November 16th - 30th 2005
Written by Geoff Forster
Strangely we had planned to go to Gibraltar today, but we changed our plans and instead we went to Cortes de la Frontera.
Despite yesterday's rain, we've had better weather than on the Costa del Sol, which has had torrential rain for the last two days.
Our guests Jenny and Dave made the best of the rain yesterday by going to Ronda for a second time.
Today they set off early for Seville.
This morning the clouds on the mountains opposite looked heavy with rain. However, yet again it blew over towards Marbella and left us with a really lovely day.
We drove across the beautiful green Valle del Guadiaro to Cortes de la Frontera.
We had a coffee and tostada, with olive oil, garlic and tomato in a really cheap Café in the centre of Cortes.
On the main road through Cortes we looked up and saw this lovely Siamese cat watching us.
We bumped into a friend we met last year, Louise, she lives in Estación de Cortes, her boyfriend James Nitchen is an artist. She and James are both well and enjoying life since their move to Andalucía a month before us. James exhibits some of his art in the Parra Bar at Estación de Cortes so anyone passing should call in and buy them all!
It was good to see Louise again. We hope to meet up with her and James quite soon.
We walked along passed the bullring on the opposite side of the road, I took this photograph of the Sierra de los Pinos above Cortes.
We bought a book on the History of the Genal and Guadiaro valleys.
It is in Spanish. It is surprisingly easier to read Spanish than it is to speak it.
We walked back to the car and drove through the Alcornocales forest to Estación de Gaucín. We usually see lots of cows and goats in the forest, today surprisingly it was mules and horses.
A little further on and we hadn't seen many animals at all. This fantastic looking goat made up for it. She is magnificent.
Out of the forest and on the edge of Estación de Gaucín Jane spotted this black kitten. Jane is cat mad, especially for black kittens.
We called into Mesón las Flores for a drink.
This is one of the peaks of the Sierra del Hacho.
We got back to Benarrabá at around 15:00h.
This Black Redstart was fluffing itself up on a rock.
We saw a lot of birds today including a diving raptor in pursuit of prey, both birds flew directly across our path. The prey (a pigeon) survived.
The prettiest was a Crested Tit which we watched hopping around a pine tree. It was too small and fast to get a photograph of before it flew off .... one for the next time.
Later it was such a lovely evening that I went out and took this photograph of Benarrabá and the Genal Valley. The pueblos of Jubrique and Genalguacil are on the mountainside opposite.
We cooked a curry and watched 'Stigmata' starring Patricia Arquette.
I'm up early. It is a beautiful day with clear blue skies.
We're expecting an engineer to call today to install a 'squarial' satellite internet/phone connection.
I should get a faster internet connection and it will free up the telephone line.
This means that we can't go out anywhere and that I have to tidy my office. Which I'm not looking forward to.
We have our new microwave internet connection!
Also a new telephone number which we hope we won't need. Our old number still works 952150222 and were hoping to transfer it. Apparently this could take another ten days.
We don't get a line rental charge. This coupled with no internet telephone charges, pays for the faster connection.
I did tidy up a little ...
We drove to Algatocín and did some shopping.
At around 7pm we took some of Jane's home made Gazpacho up to Jenny and Dave. We ended up having a lovely evening chatting and eating tapas.
We have really enjoyed their company during their stay, the twelve days have flown over.
We watched 'Total Recall' starring Arnold Swarzenegger.
We've said a sad farewell to Jenny and Dave. We hope to see them both again someday. Lovely people. Yet again we've had fantastic guests.
We switched on all the new equipment this morning and can't get an internet connection! A couple of phone calls via the Telefónica line and it seems that there is a problema with the antenna on the mountain top at Los Reales. Engineers have been dispatched and we should be back online with our new high speed connection soon. This is the first time anything like this has happened!
We got a lovely e-mail from Claudia in Canada. Her sister, Monica and family live in Benarrabá. She has been visiting the Benarrabá webpages and looking at photo's of the Feria de San Miguel. Her niece Simina was one of the Flamenco dancers.
