July 1st - 15th 2006
Written by Geoff Forster
The big day is here! No not the England match ...
Francisco and Almudena's wedding. A huge marquee covers the plaza and a reception for 100's if not 1000's is being prepared.
We're up early walking the donkeys so we're free to enjoy the day.
This was dawn over the Genal Valley.
This is Benarrabá bathed in early morning sunshine.
A great day for a wedding.
We've been invited to the family home (Bar Barroso) to take some photographs before the church service.
We'll do a special page on www.benarraba.com
We walked down into the pueblo. It was just less than an hour until the wedding. We were surprised to see the groom Francisco looking so casual.
Francisco is an excellent horseman and lots of his friends came on horseback.
We were honoured to be invited into the family home before they left for the church.
Here daughter Toñi puts the final touches to Antonia's make up.
She looked wonderful.
A short walk to the church.
Antonia, Francisco, Toñi and father José.
A wait outside the church.
The crowds were gathering, there was an air of anticipation as we waited for the arrival of the bride, Almudena.
Suddenly there was a noise of horse hooves and bells.
The bride made a dramatic entrance in this magnificent horse drawn carriage. They came around the corner very quickly. They were followed by eight caballeros in traditional Andalucian dress.
A fantastic sight.
Inside the church the wedding service started.
The church was full.
Outside the church the carriage was turned and the horsemen sat patiently.
This is Dominic Dring and his daughters. Dominic was playing the flute as part of an ensemble.
Inside, rings and vows were exchanged and then the happy couple emerged from the church as man and wife.
The bells rang and everyone was cheering.
The happy couple were then pelted with rice. In fact it was flying everywhere. It really stings.
We knew the carriage would come up Calle Pósito so we ran ahead to get a photograph.
What I didn't realise was the speed that they would travel at. They galloped up the road.
We ran up through the streets of Benarrabá to get more photographs.
We waited and waited, eventually I thought they must have stopped. So I walked along to see.
They'd gone down to El Chorruelo to turn the carriage and they came flying up the camino with a cloud of dust behind them.
It was a magnificent sight. The horses headdress contains a lot of bells and they made a wonderful noise as they wound through the streets of the pueblo.
This is Antonio Ramos. He is a famous venenciador.
The wine is poured from a great height using a silver cup on a whalebone stick. This adds air to the liquid enhancing the flavour.
The marquee was huge. Row after row of tables, all full with happy people having a good time. This photograph shows about a quarter of the people.
We sat at the table with Juan and his family. Flora and Bernardo made us feel very welcome which was nice of them.
Bernardo and Flora.
Francisco and Almudena.
Jane looked good as usual. Muy Guapa.
I spent an hour walking around photographing the people sitting at the tables. A lot were aware of the www.benarraba.com website and everyone was complimentary about it. Lots of people who were born in the village but now live away, commented on how they loved visiting the website to see the photo's of the people and the village.
Here's one of Monica next to the horse drawn carriage.
We disappeared to watch the England v Portugal game.
We bumped into our guest Jane, who came to watch it with us.
Jane (my Jane) returned to the reception to photograph the cake.
Obviously this small cake wasn't going to go very far.
These huge cakes weigh 125kg that's over 250lbs.
Jane walked home.
She took this shot of an old house which I really like. She's becoming a very good photographer.
A disastrous penalty shoot out. England have been knocked out.
Cristiano Ronaldo was a disgrace. I doubt if he can play in the Premier League after his antics. Shearer thinks Rooney's going to 'deck him' on the training ground the first chance he gets. He's probably right.
We went to Guayacán to drown our sorrows.
Our guest Jane came with us.
Jane has been visiting lots of different towns looking for property and a teaching job.
It was time that she relaxed and enjoyed herself.
Jane took this one of Jane and myself.
Back at the plaza the reception disco was playing and lots of people were dancing.
Here's the bride, Almudena, Jane and two friends of the bride from Algeciras.
Two Janes.
Jane took this of photograph of Jane and myself.
We had a great evening.
It was a wonderful wedding and we wish both Francisco and Almudena a long and happy life together.
A lovely couple.
A beautiful day.
I've been busy looking and sorting some of yesterdays photographs.
We took 408 in total!
A quiet day. We walked across to feed the donkeys.
Rosie and Domingo were pleased to see us.
We walked up the camino towards Algatocín, then we spent a couple of hours with them in the shade of the Olive trees.
This pretty male cat that we imaginatively call "ginger cat" follows us around crying all the time.
Domingo isn't impressed by the cat and tries to chase him off.
We had a quiet evening.
I spent four or five hours until 02:00h. doing the webpages for Francisco and Almudena's wedding.
