Friends Reunited...

7-1-08 Sue and Graham returned from wet Wales yesterday. We met up for Paella lunch at Ayos on Burriana beach. They got the bus from Malaga - 3 euros 50 cents for 40 miles, then 7 euros for a taxi the last 250 metres! Their case was so heavy they couldn´t carry it - Graham blames Sue - he had only packed 1 pair of walking socks! Sue admits the luggage did include a bag of spuds!
8-1-08 We cycled West to Velez Malaga to visit the advertised Tourist Office. We have started to plan our onward journey from Nerja, & needed information about campsites. No sign of the Tourist Office, so Sue popped into the local Library, which was brand new & the super-efficient staff gave us lots of useful brochures (& the advice that there is now no Tourist Office in Velez Malaga!!!).
As we sped back along the N340 coast road, Sue remembered the account in Josie Dew's cycling book of her journey along this road 15 years ago. It was then apparently the most dangerous road in Europe! Thankfully the new autoroute A7 has taken away a lot of the traffic. We were held up by one old local pushing his wheelbarrow of vegetables along the carriageway. I expect he & his barrow have been making this journey since it was a donkey dirt track!
We spotted our local oxen tethered at the roadside munching grass on common land. Despite the building boom there are still many patches of common grazing with tethered horses & donkeys & wandering goatherds a common sight.
9-1-08 About 18 of us set out with the Mike & Roz walking group, from Pueblo Acebuchal for a lovely rambla & ridge walk with fantastic valley views & some ibex spotting. We have noticed recently lots of 'nests' of the dreadful Processionary Caterpillars developing in the pines. The spines on the caterpillars are very nasty, & can apparently kill dogs on contact. They will start their 'processions' from their nests sometime in March, so we will have to be careful they don't fall onto us as they can cause a nasty rash to humans. This is a growing Andalucian problem.
10-1-08 First Spanish class of the year, & Graham joined is as his New Year resolution. We did a lot of work on 'Profesiones'. The Spanish have a very loose interpretation of the meaning of Profesiones, as it included cyclists (ciclistas) & assassins (asesinos)!
In an apartment above us, the occupants managed to lock themselves out onto their balcony & called to us for assistance. We eventually tracked down our trusty Caretaker who was able to use his cat-rescuing ladder to climb through their bedroom window & let them back in. We were rewarded with some local beer.