Wednesday 4 April – Mecina Bombaron – so – we have been thinking about what we might do once the travel bug flies away and in amongst our thinking Sam had done some research and found a lovely family in Devon who make traditional yurts – they take it seriously too – Paul has been to Mongolia to learn how to make ‘em, so we emailed to find out a bit about them and discovered …..
It just so happens that this couple also own a tiny farm (read small-holding) in the Sierra Nevada mountains (Spain, not Canada) which is totally off grid and pretty much carbon neutral so we decided to pay a visit. Well….
The Sierra Nevadas get quite steep in places and the journey to Mecina Bombaron (the nearest village) took us up some steep inclines on rather narrow roads with many 180 degree hairpins. Bessie gave perfect satisfaction however (albeit often in second gear) and hardly ever rose above her optimum temperature.
Mecina Bombaron is a very pretty village perched high in the mountains. It seemed incongruous to flat-landers like us that business-as-usual goes on in a very matter of fact, laid back Spanish way in such an amazing place! After checking out the directions Paul had given us we decided we would make our way the few kilometers to his farm on foot. We found a place off the road to secure Bessie and off we went…… Now then ……
It turns out that our decision contained elements of both good and bad karma – fascinated? Then read on!
On the plus side in favour of walking:
- The road was steep enough so that sometimes we were convinced it should have been stairs or a lift and not a road at all
- Some of the bends were sharp enough to challenge a fat donkey, let alone a three and a half ton elderly campervan
On the downside however:
- A few kilometers seems a long way when it’s very much all uphill
- There was one particular large and unhappy dog which clearly needed dinner and felt that Sam would serve nicely as Plate of the Day
Anyhow, we eventually found the beautiful, tiny, wonderful farm which is a two room building in the traditional style with a well for water, woodland above to feed the woodburner and terraced fields below to grow your crops and graze your goats and sheep – (Oh yes, on the subject of goats and sheep, we did have to wait in Bessie just outside the village whilst the local shepherd took his large mixed flock through to fresh grazing. The whole place was utterly enchanting but also very isolated and high enough for snow to be a serious issue in the winter – the distant high peaks were glistening in a thick coating of snow as we drove.
There was nowhere suitable in Mecina Bombaron for an overnight stop so we decided to head to a pretty site by a reservoir we had found on line. Turns out the way we came up was the best way…umm.. How shall I put this? …. Down….
The descent could be described as exciting, interesting, scenic or adventurous and I have no doubt each of these has some value and relevance in the right context, but we just called it scary and left it at that. Suffice to say that we were very happy to finally arrive at the reservoir after discovering that:
- Hairpin bends on steep descents with no kerb and a 1000 meter drop have the effect of causing some muscles to want to contract and others to relax, and
- Not being able to always see the drop thanks to the addition of driving through low cloud fails to alleviate this condition.
Thursday 5 and Friday 6 April – Embalse de Beznar – our (free) location here is a simple car park in the trees, right on the edge of this huge and beautiful reservoir and next to the impressive dam which created it. The whole scene is as I imagine the Norwegian fjords to be – blue-green waters following the shapes of submerged valleys and reflecting the greens of the foothills and the granite grey’s of the surrounding mountains – their mood shifting as the wind reveals and obscures the sun amongst the scudding clouds.
This place is the perfect antidote after our adventures in the mountains – serene, peaceful, immersed in the majestic beauty of nature in the raw – we love it here. Sam has led gentle yoga sessions above the shore of the lake each day and we have taken time to just be, to reflect on this journey so far and to reground ourselves – absolutely magical.
Om Shanti, Namaste
Paul and Sam x
Finding the Elephant 