We've been to some shops in the village buying mushrooms, potatoes and black pudding for a variation on a traditional Andalucian chick pea stew. We met Monica in one of the shops and talked to her for a while.
The stew is fantastic, a great success. Of course Jane picks out all the chorizo and black pudding, which is great, as I get double helpings.
The internet connection came back on mid afternoon. Hopefully it will be more reliable in the future.
We watched a two films. One was a courtroom drama and the other about serial killer/kidnapper.
I'm up early. The sun is rising and breaking through the clouds on the horizon.
Newcastle United play Chelsea away this afternoon. Shearer is recovering from a hernia operation, so will miss this game. Last time we played them and Shearer was injured we lost 5-0. I'm always optimistic, this time we have Michael Owen, so a 0-1 victory would be great!
We're supposed to be going for a walk but I'm still waiting for Jane to wake up.
We had a walk into the campo with the dogs. We met Marion and Onno with their dog Kyra. We were going to walk a few km to a large rock then come back. Unfortunately Sally developed a mystery limp. We checked her paw and she yelped when I touched her knee joint. We have no idea how she hurt herself.
We came home. We checked her again. She's fine now, no limp and no pain.
I listened to a good first half of football then a disastrous second half. We lost 3-0.
Paul from Gandia phoned. It was good to hear from him. We will hopefully see him and Jolette before Christmas.
We watched a couple of really bad films. I carefully avoided further depression by not watching Match of the Day.
We're up a little later than usual after last nights horror film feast.
It's a fresh day. A good day for walking but we're not taking a chance with Sally's leg. We'll give her a couple of days, although she looks fine.
Our last guests Jenny and Dave bought me a book on the Guadiaro Valley for my birthday. It is in Spanish, but if I sit with a dictionary for occasional words I can read it fairly well.
I'm also going to get back into the Spanish course again today.
It was really mild all day. In the evening we've been lighting fires but it wasn't necessary tonight.
We watched a few films. I watched Big Country starring Gregory Peck, Earlier we watched a couple of Brian Dennehy films.
Later I watched Chaplin which was very good.
Another really mild day, great for walking.
I'm going to work on the website.
I will get on with some more of the language course.
We drove to Algatocín to buy vegetables for a stew at the Super Genal supermarket. The hillsides between Benarrabá and Algatocín are a wonderful sight. The autumn colours are amazing.
The track that cuts through these trees in the photograph is the signposted walk which starts at the bottom of our road and goes from Benarrabá to Algatocín. Walk PR-A 239.
A little further along and an even bigger splash of colour.
We bought our vegetables and cooked a wonderful beef in red wine stew, with onions, red peppers, garlic, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, beans and chick peas.
Jane is watching a 'True Movie' about a women's prison ...
I'm on working on the computer.
A lovely day. We're having sunny intervals. I woke in the night to hear some rain falling. Every where is wet and fresh. There are some thick clouds sitting on top of the Sierra Bermeja but behind us the sky is a cornflower blue with the setting moon still visible.
We had a bowl of delicious stew for lunch. The weather looked fantastic outside so we decided to take the dogs for a walk. Sally's limp has gone and she looks well.
We set off down the street to the start of the PR-A 239 Benarrabá to Algatocín walk. (Mentioned yesterday)
A few hundred metres down hill the track splits.
The left hand track is the PR-A 239 route to Algatocín. The right hand path is fairly flat and is a lovely walk for 3km to a large rock. You can carry on down to the Rio Genal.
We took the right hand track.
This is a lovely view across the Genal Valley to Genalguacil.
A little further along the track and there was a small trip of around twenty goats on the hillside. (Apparently a herd, a drove, a tribe or a trip is the collective noun for goats)?
We put the dogs on the lead as soon as we saw them. The dogs wouldn't hurt them, but they may make the goats run and hurt themselves.
Two stragglers.
A quick look back to check if those Border Collies have gone.
