16/2003 - Dognapping Socialites
10th March 2004 - Orgiva
Hola Amigos!
We last caught up with you during our busy and wonderful stay at Orgiva. Despite not managing to get the Lorry parked up on the terraces behind Star's sister's house, we still succeeded in spending a lot of time up there enjoying the views, the sun (it didn't rain all the time!) and the tranquillity, picking oranges and lemons in vast quantities for eating, squeezing for breakfast juice and even distributing to friends down on the Camping. (Oh, the amazing zesty smell of picking the lemons and oranges straight off the trees!). There are pomegranate, fig and apricot trees up there, as well as the ubiquitous olive, lemon and several-different-kinds-of-orange trees. Neighbours Sebastian and Severine, who are both horticulturalists, are growing all kinds of plants on their terrace, trying to find out which will take to the micro-climate up there on the hill, and they plan to plant a range of different fruit trees over the coming seasons.
In consultation with Star, we decided there's definitely scope for a warm autumn phase of Proyecto Trabajo - bit more work later in the year on her sister's house and lots of help needed to clear the terraces, rebuild some of the retaining walls and so on. Paco, Star's elderly neighbour, recommends the second coat of Pintura Plastica should go on then, when there's little chance of rain, and maybe we can help him with a fresh coat of paint on his house too, which he said needs doing. Dave, by the way, ended up referring to Paco as the Walnut Whippet - Dave commented on how, despite (or perhaps because of?) his age and physically demanding life, Paco was up and down his steep path with the agility of a whippet. Then in the next breath said he was tanned and lined like a walnut. Hence: Walnut Whippet!
Jeni would just like to reassure you that whilst her position as Team Worrier is pretty much unrivalled, there was one incident in which Dave temporarily laid claim to the title. This particular day, Jeni left Payaso (Star's new name for Dave - Clown!) on his pintor's scaffold as she drove back into town for a few errands. Even allowing for Jeni's ambling approach and probably a coffee stop, Dave thought, he confesses to having felt just a tad of anxiety that she was away so long. Had she failed to negotiate a bend adequately and plunged tragically into a picturesque olive grove? Had she run off with Pedro, our delicious car-hiring travel agent? Had she got a job at everybody's favourite coffee hang-out? Had she been arrested for driving too carefully? No, the truth was on the way back, she'd got caught firstly by a very large flock of goats progressing from the hills across the road and down the dry river bed, then a few bends later found herself behind a large and very confused cockerel strutting down the middle of the road. It panicked on hearing the car and was zig-zagging back and forth, unable to get off the road for some distance. Well, wouldn't you rather have those sort of traffic hold-ups?!
We caught Carnaval weekend - the last festival before Lent starts - and enjoyed the boisterous children's fancy dress parade through Orgiva on the Friday evening. Much throwing of sweets and handfuls of confetti (Dave became a particular target for the kids on the lorry-float as he ran alongside taking photos of them). There's a huge, aircraft-hangar-esque building on the edge of the town where the procession ended up and the games and music began. Then it was the turn of the adults on Saturday night (though they just got the community aircraft hangar bit rather than a procession). Trouble was, it didn't really get going until after 10 p.m., and these days we just don't have the late-night stamina ...
Meanwhile back over at Tijola ...
From the wonderful terraces we looked out over the Guadelfeo river valley to the hills on the other side. It's a magical place, a very fertile valley, much of which is given over to small-scale agriculture (it's where Paco and many other local people have their fields). On the other side of the river itself, towards the village of Los Tablones, there has been a New Age traveller encampment for the best part of ten years now. Originally, there were a brace of vans, lorries, teepees, yurts and assorted other living spaces there in the winter, then in the summer heat they dispersed. Gradually it became a year round encampment - like Benificio, another one up in some of the higher hills behind Orgiva.
