Category: Europe

Days 242- 48, Sunday – Saturday, 02 -08 September 2012 – Alcaucin

No surprises that Sunday was a quiet day, nothing much to do and not very inspired to do it anyway. Though it was cloudy again and by local standards was quite cool for most of the day, being only 22 degrees at mid-day. I spent most of the day reading with occasional bursts of housework, eating and looking up things on the internet – pricing up the things I will need for my run and Africa. It is my last week of working in Spain and last week in Spain.

Autumn pretty much arrived on the 1st September, almost on schedule the temperature dropped a few degrees from last week. It is still warm by my standards, getting up to 27/28 degrees at its peak, but 5-6 degrees cooler all the same. With the cooler weather and the darker mornings I was working 7.45 to 4:00 pm with a lunch break rather than knocking off at 2:00.

Painting Monday to Friday was pretty much it really, I mostly finished the house I was doing, it probably needs another two or three days – and someone more willing than me to stand on balustrades and lean backwards over space to paint more of the eves.

On Tuesday morning, with the aid of my son I finally managed to Skype my mum and had a great chat with her and both my boys who were around at her house for dinner.

That night I gave up on the whole idea of finding a job and booked myself on to an African tour starting at the end of the month in Cape Town, but I have already posted that ! I am very excited about it and the more I ponder on it and research it the more excited I get. Today (Saturday) I discovered there is some great diving to be had off of Zanzibar – something I wasn’t expecting when I booked !! I also have a Leonie, a friend from New Zealand meeting in Cape Town to do the tour as well. Leonie is a seasoned traveler and I spent a couple of days with her in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, way back in May.

On Thursday evening Ian and I went up to the village for a couple of beers and some dinner, and that was pretty much it for the working week.

I have slept really badly all week and am knackered as I sit here on Saturday morning writing this post. I had weird dreams most nights and I actually remembered Wednesday nights. Vicki – I am never letting you be a support driver as I run a ultra distance race, your driving was terrible !

One of the things I have really enjoyed over the past few weekends that I have been home alone in Alcaucin is the opportunity to cook for myself. I used to love cooking back in New Zealand and travelling of course means I just do not get a chance to do it. it is very simple fare only using local fresh vegetables – that is pretty much all there is – no imported stuff here, with the occasional piece of fresh chicken. So lots of pasta dishes with garlic, onion, tomato, peppers and zucchini based sauces. Just love it !

Saturday was cleanup and packing day, I also tossed out my paint spattered clothes and finally bade farewell to my faithful Keen sandals as they were falling apart again. I will buy another pay for Africa for sure. And damnit I loved those shorts too, bought em in Bangkok for $4.

I took a final walk up to the village, intending to go my most visited location, the supermarket, as I wanted buy some beer and chippies for tonight – but true to my Spanish experience, it and all the other shops were closed.

One week until I am running a 55.6km section of the South West Coast Path from Budleigh-Salterton in East Devon to West bay in Dorset!

So tomorrow morning I say adios to Spain and Hello to ole’ blighty. Looking forward to seeing my daughter again and getting things organised (read shopping) for my run and my trip to Africa.

Day 241, Saturday 01 September – Alcaucin

Another month has just started and my fiftieth is drawing ever closer.

I really hated turning thirty, forty just happened and I was not bothered by that at all and now I am not sure how I feel about being fifty. Fifty is getting old! and I am not ready to be old yet, but then I don’t feel old so maybe it won’t be so bad, bah – who knows. Even though I planned on travelling away from home for my birthday, being unemployed, single and homeless as I roll the decade over is a situation I occasionally struggle to see the good in. Yes I am being overly dramatic ! To counter all that I am doing what I wanted to do, I am fit and healthy (though ache from this morning’s run), am not encumbered by anything and I can choose to do what I want – where I want to do it.

With two weeks to go until 50for50 this morning was my last longish training run and I was planning on getting into the hills for four hours. I was up at 7:00 and after walking the dogs and fueling I was on the road for 7:45. It was quite cool for a change, though very cloudy with heavy black clouds sitting over the hills, I pondered going back and getting a jacket in case it was wet up there, but decided against it – I am usually soaked in sweat anyway, so rain would be blessed relief.

The run to the top car park was hard, I even stopped to take a photo of where I was heading – up into that !

