So with Sarah flying home yesterday as a surprise graduation present for her sister i am now back in my own little world! I am still in Spain and the sun is still shining so things are good.

I celebrated my newly returned freedom this morning by indulging in some lost pleasures that happen when you stay with ´colnel´ Sarah. I began by eating breakfast in bed, however this was no ordinary breakfast; my menu consisted of dry frosties (couldnt be bothered to buy milk) of which i got crumbs everywhere from spooning them into my mouth with my fingers. I then proceeded onto the second installment of my healthy breakfast regime of chocolate biscuits all washed down with coca cola straight from the bottle, and the best part..... i didnt even brush the covers off! Oh the delights of not living under the ´Sarah´ dictatorship! That aside when it did come to other esential tasks such as map reading and making lunch it does help to have a Sarah!

So back to the real deal, this morning i surfed, oh yes a whole 3 hours of it! This morning i met up with some friends we met earlier in the trip called mike and cheniel a kiwi and an english girl. We surfed all morning and now i think the plan is to find a nice cold beer and watch some rugby, i think you will agree dad a fairly perfect day!

So i shall say good bye and get back to my little world of simple pleasures and pretend that this life is not far from ending.....

Love to you all,
Zach xxx

Oh hi Sarah!!!! x

Hello,

It is now just Zach and myself; sister and Jo left early yesterday and will be back at work as I type. I throughly enjoyed having them with us, as did Zach, though he would state otherwise. At one point he was continually asking to go shopping instead of sight seeing. All three of us were positively shocked. Maybe I should have recorded it...

And so back to trying to find surf, which I must say is rather frustrating. I had no idea it was so difficult, the sea aims to please no one. The swell really has disappeared. We have come across a fair few equally deluded charaters. Today we are in Ferrol, near La Coruna. Heading to Santander tomorrow to hopefully meet with some friends we made in Malpica, also a small detail of some rugby thing happening which Zach is most keen to see. So a bar with a television is the aim tomorrow.

Having spent two afternoons in Porto I really quite like it, and we barely scratched the surface. On wednesday we had a wonderful meal, I ate octopus...was very good. Zach enjoyed the wine, as well as his giant fish!

Hope you are all well and dandy.

Love Sarah and Zach
xxx

Just added some new ones: http://s86.photobucket.com/albums/k109/zach7112/Portugal/

xx

Yesterday we welcomed Charlotte and Jo off the plane at Porto airport who have come to stay with us for 3 nights. Me and Sarah had located us a very nice campsite to stay on for their duration so once we had picked them up we returned to base camp to decide on how best to spend our days. So, the girls formed a stringent specification for their holiday which obviously revolved the 3 essentials of: sunbathing, shopping and sightseeing! Oh joy!

We spent yesterday morning until the late afternoon sunbathing... obviulsy not being able to sit in the same place for more than ten minutes gives me some issues with this 'sport' and so to amuse myself i enjoyed such activities as hole digging, rock hopping and new favourite past time of trying to bury a beautified, beach ready Sarah.

As you may well have guessed by the title i am currently on the verge of going slighty crazy, to date i haven't got wet in 6.5 days and due to the swell pattern in the atlantic sending waves in every other direction other than portugal it is looking like i will be staying dry for a few more days yet.

So after the girls had suitably reddened themselves it was off for an afternoon in Porto, i had heard good things about Porto, amoungst other things i was lead to believe this was the hallowed home of Port drinking..... i wasn't let down!

Reaching Porto by metro was a reasonably stress free operation and the initial glimpses of Porto were fantastic..... until i was foolishly distracted and led up an alleyway by the sisters which clearly wasn't a well trodden tourist path! After close shaves with some unruly locals in an area to which i likened to what i would imagine 'the bronx' to be like we escaped into the real Porto.

