fishydreams

As you may be aware I walked the Caminito del Rey recently with my friend Julio and we were both hugely impressed by the place. The walkway is half way some way up vertical cliff faces and a question that inevitably pops into your mind is this: “why would anyone build a walkway in a place like this?”

It turns out that to understand the walkway you need to think about something about which I was previously unaware – a canal. Extraordinary as it might seem, and it is at least as extraordinary as the Caminito itself, there is a canal which was built through this inhospitable terrain. Continue reading →

On Thursday I had a chance to walk through a stunning gorge along a famous walking path called “El Camino del Rey” or “Caminito del Rey.” The walk is named after King Alfonso XIII who walked this path, or more correctly the “old” Camino del Rey path, almost 100 years ago. It is a quite remarkable experience to complete this walk and I was lucky enough to walk it in the company of a good friend, Julio Rodriguez.

The walk is fascinating for all kinds of reasons. In addition to the jaw-dropping scenery, the history of the walk is fascinating as is the natural history. I am planning to consider the history and natural history in future posts on this blog, together with a sad story we heard from a walking guide. Continue reading →

I´ll tell you a story I heard one time about a young fella at a dance. I don´t remember the details like they guy´s name but I can give you the gist of the story anyway.

It all happened back in Ireland and the dance was really a nightclub somewhere on the edge of some provincial town in Roscommon. But again, these are details.

He was infatuated with a girl but was too shy to ask her to dance. He was also one of these non-drinking types so he couldn´t just knock back a couple of pints and give himself a little Dutch courage. Anyway, after a bunch of false starts he finally managed to approach the girl and ask her if she would dance with him. Continue reading →

Sixteen years ago today our daughter Pippa was born. She has lived pretty much all of her life in the South of Spain but she was born in the South Island of New Zealand, half a world away.

It rained heavily on the day she was born. This was the sustained rainfall that the farmers had been waiting for and which put an end to a long period of drought. All day long, as we waited for her to put in an appearance, we watched the water streaming down the window of the delivery room while the radio broadcast interviews with jubilant farmers. It was impossible to get away from the idea that only good things could come of a day like this, and so it proved to be.

There is too much to say about Pippa to squeeze it into a space as small as this one. So I won´t even try. If you know her yourself you won´t need me to tell you what a lovely person she is. She is friendly and kind and has a heart of gold.

So I will state simply that we are all so proud of her and so delighted by the young lady she has grown to become.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIPPA!

Pipster

Last night I buried my dog Bonita between some fruit trees on our little plot of land. It was late when I started and I finished the task in moonlight.

She had died the previous night and, truthfully, had been in deteriorating health for some time. We all knew that her days were numbered.

I was probably closer to Bonita than any other dog I have owned and for many years we walked together, usually at night, for a mile or so. I don´t know how many times we did this. It must have been a thousand at least, and it occurred to me this evening that our walks, if linked end to end could take us from one end of the country to the other.

Bonita was about as white as you can imagine and she stood out even on a dark night. She was pretty fat too, to be honest and would gobble down, not only her own food, but her sister´s too if she had half a chance. Her tendency to put on weight was one of the reasons for our nightly walk.

If she was close enough to you and her legs were tucked underneath her she looked like a white cloud drifting a couple of feet above the meandering dirt track we followed.

At night you can have the campo to yourself and there is no one around to listen to you. So it was Bonita who heard many of my most private thoughts and listened to many of the songs I would be too embarrassed to sing publicly. She also listened to some comedy scripts that I was writing, some pieces of which were later performed. Nobody else has heard anything like as much as she did.

We will all miss Bonita. I was the last to see her. Her white silhouette stood in stark contrast to the dark floor at the bottom of the cubic metre of soil I had dug out for her and she was illuminated, fittingly, by the light of the moon.

Bonita

Remember Jack and the Beanstalk? This kid Jack wanders off to market to sell his cow, the only possession of any value his desperate family owns and, instead of returning with some cash for selling the thing, he returns to his distraught mother with a handful of beans. What an idiot! Continue reading →

The sky in not the same size everywhere. In Montana the people describe their State as “Big Sky Country” which seems only fitting in a place with a horizon broken only by the distant Rocky Mountains. I have never been to Montana but I think I would love it there with all those famous trout streams below and all that big sky above.

The sky here may not be as big as it is in Montana but it´s pretty big all the same. And sometimes it is so eye-catching that it makes you stop what you are doing and just take stock of all the drama above you. Yesterday the skyscape was so striking on the way back from the river that I stopped the short journey, not just once but twice, and stepped out of the car to take a few photographs. Continue reading →