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Published: February 22nd 2022
21st January 2022 - 21st February 2022
Well – it’s good to be back in Spain at last!! Due to Covid it’s been nearly two years since we had been here, so, because of my knee replacement Oct 21, I had a cleaner to clean the house before we arrived! It’s just so lovely to see the oranges on the trees, bougainvillea, the almond blossom and lots of spring flowers! You don’t realise how much you miss all the colour! Caught up with all the neighbours as well as Zizpa the 3-legged dog – who seemed to actually remember us!
Usual round of catching up with friends, menu del dias ……and Chris went on a few walks (with a bit of persuasion!! ) that I was unable to do! We joined the FEW (Flat Earth Walkers) which is a spinoff of the Field Club for people that are not able to walk the mountains and we had a few flat walks along the board walk, with views of the sea, with the obligatory Menu del Dia after!
Chris did a lovely walk (that I was unable to do!) at the Ermita de las Tres Cruces! It was so
good he took me back there the next day – Wow! 11km of amazing drive up to the Ermita with 360* clear views! Amazing! Did a short walk along the road towards Alora and back – about 2km ☹ Still not far enough, or fast enough to walk with the Field Club group – yet!
Although I did manage one Field Club walk – at Estepona!! It said it was a fairly flat walk so I thought it would be a good test of my walking! I managed 9km in total along the flat boardwalk and didn’t feel too slow ( although Im sure I was!!) Brilliant blue sky, sunshine and views of Gibraltar and Africa followed by lunch in the Orange Square, Old Town which is oh so very pretty!
Also we have been told about the Cartama Oval!! It is the European Cricket International Championships starting 7
th February with 5 games a day ( they only play 10/10 overs) Its all free as the TV rights pay for it. Had quite a few pleasant days there, with various friends, watching Tunbridge Wells (England) who won, as well as Brigade, Northern Ireland ( who also won!) and
teams from all over Europe!
I did another walk along the Rio Grande with Rambling Als Group – it was about 8km and flat ( that was the attraction!!) and made for a pleasant walk, catching up with different friends. I did suffer afterwards and my knee swelled up, so I was back to Rest and Ice, Compression and Elevation!! Lovely to see the carpets of bright yellow flowers and groups of white narcissi!!
Also did a reccy, for the Field Club short walk, on Alhaurin mountain!! It wasn’t that easy as we had to walk from the bottom of the mountain, due to the condition of the road and a trail of processional caterpillars. So it made for quite a long hard slog up to the Fuente de Acebuche . Chris has plans to go on up to the Casa Forestal next week, after conceding it was too far to walk to the clearing and back! Watch this space!
In the end, I didn’t do the walk at all! It was just too hard on the knees walking down, so I spent a pleasant morning with Pauline (Neville had gone on the walk!!) wandering around the
town and drinking coffee ( or in my case – te verde con limon!) Chris walked to the clearing and back!!! Grrr!! I don’t like being proved wrong!!! However, a Menu del Dia at Los Chavos softened the blow!
We did another flat walk with Senderistas which was slightly different as it involved getting a train from Estacion de Cartama back towards Alora to Aljaimo, at 12.01pm! We then had a very pleasant walk, back to Estacion de Cartama, along wide tracks and through undulating tracks through reeds, alongside a river! Apart from an inlet where we had to climb down 6’ and up the other side 6’ it was mostly flat! Followed by yet another excellent Menu del Dia!!
Chris did a long walk to the Ermita and Romario ground at Coin whilst I got the bus to Fuengirola to walk along the Paseo with the FEW. Saw quite a few people I hadn’t seen for ages, and ended up in The Carribbean at Fuengirola Port having another Menu del Dia!! Chris joined us after his walk before we drove back up the mountain.
On the Friday before we left, I went to the dentist!! What
a difference from the UK where our NHS dentist has now gone private. Lovely atmosphere and people – I would like to say it was a joy to be there…but that’s going a bit far!! It is still the dentist after all!!!