We heard stories of how, a few years ago, a festival was organised by some of the locals and some of the travellers. A good time was had by all. Next year the DragonFest became somewhat bigger, but still lots of fun. Then someone put out the information on the internet and 6000 people turned up the following Spring. Not good, since there were no facilities laid on and it all got a bit out of hand. Then last year 10,000 people turned up, including some techno-freaks who proceeded to erect dozens of massive sound systems and blast out the whole valley for 10 days and nights. Attempts by the Guardia Civil to restore a bit of quiet turned the whole thing rather heavy, and there were battalions of 'Anti-Disturbia' - Spanish riot police - parked up around the town waiting for the mayor's permission to move in (he never gave it).
So this year things have been a bit twitchy with the festival expected any time now. The whole encampment got served with a notice to quit, although no moves were made to enforce it once it expired, as far as anyone could tell (and Dave had a prime viewing site for several days when he was doing his high-wire act on the scaffolding when painting the outside of the house). But quite a number of people left the valley of their own volition, and there has been a very visible presence of Guardia Civil on the roads entering and leaving the area. They've been checking motor insurance documents and suchlike with extraordinary vigour when anyone's driving anything that looks remotely traveller-ish.
Rumours abound that the Anti-Disturbia (which make UK riot police look like the Sooty and Sweep show, by all accounts) were once more ready for action. Oh dear. Needless to say, our resident cartoonist had an image for the occasion and very soon his picture of a couple of the Anti-Disturbia 'relaxing', having sampled some of the travellers 'home cooking', was doing the rounds! Perhaps we just ought to let Dave into the other world trouble spots with his cartoons and let everyone have a good laugh at themselves - or is that just too simple?!
Anyroadup, we were slightly anxious that the sound-systems might appear or the Anti-Disturbia might ride in just as our visitors from Blighty, Sarah and Jeremy, arrived. We'd arranged with Star that they could stay in the little top flat of her sister's house rather than hire a cabin on the Camping. Happily, their visit was peaceful (apart, that is, from the usual cacophony created by a heady combination of Carlos and Carmen's vociferous cockerel, the occasional bursts from the local dogs, the calls from the chicken-seller's tannoy system as he drove down the road and the incessant birdsong). Sarah and Jeremy strode the footpaths of the valley and the hills behind during their few days' visit and seemed to find the little flat to their liking. We managed to arrange full-time sunshine for them, though it wasn't quite as warm as it had been, and very clear, and thus frosty, after dark.
Whilst they were around, we all tootled off to Granada in the little rented Daewoo Matiz, which perhaps surprisingly coped admirably with the twisty, turny, uppy, downy mountain roads with four of us aboard. Once down onto the main road our combined weight gave it an unexpected velocity and we hurtled through the valley past the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevadas, firmly topped with their generous bonnets of snow. We did our 'turistic' bit at the exquisite Alhambra - a great time of year to go when there are no flocking crowds to impede appreciation of the remarkable Moorish palaces and gardens. The flowers and foliage aren't of course at their very best in early March, but on balance the smaller number of visitors makes it a much more pleasant experience at this time of year and it's still easy to appreciate how the Moorish culture integrated water as a living art form in the gardens and the buildings.
We chanced upon a guided tour in English in the Palacios Nazaries and we drifted around the edges of the group at various points of our visit. We couldn't help marvelling at the intensity of the Spanish guide as he explained various aspects of the buildings and courtyards - he'd probably done the tour scores, perhaps even hundreds, of times, but the depth of his passion for the place, and his awe for those who'd constructed it, emanated from somewhere very deep inside of him. And no wonder. If you've never been, you really should go, it's incredible.
We also had a day with Sarah and Jeremy exploring some of the mountain villages in the Alpujarras. First stop the now much-visited Pampaniera where Jeni had an errand to run for a friend - purchasing a pair of purple shoes from a particular shoemaker - and we had lunch among the mainly Spanish bank-holiday weekending throngs. There are some fantastic villages further afield which, because they are too steep and narrow for cars, must look pretty much as they have done for the last century or more (oh, okay, apart from the TV aerials, the electricity cables and the occasional sign outside a shop or café!). Talking of which, in quest for a coffee in sleepy Busquistar, we went into a small, almost windowless room that was the local bar. For decoration there were completed jigsaw puzzles on the walls, yellowing with age, stuck to hardboard and roughly framed. The noticeboard seemed to double as the village's announcement centre and the three men propped on the bar had probably also been in there for several decades too. Incongruously, there was a pink (what else?) plastic Barbie cassette player on the bar.
