Biking & Baking in Las Alpujarras

Another weekend of festivity...the village held its very intimate Candelaria, when just the locals, their family and a few friends gather to eat paella, morcillas and bacon and dance around the fire.  In fact we also had chicken broth, kebabs, hot chocolate & bunuelos and the local brass band playing the can-can!  The Virgen was carried through the streets at sunset yesterday, we lit small candles and fireworks bounced off the moonlit sky soon afterwards.  Some folk carried on today but we decided to stay indoors and watch a bit of rugby...oh Ireland, what did you do?!

We had spent the day walking above Berchules (again) with some English visitors and were delighted to be back for the fun.  On the walk we encountered frozen trees, icicles, a boar-hunting group and a minor snowstorm.  Steve brought his homemade wood stove and was able to boil up water for tea and coffee (taking great care to keep the flame contained within the stove) and we all had enough warm clothes on to cope with the chill when the sun disappeared.  Winter walking up here means proper gear, especially boots.  I usually leave Steve to bring emergency stuff but I think I will make sure I have my own knife, torch etc in case we get split up.  I did make sure the mobile was fully-charged however, and took spare socks and extra base layers.

I see that I have had almost 26,000 views of my Blog.  Thank you to everyone and I hope you keep on reading it.  The motorbikes have not featured much recently (weather) and even my recipes have fallen away (will try harder), but the Spring may see more outdoor adventures...who knows.