Which can be found by following the link below. If you only have dial-up internet it could take a while to download, as there are hundreds of photographs.
We went early to give the donkeys more water. Another water run is planned later to fill the barrel to the top.
We drove 9km down from Gaucín to visit a horse riding centre.
Our guest Jane had booked a two hour ride so we went to photograph her and get some literature for future guests.
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El Repilado is run by Tim and Sue.
This is Sue preparing the horse for Jane.
Here's one of the other beautiful Andalucian horses stabled here.
All equipment except long trousers and socks is provided.
Here's Jane looking the part.
There are around twelve horses at the centre. Eight belong to Tim and Sue. This beautiful Golden Stallion is Sue's pride and joy.
Jane was mounted on her horse.
Tim walked alongside for a while until Jane was comfortable and confident enough to walk around the sand ring.
The horse had a special netting over its head to keep the flies off.
Some horses don't like flies and can be unsettled by them.
I was impressed by how careful Tim and Sue were about the health and safety of the riders and they seemed especially caring about their horses.
This is a very well run riding centre.
A livery service is available if you want to keep a horse here.
The views behind are impressive with Jimena de la Frontera sitting on the hillside in the distance.
A few laps of the sand filled corral and Jane looked comfortable.
She's been riding regularly for a few years and looked at ease as she circled round.
The sand arena is used for schooling the horses and for teaching.
Lessons are available for complete beginners and for more competent riders who wish to improve their skills.
Prices are around 30 euros for 40 minutes. Reduced for children.
Riding costs 30 euros for an hour. 45 euros for a two hour ride into the mountains. Early morning starts in the summer because of the heat and as the temperatures cool these times extend.
Anyone who wants to come to the apartment and have a few hours riding in the Andalucian campo should either ask us to arrange something or telephone Tim or Sue during your stay.
Tim : (0034) 679543163
Sue : (0034) 660051763
Finding a local riding centre for our guests has been something we've had in mind for quite some time. To find such a centre of excellence only twenty minutes drive away is a real bonus.
Having met Tim and Sue and seen the professional way the centre is managed, we can confidently recommend El Repilado to all our guests and to anyone else who lives or visits the area.
Tim gave us some good advice about our donkeys and some handy telephone numbers.
We enjoyed our visit, we may return in the future for lessons ...
We went to Bar Manolo at Gibralmedina but they were closed. It was San Pablo Romería yesterday and the whole area was having a late start.
We drove up to Gaucín. Here is the magnificent view South down the Genal Valley to the coast taken from the road between Gaucín and Benarrabá.
This photo has been 'cleaned up' to remove some haze. (We don't usually enhance any photo's that we take and always say if we have.)
The mountains behind are the Rif mountains in Morocco. There was snow on one of the peaks to the right of the photo.
Gaucín castle.
Back home we filled our water containers and drove to fill the donkey's water barrel up.
We walked Rosie and Domingo down to El Chorruelo where the vegetation around the natural spring is still green and lush.
We noticed that the Eucalyptus trees were flowering.
We let the donkeys eat for around forty minutes before walking them back to the campo.
We sat under the Olive trees with them for another hour or more. It is very relaxing for us and the donkeys love the attention.
I spotted this 'Donkey Eye' in one of the trees. Jane usually spots thing like this. I think I'm cracking ... campo fever.
We were both really tired after a hot afternoon out.
We had a evening siesta and got up in time to watch 'Alien Resurrection' starring Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder.
Later we watched 'Feeling Minnesota' starring Cameron Diaz and Keanu Reeves on DVD. One of Jane's recent eBay buys.
We went back to bed at around 03:00h.
Last months webstat's showed that we got over 550 visitors a day to the website. Peaking at 708. That's over 16,000 for the month. Not bad as it was hot in the UK and the World cup was on.
Blue skies ... sunshine, another perfect day.
We're going to print and laminate a batch of our business cards.
This is a boring but necessary task. We've nearly run out.
We took our guest Jane to some of the tapas bars for lunch.
We went to Bar Barroso, Bar Andrés Sánchez and then up to the Restaurante Kábilas.
At the Restaurante Kábilas we bumped into Robert and Helen from Buckleyeat Guest House near Sawry in the Lake District.
Robert has e-mailed and often reads the blog. He has started one of his own.
It was good to finally meet Robert and Helen.
A couple of mules passed by.
This fine scarecrow has appeared in the newly planted terraced garden near the school. He's very well made and dressed.
Cicadas are a summertime insect here in Andalucía. The males make quite a noise calling from the trees trying to attract females. They are part of summer in Andalucía. They are very difficult to spot as they are almost transparent.
