We would like to wish all our Clients and Friends

A Very Merry Christmas and a Fantastic 2012!

Friday fun

More insurance claims to make you smile! Have a great weekend.

• The pedestrian had no idea which way to run as I ran over him.
• The pedestrian had no idea which way to run as I ran over him.
• I saw a slow moving, sad faced old gentleman as he bounced off the roof of my car.
• I had been learning to drive with power steering. I turned the wheel to what I thought was enough and found myself in a different direction going the opposite way.
• The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.
• I had been driving for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.

Accident? Careless? How on earth?

Friday fun

More insurance claims to make you smile! Have a great weekend.

• I was going at about 70 or 80 mph when my girlfriend on the pillion reached over and grabbed my testicles so I lost control.
• When I saw I could not avoid a collision I stepped on the gas and crashed into the other car.
• The accident happened when the right front door of a car came round the corner without giving a signal.
• I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of the road when I struck him.
• The gentleman behind me struck me on the backside. He then went to rest in a bush with just his rear end showing.

Can you see anything in common with these accidents?

Sue and I went on a fantastic camping trip a few months ago to the lakes and El Chorro.

It’s not that far by car and was pretty easy to find. With stunning scenery and plenty of activities for the whole family, it’s well worth a visit – even for a day out!

If you’d like to read the full run down of how our weekend went, including pictures, websites, amazing YouTube videos and how to get there yourselves, then just click here.

For a map of the area click here.

A great weekend of entertainment

The Mijas Ayuntamiento present this weekend the International Festival Of Mijas. The event takes place over three days, and promises to be an extravaganza of music, entertainment and food.  The event includes

• Blues nights
• Stands
• Workshops
• Handicrafts
• Ethnic performances
• Typical food and drinks
• Street parade
• Mini train

When?

• Friday 20:00 – 24:00h
• Saturday 13:00 – 24:00h
• Sunday 13:00 – 20:00h

Where?

The event takes place at Mijas Pueblo and the organisers promise ample parking at the Mijas quarry.

I have had the pleasure of attending events organised by the Mijas Ayuntamiento and am certainly looking forward to the weekend.  Why not give the International Festival Of Mijas a try, I’m sure you will not be disappointed!

To see the detailed program of events click the links below.

FOLLETO festival internacional mijas 2010 – PAG 1 up[1]

FOLLETO festival internacional mijas 2010 – PAG 2[1]

I’ll let my wife Sue tell the story.

It was a warm Friday night a several months ago when John and I were sitting on our terrace. It was about 11 o’clock and the sky was clear and full of stars. It was beautiful!

Then something unusual happened (well for us anyway). No not a shooting star. It was spontaneity. I said ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to see the stars without all of this light pollution?’ Next thing I know we’re looking at camp sites on the Internet and talking about going away for the weekend, in the tent!

We knew there was a place called ‘El Chorro’ somewhere up near some lakes. We didn’t know much about the area, but we had passed the sign post for it when heading to the inland farmers markets when we first moved to Spain. We found the website www.alberguecampingelchorro.com and it looked ideal, so the decision was made to go.

Drive to the lakes

Armed with our trusty Michelin Map it took us about 1¾ hours from where we live on the coast to get there. We followed the A357 Malaga to Campillos road that, once beyond the dual carriageway near Cartama, passes through some lovely countryside.

You pass various turnoffs for a town called Pizarra on your right hand side, which is still very much a farming community, with a large area given to growing oranges and lemons.

Alora

In the distance behind Pizarra you can see the town of Alora nestling between three rocky spurs, one of which has the ruins of Alora Castle on top. This pretty white washed village, with steep cobbled streets lined with lemon trees, is definitely well worth a visit. It’s said to be the birthplace of the Malagueno flamenco and the town still hand-make traditional castanets, if you fancy purchasing the real thing rather than the plastic souvenir shop alternatives.

Mountain roads

Once you’ve passed the last of the roads to Pizarra you start winding your way up between the ‘Sierra de Aguas’ and ‘Sierra de Alcaparain’ mountains. Along this part of the road you see the river -‘Arroyo de LasCanas’ continually wind from one side of you to the other as you head further up into the mountains.

Worth making a stop at the petrol station along this stretch of road, if you’re getting low on fuel, it’s the last one you’ll see for a while! By the way the A357 is very well maintained with extra crawler lanes added for easy and safe passing of slower moving traffic.

Ardales

As the road finally starts to descend you’ll notice two things in particular. The first is the number of huge wind turbines perched on the top of these mountains and the second is the town of Ardaleson your left hand side. Again, it is a very quaint Spanish town with its own castle dating back hundreds of years and some lovely buildings and monuments. If history and architecture is your thing or you fancy grabbing a few food essentials on your way to the campsite, or you just fancy a coffee, then it’s worth making a stop. For those of you who like the more basic things in life, you may also like to know that the town make their own ‘crisps’ which are sold throughout the province.

The Guadalhorce lakes

Start looking out for the brown tourist signpost for ‘El Chorro’ when the road gets to the bottom of the hill. You’ll see that the maps class it as a ‘minor’ road (we expected it to be like the old B roads in the UK, very narrow and badly maintained – we couldn’t havebeen more wrong). As you drive along you pass the edge of the smallest of 3 lakes which have been formed by a man-made dam across the Rio Guadalhorce. It’s difficult to comprehend the size and sheer beauty of this area from this initial glimpse, but I can assure you, you won’t be disappointed! However, keep following the signposts for ‘El Chorro’ to get to the campsite.

