Whacky Races

Well, as you can see, today we joined in some local fun, when we went to watch the Whacky Races at Villaricos. This is an annual event organised to raise money for a local charity, Asprodalba, who provide residential care for youngsters with learning difficulties. This year the children from the home entered their own cart, the black one with sharks teeth which was great. They needed a bit of help with pushing on the second lap, but they did really well. Anyone could enter a cart and lots of local businesses sponsored them. There was a good crowd watching and a great atmosphere, so it was all good fun. After the races we had a demonstration of line dancing by the Arboleas group, 'Dusty boots', and there were several stalls around selling various bits and bobs. I picked up some beads for my craft, and a couple of lengths of ribbon, and a big wedge of very nice carrot cake, so we did our bit for the cause. It's good to see the ex-pats doing something for a local charity, and the Spanish folk coming out to support them. There's quite a bit of 'them and us' so some cooperation is great. The sun shone brightly on us all day which was very kind of it. The fact that you can nearly always rely on the weather must make it easier to organise such events out here than it is at home. They raised €6000 last year, and they were well on the way to reaching that again when we left. I have put quite a lot of tiny photos on here. The competitors had put so much effort into making their carts that

they all deserved a photo, but I have picked out the best. You can click on them to see a larger version if you want to. The red one in the first picture belonged to a group of young lads from El Calón, so of course we rooted for the home team. We left soon after lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon in a beach café in Mojacar. It's a hard life!