A shady Spanish window. Benarrabá is a pretty village with lots of flowers around the streets.
Jane took this great photograph of a cute young kitten.
We took Jane to see Rosie and Domingo.
The donkeys love being stroked. Jane loved little Rosie but Domingo is a good looking young donkey.
This photograph was taken from the top of the ridge on the camino to Algatocín.
You can see the Sierra de Crestellina, Gibraltar is just visible to the right of the Crestellina. Africa faintly behind both.
Our house is at the top on the extreme right.
We had a good evening.
We watched Germany exit the World Cup beaten by very late goals by Italy. I was supporting Italy. I hope the win it. We have less football history with them than the other three teams.
Up early at 5:30h.
Our guest Jane is leaving for an early flight so we're up to say goodbye.
We've enjoyed having Jane stay with us, we've had some good times during the last week.
I think we're going to go back to bed for a few hours ...
We went to Bar Andrés Sánchez for tapas.
This is Alejandro who works at the Unicaja bank in Benarrabá.
Alejandro speaks English very well and he often helps us with our paperwork.
This is Mariángelis her husband Silvestre and their new baby Ángela
The sky was blue, it was hot. We walked to the Restaurante Kábilas for a cool beer.
We went to see Rosie and Domingo who are both looking well.
We had a night in watching France beat Portugal. I was supporting France. I now dislike Portugal as much as Argentina and Germany. (Just their football teams and not their people!)
We got an e-mail from Jane. She arrived home in the UK safe and well.
She'd had a great time in Benarrabá. She explored quite a large area of the Málaga and Cádiz provinces.
We're up early to water the plants and to wash the car. There was a red Clio under all that campo dirt.
We drove Ben and Heather to Gaucín. Ben is the son of Clarissa who is having a house renovated in the village.
We called into Bar Manolo to have some refreshments.
We like this bar as usually it is "English free" unlike some of the other bars in Gaucín.
Here's Manolo.
We drove to the Super Genal at Algatocín then home to Benarrabá.
A walk into the campo to see Rosie and Domingo.
We walked them down to the spring at El Chorruelo to eat the greener vegetation. Although they seem quite happy to eat the dried up stuff.
We had a quiet night in. Watching TV before having an early night.
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We're up early.
A busy day ahead.
We've got to fill the donkeys water barrel and then move all the plants around the house so we can make a start painting the outside of the house. A huge job involving scaffolding. Cristóbal is lending me his. He's going to leave it outside the house at some point. It looks as if it just slots together. I'm concerned about the slope but we'll have to do it! In fact Spanish scaffolding looks pretty dodgy and I don't like heights. There's a good logical reason for this .. I don't like falling off things onto concrete.
The scaffolding is half up. It looks very high. As I said I'm not too keen on heights. I have been up there, but had to hang on to both sides and the bars of the upper windows much to Cristóbal's amusement.
We're putting scaffolding up on the other side of the house later tonight. Neighbours have been asked not to park within splashing distance of our painting (100m!). We'll start tomorrow scraping and putting on a first coat.
The rest of the scaffolding is up across the front of the house.
We had a night in. We cooked a chicken curry and watched a DVD.
More sunshine. Beautiful temperatures in the high eighties °F.
We're going to walk Rosie and Domingo.
Later we begin preparing the front of the house for a first coat.
Rosie and Domingo enjoyed their walk up the camino towards Algatocín.
They eat anything. Rosie especially, she eats windfall oranges and plums. She even spits the plum stones out.
We walked back to Benarrabá stopping at the spring to fill up our water bottles.
I took this of some dried out thistles growing in a patch at the side of the track. Domingo would make short work of these.
We're waiting for the sun to move off the front of the house before I climb up the scaffolding to start preparing the surfaces for a first coat.
Jane's mother, Esther sent us a packet of sunflower seeds.
We planted a few. This is the biggest and first to open.
We went for a evening stroll. We called into Bar Andrés Sánchez, Pub Bar Dami, a quick visit to see Pepa in Disco Bar Embrujo. The Asociación de Mujeres (Women's Association) had been having coffee and cakes in there. The disco bar usually opens later on the weekend.
We had a piece of cake (very nice) and then walked up to Café Bar Guayacán.
We had a good evening. We stayed to watch the football. Germany beat Portugal in the 3rd/4th playoff match. This is Macarena's father. He enjoys the football. Jane took all the photographs. I like this one.
Macarena.
Yolanda with me.
Flora.
We walked home at around midnight.
The stars filled the night sky. (Not much light pollution here)
Another good night in Benarrabá.