Obvioulsy it was this stressfull situation coupled with the lack of water based activities which lead me to a new liquid based activity.... Port drinking! To cut a long story short we ended up in a local Portugese port cave which happened to be fairly liberal to say the least with its free samples!! After a 'number' of samples i was fooled into buying the second most expensive bottle!!..... obviously it was the heat which affected my judgement!

Today we have spent the morning 60km north in Vianna De Costella which we decided that Jo and Charlotte had to see. We had a good time, the girls more so as there was lots of shops to amuse them, leaving me in my own world of pipe dreams and 'surfer magazine'.

The first van trauma occured this afternoon with a knocking noise from the back end, although after tightening the rear off side bearing, fingers crossed should have solved the problem and i am just hoping that the wing mirror i smashed the other day hasn't cursed poor isabelle! 4100 miles down i think about 2000 to go.

So as the girls sun themselves on the beach and i escape into my own dream land of waves and ideas i shall bid you all farewell!

Lots of love to everyone

A slightly loopy Zach
xxx

Just added a few more pics, we have found a nice cheap campsite that has internet right next to the beach not far from porto, so i think we may use this as a base for when our visitors arrive tomorrow. You may also be interested to follow this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=0201

The new pictures can be found at: http://s86.photobucket.com/albums/k109/zach7112/Portugal/

Lots of love

Zach and Sarah
xxx

Hello,

We have finally arrived in Portugal, and so far it has been consistently sunny, fabulous. Yesterday we went to Viana do Castelo, a very beautiful large town in the north of Portugal. The Santa Luzia Sanctuary (temple) is on a huge hill overlooking the whole town. To climb to the top the public scale a narrow staircase of 158 steps, through wich we reached the dome. Then to get to the tiny viewpoint at the very top of the temple there is a spiral stone staircase that is shoulder width and very steep steps. Obviously the portugese saw no need for any safety things, let alone a banister. They tried with a traffic light system for the spiral section however one end was not working. The views were beautiful and only a few people could actually fit at the very top so it was not a battle to see anything. Good for people of lesser height like myself.

The shops are not very tempting, which is good for a spendy trousers like me, and increasingly Zach. So instead we are compensating by food shopping, the excitement. Buying bread always leads to other, naturally necessary, purchases. So far Zach has cooked once, and it was very good, though due to our lazy washing up attitude supper is generally simple. I have just been told off for saying z has only cooked once, ok, only cooked once all by himself. He has been an occasional assitant!

Today in Povoa de Varzim. Reasonable place, though more tourist ridden that other places we have been, or perhaps it is just more obvious. Also less attractive than the standard seen so far. Although i am appalled with the spanish standard of houses, they are falling down, or half built. Portugal is better in that respect.

Probably will be on beaches this afternoon and tomorrow, i am on my last book so sister bringing a fresh supply will be a welcome relief. We will be going into Porto and Braga early next week then heading back up to Spain for a serious surf hunt. At the moment it is 1ft if z is lucky. Not good for either of us...Though Pam you should be pleased to hear your son has avidly read a good book by an intelligent author in the guise of it being a crime novel. I am most impressed.

Hope all are wonderful at home. It feels like we are hardly far away at all as we can contact you so easily. Take care, will write soon.

Sarah and Zach
xxx

Finally got the picture situation sorted, we have been fairly rubbish on taking lots of pictures so we will aim to do a bit more snapping soon!

Enjoy! http://s86.photobucket.com/albums/k109/zach7112/Spain/

Love Zach and Sarah

Good afternoon,

Today we have sunshine, wonderful stuff and should hopefully only get better for a while. Yesterday we arrived in a small town called Malpica, north west Spain, to find it was having a fiesta. Having never been to one before it was quite an exciting prospect. After mixing with the locals our spanish friend Gerard informed us that the warm up drinks began at 11pm, the after party starting at 6am going on until 2pm the following afternoon. It would seem that the Spanish really love to party and they have some crazy stamina for it.

