Fore!

Tuesday, 22 September 2009 09:48

Watch out there's a golfer about!

Well, there are supposed to be in the Costa Calida region of Spain! A number of companies saw the potential of developing "golf towns" in the Murcia region within reach of San Javier (Murcia) airport. Two and a half hours from the UK to your own Spanish golf villa seemed an attractive proposition in the Days of Plenty. Not so now.

All the building has ceased and those golf towns that do exist have "Se vende" on many villas, either being sold by existing owners or the development company (Polaris World, Taray, to name but two).

Our friends, John and Carolyn (you may remember we were staying in their apartment) joined us for the last few days as they wanted to have a couple of games of golf in the sunshine. They took us to one of these "golf towns" for a look around and to see if they still served Sunday Brunch. No Sunday Brunch for us there, as it was no longer on offer, but a lovely golf course was, with the accompanying luxury leisure facilities and rows of tidy villas.

El Valle golf course

Luxury sofas for the tired golfers!

Rows of tidy villas

Many of the villas had their shutters down

It is difficult to tell if closed shutters mean that the villa is unoccupied as most houses have these blinds to keep out the sun and keep the insides cool even when the owners are at home. The Spanish seem to live in a perpetual dusk inside their homes and the shutters raise slightly sometimes. They are sometimes raised fully in the evenings with windows ajar, but swathed with voile curtains to prevent peeping toms!

Having said that, the Spanish are very social and we were amused to see them sitting on the pavements or even in the road with their chairs, drinks and crafts during the morning and evenings: chatting away in very fast Spanish with loud laughter and calling to each other well into the evenings. They are a very "voluble race", (even the dogs are noisy) - we English are far too reserved!

A final thought on golf - La Manga Golf Resort is the one for footballers (or so they say), but this one must be for "Rancheros" I think judging by the walls!

Taken from the car as we passed

So ends our Spanish saga - would we return? You bet! After all, wouldn't you? - have a look