We managed to pretty much eat our way round Orgiva while Sarah and Jeremy were with us, including having a lively meal with Star, Kate, Walter and Kasheem, Star's beautiful daughter, at the end of which Kasheem decided to deal with Dave's teasing by judicious application of her blue hair dye! Jeni only regrets that she didn't have the camera to record Dave with a blue 'mullet' and blue-tinged, newly-grown beardling, for inclusion in the Bulletin.
This relentless round of socialising culminated on Sarah and Jeremy's last night in a meal at the excellent restaurant run by the people who own the Camp site, with Betty, Drew, Steve and Sheila who we'd been inflicting ourselves on at various points during our stay at the Camping. Those of us who decided to have a (ahem!) small dry sherry to start ended up getting a wine glass full of Fino accompanied by plates of tapas, none of which we were charged for when the bill arrived at the end of the evening. And this wasn't an oversight on the owner's part, we were assured it was quite normal! You don't need to know that the total bill (including drinks, coffee, bread etc.) for 8 came to less than 120 Euros do you? No, no, that's definitely one detail too many!
So finally the day came to whiz Sarah and Jeremy back to Malaga airport, get our bits and bobs at the flat and say our goodbyes at Tijola. This seemed to take an inordinately long time - and you'll be pleased to know that Carlos looks forward to our return in September or October when, he trusts, we will be in a position to buy his lovely house. A snip at 50 million pesetas (he's still finding it hard to work it out in Euros)! (Oh, by the way, if anyone wants to rent a great little flat for two in the glorious valley, we can put you in touch with Star's sister Mary - and we're not on commission, promise!) And thus back to take the car to the lovely Pedro, start the packing up process at the Camping and gradually say our farewells to humans and dogs we'd got to know pretty well over the three weeks on the site.
It was all Dave could do to stop himself dognapping Chip (short for Chipolata) the cute little 8-month old Dachshund we'd puppysat for a couple of days while his owners, Becky and Mark, had been off property-viewing or trying to nurse to health a stray Pointer they'd adopted which was pretty poorly. It was the same breed as their other two dogs, Poppy and Lilly (yes, folks, four dogs in a caravan and awning!) and they couldn't bear to see it in such a bad way. They'd flown back to England to collect Chip, Becky's Mum's puppy, as Mum wasn't very well and couldn't manage him. Hence a bit of puppysitting by us as Chip settled into his new life. We reckon by the time we meet up with Becky and Mark again they'll have at least a dozen dogs! But they may also have a property with lots of land, so a dozen dogs (and a couple of llamas maybe?!) will be fine.
Our final morning at Orgiva dawned, and still plenty of striking camp to be done. There was a large element of 'putting it off', if the truth be known, as we were quite reluctant to leave. In the midst of our tasks Betty and Drew invited us in for a welcome coffee and freshly baked Scotch pancakes. Impressed? We were! A true Scot, oor Betty, a batch bake by 10.30 a.m. (and the washing on the line!) and the pancakes all covered over with a teacloth in the approved fashion. Shades of Oor Gracie (Jeni's Mum, the batch-baking queen), and the more amazing as it was all rustled up in the caravan! What fantastic people we keep meeting.
It was destination Roquetas de Mar when we did eventually prise ourselves away from the mountains. We knew it was going to be a culture shock getting back down to the coastal resorts after the beauty and tranquillity of the Alpujarras (our couple of trips to Motril don't really count as we were just popping in for lunch with Star or Jeni was going to her fabled 'work' lunch with the folk from the local organisation of Disabled people, and when we went to Malaga it was only to pick up or drop off Jeremy and Sarah at the airport). On the way back up the coast we were meeting friends who were holidaying in Roquetas, so our dejection at leaving the mountains and the folk at Orgiva and Tijola was at least tempered by the thought that we'd see Mo and Jim before the longer trek up towards Barcelona.
Meeting up with them wasn't quite as straightforward as we'd hoped though - but we'll leave that one for next time.
Love to you all,
Jeni y Dave
xxxxx