Before our more conservative drinking time began 3 germans, 1 spanish and 2 english attempted a spanish ommlette. Zach and i got a shock when ordering a totilla in a restaurant, our idea being triangular crisps with salsa etc and a custard looking triangle appeared instead, it turned out to be on closer inspection a delicious spanish ommlette; hence the reasoning behind trying it ourselves. Basically Gerard took control and it was delicious, only slight problem was it looked like scrambled egg as the non stick in our pan had disappeared.

So off we went into tyhe spanish night where we found a mini funfare, some music so excruciating you had to get into it or well, no or option really seeing as the had speakers everywhere. Towards the end of the delightful entertainment Zach and our friend Patrick lifted up a funny little man in horrendously white trousers who was posing as a popstar for the night. Hilarious, i think the man was in heaven.

After seriously doubting if we'd make it beyond 1 given our generally 10pm bedtimes we strolled into the van at about 4, 3 of our companions lasted til 6.30. Then awoke this morning to some dazed and confused people generally tripping up and falling onto the beach at around midday.

My spanish is vaguely improving though laziness is seeping in now we have someone who is fluent in our midst. This afternoon we are in Laxe, where hopefully the waves will be to the guys satisfaction; I say hopefully as if not hours can be consumed finding suitable waves.

We went to A Courna the other day, very nice city, the boys got very excited by a fountain with statues of surfers in the middle. Patrick got so excited in fact that he went into the fountain, taking his surfboard with him, to pose next to the fihures. Zach dutifully has it all on video and i daresay all reading this shall watch extensive amounts of random videoing. Like earlier in the van my attempts to get a view of a beautiful ocean mostly managed to get a view of a dishevelled Zach's head.

My aplogies, we are awful i know, but soon we will put photos up. It is proving to be quite a hassle linking them, finding wifi, or remembering the right leads. One place we managed to find a computer they were behind a glass panel. Soon, i promise, i shall take control of computer bag packing and hopefully we shall find a compatible computer soon.

Hope you are all wonderful and getting some sunshine, you are allowed it now we have some!

Love to you all

Sarah and Zach

Holla, we have moved on to Gijon in northern Spain now, we have been around the Santander area for the last few days hanging out with some new friends we made. The waves have been really really good the last few days and i even managed 5 hours the day before yesterday, although i do feel rather like an old man now!
I think our plan is to move on a bit further this afternoon with an aim of reaching A Coruna within the next few days. The weather hasn´t been to great yesterday and today but it is still warm, in the mid 20´s.

The van is still in one piece and has now covered 3700 miles since leaving the UK, apart from a wiring problem yesterday everything has been fine, touch wood.

No photo´s today i am afraid as we are in an internet cafe in the city, so we will have to wait and upload some from the laptop next time we find somewhere with wireless.

Hope everyone is ok and thanks for all my birthday messages

Love to everyone

Zach and Sarah x

Hey there,

Currently near Mundaka at the moment. Weather awful, rain and cold, waves good, but zach doesn't think he can work these waves so we both have attempted body boarding today. It was quite good, alot easier than surfing but when the coast guard people made us wear flippers i couldn't work them at all, maybe next time....

In Spain it seems the done thing to stay in car parks and things as camp sites are alot fewer and further between than in france. Last night was find but hopefully we will try to alternate.

Luke, Jo and Jacob, hope you are all wonderful, i heard about the imminent move, how exciting! Very sorry you don't have mine and zach's muscles to help, but we are good at decorating... Zach instructed me not to get him a big birthday presentfrom englandso i could buy him something he would like here, we have yet to find it! I got him aselection of usefulpresents,such as a drinks thing that looks like a fire extinguisher, some novelty pants and a giant dice to put cds in and supplied him with a meal accompanied by champagne. It was a fantastic restaurant, food amazing.

We have met some more friendly germans but the spanish haven't yet taken a liking to us, i may have accidently spoken french to one, they were less than impressed.

I hope cornwall isn't too rainy mother, maybe you have stolen our sunshine?!

Speak to you soon.

Love Sarah and Zach
x