Eurasia Mega Tour 2026 - Days Forty Eight - Fifty One - Battling The Moors And Christians

Our timing, coming to El Campello in October, means we are here for the towns annual Moors and Christians festival. I wrote extensively about it last year. This year, the visit of #1 and 1A coincided with the festival. What we didn't account for was that the guest bedroom in the apartment faces where most of the festival events take place (unlike the other two). And (for some reasons) this year, the festival seems to be a lot louder than the last two years. Combined with major jet lag, this had #1 and 1A in a state of sleep deprived, festival not happiness. Fortunately, they had already planned to do a side trip to Valencia so their sleep and sanity were restored. 

On my part, after the success getting to understand the parade, I decided I was going to overcome my issues with gunfire noise that had nearly ruined my hearing last year and be sure to see the first major event in its fullness, the reenactment of the Moorish invasion. With a modest amount of advanced site reconnaissance I determined where I could be to see what was going on while at the same time not be exposed to the sharp gunfire noise. 

Turns out I was on site way too early and ended up standing watching nothing for almost an hour before things started kicking off. My strategy meant that I was too far away to get decent photos, but you should get the idea despite the low quality level. 

Queue up the Star Spangled Banner! Assault the Tower to get things started.

 

 Here is the general lay of the battlefield. The Christians holding the beach. The Moors invading

 The Christians are clearly having great angst and terror as they realize the assembly of the Moorish armada

 

 

 The presence of Moorish 'Spy' camels...

 

 Whips up the anticipation to even a more fevered pitch

 

 The armada approaches the beach

 

The defenders move into defensive position

 

 A key part of the defense is making sure that you have photographic evidence you were there for the fighting

 

 At last the Moors attack by...

...Jumping off their boats and swimming in?????

 This tactic has the Christians totally stunned!

 At this point, sadly, the amateur historian in my mind jumped in and said, "I don't think any attacker is going to be in a position to fight after swimming a long distance and coming out in waterlogged clothing. And I decided I had had enough. 

Definitely not as enamored with this part of the festival as I am the parade.

Eurasia Mega Trip 2026 - Days Forty Five - Seven - Family In Campello

 We are blessed to have Daughter #1 and 1A visiting us for a week. It is really lovely to have them come visit and for us to have an opportunity to share what we love here in El Campello. 

They are have been having a bit of a problem adjusting with jet lag and the difference in food and water. Wife and I have done so much long distance travel over the last dozen years and have developed so many different means of acclimating when we travel, we forget that it can be really tough to adjust. Nonetheless, it so sweet having them. They are the first of our children to visit us here. It is nice to share all the daily type things we love. 

Tomorrow, I think we're going to visit one of the highland castles we've been to. And on Monday, the Moors & Christians festival starts and we're going to do that. In the meantime, the weather has gone back to what we are accustom to which has meant many more sunrises and sunsets. 

I swore I would restrain myself from taking and posting too many more of these this year. But clearly, I can't be believed.

Sunrises

 

 

 

 Sunsets

Miscellaneous 

 

 Practicing for the Moorish Invasion

 

Eurasia Mega Trip - Days Forty Two - Four - Daily Life In El Campello

The reason for long search that led us to finding our place in El Campello and the reason we keep coming back is our long steady decline in physical capabilities. It is true that we still have the ability to show bursts of energy and capability when it comes to our travel adventures. But, as I described following our multi-day burst in Madrid, we need periods to recuperate. And prior to Wife having bounced back from the issues that assaulted her the last couple of years, we had serious doubts as to our ability to travel as we had done earlier. 

What our place here provides us with is a situation where we can 'live' as opposed to go 'do'. The everyday tableau on the water, the ability to shop and cook, the markets, the places to go walking, the places to hang out in, all create an environment where we can enjoy living in. And we still have things that motivate us to pull out the cameras for shooting.

Thought we were done with cats when we left Türkiye?

  Cat-o-pia El Campello 

 There is a never ending parade of sailing vessels...especially on weekends

 This year the sunrises and sunsets have not been quite as spectacular as other years, it is still a wonderful place for them. 

 We start having family visiting tomorrow, so the pace of things will definitely be picking up

Eurasia Mega Trip 2026 -Day Forty One - The Morning Rhythm Method

One of our daily joys in El Campello is going out for long walks in the early morning. The physical location of Spain in its time zone means that the sun doesn't come up until around 8am at this time of year. There will be just a hint of light coming up from the horizon in the East across the water at 7am. As returning readers know, that leads to great sunrises which in turn leads to the photo mad Eldership crew taking pictures like crazy. As we are now fully acclimated and settled in, let the madness begin.

 Avramar Acqua Farming ship moving out of the harbor

They still haven't hired me to do their promotional work 

 

 Our only 'Tower'

 

 

 

Along the beach

 

 Mostly shooting in the harbor today

 

 

 

Predators of El Campello

(Inspired by recent photos taken by follower 'The Count' of Grizzly Bears catching and eating salmon in the wild)

 

 Stalking

 

 

Attacking and capturing the prey

 

Devouring same

The Return Home