Meeting Friend(s) in Orgiva, crossing the stunning Spanish landscape, camping in heaven

Here, I am going to say it, and my fellow friends Spaniards can take it all in, Spain is probably one of the most beautiful country in the world.

And not only that, I can safely say after being in Spain for 3 weeks, the Spanish people are the nicest, easy going people I've met in my life time, and it's no surprise why so many decide to move in, from all around the world.

My friend @trucklife-family offered me to come play a gig in her area, at the association Huella Meraki, a group of like minded individual organizing the resistance against boring people, and they're doing a really good job at being the coolest folks on earth.

Imagine a place where free spirited people come and go, where life is dictated by a different rhythm, far away from the mass psyschosis formation that the masses have gone through, true freedom, for the most daring of all, unequivocally liberated from the shackles of social pressures, and the "thought police".

Of course, as we are living in Javea, the idea of a 5 hours trip in the car with 3 kids and 2 dogs, was rather challenging.
But my family is never shying away from an adventure, so they gladly accepted the offer, to come with me on this trip.

The Spanish highway is very well maintained, and people aren't driving too much like maniacs.
I felt safe at all time, and respected the speed limit as radars (and even drones) are spread all across the country, very similar to France for that matter.
On our journey through Spain, we saw Benidorm with his incredile skycrapers, Alicante with his beautiful costline, Elche, Murcia, Lorca, Almeria, and a few more that I forgot. We only saw Granada on the way back, deciding to take a easier roads for the kids in the mountains.

A lot of French songs talk about Andalucia, I understand now why

I kept my eyes on the road for the whole trip, but I couldn't help but gasping with "OOOh" and "AAAh" everytime something beautiful was appearing to us, which was pretty much every minute.

We were surprised by the immensity of the land, and the lack of population density.

Also what has been interesting since we've arrived in Spain, is the variety of the landscape.
When we crossed the French/Spanish border 3 weeks ago, the landscape was very similar on each side: Green, vast, probably cold in winter, and with a certain level of precipitations.

The closer we got to Javea, the more arid like and desert the landscape became. My wife @lionmom pointed out that it looks very similar to South Africa.

The sun was starting to set down, and we weren't really close to our final destination. lucky for us the trip was mostly on the highway, and it helped maintaing a good cruising speed, while staying safe from the narrower roads in the mountains.

However, to get to where we were supposed to go, the narrow roads were inevitable, everyone is driving very slow and safe up there, which is great for those that want to admire the view.

I am a fairly recent driver, as I've been driving for 3 years only. I've learnt a lot driving in the Gers, so I was very confident, took some breaks when needed, and lucky for me the kids were super chilled, the dogs too.

It's still a 5 hours drive afterall, so it's important to recognize these moments of fatigue, to avoid any mistakes. I didn't make many, just once when trying to overtake as someone else was overtaking me, I was actually thinking about something ("did I packed the guitar in the guitar case or did I load it empty in the car?") and didn't see the car coming behind me.

I got "woken up" by a horn, but not bird flipping from the other car, I told you the Spanish were friendlier, even when I make mistakes. I make a sorry gesture 🙏 to the other car, and they told me it's alright, no harm done.
One thing for sure, I was ultra focused for the rest of the trip.

We arrived at Truck's camp at night, and got lost in the valley. You see, we didn't come from Grenada, we came from the coast, and it means we arrived from a total different direction that she was expecting.
Long story short, we ended up doing some offroad with a family SUV, crossing a dry river bed, climbing up hills, get lost a bit more, stay in contact with Ash on the phone so you can give her a minute by minute progress. 😂
It was a fun experience, the kids were ok, appart from the fact that our little one threw up her Springles (this post is brought to you by...) on these narrow roads, but I can't blame her, it's really high and curvy up there.

I don't picture at night, as I was focused on the road, and asking people around if they heard of someone called "Trucklife family" 😜.

We finally reached her, and after a warm embraced, we smoked one together, she made us some delicious vegan wraps that my wife and I devoured, and she had a caravan, a cozy bed, a tent ready for our little tribe.

What a fucking CHAMP!!!

We meet her little ones and she meets ours, everybody gets along well as expected, and I have to say, She raised the most amazing humand beings, all of them are just so special and beautiful.

I was concerned about finding a spot for the dogs Jacky and Charlie as it's night time, and I know my guys, they'll hunt soon, or run away even.
So I tied them around a tree behind the caravan, and a bunch of minutes later, I could feel the whole pressure of the day coming off, and sleep overtaking me.

I was the first one awake next day (no judgement here 😌, I am just saying), so I went around and took a few shots, set up my tripod to do a time lapse, and figure where we are as I couldn't see much at night.

I am sure @trucklife-family wanna keep some privacy, so I of course asked her if I could post these pics, and I won't tell you more about where it is...🙂

"Oh that's gonna look great on Hive", Ed said to himself while taking a drag on his spliff with contemplation

It's 730am, and I'll have to wait a little longer before seeing both of our tribes awake.
The spot where they live, it's right in the valley, so you don't have that scorching sun waking you up early, which is just perfect for a late morning sleep!

Eventually, everyone is awake and start playing together.
I have to release my dogs, one of them Charlie, is a biter, so I was a little bit worried about him, he just doesn't like people too much, and Jacky is quite the opposite, just a true extrovert, and of course he loved to be pet by kids.

A pack of dogs, not belonging to Ash come to visit, and she warns me that they tend to get aggressive when together.
I appreciate the warning, and we decide to act accordingly. All in all, the pack goes away, the tension dissapear, I release the dogs, we have a breakfast and it's already time to go to the venue, for my first gig in...A long time...

I took a video of the gig, or at least the second act, but I didn't really pay attention with the framing, so I am almost off screen haha. I might post it on 3speak in the next few days, I'll try to edit out the boring parts.

On the way back after the gig, my wife took a little bit less pictures, I think everyone was really tired, so we let them sleep, and got back home on Sunday night around 11pm.

A huge thanks to @trucklife-family for welcoming "strangers" into her home, and for treating us so well, making us feel at home ♥️

The kids loved it so much, asked us "why didn't we go straight here instead of Javea" 😂