Day 0 Tomorrow it may be Raining but Tonight we have the Stars

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Is it something about September? Perhaps it’s the thought of Christmas and the coming winter or maybe I’m just a bit slow and it just takes me till September to get myself in gear and make it to the airport.

What I mean of course, is that it’s that time of year again. This time last year I was rushing around madly purchasing technical gear stressing about camper vans and making lists of places to see prior to jetting off half way around the globe to New Zealand.

Well here we are again, embryonic plans still born before conception, thoughts of touring South East Asia put on hold by my continuing medical woes, lack of energy and Dini’s Mums prohibition on going anywhere were they just might be committing Human Rights violations. Hey that’s what adventures are all about after all but…

We almost made it back to the mystic Isle (Ibiza) to spend 6 weeks chanting at a Yoga retreat - well Dee didn’t think much to my idea of the acetic retreat where you’re not allowed to talk to anyone or eat after mid day, but in the end we settled on WOOFing. No not some deviant sexual practice, but Working On Organic Farms in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Spain as a first step towards our new plans of world domination, ahem sorry travel.

Hey cue the music its Bryan Adams and “I thought I’d been everywhere”. Ahh Bryan so much to see, so little time. Yes my friends it’s another one of those travel blogs only this time I intend to publish it, complete with 1000’s of images and copious dialogue ready for your entertainment and visual pleasure - tune in, turn off and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I have this new book “The Travel Book, A journey through EVERY country in the world” and it tells me that there are give or take 231 countries in the world and after reading the book I just have to see all of them. Unfortunately unless I get bitten by a vampire and turn into an immortal which from the recent Twilight series of books I’ve been reading seems like a pretty cool plan, it might be a pretty tall order to see every country but I figure as long as I don’t spend too long in every place it could realistically be done in as little as 7 years and only cost somewhere in the region of £50,000 so let the fun begin…

Oh no, sorry the fun begins next year. Part of my plan for world dominion involves relocating to sunnier climes for 3-6 months to get fit first and that brings us to La Casa del Viento and our first stop.

There are some things I’m sorry to be leaving behind, in particular, one newly formed friendship, but I can’t say I’m going to miss DIY one little bit.

For those of you whom I haven’t managed to update over the last 6 months firstly an apology and secondly a little recap:

New Zealand was amazing, fantastic, marvellous, stupendous, totally cool and a whole host of superlatives that I can’t even begin to relate other than to say we drove 20,000 km around the North and South Islands saw dolphins, whales, sea lions, seals, penguins, albatross’s, sharks and stingrays, trekked for days, were sun burnt, frozen and drowned at various times, saw geysers and boiling mud, climbed 3000m peaks, were bitten many times by sand flies, stayed in a nunnery/commune, drove some scary roads and I took 14,000 photos.

We arrived back in the UK to snow flurries and I felt great for about 5 minutes until the life was sucked out of me by the M62 and I ended up tired and listless once again having my meds increased and undergoing weekly blood tests. I then spent the rest of the year so far installing a new kitchen and bathroom, painting, decorating and covering myself in carcinogenic dust and sealant which seems to have taken me forever and which I will gloss over (no pun intended), since a) its not that interesting and b) this is a travel blog not a building forum and then here we are like I say its September again and we are off to the Sierra Nevada.

For those of you who fancy doing some subsidised travelling you could do worse than check out a site called HelpX which is all about volunteering. There are some truly amazing opportunities out there to stay places and get board and lodgings for free in exchange for work. Ones which over the coming months we fully intend to try and take advantage of, stay tuned….

Our first port of call is La Casa and a12,000sqm Organic Farmstay nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Southern Spain and our host Kate.

My intrepid travel companion Dini and I will hopefully have a Casita all to ourselves, either that, or there was mention of a storeroom or a tent but hey I’m an optimist and in exchange for our luxury accommodation and three home cooked meals a day we will be helping Kate out with gardening, cleaning, planting, cooking and anything else that may need doing.

