...and we're back on air. We are in casares in the hills up from estepona near Malaga in Spain. Staying with a really nice retired Brit couple John and Penny at their place on 6.5 hilly acres near casares. Casares dates back to the Phoenicians then the Romans, the Germanic Visigoths, then Arabs and the berbers sweeping through. An old old town built into the cliffs. Day before yesterday left morocco after a long overnight train from marakech to tangier arriving tangier early morning then a taxi ride to the port to buy tickets for the ferry to tarifa in spain. That all went ok including meeting the most honest taxi driver in the world who handed me back a 20 euro note worth 10 times the 20 dirham note i should have handed him. I was glad I'd already included extra for being a nice guy. Not so good experience boarding the ferry. As we approached the long walk to the ferry after passing through border security two official looking guys grabbed our cases and said we had to hurry and started running the 300 m to the ferry point. Even though we had 25 minutes to go we thought something had gone wrong so we raced along with them. Scam. Got to the ferry and the cop there says plenty of time. The two guys demand money and I told them to piss off. Ferry took ages to take off - waiting to fill up. Trip over very choppy and there were people throwing up all over the place. Guy in the toilets owned one of the sinks for most of the trip. Kept calling out for his friends Ralph and Bart. Off the ferry and trudged through town looking for the avis hire car. Closed from 1 till 4. These guys take siesta very seriously.
Drove up to casares using our new navman whose british accent can't really get around those long Spanish street names. Jm had at least five heart attacks en route. Do you know thry drive on the wrong side of the road here? (i knew that). Found John and penny's place and they are perfect hosts. Led very interesting lives. Yesterday went to Ronda - amazing place also pre Roman of course. They built their town on 75 Metre cliffs. Walked to the rail at esplanade and looked down- whoa! Sheer 75 m drop. Looked left and there's a child care centre right on the edge with a one Metre fence on a 75 Metre precipice. Has anyone seen little Johnny? Sorry - Jose?
Yesterday also toured caves occupied 30000 years ago by cro magnon cave dwellers. Saw their artwork and where they lived one kilometer deep into the cave. Just past where we turned back was a 70 Metre deep pothole in the dark they found a caveman skeleton at the bottom of it. "Yeah mate the dunny's along that dark passage mate but take only twenty steps and no more. Or was that fifteen?"
Today walked around casares itself, then drove down to the beach and then drove back up into the hills looking for an old roman town perched high on a hill. It was high alright, and totally not signposted unless the Spanish signs for "private land keep out" were meant to be the directions (sorry mate, no hable espanol!). Bloody long climb but we eventually found the roman town ruins formerly trodden by Julius ceasar himself as governor of this Spanish region. Well, I though it was great. Jeannie and jan Marie didn't look impressed having climbed for 45 minutes through prickly bushes and loose rocks. Did I mention the bulls?
On the long trek back down to car noticed some bulls. Near the car. Big sharp horns. looked very interested in us. Mick had a red shirt on of course. Sidling to the car with Jeannie whispering "Jim open the door! Open the door!" we climbed in and quietly exited.
Had dinner tonight at an Argentinian restaurant on the beach before the drive back into the hills. I hate Sober Bob. The Sangria that everyone else quaffed in great quantities SMELLED great. The complimentary caramel vodka liqueur shots after the meal smelled great. The waiters took pity and gave me the same shot glass. Filled with water. Hate that Sober Bob. Tomorrow we go to Granada and overnight there before running over to cordoba then Seville.