The first couple of kilometres of every run I do is a bit of a shakeout, all my joints are stiff and the little aches and pains work their way around my legs and lower back and once everything is warmed up they go away. Today that didn’t happen, the niggles did move around, they just kept repeating with my hip being a constant nag.

I had decided to take a trail from the top car park up the other side of the steep valley I ran a couple of weeks ago. This fire road goes up and over another peak, though I was not intending to get to the peak today as it was too far. This trail was even marked ! when I entered the trail I expected this would be the last marker I saw but I was wrong, this was a well marked trail.

Once again, I briefly questioned the wisdom of running alone in the hills, in a strange location where no one knows where I am. – and once again I carried on regardless. However, as I hit the cloud I did vow to stay on the fire road and turn round if it turned to single track.

This all became moot as once I passed the tree line after an hour and half of running and walking up hill I knew I was not going to get much further, the niggles had not gone away and frankly, I was buggered. Out of the gloom a small peak appeared so I walked to the top and sat down for a snack, a drink and a rest.

My trusty Saucony’s – maybe their last run 😦

After ten minutes rest I started to head back down – and realised I could not see the trail at all, I did know where I was going and it was a only short distance, but I would have been stuffed if I was caught in this on the peak two weeks ago. I am glad I had decided to stick to fire roads. (the photos sort of makes the trail look more obvious than it was !)

I decided to open up on the way down the fire road and run rather than jog back – a decision I am regretting now as my knees are very sore, but it was nice to feel the breeze. On the way down I met a Spanish trail runner who had turned around once he hit the thicker fog, he didn’t speak any English, but we ran together for a while, though he blew out on the small climb and flagged me on. I ran back the last few KM’s to the house in a bit of pain – the usual ankle, but I had sore feet. I think my shoes are worn out which is a real pain as I was not planning on buying new ones till after the 50kmer.

Tempreture wise it was the best day for running I have had in Spain, probably late teens in the hills and the fog was nice and damp with just a hint of a breeze. I would have loved it last week on the longer run when I was just pounding the unsealed road.

All up two and a half hours, not the four I wanted, but the body has had enough of all the running in the past five or six weeks. I just hope it is all enough training for 50for50, I will find out in fourteen days I guess.

I did not do much with the rest of the day, mooched, cooked, ate and drank until the early evening when I hit the internet and started looking more deeply in to an Africa tour. This is looking to be the more likely scenario than finding a job in the next two weeks, so a decision will need to be made fairly soon, at least there are spots on the tour.

I also emailed a car rental company to clarify if I will be able to rent a car in England without my drivers licence, which I lost way back in Laos. Hopefully my international permit will suffice, if not I will have to rethink my plans for my first week in England.

The BBC news had some graphic footage of the damaging forest fires yesterday that had devasted the hills along the Costa del Sol from Marbella almost to Malaga, which was a bit closer than I thought – though still far enough away for safety 🙂

Another fantastic sunset again this evening.

Days 236-240, Monday-Friday 27-31 August 2012 – Alcaucin

Another fairly standard and non-eventful week, just how I like them!

On Monday I started painting the downstairs of No 20, balustrades – if I never see another one it will not be too soon, this lot took me three days to paint. It is fine until the sun hits about 10:00 and then it is hot work – and very dry.

The sun is rising later in the day now so working 7:30 – 2:30 after that it is just too hot to work directly in the sun, even sitting or kneeling down.

Tuesday night there was an excellent sunset, the first really colourful sunset I have seen here, I sat on the deck with a glass of vino tinto and watched it all unfold, lovely.

Thursday night the sunset was even better !!

Friday I was back working at the original house I was painting, the house has now been vacated and I will get as much as I can completed before I go. Instead of painting balustrades today I washed them – ready for painting on Monday and Tuesday – oh joy : ) It was quite cloudy today and I was hoping for some rain, which never eventuated, but it was gloriously cool for most of the day. Ian has gone away so I am dog-sitting again for the weekend.

I did get some good news this week, my Uncle Jim has said I can come and stay at his place in Dartford, which is on the outskirts of London and only a short train ride away. Jim lives by himself in my late nana’s house and I have fond memories of it from when I was a child. It was here that I learnt that one should not pick up a cactus.

