So, I’m ridiculously late today, almost fourteen hours as a matter of fact, so we can officially say that I haven’t made the daily blog for the fourth of August, sigh. How very undisciplined of me. Hah.
But yesterday was an eventful day so I actually have something to write about…not so much the beginning of the day, mind you, but later on was loads of fun – for me at least.
I got way too little sleep again, so when I get up I’m not in the best of moods. It makes me grumpy to say the least, and as I take the dogs down to the house, I’m grumbling like mad at their usual antics.
Knight II is dashing back and forth like the lunatic he is, Trin Trin is attacking the stick I always carry (either the stick or my leg, that’s her motto, the idiot. I prefer that she attacks the stick, but that’s just me, hah). Bommel is lagging behind; the poor old fella makes his way at his own pace, while Labahna (black Labrador, now in heat) is making a nuisance of herself with Sitabah. The two bitches don’t like each other during the best of days, and like me they’re grumpy as heck.
Dax and Touri, the runts of the pack, are dashing back and forth, barking occasionally while Chaos (Basset) and Gada (black lab) are pestering poor Amri. What can I say; the usual ruckus that now annoys me.
Once at the house it takes me a while before I can finally settle down at the computer and start on the edit…which went horrible. For some reason both big brother and I were unable to properly focus, and after four hours of struggling with a mere four pages, we give up for the day, and decide to head out for an early start on outside work.
The reed is almost finished, so with the leftovers, no more than two mats can be made, darn it (stupid cut off road; it stopped us from getting a new batch) so while the younger sisters start on the mat I’m diverting my attention between helping out, sorting a small suitcase of screw that…yes, it fell in the dirt the other day, aaargh…and putting the finishing touches to little brother’s window.
While we’re at work up by the carport terrace, big brother and grandpa head into our own reed, and seek out a few long stems so they can start on putting the first mats on the courtyard roof. Little brother too, has headed down the property and is getting extra reed for us to add to the mats, lest only thin stems make up the whole.
By the time grandpa and big brother are done with the preparation…grandpa is sitting on top of the corrugated metal plates, which just barely holds his weight (the only person in the family who weighs as little as grandpa is little sister, so he is the most suited for task) while big brother stands on the ladder to work on the edges, I carry down the first four mats.
To be busy too, a small batch of cement is made, so I can work on building the last plant container down the main path, and by the time the first part of the reed roof is up, I’m finished too.
Dusk is rapidly approaching when our tenant can finally be picked up from her rehab, and then both brothers and I head out in hopes that the road is open again and we can reach our usual spot for reed…it isn’t, so from sheer exasperation we once again travel down long windy roads in search for a different spot.
After several dead-ends…that’s Spain for ya, lots of dead end roads…we finally stop at a sections where a dirt road is obstructed from heading up a partially covered macadam street. Decided we might as well have a little walk and see what’s down at the end of the street that was put down for a new community area but was shut down, prior construction when the house market crashed.
Underway we see a poor little dog sleep in the bushes. It looks rather miserable, but before we can check the little bugger out it dashes off into the underbrush. At the end of the street a wide trail leads down the mountain part ways, giving a rather grand view of the valley beyond, and a large cluster of boxed beehives. A lot of areas ‘round here are reserved for beehives, you can’t travel ten miles without coming up such an area. But anyway, the trail stops, so we head back up, applying a firm pace to get some exercise in no matter the “no reed” debacle.
Once back in the car, the sun slowly setting behind the higher mountains, we decide to just drive around a bit to see if maybe we can find a way down to the valley for another day.
We’re about to give it up entirely when we come upon a sudden, quite invisible trail that winds its way down the face of a mountain, and rather than just leave it for another day, I head down it, going deeper and deeper on the potholed surface.
Once again, we come in a completely different area. Eucalypti woods, interrupted by wide-open grassy spots, as the road continues to wind down. We come upon a crossing; one leads east, the other west, and rather than head west, which we think leads towards the area we were yesterday we pass through a rather large gate (open) that appears to have been build several decades ago…probably still in the Franco era.
As it turns out it is some sort of hunting area from the past, which at one point was forbidden fort normal citizens, and rather than head back now that the darkness of night is slowly arriving, we doggedly continue on in search for reed.
We pass some massive kind of structure that looks like a kind of horse breeding area…lots of stables, never finished, and then we see it far below, our present “holy grail”: reed, lots of it, down there in the valley that stretches and winds on endlessly in this uninhabited area where we can get the stuff to our hearts content, without ever disturbing a living soul.
At long last we reach the bottom of the mountain, hobbling over the badly kept road in the final bits of sunlight and come upon…yes, you’ve guessed it, another dead end. Hah. No matter, though, we’re standing right in the middle of a jungle of six yards high reed stems that are almost as thick as my wrist. Rather than waste the trip, I park the car, and we get out to cut down at least a portion of reed in what little light is still available.
It always amazes me when coming upon such a remote area. The feeling of solitude is almost overwhelming, and just a tad adventurous. It almost feels as if for just a short while we are the only people in the world, and for just a little while that certainly has its charm, hah.
It is also a bit disconcerting, of course. As it turns out, there is no phone reception here, so a little caution is warranted: wouldn’t want to have a tiny little accident ‘round these parts, since getting out again is no easy feet. Also, having little brother along (he has seen even more horror movies than I, hah) is not the best of ideas if ya want to be pleasantly oblivious of any horrific story, taking place in remote places. All the “poor-tourists-lost-and-stranded-in-remote-places-with-a-homicidal-maniac” scenario gets discussed, causing hilarious laughter as we hack away at reed stems and pile them into the back of the car.
Before we know it, darkness has descended and we wrap it up with a modest batch in the back of the car. Minutes later we hobbling our way back up the mountain, carefully heading in the general direction of home.
It takes a while, but in the end, we come upon the unfinished stretch of street from which we’d diverted.
We just round a curve when something large and beige of color flashes past in the headlights. A huge bird of prey, perhaps? A vulture? It was just a flash, so we can’t be sure until we get home and get online. Whatever it was, it was massive, maybe six feet wide and absolutely impressive.
This is what we found on the Net, and we think this is it considering the color, size, etc. The Small Toed Snake Eagle.
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As promised, we head for the gas station (to fill up) and get some ice cream for everyone. Of course, by then it is already eleven in the evening so the night clerk has closed off the shop, leaving us only able to pay through the bulletproof window and with no chance to get the ice creams.
Instead of heading home empty handed, we head for the village where small little stands should still be open to service the night-owl population. As is usual in hot areas the streets are still teeming with people, adults and kids alike when we reach the stand and buy the ice cream.
Once at home, midnight arrives during dinner, and then it is up to my cabin for another edit; it is pretty disastrous, only two pages, interrupted by long pauses, simply because focus is a long way coming.
Not that it matters, of course. I need to be up darn early to drive our tenant to the hospital for her monthly checkup. Tomorrow (or in this case today) will come, and we’ll see how it works out.
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