Ahh.... Warm southern Spain! Ah, que nos encantan, Andalucía!
We departed Amsterdam at a ferociously early hour on Thursday, February the 18th, trusting our bikes to the baggage handlers and crew of Transavia. We didn't even put them in boxes: turned the handle bars, took off the pedals, and that was that! That's what the ticket agent told us to do, and it worked out perfectly!
Originally we had planned to take trains from Amsterdam to Spain, but because we were held up in Amstrerdam for longer than expected (for dental work (sigh)), we decided to fly instead. And it was the right decision: we were across Europe in one day with no stops, no shuffling of baggage while trying to make tight connections, and no worries about finding Melinda soft foods for several days of travel. So, yeah, flying was the way to go.
We arrived Màlaga at 0930 in the morning. And, if you can even believe it, it was RAINING when we arrived. Perfect! Welcome to Sunny Spain???
We threw the bikes in the bottom of a bus, and headed to Estepona for an early afternoon arrival. After checking into a nearby hostal (cheap hotel) we called our HelpX hosts and arranged to meet on Friday. We thus had a day or so to play on the beach. In the rain...
Luckily the rain wasn't too bad, really, and we explored Estepona in the afternoon. It's a beautiful wee seaside town with a huge beach and lots (and lots) of seafood restaurants.
Pretty cobblestone streets, whitewashed buildings (great at deflecting the sun), narrow streets ... It's really a pretty town. Such towns are known as "pueblos blancos" (white towns), and the architecture reflects Moorish ancestory. Such whitewashed houses are often made of baked clay.
Estepona is filled with flowers: the old part of town is festooned with pots on walls, and each street had a color-scheme.
It is really pretty and very welcoming. It's the slow season here now, but in the summer one can imagine throngs of people on holiday.
Narrow winding streets, and more flower pots!
We shared a beer at an "Irish Pub." Notice the head on the beer? (They don't really know how to pour a pint very well here...luckily, the sangria is REALLY good!)
Notice the straw? That's how you can tell Melinda is having a beer! She's still going easy on her teeth, but appointments are set up with a dentist and we'll keep working on her teeth here.
On Friday Paul, who runs 'Lanas del Rio' with his wife Dawn, picked us up and took us their place in the SerranÍa (mountains). This is Casares, a small village we passed through to arrive at the mill. It is one of the most photographed villages in Spain- and one can see why- it's quite charming!
Our nearest village is Gaucīn, in case you want to find us on the map. If you want to check out Paul & Dawn's website, visit www.lanasdelrio.com to see some examples of the luxurious wool textiles they make here on their restored Dobcross shuttle looms from Yorkshire.
The map above pretty much shows where we are relative to Estepona (we are where the red dot is located). What you can't see is how mountainous it is!
The scenery here is very dramatic!
We relaxed for a couple days and got settled into our casita.
And, don't ya know, the weather became BEAUTIFUL! Perfect temperatures, just enough sun, a light breeze. Exactly what we need after gloomy wet Glasgow!
We are in love with his place! In the coming weeks, we'll take some better pics and post them.
Our casita is complete with a woodstove, a kitchenette, and a patio with a lovely view of the river Genal. The wifi signal isn't great at the casita, but if that's what we're going to complain about then, well, life is pretty darn good!
Paul and Dawn took us up to Gaucín for a look-around a few days after we arrived. It's a small and gorgeous mountain village located at approximately 600 m. The name Gaucín is derived from the Arabic word (gauzan) for "strong rock" and has an interesting history- it's narrow and winding streets were apparently once used by smugglers of tobacco and brandy! In the 19th century this village was also frequented by British officers en route to Gilbraltar!
A small street in Gaucin. Well, all the streets are small! There are just enough small shops that we won't need to go to Estepona too often.
This is the Gaucin cemetery, just below the ruins of the Roman/Moorish castle. Bodies of the recently departed are placed in the crypts, and are allowed to remain there as long as the descendants pay the rent. The cemetery is quite large, and all of the remains are stored this way. It's beautifully kept, and that speaks to how the people here revere their ancestors.
A bell in the ruins of the castle. It's official name is Castillo del Aguila (eagle's castle), and was built and used by the Romans because of its strategic location. Later, the Moors made several additions.
The clapper has been removed. boB was bummed about that.
Looking down from the castle to our place. If you can zoom in, the house is located right in the center of the image. If you can see two houses, our place is the one that's to the lower-left.
A panoramic shot, with village of Gaucin on the left, the castle ruins in the foreground of center-left, and our place is probably just out of the image to the right. On a clear day you can see the Rock of Gilbraltar and the northern coast of Africa from here.
This photo was taken while walking back down to the village from the ruins:
And now, for the obligatory Dog-Don't-Do sign!!
Here, as in every other place we've been, the take seriously the business of doggy-doo (though we hear they're not terribly strict on enforcement). This one looks like a large gorilla picking up M&Ms while his wee Scotty terrier looks on.
Chips! We got chips! There's a market on Sundays in Gaucin, and we got a wee plate of chips and mayo. And, I'll point it out once again, it's SUNNY!
Back at home, here is Queeny, one of the two cats. She is super friendly, and has taken to hanging out in our casita.
And this is Frankie. A sweet geriatric special needs cat.
We had two days to play, and then on Monday we got to work... The arrangement is that we each work 25 hours per week in exchange for rent, and most of our groceries. Quite a deal! We can determine our working hours, and can shuffle hours around in case we want a three-day weekend, or whatever. They also have a spare truck we can use from time to time, though we really don't want to drive much.
Our first task was to start clearing fire breaks. On steep hillsides. With many poky shrubs and vines. It's a LOT of hard work, and there's a lot of it to do here. After a couple of days of it we were beat! It's hard to tell in the pictures just what we're doing and how challenging it is.
We're out of shape because our life-style in Glasgow was quite sedentary - we spent most of our time playing music there. Now we're working hard and making up for so much sitting around! It's good to work, and we feed good (and sore) from all the effort.
The big trees in these two pics is cork-oak; the bark is harvested every 11 years. We don't have to cut those, thankfully. There are also creosote bushes, thorny bushes, fig trees, spiky bushes, lavender bushes, vicious vines, olives, sticky vines, carob trees, ironwood. We are happy to report that the good news is... there are lots, and lots, and lots of orange and lemon trees!
We can easily hike to a nearby abandoned mill further down the river that has a huge orchard and carry home a backpack full of oranges and lemons. We're in heaven!
This is boB infront of a large pile of to-be-burned brush- one of many such piles!
We're going to be sore for a while: we have decided to temporarily rename the band from "The Advil Highlanders" to the "Andalucian Advilliados"!! We have other tasks, as well: weeding, general yard cleanup, helping out if they have a show where the selling their textiles, that kind of thing. It's quite a large property, and there is never a shortage of work.
This place is really amazing. The scenery is stunning, the weather is just what we need after spending 6+ months in the UK and Ireland, and the work will do us some good. Paul and Dawn are two of the nicest and most accommodating folks we've met, and we're happy to have the opportunity to help them run their place in exchange for room and board.
Here's a view from the drive in front of the main house & mill.
Not to shabby, eh?
Stay tuned, and we'll share more about our great adventures soon! Keep in touch & send us a line from time to time- we'd love to hear what you all are up to!
