I am sure that we are not the only ones to be happy and relieved that we have actually survived the last two years of recession and are still here to tell the story!  2009 was  certainly a year to remember (or perhaps better forgotten!),  being a constant battle to exist, with all the rescued animals to feed just adding to the burden.  Clive’s building work all but disappeared, after 9 years of never having to advertise, and of course the holiday industry was badly affected.  Each day became a struggle for survival, living on pasta and hoping for a miracle! After taking the decision the previous year, when it was becoming obvious that the building industry was slowing down, to build a second guest cottage to supplement our income, we were left wondering if this had been a wise decision, as the holiday bookings slowed down too.  Luckily the children were all coping; at least we didn’t have them to worry about. Our eldest son John now lives in England with his wife and daughter and has a good job in I.T, our daughter Elizabeth is living very happily in Hamburg, with big plans for her future, and our son Harry, though over qualified, managed to at least find a job working for Iceland in Fuengirola and has set up home in his first flat in Malaga.

Thankfully, 2010 started on a much more positive note, with lots of holiday bookings and a general feeling of hope.  The animals were all well and happy and we were determined that the year would go on to be happy and successful.  The misery of the previous year certainly tested us to the limit, but we got through it and were hopeful that things could only get better.

The winter and spring of 2010 certainly did its best to dampen our spirits, with the constant wind, rain or snow, we seemed to be feeling the effects of the terrible winter the rest of Europe were experiencing. Thank goodness we had lots of inside decorating to do or we may have just gone mad!  The constant rain wreaked havoc on the exterior of the farmhouse and cottages,  with paint being washed off everywhere, and what a mess the garden looked with flakes of white littering the ground like almond blossom. At least the daffodils did their best to cheer us up.

It is bad enough coping with the weather ourselves when it is unseasonably bad, but having guests to worry about just adds to the misery. Even though we can do nothing about the weather, we feel so guilty when they arrive with children, expecting to swim in the heated pool and ride and walk and generally enjoy the countryside, and all they can do is huddle up in front of the wood burner with a DVD, or drive to the coast in the hope of slightly warmer temperatures. Even after 8 years of having guests we never get over that feeling that we are responsible.

The spring of 2010 brought us a very different problem. We are certainly not alone in having our travel plans disrupted by the volcano eruption in Iceland, but the extent we had to go to, to even try to achieve the holiday in the first place probably takes some beating. 

With 15 horses, 4 dogs, 5 cats, 2 goats, 1 sheep, chickens and fish, not to mention the guests , pool and garden, a holiday is almost impossible at the best of times, which is why in the 11 years we have lived here we haven’t managed more than a couple of short holidays to visit friends and family. This year however, after the stresses and worry of the recession, we were determined that we would have a well earned break. At Christmas some friends of ours told us about a website www.helpx .net, which links hosts with helpers, the idea being that as a host you get free help in exchange for bed and board, and as a helper you get a free holiday in exchange for a few hours work a day. It sounded brilliant, and indeed the young lad from Australia that our friends had staying was a great recommendation. We duly signed up for it and soon had lots of requests from people wanting to come and help us. You can specify your requirements, so in our case it was horse experience, but even so, we received lots of enquiries from people who saw it as a good opportunity to have a holiday with riding and heated pool on tap, and couldn’t even ride a horse! The e-mails along the lines of  ‘I have always wanted to learn to ride’ were politely declined, but some of the replies seemed very promising and we arranged for a few girls to come and help out. Our idea was that we would have a couple of helpers for a longer term, i.e. a couple of months, so that they had time to get to know the ropes, in order for us to then feel safe in leaving them to hold the fort for a few days while we took a trip to see our daughter in Germany and son and granddaughter in the U.k. 

All this worry had taken its toll, and Clive and I were now even more desperate for a few days away. I set about writing the mile long list of things to do for Harry and Coral, started thinking about packing and allowed myself to get excited – we were actually going to have a holiday after 2 years without a break. The flights and hotels were booked, the arrangements were made with friends and family in the Uk, we were all set! Then of course disaster struck again in the form of an erupting volcano. We watched the news , frantically hoping that it would all be sorted out by the time we were due to travel , surely after all this worry and effort we would get our holiday?  No such luck – our flights were cancelled, and for us there wasn’t even the consolation of having a holiday another time – this break took far too much planning, and our son had used up his holiday for nothing, so that was it, we had lost our only chance. Dreadfully disappointed we accepted the fact that we wouldn’t be going anywhere.  There was another problem though, we had two more Helpx girls staying , who had been with us for their two week college break, and they were now stranded with no way of getting home.  There was only one thing for it – mad as it was, we decided that we would drive to the UK, dropping the girls off with their mum in Dover on the way, and salvage the 2nd part of our holiday. Thankfully, in our rush to get away we did find time to quickly book the ferry online, as when we arrived at Calais there were thousands of people queuing to try to buy tickets, having caught coaches or hired cars , in a desperate attempt to get home.  It was a terrible sight, all those poor tired people, many with young children, it made us aware that though we had been through a tough few days, things could have been worse!

We were very sad at not being able to see Elizabeth in Hamburg, but we were able to see our son and granddaughter and enjoy some lovely times with all our friends and family, so though we only had 3 whole days there, with 2 days driving either side, with only a couple of hours sleep in the car , it was an adventure, (albeit a very expensive one!) and when we arrived back home Harry and Coral had done such a great job, we did wonder why we had even bothered to try to find extra help in the first place!

Thankfully, the summer of 2010 turned out to be our busiest yet, and was so enjoyable and rewarding, with lots of really lovely guests, we felt like we had friends staying, and a lot of them have already booked to stay with us again in 2011.  The horses were great too, the riding was just perfect and I felt very proud of what we had achieved, after all the years of hard work.  Another lovely and unexpected bonus was having guests arrive to stay in the two cottages, never having met before, but becoming friends. The cottages both have their own private areas and over the years we have found that our guests mostly keep to their own areas, and seemed to have the pool to themselves too, as one family tended to be out sight seeing while the other  had a day at the pool and visa versa, but for some reason last summer everyone just seemed to get on so well, it felt like everyone had known each other for years.  We held quite a few paella nights too, where we cooked a huge, authentic paella and everyone ate together at the huge wooden table in the outer courtyard, it was such a lovely summer.

In September we were very proud and honoured to be accepted to appear in the Sawday’s Special Places to stay in Spain book (and website) for 2012. This is quite an exclusive guide, featuring only about 300 hand picked properties from the whole of Spain.  Of course we had to endure a nerve-wracking vetting procedure including an overnight stay from one of their writers, but we are so pleased to have passed with flying colours!  Another useful feature we now have is our link to Tripadviser. We know that a lot of travellers swear by the site for  honest reviews and always use it before booking a holiday, so the fact that we now have lots of really lovely reviews on their site from our past guests is a real bonus.