#ThrowbackThursday - where we were on this day in Novembers past

Deer print by Mark Hearld 

I can revisit blog posts right back to 2012 for November's ThrowbackThursday post because I know I visited the Emma Mason Gallery in Cornfield Terrace, Eastbourne at the start of their Into The Ark exhibition of prints featuring animals. The exhibition was put on to coincide with that year's Eastbourne Christmas Open Houses. I never actually bought any large prints from Emma Mason, but it is a fabulous place to go for unusual and gorgeous greetings cards such as the Deer pictured here. The Eastbourne Christmas Open Houses is running again this year too, over the first two weekends in December and full details are on this Facebook page.

Estremoz architecture 

This time in November 2013 we were well into our First Great Caravan Adventure and were just about to arrive in Evoramonte in Portugal. We stayed at our second Dutch-owned campsite here and I remember that the shower block was architect-designed and absolutely fabulous. A Dutch couple caravanning on the pitch next to us had been stranded there three weeks while they waited for their Subaru car to be repaired in Lisbon and were understandably delighted when they could finally collect it. This photo is of a great building in our nearest town of Estremoz and we also took the opportunity to visit Evora which boasts incredible Roman ruins including an aqueduct and a temple to Diana.

Regrowing hillside above Xabia 

By the 25th of November 2014 we were in Xabia, Spain, and well into our second Great Caravan Adventure which would go on to last some 20 months. We donned our hiking boots to stride out over the hills overlooking Xabia port to discover eleven historic windmills which had originally been built between the 14th and 18th centuries. It was a bizarre vista as there had been an extensive forest fire only a few months previously so we saw lots of barren hillsides with blackened tree stumps and a few palm trees beginning to regrow. There was a burned car crashed halfway down one hillside too, but we never did find out if that had been the cause of the greater fire or it had crashed earlier and then been consumed.

Old olive mill in Castries 

Then on this day last year we were cycling around Sussargues and Castries in France. We were staying on a campsite in Castries and took advantage of a bright, sunny day for a two hour ride out as dar as Saint Drezery before returning for coffee in a pretty courtyard cafe and a stroll around Castries itself. The old olive mill pictured is now the Mairie (the town hall) and I loved that they had kept all the flowing arches.

This year we are in France again at this point in November and hopefully by the time this blog post publishes itself (I am writing a few days in advance while I still have reliable wifi!) we will have seen the Bayeux Tapestry - all 70 metres of it! That will certainly be a memorable day!