Sgt BRAILLE was allowed to go on a short break to La Torre Golf Resort, in Murcia, to check out the facilities used by the clients of Holidays4Heroes.
Apparently she's sending them to New Zealand on holiday. Yeah, right.
So on a sunny Tuesday, Rafbrat and I set off for North Wales. Whilst she spent an evening drinking wine, eating olives and catching up with old friends, I memorised the maps of where we were going [2]. Next morning we set off in plenty of time for Liverpool's Speke Airport, enjoying a fine view of Runcorn from what the locals call 'The Bridge', and passing the beau ty of the Rocksavage Power Plant. Speke Airport has pretensions now, and calls itself Liverpool John Lennon. Why you'd want to do that, we weren't sure, but it was efficient, and we were soon aboard one of Ireland's finest, listening to the stewardesses telling us what to do if we fell out of the sky, whilst idly wondering why the aeroplane wings had flickups.
Arrival at Murcia's San Javier airport went well, and for ladies they were well organised - one got the baggage and a trolley whilst the other collected the car. There was a false start whilst they complained that it was a bit battered and scraped, but they soon realised that was good, because if they damaged it, no-one would notice. Once they had loaded the luggage and started the car, the trouble started. Ten minutes later we were still driving round the car park, and I was wondering whether it was worth the bother of memorising the map. They found the exit in the end, by the simple method of driving round the edge until they saw a gate. "Dave the Kind Owner" had left them very good directions for the 16km drive from the airport, and they soon found La Torre [3, 4].
Arriving safely, they did the important thing and made a brew (Rafbrat is a useful person - always travels with tea bags!) [5]. They cooked their pizza and went to bed, dreaming of who knows what, but promising one another an early start in the morning.
The next day was spent 'acclimatising', which meant admiring the view [6] finding a swimming pool [7], a supermarket and their way out of La Torre. Not necessarily in that order. They did rustle up a rather nice Rioja to go with their swordfish for the evening meal [8].
So the holiday drifted on, with trips to Murcia (lovely buildings, beautiful cathedral), the local restaurants (lovely food, serious drinking) and Cartagena (superb buildings, civil and naval dockyards, Roman and Hannibal history and some excellent memorials to Spanish warriors of the 20th Century) [9, 10, 11]. They also went to Jumilla to visit bodegas, but seemed to have quite a lot of fun in the cake shop [12].
On Sunday we watched the Grand Prix in the '19th hole' at La Torre with two more blokes called Dave, who were there 'on business' ... but the business seemed to involve little more than playing golf. We also met "Spanish Dave", the organiser of accommodation for our wounded and their families. There was some notion that a bloke called Chris might appear to break the Dave Monotony, but he appratenly bottled it. Probably scared of women, from what I hear - it's easier to talk to hamsters!
On Monday, the Spanish version of the Red Arrows spent about an hour practising manoevres above us. Many thanks to whoever laid that on for me. We Bears of the Jersey Militia are obviously famous and important on larger land masses. The three of us all enjoyed the week, the climate and the apartment.
Many thanks to "Dave the Apartment Owner", "Spanish Dave" for the idea, and to La Torre for being a fab place. The only snag seems to be that the bottles of wine we left for the next batch of Heroes going on Holiday have gone missing. I can't imagine Rafbrat letting that one lie without naming and shaming the culprits.
After a rather bumpy return flight and another short stay in North Wales, we got back to Dorset, with Rafbrat managing to keep on the correct side of the road all the way home. It was quiet without Horsa's offspring, but Burra was pleased to see us. I think he'd had a few girls round whilst we were away - the place was clean and tidy. He's boasting that an ARRSEr has wangled a special badge for him to wear on his new desert gear.
I'm glad I went to La Torre. I can see why our wounded lads and lasses would find it a great place to stay, and send our thanks to everyone who offers apartments for the purpose. I'm now in a box on the way to another Dave who is the next Bearer. What IS it with these humans and their lack of imagination in names. Oh, for a Jason, a Damien or a Chardonnay!
Braille out, with another small plug for "Explore Polaris" and a few extra photos of La Torre Golf Resort.
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Holidays 4 Heroes is an informal group of people that assists wounded service personnel and their families get a precious break from the routine of rehab, hospital appointments and visits to welfare offices by facilitating holidays away from it all in accommodation donated by our sponsors in the UK and abroad. 
Deals with the cases that either lie outside the normal remit of the main Service Charities, or require a faster response than they can usually provide. Sometimes the cases require financial assistance, a little bit of nudging in the right direction for long-term help, or the application of a bit of expertise.