 

 

 

Days 233-235, Friday-Sunday, 24-26 August 2012, Alcaucin.

Friday was work day ! The sun is starting to rise a lot later now so being on the job at 7:00 am is just not much use anymore. I had a quick garden watering job to do before heading over to number 20 to start prep for the paint job next week- house needed a good wash and scrub down first.

I spent almost four hours scrubbing down the top half of the house before stopping, very hot today and I had used up all the shaded parts, plus my head wasn’t in it. Too much on my mind, thinking about the next few weeks, no job , no home and no idea where there home could be means I am feeling a bit misplaced at the moment. It all hinges on the job, get a job, find an apartment nearby and hopefully make some friends – things will be sweet 🙂

I spent the rest of the day reading and looking at jobs and flats on the internet before making myself a not too bad chicken risotto for dinner – and finishing season 3 of The Wire 🙂

I had the crappest sleep ever Friday night, hottest night in Alcaucin and head full and spinning, I think I finally must have dropped off at 5:00. I woke at 7:00 which was a pain as I wanted to be out on the road by 7:30 and i still had to eat and walk the dogs. Finally at 7:50 I made it out on the road for a hoped for five hour run. It was humid and there was a hot wind blowing straight down the road off the hills – my calves were sore and my back stiff – not a perfect start!

My plan was just to run the road I ran a couple of weeks back, but just to keep on going down into the next valley and turn around after around two half hours. I surprised myself by running the first section to the top carpark reasonably well, I thought I was very slow but did it five minutes faster than normal! Up one of the side valleys the wind was whipping the sand and dirt up so badly I had to run with my eyes closed and my bandana over my nose and mouth. sadly my running sun glasses are in my storage unit in NZ. The wind and dust clouds were a feature throughout the run unfortunately.

At two hours fifteen of mostly continuous running (by running I mean jogging at a pace that was probably slower than a Zimmerframe oldie walks) i ended up in the valley on other side of the ridge. There were a lot of loose dogs around the farm houses so I ended up turning round and heading back up the hill again.

The views on this side were not spectacular, but the road was steep in places and I walked some of the uphills on the return.

The run back took about two and half hours, giving me a total of 4:45 on my feet, just under what I wanted and I was tempted to take a side trail for a bit, but in all honesty I was buggered, so stopped !

I had a quick shower and jumped into the pool to cool down, but got sick of Muttleys yapping at me so ended up cutting it short. I was pretty wrecked, so the afternoon was quiet – though I did spend a crap load of money and booked my flight to the UK on Sunday Sep 09 !! I also spent I some serious time researching possible Africa tours if I do not get work within a reasonable time. I have found a company I like – with a space on a tour….

Sunday – hmm, not a lot happened really, washed the rest of number 20, drank beer, ate food, wrote blog
posts.

 

 

 

Days 230-232, Tuesday-Thursday 21-23 August 2012 – Malaga

No – I didn’t hit the beers, but “Malaga, rose, rose” – just doesn’t have the same ring.

I was up early, said farewell to Ian and down at the bus stop ten minute before the bus was due,. Naturally it was late – maybe it was going to fly : )

In an unusual step I was not taking my pack, just a small case – not sure if this is a subconscious reflection on my desire to settle down for a bit and not carry the pack around with me.

The bus ride was quick, as there was not too many passengers heading all the way to Malaga the three of us who were ended up in a mini-van at Velez-Malaga and blasted the motorway into town, arriving twenty minutes early. I grabbed a cab to the Don Curro hotel and then went off and chilled in a cafe over my book and a coffee until my room was ready. I spent the afternoon in the Picasso museum and the museum of contemporary art as well as wondering the streets between. I had a massive salad and a few roses for lunch.

Rreligious objects for sale next to Santa Anna

The Picasso museum was excellent, I think I liked it better than the main one in Barcelona, and I managed to sneak a couple of shots too 🙂

The museum of contemporary arts, has been compared to the Tate Modern, which is a bit rich really, not a lot there I liked – a Warhol of course !

I also managed to pick up a power supply for my laptop so spent some quality time watching season three of The Wire before heading out for a light dinner and a couple of vodka tonics.

