Spain week five, day two

Sunday May 25th 2008

Hacienda, Villamartin, Spain

Up at 6:30 to see Ellie off. I have really enjoyed her company over the week, and am extremely grateful for her help with everything. In all the years we have worked together, this was perhaps the nicest week. And Ellie's yoga practice was just amazing by the end of the week. I will be sending her hi-res versions of the pictures that we used for this blog and Ellie is intending to frame them and put them up on her wall at home! Ellie may be able to come out again for part of the last week. Fingers crossed we can do something then as well.

Just after Ellie departs at 7:00 it starts to rain really hard! A quick rush round the courtyard to retrieve some drying clothes and then some reading on the terrace as the rain comes down. Even some thunder in the distance. This wasn't quite what the forecast had said! But then around 9:00 it stops and the skies begin to clear and the sun comes out. So maybe it was a one-off storm?

Our group does not make it to yoga, scheduled for 10:00 this morning. Sometimes people just have to let the requirement for sleep take over and get a really good twelves hours. We definitely notice that this often happens when people have come to us. But we are all up and sorted out by lunchtime and decide on a trip through the Grazalema national park.

There is evidence of a recent festival in Grazalema village. Huge amounts of vegetation or stuck in the metal grills that cover windows and are lying in the streets, especially the area around the main church. No idea what this is for but Zahara (another white village we visited later today) was celebrating "Corpus Christi". We have a good look round, taking in some of the souvenir shops, the main viewpoint over the valley and finally some tapas in one of the little bars - calimari, chorizo, patatas, the usual things.

Sign of a recent festival in Grazalema - vegetation like this covered the village today

Grazalema - a classic street view

From there we drive up to the "puerto de las Palomas" - the "pass of the doves" - at around 1100 metres high. The weather has continued to improve all day and by now there is a lot of blue sky around among the fluffy clouds. As before, we are able to see loads of the Griffen vultures (called "Lion vultures" in Spain) which circle around above us.

At the "pass of the doves" with the Sierra de Gaidover valley far below

Looking north-west from the pass showing the twisting road that descends to Zahara

The "Garganta verde" gorge passed on the descent to Zahara

Then the descent down to Zahara - a series of amazing hairpin bends which really test the nerves. As Fiona said this afternoon, she would never do this drive herself, didn't like some of it at the time, but was really pleased she had done it afterwards (when back on flat land!). By the dam of Zahara reservoir, we are able to get some really nice photos of this most picturesque of the many white villages nearby.

Zahara from across the reservoir - the pass we descended is to the left of the village, where the cleft appears in the mountains!

We manage yoga tonight and have a gentle 75 minutes on the side terrace and tomorrow we hope to be back on our regular schedule.