By now it was a glorious afternoon. Temperatures in the sun must have been in the high seventies. We both took off our fleeces and wished we'd put our shorts on.
The autumn colours of the Sweet Chestnut trees is a lovely sight.
Any one planning a holiday for next year should seriously consider late November.
The pueblo of Genalguacil again.
This is a photograph looking down into the Valle del Genal.
Border Collies, Jake followed by his mother Sally, with his old dad Ferdy lagging well behind as usual.
We arrive at the rock ... the halfway mark.
There were lots of beautiful autumn colours throughout the walk.
We'd seen lots of Griffon Vultures (30+) in the valley. Unfortunately too high to photograph.
We got home, had a drink and went to Algatocín. On the way we stopped off to take some photographs.
This is looking towards Los Reales the highest point of the Sierra Bermeja. It is somewhere under the clouds. Part of the best village in Spain ... Benarrabá is in the foreground.
This is Cortes de la Frontera from the A369 road.
This is the view North up the Valle del Genal. Alpandeire is the village on the left. Faraján on the right. and part of Júzcar is in the distant middle. We can see Júzcar from our sun terrace but not Alpandeire or Faraján. Most of the rest of Benarrabá can see Alpandeire but not Júzcar or Faraján ... confused ???
A view to the West over the Valle de Guadiaro.
The view East away from the setting sun. From a few metres outside Benarrabá.
My favourite photograph of the day. The view West through clouds into the setting sun.
As the sun set we looked down into the valley to the North of Benarrabá. The large group of Griffon Vultures we'd seen earlier in the afternoon were landing in the tree tops preparing to roost for the night.
This is the first time that we've seen this happen in this area.
Up bright and early. The sun has just come up. It looks grey over the Sierra Bermeja. We had a light sprinkling of rain during the night.
Hopefully it will brighten up.
We met Sylvia and Gary Privett. They are relatives of our friends Paul and Jolette. They are staying in Marbella and wanted to visit Benarrabá after seeing our website and reading the blog.
We gave them a guided tour of the village, they loved the views and the tranquility.
We went into Bar Andrés Sánchez for a coffee.
We bought some raffle tickets for a huge Christmas hamper.
On the way up Calle Cuartilla we saw our neighbour Juan with a bucket of bleach and a scrubbing brush in his hand ... he was cleaning! Spanish men, especially Juan, don't clean.
This was a permitted exception, he was scrubbing dead animal bone's to put on his wall.
We showed Sylvia and Gary the apartment.
Here they are enjoying the fantastic views on the sun terrace.
They both loved the apartment and Benarrabá.
We walked down to the plazoleta at the entrance to the pueblo to say goodbye. We'd had an enjoyable afternoon showing Sylvia and Gary the village. We hope to meet them again.
Jane is watching our Fleetwood Mac 'Say you will' DVD of a concert from their last tour. We were at the front to see them three times at Earls Court in late 2003.
I like Fleetwood Mac but Jane sings along to it ...
I'm going to listen to more of the Spanish language CD's.
It's going to be a hot November day today. Clear blue skies. It's 65F/18C in the shade and rising. Definitely t-shirt and shorts weather.
We set off just after noon for a walk with the dogs. We headed out along the track towards the rock.
It was a perfect day for a walk. The sky was an incredible blue.
We met Marion Henke on the way. She was sketching the autumn trees.
We walked to the rock.
This is Algatocín from the track.
We walked a little further. The dogs were enjoying themselves chasing each other around and lying in muddy puddles.
This is the Sierra de Benalauría.
Zoomed.
Here's a good one of Jane in her sexy hiking boots.
Jane and Jake.
On the way back the sunlight was shining through this orange tree on the right of the photograph.
We'd had a lovely three hour stroll along the camino. The countryside is wonderful. We'd seen lots of birds, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Blue tits, Red legged Partridge, Wood Pigeons, Jays, Blackbirds, a Griffon Vulture and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
On the way up the hill into the village, a lady kindly gave us some mandarins and kaquis (sharon fruit), which she'd picked from her Finca on the hillside.