Wednesday was really foggy, very surprising. Breakfast in the hotel wasn’t served until 8:30 so there was no point in rushing out of bed. I managed to consume a fair amount of very average breakfast before setting out around 10:00 for a trip to the Alcazaba de Malaga and the Castilleo de Gibralfaro.

The Alcazaba starts in the centre of town and meanders up the hill towards the Castle, at this point in time they are not linked internally so getting to the top of the Alcazaba still means a walk back down. The core of the Alcazaba dates back to the 11th century when the Moors (Morocco) ruled southern Spain until the 15th century when the Spanish took over. The site has been extensively renovated with work continuing today. Large areas are closed off to the public.

There was not a lot of detail to see, I liked the water fountains as usual and I really loved these channels that run water from the top down to the bottom, via all sorts of fountains and small water falls – a very cool piece of engineering.

There was no view !!! over the harbour.

back over the city.

Up to the Castillo

From Alcazaba I took the gruelling walk up the hill to the Castillo, I was glad of the fog, at least I was not walking in the baking sun, it was bad enough as it was !

Kim – we all heart pie !

The Castillo was started in the 14the century to protect the Alcazaba palace below, again it has been extensively renovated and made safe for tourists to walk the ramparts – and again no view, it would be stunning on a clear day!

Looking down over the Alcazaba.

I enjoyed my couple of hours wandering the two sights, enjoying seeing some old stuff again!

After the tour I walked the streets in search of pizza and a few roses, I found both and had a pleasant lunch and read in a cafe. I ended up buying a bottle and sitting in my room through siesta, supping on rose and watching The Wire until a late snack was had at a local vegetarian restaurant.

I was a bit groggy when I woke up on Thursday , not hung over, just not 100% – that will teach me for having an indulgent afternoon, but it was quite exciting having my laptop back again!

After breakfast and packing up my stuff I went for a walk round the Cathedral, semi interesting, like many things in Spain it has a long and slow build history and the reason it only has the single tower is they ran out of money during the final build in the 18th century. In the top photo you can see a piece of net strung under the ceiling, these were all over the interior of the Cathededral, stopping bits of plaster from falling and killing visitors.

This guy is freaky, scare them into believing !

As I was walking to the cab rank to get a ride to the bus station I found this ATM, must be for the shorter folks amongst us.

The bus ride back to Alcaucin was uneventful and Ian had already gone for the afternoon when I arrived. Once I had done washing, walked and fed the dogs I sat down and got a whole bunch of bill paying done before ringing the UK job agency that left me a message on my phone. Sadly the role they had me in mind for was permanent, oh well, maybe they should have read my CV more closely!

The good news is number 20 has finally given the go ahead to paint the house so I have something to fill my day for the next couple of weeks – YUS !!!

Shouting “lager, lager lager”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlLWFa1b1Bc

Sorry, not my best work. Not feeling it at that moment, but am of course keeping this as my record of my travels !

 

 

 

Days 220-229, 11-20 August 2012 – Alcaucin

Apart from a couple of great runs and a movie or three, not a lot happened for the first ten days after Muttley chewed the power cord for my laptop. In hindsight, the chewing was probably a good thing (nah !) but it did mean I didn’t bore everyone with long winded and dull blog posts describing me doing sod all.

So apart from work, eat and sleep what did I do for ten days, hmmmm. Ian and I went to see the new Batman movie which was very cool, I did not rate the villain as highly as Heath Ledgers Joker (but that was impossible), but still a great movie. I also watched The Guard which was excellent and Drive. Not too sure what to say about Drive, did I enjoy it ? yes – was it what I expected, absolutely not. Three great films in one week, all different too. Pretty rare.

I did two runs though !

First was on Sat 11, three hours up the road. A great run, first time I have run shirtless, very warm and as there was no one around to scare I thought why not. This time I took a couple of bars with me as well as a gel. Ideally I should be running with the food I will eat when I do 50for50 (in what is now three weeks time), but food choices are slim at best and there is no way a Snickers would last 2 hours in a pack here !

The second run was the following weekend – Sunday 19, aim for this was to do four hours and try to get to the top of the big hill above Alcaucin. It was a really warm morning and by local standards really humid at 44% at 7:30 when I left.

I was dripping within a few minutes and once I had found the right turn off ran shirtless for an hour till I hit the single track.

