and Billy was swimming towards where I was, not only did he come right next to me he stopped pulled his head sideways and looked right at me. I was recording a video as that point and you can hear me in the background – “Woooow....oh my God! oh my God! oh my God!”  - it made my holiday!!

After the boat trip we had some lunch and wandered around the harbour and shops before it was time to head back to our hotel.

On our last evening we decided to cook any of our left over’s and order in pizza from the onsite takeaway. Again we congregated on Mike’s parents’ balcony and listened to A Neil Diamond tribute act, who was actually very good (you would have been impressed Karen!).

Spain is a beautiful country, the people are enthusiastic and helpful (and by the way love children – our waiters couldn’t get enough of my baby Niece Beth), the weather was wonderful (although compared to OZ did nothing for my RSD/CRPS), I wouldn’t recommend going unless you have a powerful motored chair or a strong family member to get you around, but having the latter I had a brilliant time and will one day return and go back to see Billy!

L x