We got home and had some stew.
The carpenters have just been and gone. The saga of the wardrobe doors continues. They are returning tomorrow morning, hopefully they will fit perfectly. At least they make sure that they do a good job.
In the evening I watched some football.
There was a knock at the door it was Carmen from opposite. They have just had a computer delivered, their first. We went over to have a look.
Of course it is the Spanish Windows and Office. I could understand a lot of it, so showed them a few things.
I'm going to do a disk of all the photographs I've taken of their family since we've been here.
I mentioned to Carmen about doing some cookery webpages she seemed interested.
She gave us some olives they'd prepared.
On Sunday Cristóbal is going to take us to pick some for our own batch.
They are going to show us how to prepare and soak them.
Carmen had been making Quince jam. It was still too hot to try.
She is going to bring some over tomorrow.
Another perfect day. Blue skies and hot sunshine.
The carpenters have been and finally finished the wardrobe.
Carmen brought over a huge slice of Quince jam/jelly.
We're off to the Alcornocales for a drive in the Cork Oak forest.
We drove to Gaucín to post some letters. I took this photograph of the new stonework on the bridge and the back of Gaucín. The houses here have good views North West over the Guadiaro Valley.
We came back from the Post Office and were treated to the best and closest aerial display by five Griffon Vultures that we've ever seen.
At times they were only twenty feet above us. They were so close and moving so fast I was having problems keeping them in the viewfinder.
This is about the best shot of a Griffon Vulture that I've got so far.
We watched them circling for about five minutes. The way they angle their wings and use the flight feathers to circle, glide and soar is a joy to see at such close quarters.
We went to the petrol station to fill up. Unleaded is now 0.98€/litre about £0.68/l. The price is slowly coming down from the summer highs of 1.05€/litre £0.73/l.
I took this photograph of Gibraltar through trees showing their autumn colours.
We drove to Estación Gaucín / El Colmenar and bought some bread. We had a coffee in a bar.
We then went into the Alcornocales. We stopped here for a picnic.
In amongst the pines and Cork Oaks there are a few of these trees with beautiful yellow, orange and bright red berries.
We saw the usual cows. They are becoming familiar we are starting to recognise them. There were quite a few goats around where we stopped to eat.
Spot the goat!
We didn't see any deer at all today. It was however a beautiful day and we enjoyed the drive. The forest is so tranquil.
We drove across the Valle del Guadiaro and stopped in Venta Valdivia.
The landlord showed us his museum room of antique milling and farming implements.
He had quite a collection, it was very interesting.
We got safely home. We tried Carmen's Quince jelly which is really good. We copied all the photographs we have of their family (a few hundred!) onto a CD and loaded them onto their new PC, so that they can watch them as a slide show. I lent Adrian Star Wars III to watch.
I can't see too much schoolwork being done on this PC!
He's already found the solitaire and pinball games.
We watched Poirot on TV and had an early night.
It rained during the night but now the skies are blue and the sun is shining. In fact it is such a lovely day that we're going to sit on the sun terrace for a couple of hours.
What a fantastic day. We were up on the sun terrace watching a pair of vultures circling in front of the sun terrace. Although they didn't come as close as the five in Gaucín yesterday.
The air was so clear, the light was perfect for photography.
The Valle del Genal North.
The pueblo of Júzcar.
Jubrique.
Genalguacil.
La Sierra de las Nieves. The Snowy mountains on 10x zoom.
Jake keeping out of the hot November sun!
Mota de Oro (Speck of Gold) our Spanish cat plays in our Cork Oak plant pot holders.
We decided to go for a walk. We called into Bar Porón to see Pepa.
Three English hikers from Halifax called in for refreshment after a six hour hike to Genalguacil and back. Jane and I did this walk earlier in the year. Carol, Ben and Malcolm deserve their beer.
