Larry Goes to Fuengirola. (7) Sunday 15 May 2022

 The day began quietly with a pleasant morning. I had a shower, got some breakfast, filled Larry's water tank and emptied the other tanks, and set off towards Dona Mencia, about 430Km south and not very far north of Granada. 

The route is very straightforward, down the Autovia del Sur, a name even I can translate. It goes through the outskirts of Madrid, but on a Sunday morning the traffic was light and I sailed serenely through, and carried on South.

I say serenely, but I was starting to get a little concerned. When I parked up last night, I noticed a new noise coming from the engine. It was not a loud noise, but it was not there the day before. It sounded like tappet noises, not too alarming, no dashboard warnings, so I carried on.

When I pulled in for fuel a couple of hours later, the noise was far worse. It sounded like a bag of marbles being shaken. I could not leave it where it was so reluctantly I carried on just a few yards further where the next exit was for Valdepenas. I pulled off there, parked up in an industrial area and began phoning ... LV were quite efficient, they passed me on to their European partners (in France) who found a breakdown firm to attend. All this took a couple of hours. Why do these things always happen on a Sunday?

The breakdown man spoke no English, "de nada," which even I could translate. But we listened to the engine and somehow agreed that something was wrong. "Wheel" he said, rocking his hand and pointing to the engine. Good to have a mechanic I could relate to. He put the van on the back of his flatbed truck (and I am dancing around, saying "5 metres!" Now you are 5m high! Pas de ponts!") .. and took me back to his depot in Santa Cruz de Mudela, a small Spanish town in the middle of nowhere. The garage has a promising look about it, but it is closed until 9am tomorrow, so I must wait....

 

 

 Larry is waiting patiently to see the doctor

 The most interesting thing I could find in Santa Cruz de Mudela, a memorial to that well-known poet, Oscar Pina, who was born here I presume. He seems a stranger to Wikipedia and in fact the internet in general..