In line with our plan to relax and rejuvenate, in our spare time of two days off per week Dini plans to photograph the flora and fauna (to get her own back for my pictures of churches and scenery) do a very small bit of relaxing by the pool and maybe take in some sightseeing. I on the other hand am extremely enthused by the fact that I’ve discovered Los Tres Miles or the 3000m peaks of the Sierra Nevada.

There is a 5 day trek that covers all the main 3000m peaks in one go and then there is Mount Mulhacen itself which rises to 3482m making it the highest peak in the Iberian Peninsula and continental Spain. Mulhacen is also the highest peak in Europe outside the Alps and the Caucasus Mountains, and the third most topographically prominent peak in Western Europe, after Mont Blanc and Mount Etna. Needless to say I can’t wait to get up there on top of the world.

Dini can’t quite understand my preoccupation with summit bagging and it’s not all about the summit, but after doing the Milford Trek in NZ I just can’t wait to get out in the wilds again. As the guidebook says “The Sierra Nevada allows us to recapture the solitude and sense of adventure sadly lacking among the more popular ranges of the Alps. The striking thing about the high Sierrra Nevada is the sense of space and the impression of vast scale. Although lacking the spectacular peaks of the Alps, there are wonderful mountain corries filled with sparkling tarns and jagged and pinnacled ridges.” Ahh my idea of heaven…. watch this space…

So onto our plans and ahh isn’t travel fun. I did my usual spreadsheet of flights and times and prices. Low cost airlines are great, but the only thing we discovered was that all the flights either left in the morning which meant that we couldn’t actually get to the airport in time for the flight using public transport since we had to be there too early in the morning (6am) or they left in the evening which meant we couldn’t get from Malaga airport to Lanjaron where our host is picking us up, because the last bus would have left by the time we arrived.

Now we’re not luxury travellers, were adventurers (well I like to think so anyway, its that Indiana Jones complex I have - I’ll leave the Hilton and the luxury to Elton John for now), and I did suggest sleeping in the airport but Dini pulled a funny face and refused, so we kindly enlisted the support of her Mum who agreed to drive us to the airport here, meaning we could get the early flight and the bus at the other end.

To save D’s Mum taking a day off work we decided to go on a Sunday, click, clack, zip, crackle, pop, website online booking completed, next step lets book the bus ticket Arggggg NOOOOO there’s no bus from Malaga to Lanjaron on a Sunday.

Ok breath maybe it’s zzz’ in the airport after all.

No wait, we can get a bus from Malaga to Granada and another bus from Granada to Lanjaron phew sigh back on track…

The odyssey begins on Sunday 13th September 2009 and I just have to figure out what to pack now; 10kg hand luggage and 22kg hold baggage ooh so tempting but still so many shoes. I mean there’s hiking the Sierra but there’s also partying in Marbella and then I don’t want to be using my Salomon SCS super boots for gardening and cleaning do I and then there’s running shoes for keeping fit and rock boots for climbing in hmm you see my dilemma… In some ways NZ was perfect, a pair of boots and a pair of sandals, one change of clothes and a weekly supply of underwear. It can actually be refreshing not having to think what to wear every day, I guess it’s the hiking pants or the hiking pants then.. then again maybe Elton has the right idea after all…

Electricals aside at least I have less medication to take this time or at least more pills but less gel since they now fill me up with an injection every 12 weeks instead…

So were off and at the risk of repeating my NZ blog title Goodbye my Almost Lover, goodbye my almost dream, I’m trying not to think about you, but maybe only in my Fine Frenzy dreams, maybe your reading this and maybe your not I’ll send you a postcard.

Hmm now shall we take Murphy and Kiwi with us? But then what about Shaun and Fin and Cobler (hmm do I have too many stuffed animals for a boy, ok Kiwi belongs to Dee but the rest are mine?). Talk to you all again soon...

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Photos

Murphy Needs a new teeshirt
Murphy getting ready for his next adventure