Biking & Baking in Las Alpujarras

What's going on?!  6 months of drought and now day after day of low cloud, mists, light and heavy rain...we've even lit a fire to console ourselves for the damp and chilly conditions!  We know there's snow on the tops (nice) and we know it's good for the land, everything greening up again...but we're hard-pressed to feel grateful.  Some people's roofs are showing signs of stress, every crack and little gap letting in the water, the roads are strewn with debris and rivulets from over-flowing acequias...even the market was deathly quiet this morning.  But, on the plus side, we had 2 French friends in for afternoon tea and chocolate cake, the conversation was cultured and amusing (ranging  from Picasso to Bakst to Crumb) and then everyone departed in another downpour.  A day of galoshes and umbrellas, frogs and toads.  I think we'll break out the Marie Brizzard and the Black Grouse, (anis and whisky for the uninitiated) and enjoy some blues music and maybe a film. 

I was expecting a genteel ride home in the car, but the Fates had decreed otherwise...the car is still at the garage so there was Steve, waiting at the airport, helmet in hand,  and wearing a happy smile.  He had brought all my biking gear in the top-box, so after a quick change we were bombing along towards Motril under the starry sky, aboard the VFR!  The hill roads seemed long and winding, in places a little bit difficult with scattered stones and gravel, but the main man did his stuff beautifully and by 1am we were sipping a wee dram in the house.

And what a house!  SOMEONE had given it a top-to-toe tidy and clean up, polished the floors, changed the bed linen, watered the pot-plants...all immaculate.    As I unpacked the goodies from the UK (marmite, Esbit tablets, laptop battery, Montbell jacket etc) I decided that I will have to go away more often, as he is a much better housekeeper than me!  What a good chap!  Gold-dust!!

Eight days 'on foreign soil' ...and however nice it has been, I'm ready to go home. The temperature in Aberdeen is around zero so I long for the warm winds of Andalucia...but I've managed to squeeze in seeing friends, doing some intensive gardening, shopping (mountain stuff, a  sweater, Bisto gravy), a spot of tango and getting a decent haircut from an Italian motorcycle-mad hairdresser!  Plus some great meals out (Fox & Goose in Fressingfield, the 'all you can eat' Tropero Brazilian steakhouse in Aberdeen) and sampling Paleo-eating with my son and his girlfriend. Not just 'low carb' but 'zero carb'...very healthy for serious fitness people like them. Less bread, potatoes, grains and sugar...more meat, eggs and salads. How to lose weight and improve your digestion - effortlessly!  I think we need a Crossfit gym like theirs in Granada!

Someone dumped 2 sweet little black kittens in a street bin here yesterday, just around the corner. What a very cruel and thoughtless thing to do...no food, no water, a cold night...you do wonder about some people's moral code. Plenty of animal shelters or the RSPCA to take them to.  Our Alpujarra village has its share of street cats but we manage to feed them through the winter and I doubt if anyone would put them in a skip; I wish we could catch some of them and neuter them to slow down the birth rate however.

So, the joys of Prestwick tomorrow, a quick meet and eat with other friends, and then into the teeth of the gale heading for the Bay of Biscay. What a joy! Perhaps we'll fly above the storm rather than through it...all the way to Malaga!

Anyone interested in lightweight camping stuff, Steve has just posted his latest video on YouTube entitled: Lightweight Cooking Kit.  There's so many examples of this, you might need to source it under stevebungay/Mulhacen in Winter, amongst all his other Cecil B de Mille film extravaganzas!!!

There we were, tootling back down from the Hoya de Portillo towards Capileira at the end of a long walk, when...the car just died. Nothing. No engine power at all. So we free-wheeled to the gasolinera below Bubion, filled up (we were a bit low on fuel), she started up again...and we managed another 6 km. Down the hill she died again and this time there was no life at all. Nor the next day, despite all Steve's efforts and checks: battery good, plugs good, ignition good, coil good...and now she's in the garage in Pitres awaiting treatment. Thank goodness for the motorbikes! Thank goodness for Clem and his offer of a tow!

We've used the C90 for my medical appointment, the Suzuki for shopping and trying to fix the car and the VFR will get me to Malaga on Tuesday, we hope, for a brief visit to the UK. Only the Guzzi has been left in the 'stable'. It's great weather for biking anyway: cooler, sunny, brilliant roads all washed clean by the rain...

I'm sure that Steve will be up in the hills while I'm away, wandering around and enjoying the solitude. His latest YouTube video on Lightweight Backpacking is getting plenty of attention but he's still fiddling about with ever-smaller and lighter stoves to boil water. I'm only interested in the outcome, that nice cup of tea. We met 2 lads from Cambridge up on Mulhacen and one of them not only indulges in fell-running, he even knows the location of the farm in the Lake District where I grew up...and he was carrying one of my favourite books Feet in the Clouds, about the people who pursue that energetic sport. Come to the Alpujarras and meet the world!