It's a Dog's Life

Old age is a bit of a bugger, but if we are lucky, it catches up with all of us eventually. We recently spent a week with my dad who at 91 physically can't do everything he would want to do and what he can do, to his frustration, takes more time and effort than he would like. He is of course from a generation that just gets on with it and he keeps busy doing the chores he can do around the house. His speciality is pot washing. In answer to the question 'Dad, where are you going' the answer usually will be 'I'm just going to tidy up in the kitchen'. The dishwasher is loaded after every meal, there are no pots to wash, but a few minutes later we'd hear the familiar rattle from the sink. He is like a pot washing ninja, somehow always finding a cup or glass to wash, quite where they came from remains a mystery to me. 

My dad isn't the only one showing some signs of age related wear and tear. Oscar the Dog, who is now 10, has developed a limp in his front right leg, which has been diagnosed as arthritis. The severity of his limp varies depending on how preoccupied he is; it turns out that tracking a scent, discovering a tennis ball and the race to the kitchen once the oven timer bleeps are all a temporary miracle cure. But with little permanent progress over the past few months it appears that the days of his long walks are over (much to his disgust), which has caused us some head scratching as we plan our next trip in Marleen the MoHo. 

When we retired one of the main reasons we bought the MoHo was to be able to enjoy holidays with Oscar. He travels with us on our adventures and has been as far North as Nordkapp in Norway and to the Sahara Desert in the south. He is a Springer Spaniel so he's always been an active dog, and that has enabled us to explore so many wonderful places together as part of his daily walks. If he isn't able to walk as far and with public transport generally not an option for dogs on the continent we've had to think about alternative ways of moving around once we've reached our daily destination.

"He's 20 bloody kilos" was my initial reaction to Mrs R's suggestion of a K9 doggie rucksack, "thats what squaddies carry on a yomp, not 61 year old retirees on their holidays". Despite my protestations a suitable backpack was found and ordered off Facebook Marketplace. After a day of trying to get him into his backpack, and Oscar clearly thinking, this is ok, the longer I mess about here the more treats I get, we finally managed it and he sits there quite happily with his front paws on my shoulders, just enjoying life. Knowing that he was happy in the carrier, gave me an idea. We've always travelled light in the MoHo, just taking the essentials, but I've always fancied having a couple of folding bikes, to help us explore a little further. Folding bikes would also fit in the garage at the rear of the van, so we wouldn't need to fit a cycle carrier. Mrs R has never been one for trusting any method of transport that has 4 legs or two wheels, whenever I mention "it would be nice to have a couple of bikes" the response is usually, "there's no point in us both having one, what are we going to do with Oscar". So sensing an opportunity now that we had a 'dog in a bag' solution for Oscar, I suggested that rather than walking everywhere with my 20 kilo mate on my back, why don't we get a couple of bikes, which might open up a few more opportunities for us on our travels . After some discussion agreement was reached, conditional on them being electric. So here we are with two electric bikes, a limping dog and a doggie backpack, quite how this is going to work out I really don't know. 

Our initial plan for our trip this year was to visit Croatia, but after some research we decided that returning back via the Austrian alps in late November meant we should sensibly upgrade our tyres to ones suitable for winter roads. Not wanting the outlay for 4 new tyres until we needed to, we decided to park this trip until spring next year and head off to Spain and Portugal instead. As we were setting off earlier in September than usual we decided we'd head to Northern Spain, when hopefully the weather will be kind to us.  Our plan is to travel from the Basque* region to Galicia, with a couple of detours into the Rioja region and the Picos Mountains. We will then head off down the centre of Portugal on the Estrada Nacional 2 (EN2) also known as Portugals 'Route 66'. This road runs from close to the Spanish/Portuguese border to Faro in the Algarve. It sounded a bit different so we thought we'd give it a go, branching off to some of the many places to see enroute including the Douro Valley wine area. Once we've reached the med we'll then decide our route to head back home. You can read more about where Marleens Iberian Odyssey takes us and how Oscar gets on with the wind in his ears, by following our trip on my Polar Steps page. Just click the link below. 

As if the excitement of planning Marleens next adventure isn't enough, we've just flown out to Denia, Spain for a week with our 4 month old granddaughter Delilah and her mum and dad. It's her first holiday abroad and first flight and she was an absolute star on the journey here. It feels odd to arrive here within a couple of hours, as opposed to the days it would usually take us in the MoHo. I'm hoping to get a pre tan going, whilst ploughing my way through the Fenland Crime novels, by Joy Ellis and drinking cold beer in the sunshine. I suspect, however, that our grandparenting duties may well take over. Either way it will be great to spend some precious time with Delilah .... and oh of course Ellie and Ben. 

*Footnote

We hope to call into San Sebastian, I have fond memories of the place, having stayed there a couple of nights with my mate Bob at the end of our World Cup European Tour. I put on the only clean shirt I'd got, which just happened to be a Real Madrid shirt I'd picked up when touring the Bernabeu Stadium. Bobs sage advice was "thas  not wearing that int Basque country, thall get tha 'ead kicked in". He wasn't wrong, it nearly caused an international incident with some Basque footballing dignitaries ......... you can read more about how things turned out here

Route 66

You can find out more information about Portugals 'Route 66' by clicking this link 

Marleens Iberian Odyssey 

You can follow our adventures on Marleens Iberian Odyssey through this link to our Polar Steps page. 

MoHo Adventures Series of Blogs

You can read about our other MoHo adventures here including my recent blog on the perils of mixing cricket, sunshine and alcohol - Nodding Ducks, Suncream and Seat Pads.

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