Also managed to get Antonio around to measure for the banister up to the roof terrace, and he also gave us the name of a Company on the Poligono that would deal with the drooping electricity wires on the outside of our house, They were very efficient and said they would be round in 5 minutes and actually beat us to the house! It’s a good job they got lost in the town as that gave us a chance to get up to our house! Anyway, I think, after a conversation with Raphaela, they are going to email us tomorrow to let us know if Endesa will fix them! Also saw the daughter-in-law who used to live next door with Daniel and baby Kevin!! Kevin is now at least 7 and at school. and she has another baby called Elsa!!
Back to UK for 2 weeks for ½ term and daughters birthday.
Well, it was bound to happen!! We went back to the UK for 2 weeks and Chris ended up with Covid! I was supposed to be seeing daughter, son, mum and dad and all arrangements hastily abandoned! Chris was banished to live in the other bedroom and fortunately tested negative 5 days before we were due to go back to Spain, so I was able to see all the family before we went back to Spain on 7th April….with Chris and my sister!!
My sister hadn’t been away on holiday for over two years’ so it was a pleasure not to have anything planned! We were able to catch a few European cricket matches (even though half of the final at 5.00pm was rained off!), go on a Senderista walk past El Dorado, and along the Paseo at La Cala , with the FEW as well as Casa de las Flores (garden centre!) and the Botanical Park at Torremolinos. The weather was unsettled but it remained dry most of the week.
Chris, at last, did the ‘chain walk’ on the Alhaurin mountain! He said it wasn’t for the faint-hearted so glad I missed that
one!!
Beautiful weekend weather (after my sister had gone home!!) and we went to the carnival at La Carihuela beach and watched some satire singing and burning of the sardine on the beach. Unfortunately. we missed the procession but saw a few of the floats.
This was followed by steady rain which affected the finals week of the cricket. It rained until Wednesday (which was quite good because one day we had really bad calima and it washed it out of the atmosphere!!) It was the worst calima we had ever seen, turning the sky an orangy yellow colour, with a really weird light! Spent quite a few days afterwards cleaning the roof, porch and patio of the orange dust!!
St Patricks day was spent at the cricket, (NI were still in at this point so there were quite a few entertaining people from NI) as was the next few days with various friends! Exciting matches with the semi final between Pak I Care (Spain) and Tunbridge Wells (England) with Spain winning – just!! The weather is still unsettled with sun, cloud, wind and thunderstorms, with rain forecast again! The worst March……ever…weatherwise!. Made even worse by the
fact UK are having lovely spring days with lovely clear blue skies and sunshine!!!
Went on the Field Club Holiday to Conil, which is near Cadiz. Was so disappointing as it rained and we were only able to do one walk up to the windmills at Vejer and saw the smallest museum …ever!!! It was basically a junk shed but we had a glass of sherry so not too bad!! The hotel and the food were absolutely first class so we made the best of it, without the walks! Explored Medina Sidonia one day (in the rain!!) and ended up the Port of Conil (where we were supposed to be walking to!!) Called in at Baena Claudia ( a roman town) on the way back and also visited the Citadel, city walls, the old town and Isla de la Paloma, Tarifa!
Arrived back in Alhaurin and found that the Calima had arrived again, whilst we were in Conil! Meant that all the cleaning we had done previously, all had to be done again!! Ah well!
Well, the snow has arrived in UK but we are still having very unsettled weather here. Hot sun one minute, rain and
rainbows the next, although there does seem to be a bit more sun!!! Nearly got robbed one day, walking along the board walk, when two men approached me from behind, and unzipped my backpack! Fortunately I felt them doing it and hit one of the men over the head with my stick!!
Great excitement one weekend as signs went up that there was to be NO parking on the feria ground on Sunday from midnight until 21.00hrs so there was obviously ‘something’on ! Turned out it was a Motorbike Convention and about 12.00pm, about 750 bikes drove into the feria ground and parked up! There were stalls and a rock band and loads of bikers and bikes, all making a terrific noise!! Apart from the usual round of walking (me, flat walks only!) and socialising, all too soon it was time to go back to the UK!
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