River Beach at Coja

Well, last night...the thunderstorm came, and it was the grandfather of thunderstorms. At first I thought it was Jon's belly protesting at the borlotti bean bake we had eaten, but no, it was the real thing this time. This meant the Skype appointment was off with Mom. On the scary scale, I thought the storm was probably a 8/10 (with 10 being really really scary) and Jon thought it was a 2/10. But then Jon has been in Cwm Eigiau (Snowdonia) in the middle of a thunderstorm with lightning striking very close by. So it's all in the measure, I suppose.

We knew thunder was in the distance as the internet connection became intermittent, but then the sky turned darker and the rain came, and it rained and rained and rained for several hours. Lightning strikes in the valley all around us. The electricity went off and on, and then there was a really close lightning strike, that sent all our electricity off. Fortunately the trip switches did their work so we were soon back in action and there are power surge sockets in the house to protect the electrical equipment.

And this morning, there was a mist hanging across the valley so that the hills on the opposite side weren't even visible. But by about 09.30 the mist had burned off, and we were in for another scorcher, but the air was more crisp and full of the smell of pine trees and eucalyptus.


We had a venture into Coja to look around a bit more. We found a nice pavement cafe and then we found a river beach (praiya fluvial) that, at weekends, will be brimming with locals. There was a strategically placed bar/restaurant. We even ventured to ask for the menu to see if there was anything vegetarian, but it was all full of meat and fish dishes such as Chanfana (goat or lamb stew) or cod heads, so we decided to come home and cook for ourselves. We enjoyed home fried chips and a Spanish omelette made with peppers and tomatoes fresh from the garden...perfection.

Taking it easy now, just for a change, chilling out.