The first hour was mainly running on a rough 4wd track, and all up hill, I ran most of it but there were some sections that were too steep to bother with – its not as if I was in a rush, and I will be walking the steep bits on 50for50 anyway.

The small carpark where the single track started had a big view back down to Alcaucin.

And this was where I was heading.

The single track was pretty sweat, not my preferred surface so I kept things sensible to avoid injury – and unlike Trevelez if I went down hard here there would be no-one following to find me!

The last thirty minutes was pretty much a walk and I made it to the peak I was aiming for pretty much dead on two hours, though the ranges had a way to go up yet !

The view was partially marred by some low cloud, but was still pretty spectacular – I wonder when the last person was here ? After feeding my face I took a gentle run back down. While I was at the top a couple of massive clouds closed the valley in below me , this is looking DOWN the single track !

I reached the road knowing I was going to be short of four hours but my Camelbak was bone dry and it was too hot to be running without water. I want to be able to run next week so took the wise choice and made a slow run back home, all up 3:45. I was still pleased with that, no real aches and pains – stiff to start with and worn when I finished. I was still able to walk the dogs later in the day though…

My dog chewed power cord, and my jeans too… He also had a go at my trail shoes but luckily no real damage, just a lace replacement.

 

 

 

Day 218/219, Thursday/Friday 09/10 August 2012 – Alcaucin

I Slept Ok but didn’t really get going till just before nine. It was hot in Malaga, 37 degrees when I got off the bus last night but I did not want to use the air conditioning in the room for too long as it seems to be impacting on my eyes and throat. I gave it a quick burst at four to cool the room down a bit.

I had planned on a big day. There is a lot to see in Malaga and only two buses back to Alcaucin, one in the morning and one in the evening, so I was going to get the 6:30 pm bus and see everything. Well that was the plan when I left the hotel at 9:00! Best laid plans….

My two star hotel, Carlos V, is right smack in the middle of the action, so walking out the front door, I had the cathedral on my left and the Alcazaba on my right.

I was looking for somewhere for a decent breakfast but I just all confidence in myself as I hit the street. I knew I was tired, I was really hungry – having not eaten last night and I must have been dehydrated, losing my wallet yesterday did not help either – whatever it was, I could not walk into a cafe. I must have walked for almost an hour before finally getting into a restaurant to eat. I was so hungry – and they didn’t do big breakfasts.

Once I had eaten I did feel a lot better but had resolved to take the early bus at 11:30 to my cousins place in Alcaucin and come back and do Malaga another day.

Guess this place is popular with the English !

It is only two and a bit hours by bus from home so an easy day trip. I returned to the hotel, packed up my stuff and got a cab to the bus station. The ride to Alcaucin took two half hours and there was a change in Velez-Malaga as well, but the driver helped with that thank goodness.

Ian has gone away for the weekend and I am dog-sitting, he left soon after I arrived so after a wee lie down I went up to the le Grande Rancho restaurant for lunch. Ian and I have been here a couple of times so I kind of know how it works, which was just what my confidence needed.

A lot of the restaurants in Spain (or at least in Andalucia) have a menu of the day, which often has a couple of choices of starter main, and desert for a fixed price – usually significantly cheaper than if you chose off the menu. They are a cheap option for the workers to get a good main meal for a reasonable price – remember the Spanish have their main meal at mid-day. Thursdays at le Rancho is Paella day so there was no way I was going to not have that. The gazpacho here is just lovely so I had that for a starter and melon drizzled in honey for desert. Three courses and a drink for 7 Euro – and the drink is any drink so I had a large beer : ) A perfect meal and I was stuffed full as I waddled back down the road and took the dogs for their afternoon before settling in to watch the Olympic BMX racing on TV.

The rest of the day was pretty much spent watching the Olympics, I didn’t get round to watching any more episodes of The Wire – Ian has all five seasons on DVD and I had planned on some Wire marathons.

Early to bed

I had a great and long sleep, apart from having to get up in the middle of the night to find Muttley roaming around outside the door and having to lock him back inside, this time with the windows closed!

I got up at 7:30, walked the dogs and had breakfast myself, it is going to be a hot day I can feel it already ! I spent an hour on a stepper type bit of gym equipment, I am sure it has a name, but I am not up on gym stuff. I want to try and do an hour a day at least on the days I do not get out for a proper run, only five weeks to the event so everything counts now.

