A walk in the countryside

Last evening was a bit of a shock, Ben suddenly started howling, a really low pitched strange howl, like a wolf and he had a really odd look in his eyes. We let him onto the balcony as that seemed to be what he wanted to do and he sat staring down the road. We are pretty certain that there is a bitch in heat and it's driving him mad as he seems well enough otherwise. Surprisingly he slept well and as a result so did we.

For ages I've been looking at http://www.walkingworld.com/ and downloading walking routes so it was only fair that we tried one out. We selected one near Jimena de la Frontera, it looked like a good afternoon walk, suggested 4 hours and only 6 miles, a good introduction to the maps. We'd printed the route and downloaded the gps co-ordinates.

We set off a little later than we intended as there was yet more washing to do and hang out to dry, so we left around 10.30 and as a result it was 12.00 before we set off from the centre of Jimena.

I meant to say yesterday that we had another exciting development, we got some mail - real mail, the sort that is delivered by the postie! We found our letter box full and also a card saying that there was a parcel at the post office for us. Mum had sent some Easter stuff for us and the dogs as well as a very appropriate card which I will try and scan another day. The dogs loved the treats and I have eaten all the Tesco Finest Fudge!


Anyway, back to the walk, we followed the route down the hill towards the countryside, the directions were quite confusing but once we had got the hang of the route they made more sense. We passed a small farm with loads of goats by the road, we also set a load of dogs barking but none of them were brave enough to come and see us.

This goat was standing on a rock looking very regal. The dogs were still on a lead and Ben thankfully seems to have forgotten his girlfriend back in Cortes.

We climbed up a huge hill, I reckon we did the 400 meteres of height in the first stage, on the way we noticed lots of these huge ants, the picture does not convey scale well but they measured around 3 cm - some more.

The route was a bit inaccurate but we found the ruin that we were heading for, this was around half way up the hill, the temperature was pleasant thankfully.

From a little higher up we got a good view of Jimena, although it is not visible on the pic we could see the windmill road and Casares in the distance. This was taken with the Joby (Sandy)

Jimena and the surrounding countryside from the track near the top.

A hot tired and very sweaty Angus on the track - how far to the top was the cry. As this was a new walk we were not certain that there were no pine trees close by so there was a constant barrage of "Ben, Dan, come here - NOW".

Ben and Dan came for the pic, they really loved this walk and are now totally knackered, even Ben is not howling .

The walk has a few bits that are inaccurate, one is that a new fence has been built along the path, there is a rickety ladder that you have to climb, easy enough for us but a little difficult for the Dogs. They were duly manhandled over the fence, we covered the barbed wire with a fleece and I passed them over to Susan, it was all very undignified for them but they seemed to enjoy it.

After we had reached the highest point we stopped for Lunch on the way down. It was a quick lunch as we realised that we had a long way to go and time was running along.

We walked down the track to join the stream as instructed to do so, the instructions were not clear here and we stumbled along the side of the river trying to avoid thick bushes and constantly jumping from side to side of the stream, it was getting slightly hairy at some points, of course the dogs could hear water and were determined to get in it. We made it eventually but I was a bit disappointed with the directions.

Eventually we came to a swimming hole and we let the dogs play for a while, they loved it.

We passed by the old fountain that is now dead and slightly damaged by vandals.

After being in the water Dan was shaking, Susan was sure he was cold so wrapped him in a fleece, I am sure he could hear the running water and wanted to get in it.

We walked back into the village, up the hill annoying all the dogs again and found the car parked by the bar which was unfortunately closed.We set off for the hours drive home and stopped off for a drink at a roadside bar for a drink then Dia for a few bits for dinner.

We've both done a bit of ironing, I'm cooking dinner and it'll be an early night for us.

A good tiring day in the sun and the countryside.