Spain 11-16 Oct
I flew from London after two days since I've returned from Montenegro. I flew from Southend airport in London to the Malaga's airport Cuesta del Sol. I hired the car (Panda) and drove to Fuente del Conde. It took me an hour to drive from the coast of Malaga to the most beautiful mountains in South Spain (Andalusia).
Likely I had the GPS on my phone so I could easily navigate. The road was great, most of which was a motorway. When I arrived it felt like paradise. The silence and the warmth were significant. My pilates student - Shaks was waiting at her propriety to welcome me.
https://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/accommodation/p8163829
The house is stunning. An old Spanish house from Andalusia completely refurbished and well furnished. A very simple and comfortable 4 double bedroom house with 3 bathrooms, 3 leaving rooms, three outdoors terraces and pool area with such a well equipped kitchen. We went for an evening walk by sunrise to admire the high mountains landscape. We ate some almonds from the almonds trees. There are two types: one is very bitter suitable for marcapn and another is sweet, great for eating on spot. The trees without any almonds on for sure were with the sweet almonds, while the ones full of fruit where the bitter ones.
After we came back home I jumped into the pool to refresh. The water was freezing cold but the experience of jumping from the desert Sahara heat in to such a fresh water was amazing.
We had some dinner prepared by the host on the outdoor terrace. Eating in the light of candles with the stars above our heads made the whole experience quite unique.
The propriety has a very positive energy and it feels home. I came over to check out if it's suitable for hosting the yoga retreats. I found out that it's even suitable for the aerial yoga retreats. It has the steel structure which creates the shade and it could easily be adopted for the aerial yoga platform. I might run some aerial yoga retreats over there in a winter, spring and the autumn time.
The location of the propriety is quite remote, thought with the easy road access. The best is to hire a car, I wouldn't recommend the public transport as it takes ages to get there from and to the airport of Málaga. However there is a chance of using a public transport to Loja (1h/6€ bus) and then taxi (30min/25€) to Fuente del Conde. To hire the car for a week is approx 150£ including the insurance. There is a catch at the airport of paying only 15£ per week of a car hire and then adding 135£ for the car insurance. At the end also you need to pay for the fuel. So it doesn't end up that cheap.
The additional attraction of this remote beautiful private propriety in Andalusia is the location. It's located away from the main stream tourism but not far away from the main tourist destinations in Spain. By car it's only 1hour away from Granada, and Seville and 1.5 hour away from Cordoba. Those locations are the "must to see" in Europe and there are easily reachable from the Casa Ana in Fuente del Conde where I stayed.
I've managed to visit Granada with a stunning little Spanish houses built up on the rocks. The narrow little streets with some Arabic/Islamic markets, where vendors were selling lots of Far East spices, incredible variety of tees and dry fruits (2-5€/100g). The beautiful cathedral and the University area were worthy to be seen.
I left for the next time the most famous sightseeing site of Alhambra. My phone died at the begat of my visit in Granada and I forgot the cable to charge my phone. I was wondering around the city randomly and I ended up in the most characteristic places of Granada but I didn't reach Alhambra.
On the way back I was struggling to get back on the right motorway home. After a couple of tries I decided to buy another cable to charge my iPhone. I've managed to do it just in time before the darkness hit me. The day light in the Autumn in October is from 8am to 7.30pm. Once I've got my GPS sorted out I was more relaxed about going back home instead of sleeping in the middle of the mountains. It gets quite cold in the night during this time of the year (October) up to 8 cel degrees.
There are other little towns very picturesque which are near by the propriety and worthy to visit such as: Loja and Iznajar. My favourite is Iznajar with the long stairs walk up to the top of this ancient town of Andalusia - Iznajar. The best time is the sunrise and the view over the huge lake is unforgettable. It's that impressive that it could easily be one of a few wonders of the world. I walked across the town of Iznajar watching the church, library and the tiny very well kept and clean Andalusian houses with so many flowers at the window and courtyards. The town is magic. I drove down to the lake which size was slightly reduced as it shrank because of the dry season. I ended up by the sailing centre quite late around 8pm. It took me at least 20min walk along the beach from the car park to reach the lake. The water was cold at the bottom and shore were very muddy and unpleasant. The gentle sound of the water and the colours of dissolving sunset were beautiful. I saw some people camping by the lake and having some bump fire. It felt romantic. We tent to travel to a different continents in search of such a lovely nature and we have it all in Europe.
The nice walks with Shaks in the area of her propriety, learning about plants: olives, capers, pepper, almonds, having healthy fresh meals with a lot of traditional Spanish queso (cheese), swimming in the pool and sunbathing - all that made my 5 days stay unique and made me happy. Having her company was just right, we enjoyed our silence and talks. Thank you Shaks for having me!
We closed the propriety and drove to the airport of Malaga. I took Shaks to the airport and I went to return the car. I ended up having such a challenge to find the rental car agency (Marbelsol). After missing the exit from the airport I had to repeat the same track of the motorway we did before for half an hour. Likely I returned the car on time and head to the Malaga's airport Cuesta del Sol. I took off from Malaga with Easy Jet to London Southend - the smallest and emptiest airport I have ever seen.
