Sat 14th Sept. Best of days and Worst of days!

We bade a sad farewell to El Poleo, managed to get the entire contents of Edwina's larder fridge into our van fridge, which was no mean feat, especially as we had been given lots of yummy local produce including grapes and figs from Pat's 'campo house' garden, and tomatoes, and aubergines courtesy of one of his customers!

The first thing we had to do was fill up with fresh water. Andalucians are obsessed with water, as it is quite a scarce commodity, and we quickly adopted this obsession! Pat had told us of a spring next to an abandoned house. We drove past it 3 times before we found it, as we thought that the house looked in too good condition to be abandoned! We were happily filling up our tank when a farmer came by on his tractor and trailer and started gabbling away to us. At first I thought he was telling us off for stealing his water, but then I realised he was telling us that it was not good to drink. He then lead us around the corner and showed us that the water was coming from a swimming pool filled with green, algae infested, rancid water, that was being used as a reservoir for the spring by the farmers. Yuk!! What a lucky escape! If we had found the place, straight away, we would have most likely left before he arrived and then would have most likely been horrendously ill. Anyway, the kind farmer, re connected the hose to the spring and then waited patiently while we emptied our tank, rinsed it out and filled it up again!

We then headed off to the Alpujarras. This is the region in the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It has a fascinating history being populated by the Berbers after the Moorish invasion. It was the last Moorish stronghold and they were not destroyed by the Christians until 1568. The architecture is totally unique in Spain. The houses are all white-washed with flat clay roofs, apparently like the buildings in the Atlas mountains of Morocco. They also all have these really cute chimineas (chimneys).

The scenery was spectacular as we wound our way up the steep slopes of the Poqueira Valley. We had been advised that the road would be wide enough for our van, and they were - just!
We stopped at the village of Pampaneira, at the base of a ravine. There were loads of shops selling beautiful hand made brightly coloured rugs, reminiscent of South America. They also sold locally made hams - Serra Jamon, that are famous across Spain.

All over Spain we found these exercise machines. They are free to use!

 Beautiful rugs

 Streams run down the middele of the streets:

 We then decided to drive to Capeleira at the top of the gorge ...
We were looking for somewhere to park up for the night. I found a spot, but it was up a steep gravel track and when Cassie's wheels started spinning Nick decided to head back to the road. But the road was narrow and quite busy, so we investigated further on foot, and found a more level track, that lead to a sort of dump - but a dump with a view like you've never seen before!

The only problem was that now the Casa-Coche was facing the wrong way, so we had to go back down into the village to find somewhere to turn around. This is when disaster struck! They say that 'if only' are the two saddest words in the dictionary. Too true!

• If only we had stayed where we were!
• If only we had turned around in a different place!
• If only I had got out of the van to direct - like I always do!

But none of these things happened and as she was backing up we heard a dreadful crash! We couldn't inspect the damage until we were back at 'the dump' as there was nowhere to stop. At first we couldn't find any damage and then Nick spotted a nasty dent in the top corner. Poor Cassie! She had been looking after us so well, and we had let her down! :-( . We were also concerned that if/when it rains the water will get into the fibreglass.

So we walked into the village and had several beers to drown our sorrows - even found some internet! We also found the cause of the injury! A sharp pointy overhanging slate roof!