Conil, Thursday 11th. June

Up at the crack of 11:00 and not a moment to lose. Full days activities planned. First stop is into Conil (about 5 clicks away) for the Gaditano equivalent of the Hearty Irish Breakfast - this one is; fresh orange juice, Molleta ( kind of bread ) with butter and marmalade, a big milky coffee (no Starmucks down here), fizzy water and a good book, I'm reading 'Master and Commander', perfect considering that Cape Trafalger is about 3 K down the road. A visit to the fishing pier at Cabo Roche to see what's been landed. I missed it this time, they were all leaving but the fish auction is quite a spectacle. It's run along the lines of a 'Dutch Auction' which means that the auctioneer starts at a high price and starts to work down, all the buyers are eyeing each other waiting to pounce at the lowest (or highest) price. Time for the beach and I've taken to going to La Barrosa, I used to go to one of the little coves but 'they' have built a big swanky hotel there, you can still access the beach but it's not the same. A great Spanish invention is the Chiringuito (actually a Mexican word) which is a beach bar, with food, brews and bathrooms. A swift shandy was had and then the towel was spread and Tubby did his impersonation of a beached whale, reading, napping and jumping around in the water. Quality. Time for a wash and hop on the bus for Chiclana for it is the Feria, where there will be all sorts of goings on. It was kiddies day so all the attractions were half-price and the place was teeming with gangs of the young, all throwing shapes and strutting their stuff. I found the grown-up part, the 'casetas', about 50 marquees set up by bars, social clubs, trade unions and so on, all with their specialist tapa and this curious drink called 'rebujuito', a mixture of Manzanilla (sherry) and Sprite, you have been warned. I got around most of them, I think. The nice taxi man brought me to the door and it was sofa and film time. A lot of sofa and about 30 seconds of tele.