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Sunday March 9th 2008

Another beautiful day. Today we're off to meet friends Marilyn and Michael O'Loughlin. It's been a while since we last met up. It'll be good to see them again.

First we drove to see the donkeys. They are fit and look well. We gave them hay and seed. On the way back to Benarrabá we saw around sixty Griffon Vultures in a spiraling column. We set off to meet Marilyn and Michael. Just passed Gaucín we saw approximately forty Black Kites heading north up the Guadiaro valley. The migration of birds north from Africa is now well under way. We drove to Bar Carrasco just passed Jimena de la Frontera.
We arrived just seconds before Marilyn and Michael - good timing.

We had a good chat over coffees and tostadas.

Next we drove to Jimena de la Frontera and took the road to Ubrique through the Alcornocales.
A lovely drive with some great views. We stopped at a mirador (special viewing point) to take these.

Jimena de la Frontera Castillo on top of the limestone crag.
A distant Sierra Crestellina to the east, where we stopped for a coffee yesterday.
Near the start of a walk into the forest was this bull! It must put off a lot of hikers. I wondered how many walkers coming from the other direction have had to face this hefty white bull?

This photograph makes it look quite cute and about sixty centimetres tall. It was a lot bigger in real life!

We drove on. We stopped just passed a bridge over the Río Horzgarganta. I walked back to take this shot upstream.
This is my favourite of the day.
El Río Horzgarganta downstream.
We drove on to La Sauceda. We got out and had a stroll. A couple of official 'Senderos' signposted walks start here. One, a two hour gentle walk, the other, a harder five hour walk.
The sunny day was quickly changing. A breeze was picking up, the sky was darkening with rain clouds and temperatures were dropping rapidly. I took this of some daisies. We got back to the cars and drove to a Venta ,  where we had a great meal for not too much money. We arrived at 15:00 and it was packed. We had to wait a few minutes for a table.
Here's one of Michael and Marilyn.
We enjoyed lunch and said goodbye. Marilyn and Michael went back to Sotogrande via Jimena de la Frontera we drove on to the Ubrique to Cortes de la Frontera road. We turned off into the forest again driving to El Colmenar via the pista forestal. We stopped near the Río Guadiaro bridge to look at a very young foal and baby mule.
Almost forgot this one ... taken at the top of the El Colmenar road just as it levels out.
Guadiaro sunburst.
We got back home and walked the dogs. Fed the cats. The animals all happy ... we started to watch a film.

'The Mist'. Directed by Frank Darabont. With Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden and Laurie Holden.
Oh dear, some good actors in a real 'B' movie. An army experimental weapons facility leads to mist and Dr Who style monsters coming to a small remote lakeside town.
Not good by 2007 standards, which is when it was released.
Perhaps it will get better, we'll watch the rest tomorrow.
I won't put an Amazon link ... give this one a miss.