Burning ambition for a place in the sun

The chance to take early retirement from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service was also the opportunity local man Chris Cooke had been waiting for – to buy his own place in sun.

Now nearly three years after he and his wife Mary took the initial steps to make a permanent home in Spain they’ve just spent their first Christmas in their luxury villa in the Polaris World Golf Resort of Mar Menor.

Says Chris (53): “Any doubts we might have had about moving to Spain were dispelled on January 1. We spent New Year’s Day relaxing on loungers by the swimming pool in wall-to-wall sunshine and temperatures warm enough for shorts. You can’t beat it!”

Many couples dream about living abroad; Chris and Mary are now living the dream – a three bedroom luxury home, golf at least three times a week and a busy social life to compare with that they left behind in Basingstoke.

“We are both sun lovers but except for annual ‘warm weather’ holidays, jobs and life in general kept us in England,” says Chris.

Then after 33 years with the Fire and Rescue Service, latterly as a Group Manager in Risk Management based at the Hampshire Headquarters at Eastleigh (he was on the National Agenda committee), Chris decided it was time to retire.

Moving from the UK to Spain was not a decision they came to lightly but there were two driving factors - the weather and the cheaper cost of living.

“We’ve only been here four months but already we’ve found money goes at least one third further. The quality of life is better with less stress and rush. We are still getting used to the more leisurely pace and the Spanish manana mentality, and as for the weather it’s everything we hoped for.”

It was in 2003 that they fell in love with the concept of living on a golf course in the sun. After examining several developments in Murcia (this south east corner of Spain has more days of sunshine than anywhere else in Europe and an average temperature of 21°C) they chose Polaris World’s Hacienda Riquelme Golf Resort and put a deposit on a penthouse apartment.

Back in Basingstoke they downsized – selling their four-bedroom house in Heron Park, Lychpit and buying a two-bed apartment on the 12th floor at Crown Heights in the centre of town. However, living in an apartment made Chris and Mary realise that they wanted to retire in a larger property.

“Hacienda Riquelme is a fantastic golf resort but when we saw Mar Menor we knew this was it. Our three bedroom villa is everything we dreamed of having – the right location, with its own pool and right on a golf course.”

Torre Pacheco, a ‘real’ Spanish town is an easy five kilometres away while it takes just two hours to fly from Southampton to Murcia. With cheap flights available and the airport a convenient 20 minutes away, this was another reason the Cooke’s chose this area of Spain.

Although newcomers to Mar Menor Chris and Mary – a particularly sociable couple - have settled quickly into their new home, helped in no small way by Chris’ passion for golf.

Already he is the handicap secretary for Mar Menor Golf Society and he’s opened a golf website. Said Chris, “We want to extend the Society to local Spanish people as well as residents of the resort”.

At the same time Mary (52) who owned florist shops in Basingstoke and Odiham, has been befriended by other golf widows, and while their husbands are on the course the group arrange their own leisure activities such as outings to local beauty spots and trips to the excellent and varied shops in nearby towns like Cartagena.

Admitted Mary: “It’s an easy decision to say ‘Let’s go’, but the nearer the time came for us to leave we suffered a lot of anguish saying goodbye to family and friends. Giving up our social life back in Hampshire was the most difficult thing we had to do but truthfully we have no regrets – life here is wonderful.

“And we’ve found the perfect communication system - web cam. We have the computer on the coffee table and because we have Broadband we can chat away to our friends in England as if they were in the room with us.”

Meanwhile they are getting to grips with the new language while Chris, a self confessed DIY expert, is putting the finishing touches to alterations he’s made to the property, like turning a veranda into a very spacious summer room and making gravel beds in the garden where he intends to grow giant cactus.

Then the plan is to explore the region - if golf, line dancing and simply having fun in the sun doesn’t get in the way.

For further information, visit polarisworldspain.com.