March 11th 2008
Written by Geoff Forster
Tuesday March 11th 2008
We're up early. Jane starts her new job today.
She's up and out looking very smart.
I work on websites. With Jane traveling to Gibraltar daily, I'm going to ride down with her from time to time to develop our Gibraltar website and promote my website design business more than I have been.
It has been run on quite a casual basis with little promotion, trusting to a few business cards and word of mouth.
I'll get my finger out and go for it ... it's that or be a 'kept man'. I suppose I could tell people I'm a professional blogger ...? Although It would need a massive amount of clicks on our Google ads to be able to live of the proceeds.
It's now down to me to walk to the donkeys each day to feed them. I set off with our three Border Collies.
It rained overnight, a sharp short burst. A lot of puddles near Benarrabá but none further on towards Algatocín, so it must have been a very localised downpour. Here's Jake and his mother Sally. Dad, Ferdy is camera shy.
There was a slight heat/vapour haze in the valley, so not perfect conditions for landscape shots.
This is Jubrique. 
The Genal Valley, looking down to the river below Benarrabá. 
I got to the donkeys in forty five minutes. Fed them seed, gave them hay and topped up their water.
I gave the dogs a quick drink although it has to be pretty hot before they drink a lot.
I spotted a large Grasshopper. It only had one rear leg so it hopped sideways. If it hopped a few times it would end up back where it started from.
Up the concrete 1:4 hill, gasping for air I stopped to have a freshly picked orange.
Near the gate and the large rock in the lane I saw a Meloncilla run across the camino. A Meloncilla is an Egyptian Mongoose. They are fairly large mammals about the size of Otters or large domestic cats. They have a body shape like weasels and stoats. We've seen a few in the area but sightings are very infrequent. Especially in broad daylight.
This is the track where I saw it. As you can see the lane is quite wide and wooded giving pools of shade for the dogs to rest in. 
This is Benarrabá from the lane. 
We walked back without stopping. It was a warm sunny day and I was burning up when I got home.
I'll get fit doing this everyday.
I did a few exercises, trying to get fitter.
Worked on websites.
I started a Spaghetti Bolognese cooking and waited for Jane.
She got back at 18:30 full of news about her first day.
We ate and talked. Friends and family phoned and she spent another hour telling everyone about her day.
We watched the end of 'The Mist' strange twist at the end. It's a Stephen King 'Novella', good cast, it almost sets out to be a 'B' movie horror. I guess people have always accepted lame effects in horror/scary action movies. From bats on strings to plastic dinosaurs. Your going to have to watch it now just to see if you agree ... sorry.