The sky is blue, the sun is shining ... another great day.
We stayed around the house all morning.
We drove over to fill the donkeys water barrel up.
Then we took them for a walk so that they could eat at the side of the track.
This is the pretty track we walk up. It goes over the ridge to the next village, Algatocín. It is lined with Cork and Holm Oaks. Also lots of fruit trees such as plums, oranges and pomegranates.
This is one of Juan's pigs. He was cooling down by sitting in his drinking water bowl.
We tipped our drinking water bottles over his back before we left.
We stopped at the natural spring to fill our own water bottles up.
We use spring water for cooking and drinking.
There's nothing wrong with the mains water here, but as we have a free source of pure mountain water we may as well use it.
Jane spotted this frog sunbathing near the spring.
He won't last long if he sits in the open like this.
We drove home.
I scraped and cleaned the front of the house. Jane cleaned the black ironwork around the windows. The wind was gusting quite strongly and it made me very nervous on the scaffolding. So I abandoned plans to put on a first coat until tomorrow.
We sat and watched the World Cup Final.
A good game with a explosive ending.
I'd love to know what was said and why Zidane completely lost it. Great head butt though.
The whole tournament was undermined by the penalty shoot out.
It really is silly after all the qualifying matches over the previous two years, the group stages, then the knockout phase to end the competition with a penalty shoot out.
A replay of the final should be scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday.
They'd make more money and we'd get an extra game.
Nevertheless it was an enjoyable tournament.
I think Argentina v Mexico was the best match that I watched.
Italy played well throughout and looked to be a very good team.
Well done to them.
I'm up early. It's a hot and hazy day. I've taken advantage of the haze to put a first coat of paint on the front of the house. Usually the glare of the sun is blinding when painting a white house with white paint. I might get another coat on later this afternoon.
We walked down to Café Bar Guayacán for tapas.
It is a hot day temperatures in the low nineties.
We had a Montadito and some Salmorejo de carne.
Both were excellent.
We strolled to the Restaurante Kábilas.
We had a long drink to cool down.
Back home we're debating whether we have the energy to walk to see the donkeys or if we're going to be lazy and drive.
We were good and walked to see the donkeys.
The temperature was 34°C/94°F in the shade. It was hot!
We walked the donkeys up the camino (track).
Here's Domingo saying "Hola" to a nearby goat.
Goats are lovely animals.
Here's one of our burra Rosie.
We met a man in a bar the other day who is a neighbour of Rosie's previous owners.
Apparently Rosie is descended from a race of Moroccan donkeys.
This may explain her unusual colour. She is black with a purple tint when the sun shines through her coat. I'll have to do some research.
We went back down to Café Bar Guayacán to see Yolanda.
She kindly helped correct some of my terrible Spanish on www.benarraba.com
We sat on the sun terrace of the apartment for four hours, the views are stunning. We just sat and enjoyed the hot Spanish evening.
We watched hundreds of House Martins flying around. Below in the village Swifts were flying in a large group. The odd swallow was also seen flying closer to the road. A fantastic sight.
We watched a near full moon rise above the Sierra Bermeja opposite.
Juan's mare is still keeping us waiting he thinks the night of the full moon (tomorrow) is favourite. We shall see. She does look a lot heavier now.
Another hot day temperatures are forecast to be a degree higher.
I spent the morning working on the computer before putting another coat of paint on the front of the house.
Now we're going to Café Bar Guayacán for a much deserved ice cold beer.
We had a good time in Guayacán. Chatting to Yolanda and with lots of our friends and neighbours.
We drove to see Rosie and Domingo. It was a lot cooler by 20:00h.
Here's Rosie having a dust bath. She loves doing this.
A quiet evening in.
A drop in temperatures today, some clouds around and a strong wind.
It will still get to 33°C/92°F later in the afternoon.
I was going to go and paint the ironwork around the windows but I'll wait until the wind drops down a bit.
A few rumbles of distant thunder were unexpected as were the twenty drops of rain that fell.
We drove over to see Rosie and Domingo.
We filled their water barrel and walked them up the camino.
This is Benarrabá from the camino. The donkeys certainly have a good view.
The apartment is on the extreme right of the village. (Notice how white it is!).
We enjoyed our walk, the donkeys are well. There was a beautiful breeze that we often get in the mountains.
We had a quiet evening in. We watched 'Soundproof' a drama on BBC2 about a deaf guy wrongly accused of murder. We also cooked a chicken, potato and lentil curry.
A warm sunny day, again temperatures are perfect.
We've had an e-mail from Angus and Susan from Perthshire who we met last month. They are big Border Collie lovers and wondered if the donkeys were taking over.
