Our House at Finca La Campana, El Chorro
Monday December 27 2010
With the shutter fastened there is no way of determining when it is light. Cockerels next to us start sounding the alarm in the early hours, continuing into the late hours, so this is no help. The damp bed gradually dries and warms up as we sleep. Jim is on the outside edge: If he rolls off he will fall into the living room. Without rolling off he gets up impressively early to start making the bikes up out of the suitcases, and a cup of tea.
The house is a beautiful old barn, with personality, well removed from the main area of the Finca, where many climbers congregate around the communal area. Being extremely rustic, with tiled roof and wood everywhere, it has a great barn door that opens wide onto the land outside, where goats and chickens and sometimes a horse roam. L’Encantada, the enchanted crag, lies up behind us, accessible via a path that runs straight from the Finca.
Once the Airnimals are assembled, we can cycle in to El Chorro, then over the great dam, excitingly wired with its family of giant pylons, substations, conductors, insulators and pipes, to a restaurant on the other side. Part of the road has become a mountain track with various floods and winter conditions wreaking havoc on the surface. The restaurant is full of long haired people and serves an impressively inexpensive menu del dia enjoyed with a bia. We shop at the supermercado, – that is, a lady pops out of her house with a key to unlock the treasures within and we buy cheese, pasta and brandy, before wheeling away back up the hill to our Finca.
We take photos of the two yellow Airnimals with the vibrant yellow dam workings as a background. This is the first ride the Airnimals have been on and it is quite exciting. They arouse a fair amount of interest as we pass by. We are very pleased with them, they feel like real big bikes and will easily ascend the steep twisting road that takes us back home.
Later, we walk to LEncantada climbing area, which is full of people and Jim tries a 6a+ as a first climb.
View from the Finca
On the path up to L’Encantada
The Noisy Cockerels
Jim and the Airnimals on El Chorro Dam
Airnimals on the El Chorro Dam
not at home 