Bedrock

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

It won’t be our first trip of the year, we were over there in February but it’ll be the first escape to the sun by the look of it…   weather here in Blighty has been nice on and off but the rain just keeps coming back to ruin things – yesterday was awful. This morning I’m looking out of the window and seeing blue skies here in the Northeast of England… hardly awe-inspiring however..

Meanwhile back in Galera…temperature ranges from 21 to 25C for the next week with NO chance of rain AT ALL. Lovely. Can’t wait…

Believe it or not since returning to the UK in September, it’s never stopped RAINING – or it feels that way. Currently sitting in Manchester boring airport, wishing I was back with my glass of Alhambra and Tapas.. amazing how fast that 5 weeks break went by, it seems like a lifetime ago. Still the camera is working so I can keep an eye on our grapevine and Maureen is now getting into organising our new rental property as well as looking after the new kitten (Ollie). I’m working on websites trying to ignore the miserable weather here – as it looks nice and sunny back in Spain.

Today we set off early to go to the beach – specifically, Aquilas! We took the pretty route via Orce, Maria, Velez Blanco and Velez Rubio, determined to get the sun first and perhaps check out these places on the return visit.

No pictures of the beech? Well, the camera failed – or rather the cheap Chinese battery failed – all hell will be taken out on the supplier from Ebay! On the way we ended up on a back-road – the D19 – TRULY an excuse for a road and about half way along we noted what I can only describe as dead-man’s gulch…. here’s a pic on the right – yes, that’s a goat’s head or similar on a stick – and not the only one. We got out and tried to take pics with our mobile phones but 2 rather nasty dogs appeared out of no-where to scare us off – clearly someone wanted some privacy. I’ve never been cruel to dogs… but if I could have gotten away with it…

Anyway, off we went to the beach. Aquilas has some fine beaches – not exactly up-market – but the water is shallow and warm and by the time we got there, around mid-day, there was plenty of room on the beach despite temperatures of around 32C. It was that nice I didn’t want to come out of the water once I got in.

However perhaps 3pm we set off back but decided to have a trip along the coast and ended up down in VERA and thereabouts – next time I’ll have the camera, some fabulous scenery. Well worth a trip. As we came back, we discovered that at 5pm Velez Rubio – which has a FABULOUS town centre was closed… and when we got to Velez Blanco – the castle there was just stunning as was other scenery – but our phones just can’t do this justice, so the plan is to get up in the morning and have another trip back to both towns (less than an hour away) and do them justice when the shops are open, armed with a working camera.

A quiet night tonight, I can smell something like prawns on the go downstairs, we’ve bought some of those expanding silicon beads to ensure our new olive grove has water while we’re away… and that’s about all for today. Smashing day all-in.

Oh, if anyone knows what VELEZ means – let me know as we can’t find it…. the two towns must have SOME literal translation.

Tonight the moon is quite bright and so any ideas of seeing the “cloud” of our galaxy are probably out of the window now – good job I took shots the other night.

I’ve just realised – the latest Google Earth – if you hover over the sea… the WAVES move. How weird is that! Whatever next… froth on the shoreline? Bring it on!

I recently stumbled upon a website with some information on Galera in Andalucia – but the translation into English left something to be desired… so here is my attempt at a better job!

CASAS CUEVAS GALERA is a large area, perhaps l00 kilometres long, where the Granada province forms a passageway between the mountains that mark the boundary with other provinces including Jaen, Almeria, Murcia and Albacete… and is one of the world’s most captivating and exceptional natural regions.

GALERA is small and ancient; rich in natural, historic, cultural and impressive human heritage. Much of the area comprises hard and dried-out land broken up by the grooves made by the rivers, of dug-out caves full of life. The origins of Galera disappear in the dawn of humanity, with remnants of old civilizations that make this region an authentic open-air museum. Despite being a small town, Galera has plenty to attract naturally, culturally, historically.

Geographically located in the middle of the Natural Parks of Cazorla, Castril, Maria Los Velez, and Baza – Galera has all kinds of open-air activities as well as excursions to the neighbouring villages. Nearby archaeological sites reveal the first human presence in Europe and represent practically all cultures (historic as well as prehistoric) of mediterranean origin.

Thanks to the initiative of a group of local entrepreneurs, Galera completes its tourist offering with an interesting type of accommodation – cave houses which are unique and outstanding in every way. Carved out of the rocks, they are a magnificent example of man’s integration with the landscape and nature. In the Altiplano (high plateau) they have always been a common dwelling and now, after being reformed, are something that everyone including visitors can enjoy.

The population of Galera is eminently rural, the majority of people working in cattle farming and agriculture. For example,  there are vineyards which produce "Vino del Pais de Galera" which is a general-consumption wine.

You can have a getting more detail if you’re interested but be warned it’s not easy reading…

In this photo I’ve done my best to get rid of camera noise. What you’re looking at here is a photo taken at midnight up in the mountains – no that’s not cloud – going up what you’re looking at is the edge of our galaxy on a crystal-clear night.

If I could have taken a panorama you’d have seen a glowing “cloud” cutting right across the sky – sadly even my modern digital camera still can’t beat the naked eye (give it time).

The images were taken with a 60 second exposure in the darkest spot I could find on a moonless night (and it was DARK). I’ve seen the “cloud” back home but never so clearly and never managed to get it on a picture before. After you’re eyes get used to it, it’s quite possible here to see a sky packed full of stars – utterly fascinating.

On the other hand – mid-afternoon – sunflowers just outside of the village  – really the photo does not do them justice.

On a long and windy road we took just for the sake of it… and on the way back… we spotted some wine in the making – red wine unfortunately (I used to drink tons of the stuff but Maureen and I went off the idea at about the same time. Later on we did visit the Necropolis just outside of town – but it doesn’t open until late at night and involves lots of walking so we’re going to have another go tomorrow, once I get a little emailing and survey processing done first thing for the Fed.