We can't walk the dogs too far because of the heat and lack of water for them to drink.
In autumn, winter and spring there are some large puddles that they drink from and play in.
In the summer Jane and I have to carry all the water for them and for us, which means taking a large backpack.
So at the moment until late September/October they get more short walks up the track by the house. Not very exciting so I don't mention it too often.
Our older dog Ferdy, is nearly twelve. In the last few months old age has caught up with him. His back legs are stiff and he's gone completely deaf. I think we may have to leave him behind if we plan any really long treks later this year. I'm not going to like doing this, and he certainly won't like it. We'll have to experiment to see how far he can manage.
We set of to go to Algatocín. On the way we noticed lots of Griffon Vultures flying around the valley.
We stopped to take a few photographs.
We haven't seen this many Griffon Vultures near Benarrabá for a few months. We see more in the winter when they find it harder to gain altitude.
We did a shop in the Super Genal. We bought a dozen large peaches for 1.69euros/£1.20. Which is good value.
Back home I've been listening to some of the first test match between England and Pakistan.
I'm going to go and paint the ironwork.
The skies darkened, thunder rumbled in the distance. It looked as if it was raining heavily higher up the Valle de Genal.
We drove to feed the donkeys. We didn't hang around in case the storm blew our way.
Half an hour later and the skies cleared and it was a perfect evening. Amazing.
We walked to Café Bar Guayacán for an ice cream then we walked around the village.
Later Jane watered the flowers. She called me out to photograph the sunflower. It grows daily it is now about thirty centimetres in diameter.
There's usually at least one bee feeding on the nectar.
Tonight an unexpected guest had climbed up there.
Praying Mantis are fascinating insects. They seem very intelligent.
We're off to see Rosie and Domingo to take them for a good feed at the spring El Chorruelo.
Then we're going to go for a drive. Probably in the Jimena de la Frontera - Estación de Gaucín (El Colmenar) area then into the Alcornocales cork oak forest. We'll see.
Well as quite often happens here things didn't quite work out as planned.
We drove passed El Chorruelo and there were three mules munching the grasses there. They are using the mules to gather the cork stripped from local Cork Oak trees on a near sheer mountainside near the spring.
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With three mules already munching the good stuff near the spring. We decided not to bring the donkeys down and cause chaos. Domingo is a large stallion two year old donkey ... we were fortunate to be given a huge pile of cut, dried vegetation from Finca Las Hazuelas.
For the third afternoon running some clouds appeared. Although today the clouds were higher and we didn't have any thunder. We did however have twenty drops of rain. The clouds were so high, white and fluffy that rain looked unlikely, that's if twenty drops qualifies as rain.
We decided to head to the Med. So Jimena and the Alcornocales were substituted for a walk along the beach at San Luis de Sabinillas.
The road from Gaucín to Manilva has been repaired in places which is good news and well overdue. It looks as if they intend doing a few more repairs on this bumpy surface. It is one of the poorest roads in the area. Fortunately it is a safe road through rolling countryside.
Here's Jane paddling in the Med.
There was a slight breeze but I guess the unusual surf was due to a recent full moon? (Juan's mare isn't into astronomy!)
Waterfall!
On Sunday it the day of Carmen. We photographed it last year.
Hopefully the sea will be calmer ... as lots of small boats are due to go up and down the coast.
We sat on a bench on the promenade. We had cheese and tomato sandwiches with cool orange juice, it was just like Ramsgate, but hotter ;-)
We shopped in SuperSol before driving back to Benarrabá.
We decided to go out for tapas and first stop was Café Bar Guayacán. We had Chicken in sauce followed by ribs in sauce. Flora's been cooking!
We walked down to Pub Bar Dami. It was good to see Dami out and about.
Next we went to Bar Barroso where we saw some photo's of Francisco and Almudena's wedding.
Onto our final call in Bar Andrés Sánchez.
We had a good time. It was a beautiful warm moonlit evening. Summer nights in Benarrabá are magical.
A bright sunny day. We have no plans ... the joy of living here.
We went to see Rosie and Domingo. They are well and always pleased to see us.
Back home I listened to Newcastle United draw 1-1 with Lillestrom in the Inter Toto Cup. We were terrible in the first half but got better as the game went on.
Cristóbal, Sebastian, Adrian and myself moved half of the scaffolding from the front of the house around to the side. I'll start painting this tomorrow. The front looks good.
Carmen gave Jane a plateful of Caracoles (small snails) for me to try.
I'll have them tomorrow.
We watched TV, Midsomer Murders, exciting stuff ...