Ben, Sebastián, Malcolm with Carol and Pepa.
Pepa and Sebastián.
Pepa's daughter Sara Eva has a Labrador puppy. It was running around everywhere. Jane wants one!
We had a great time. There was a really good atmosphere.
On the way home we called into Café Bar Guayacán for a coffee.
I watched MOTD and a bad supernatural car film called 'The Wraith'
Another really beautiful day. The sun is shining in a clear blue sky.
This spell of weather we're having is just perfect.
I've just listened to Newcastle United put in another terrible performance, this time against Everton, we lost 1-0.
Jane and I went for a walk in the afternoon sunshine.
This was taken in the beautiful plaza in Benarrabá. It is lined with orange trees. The oranges are beginning to ripen it looks fantastic.
We walked down from the plaza into the lower part of the pueblo.
This is the view North where our neighbour Juan has a piece of land for sale.
The village is Alpandeire.
Alpandeire from Benarrabá. Zoomed!
We watched TV. A film called 'Sneakers' starring Robert Redford.
The sun in shining again but there are more clouds around today.
We're going to go out for a drive.
We did our favourite drive through the Alcornocales.
As we crossed the river we saw a Cormorant.
In Estación de Gaucín we saw a huge Poinsettia.
We thought they were Christmas pot plants but this was three metres / ten feet high.
We saw a large bird of prey flying over the valley possibly a Bonelli's Eagle ...
I saw a male Linnet with a distinctive pink flushed chest.
Lots of Stonechat's and Black Redstarts.
Then we saw this lovely little brown coloured bird. I need to get the books out for this one.
It was running around underneath a cow and it bobbed its head a bit like a wagtail. (We see lots of White Wagtails in winter)
It had quite striking stripes on its head and body.
A quick check and it looks like a Tree Pipit?
We saw one deer in the bushes, I'm afraid the photograph isn't very good.
We saw lots of goats, horses and cows. We had a picnic and slowly drove through the lovely forest.
We drove back across the Valle del Guadiaro to Benarrabá.
It clouded over briefly and looked as if it was going to pour but it was nothing more than a brief shower.
Now the night sky looks quite clear.
Cristóbal brought us some green and black olives that he'd picked for us.
Tomorrow we're going to buy two containers. Then we have to split the olives. The green olives with a mallet, the black olives with a tabla. All will be revealed mañana.
A cloudy but dry start to the day. It's very mild outside. A good day for getting out into the campo.
I've been talking to our neighbour Juan. He's bought his son Juan Diego a beautiful two year old chestnut filly. He's also bought a yearling.
We went for a walk to the rock and back. It was a lovely afternoon.
We passed Sebastián's sheep.
The view South down the Valle del Genal towards the Sierra Crestellina.
Fantastic blue skies. We saw lots of birds, mainly chaffinch's and blackbirds. We saw a Jay and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. We stopped and watched a flock of Blue Tits feeding in an oak tree.
The late afternoon sun in the trees, framing Benarrabá across the Arroyo.
We got back, had a quick cup of tea and then headed to Gaucín to fill up our water bottles from the natural spring there. We need the spring water for preparing our olives for tapas. We also need two big plastic screw to jars to store them.
This is the view South from Gaucín towards the wind farm near Manilva.
The sun was starting to set hence the pinkish tint to the clouds.
We got to the spring and it was completely dry. We use this spring because it only a few metres from the main road and there is parking.
We went to the Animal Feed/Supplies shop to buy our containers.
We got two good strong containers for 2.20€/£1.55 each.
We headed back to Benarrabá to get some water from a spring which we pass on the walk we'd just done. You can drive down to it but it's a bit bumpy in a Clio. The spring still has a good flow. The water is from the hillside that our house is on, I'm quite pleased now that we're soaking our olives in Benarrabá water!
We got home and started to split the olives. The black/purple olives have to have their skins cut using a device called a tabla.
This is me starting to push the olives through the tabla.