Apart from completely reloading my MP3 player with more upbeat music – it is time for a change from yelly punk and broody instrumental rock, I didn’t do a lot else after a shower until I went back to el Rancho for lunch. Today was gazpacho again followed by calamari and fries and beer. With a heaving belly I went home, walked the dogs, watched the BMX semis and finals on TV. I was bummed for Marc Willers who had such an awesome run yesterday and crashed heavily on the first race today, but awesome result for the lovely Sarah Walker getting NZ another silver medal.

It is almost 7:00 PM as I write this post, I have just got out of the pool as it is 37 degrees in the shade, a hot day !

Day 217, Wednesday 08 August 2012 – ???

A much quieter night last night so a lot more sleep had and like yesterday I didn’t get up until breakfast time at 8:30. With only a small walk planned today I ate a lot more than yesterday, but still could not finish all the food.

I left for my walk about 9:15, I planned on doing two and half hours so I could get back in time for a quick shower before checking out at 12:00. I started up the path that sort of runs up the side of the Rio Trelevez. Like yesterday, I only took my cell phone for a camera and for some reason (shaky hands ?) a lot of the photos were blurred rubbish.

The walk was pleasant enough, certainly not like yesterdays and my legs were feeling surprisingly OK. They knew they had done some work though, but were much looser than I anticipated, further good news for my fitness.

I was not really in the mindset for a walk, for some reason I was feeling at a bit of a loss this morning so after forty five minutes when I came across this track covering puddle I turned around and meandered back to the hotel. I didn’t want to have to put wet running shoes into my pack for the day, good excuse huh ?

I hadn’t really come up with much of a plan of where to stay the night, Trevelez is a funny place to get out of and Alcaucin where I am ‘living’ is a funny place to get to – bus timings just didn’t seem to work out. In the end I decided on heading back to Granada and getting the next bus to Malaga and staying the night there. Tomorrow I will see Malaga and get the bus to Alcaucin at 6:30pm. Perfect !

Sadly the bus from Trevelez leaves at 4:00 PM so I had some time to kill between checking out of my room and catching the bus. Luckily I was able to use the internet in reception for a couple of hours till lunch at 2:00.

I went to a different restaurant for lunch and had a very nice salad, a change to have something healthy! I have been struggling with trying to learn even the most basic of Spanish, I started in Barcelona and have continued to attempt here in Trevelez. The pronunciation is so varied, even between towns and I had real trouble in this restaurant, depressing !

I liked Trevelez, if I had a car I would have stayed longer and done some more of the local walks. The one thing that I don’t like about it is the flies, they are terrible – it is like being in Queensland again !!

The bus to Granada was an uneventful two and three quarter hour ride, except I seem to have broken the headphones for my MP3 player, grrrrr – no music for all that time was rough. The drive is still lovely, though unusually I felt a bit queasy on the bus, very rare.

As soon as the bus pulled into the station on time at 6:45 I ran up to the ticket machine and got the last seat on the 7:00 bus to Malaga – awesome. This was the super bus, I got given water and a small snack and thankfully headphones for the in-bus sound system, wahoo they fitted my MP3 player – rubbish headphones, but headphones nonetheless. The ride to Malaga was also fantastic, such a beautiful, dry and mountainous province.

I got off the bus and into a cab to head to the hotel, and realised I did not have my wallet in my bag ! Shitburgers !! I panicked briefly, before thankfully finding I had enough coins to pay the cab driver. I knew I had the wallet on the bus as I had seen it in my bag, I am guessing it fell out by my seat somewhere. When I got to the hotel I rang the bus depot and got an answering machine, I will have to try tomorrow when I go to catch the bus home. At least this time I didn’t lose a drivers licence or anything, only 30 euros and a couple of cards- thank God I still had a spare card in my pack and was able to get some cash out.

The hotel is in the middle of all the tourist stuff, right next to the cathedral so I went for a wee stroll around with the intent of getting something to eat. Loads and loads of places but I could not decide and did not want to eat alone again, too tiring.

Not a great day sadly.

The Alcazaba in Malaga, looking fwd to visiting tomorrow.