Sorry about the beard
This is the hole you push the olives through. It has four very sharp tin blades. You put an olive in the hole, then you use a second olive to push it through (not your finger!). You then push that olive through with another olive and so on ...
Tabla's seem to cost around 8€/£5.60. The hinged wooden bit on the end of the one above is used for crushing and splitting the olives. Apparently a mallet or flat stone does a better job.
The green olives which are normally given as tapas with a beer are split using a wooden mallet. The idea of using a slice of cork oak as a table looked good but wasn't practical. A wooden tray with a raised edge is far better.
Hitting the green olives bursts them open. I guess this violence also tenderises them.
Jane did the black olives and finished ten minutes before me.
The riper black olives just received razor blade nicks to their skins.
It took me about forty minutes to get through half a carrier bagful, it was also our first attempt.
Next we put the olives into separate storage jars and filled them to the top with spring water.
The containers were then placed in a dark pantry for the bitter Oleic acid to start leaching out through the split or cut into the water.
If tap water is used Chlorine can do the opposite and spoil the flavour of the olive.
We have to change the water every few days until the bitterness is gone.
Then a mix of salt, garlic, red peppers and Oregano ... is put in with the olives.
Details of this final mixture, how many water changes and how frequently they are done will be given here. I'll also put details on the Olive from tree to bottle page at the time.
Our telephone line transferred from Telefónica to Iberbanda today. We have kept the same number. (0034) 952150222.
We don't pay a line rental charge with Iberbanda.
We're going to watch an old episode of Taggart on TV.
The last day of November already and it's a beauty.
Sun, blue skies ... temperatures around 58/60F that's 14/15C in the shade, but it's a lot warmer in the sun.
We're off to the Alcornocales again to do some walking in the woods.
We drove very slowly down to Estación de Gaucín bird watching in the hedgerows on the way down.
We saw lots of Stonechat's, Redstarts, Black Redstarts, Sardinian Warblers, Dartford Warblers and a huge raptor that took us completely by surprise by flying across the road ten feet above and in front of us.
We'll go back to get a photograph of this large bird of prey but today we got this shot of a small but beautiful Stonechat.
Along the roadside there are lots of plants growing after recent rains. This pretty bulb is quite common. I think it may be called 'Star of Bethlehem'?
We drove into Estación de Gaucín and were stopped at the level crossing.
I got out to see if I could see which direction the train was coming from.
It came from the Ronda direction.
It was a passenger express and didn't stop. It passed us at quite a speed.
We crossed the tracks and drove into the forest. We saw what we believe to be Tree Pipits again, four of them feeding along the verge.
We saw lots of cows and even more goats.
This cow came across to see us.
We got out and had a picnic. At certain vantage points you can see down to the Mediterranean. We had binoculars and could see tankers sailing along.
A little further on we stopped to try and get a photograph of a Crested Tit. I'd seen one from the car but could only find ten or more Great Tits feeding and calling to each other in an Oak tree. They make some delightful noises as they move around the trees.
Finally I heard a Crested Tit in a pine tree a little further along.
It was in the top of the tree and wasn't coming any lower with me around. This is the best photograph I could get. You can see its pointed head!
A little further along the forest turns from pines to Cork Oaks.
Jane took a few shots of the beautiful Cork Oaks.
These trees have had the cork removed earlier this year and are a lovely red colour. It takes around nine years for the cork to grow back to a thickness to harvest again.
Jane tries an 'arty farty' shot!
She's getting good!
This is such a beautiful place.
We had yet another great afternoon walking in the woods.
We'd seen lots of wildlife and birds.
We drove back across the Valle de Guadiaro.
Jane gave Cristóbal, Carmen, Sara and Adrian a lift to Gaucín.
They are going to Algeciras by bus to collect their new Peugeot 206.
A present for Carmen who has recently passed her driving test.
We offered to take them but they wouldn't let Jane drive back alone.
I've just heard the Wigan v Newcastle United Carling Cup result. We lost 1-0. I'm not happy.