Eagles above

The countryside that you’re about to travel through to get to the campsite is quite simply – STUNNING!! Keep an eye out for the eagles and the strange rock formations!

You finally come to the Rio Guadalhorce and a hydroelectric plant – the Spanish government really do know how to make the most out of harnessing power from natural sources. Not the nicest looking thing but just past it is a bridge, cross that and head up the hill. There’s a bit of a strange junction at the brow of the hill where you need to turn left, we missed it, so if you end up at the train station – you’ve gone too far. The campsite is just along from the junction about 500 mtrs on the right hand side.

Albergue Campsite

The campsite itself is in a potentially idyllic location, with the river in front of you and a magnificent backdrop of sheer cliff face behind. However, in reality you’ve got the constant buzzing from the hydroelectric plant and a campsite that could do with an injection of cash to finish it off, and a large group of cleaners! Such a shame, it has so much potential for someone with a good eye for business.

You’re not given a designated pitch so you can literally go anywhere, which may be a problem in summer if you don’t like neighbours too close. Anyway, we pitched our tent, broke out a couple of bottles of beer and sat and watched the eagles fly in and out of their nesting places in the rock face.

There’s a bar/cafe on-site serving food and drinks at reasonable prices, or if you’ve got what it takes you can fend for yourselves on the campsites many BBQ’s.

We chilled out for the rest of the day and, as the sun went down behind the mountains and the stars came out, I was mesmerised. If you’ve only ever lived in a town or city you may not appreciate just how many stars there are out there, and how many you can see with the naked eye. There’s millions!

Garganta Del Chorro

We wanted to do some exploring the next day so we walked from the campsite to ‘Garganta Del Chorro’ using a well signed, official route. I would recommend a good pair of boots or trainers as the surface was covered in rocks and loose shale. One girl passed us wearing flip-flops – not a good idea.

As we followed the route and neared the top of the climb we had some stunning 360 degree views. We could see the Rio Guadalhorce head down the valley towards Malagaand the sea, there was the mountain near ‘Bobastro’ that has a bar/restaurant perched on top, and the cliff face that went behind the campsite had continued at our side.

Binoculars and cameras are a must

The few eagles that we’d seen the day before were nothing compared to what we saw at this point. There must have been twelve to fifteen large eagles, and by large I mean with wing spans of at least 4/5 foot. They were so close! I’d taken a cheap pair of binoculars with us and I could easily see their eyes, not to mention their talons. Wow!!

Camino del Rey

As for the gorge itself, it too was amazing. There’s a famous railway line that goes straight through the mountain, it was the scene where Frank Sinatra was killed in the 1960 film ‘Von Ryan’s Express’.

There’s also a path called ‘Camino delRey’ or ‘Kings Pathway’ which was built in 1901 and opened by King Alfonso XIII of Spain that quite literally clings to the cliff sideabout 100 metres above the river. The path has officially been closed for a number of years now as the concrete has started breaking away in big chunks.

Rock climbing

However, try telling that to the many rock climbers who still manage to walk along it to get to Makinodroma – renowned as one of the best rock climbing areas in Europe. Havea look at this YouTube video to give you an idea of just how scary this is!

After going back down to the campsite we headed out in the car to find the lakes themselves, which was easy thanks to their sheer size and popularity. We drove around a good portion of the lakes, passing picnic areas, bars, cafes and restaurants busy with people wanting to relax. The area is so big you’d easily find a quiet cove to sunbathe, picnic or swim in the crystal clear water which is a beautiful shade of turquoise.

The authorities are quite rightly very proud of this area and have installed plenty of information boards around the lakes, telling tourists in different languages what they can see. We stopped off in a little bar overlooking the lake and had some food and a couple of beers before heading back towards El Chorro.

Parque Ardales

On the way back we passed signs for another campsite, and went to investigate.

Have a look at their website on www.parqueardales.com This site was a lot bigger with spaces for 100+ tent pitches, plus caravans, plus apartments to rent if you want a bit more comfort. If privacy is important to you then I wouldn’t suggest going in the busy summer months, however everyone is given a specific amount of space per pitch so you’re not going to wake up with someone too close.

The place was spotless, well looked after and had a shop selling all the stuff you’d need as well as a bar/cafe. We’ll certainly be giving this campsite a try next time we go up to the lakes for a few days. However if you fancy seeing the area but don’t fancy slumming it in a tent, then there are the chalets on the campsites plus lots of hotels and B&B’s to choose from.

Beautiful countryside on your doorstep

It’s great to think that you can have such diverse areas within an easy drive of the coast. So, for a quiet chill-out, why not head up to the lakes yourself and do some exploring of your own!

A couple of excellentguide books for this area are The Rough Guide To Andalucia and El Chorro (Rockfax Climbing Guide).

Friday fun

Here is another selection of funny insurance claims.

Have a great weekend!

• An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car and vanished.
• The accident occurred when I was attempting to bring my car out of a skid by steering it into the other vehicle.
• In an attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.
• No one was to blame for the accident but it would never have happened if the other driver had been alert.
• I was unable to stop in time and my car crashed into the other vehicle. The driver and passengers then left immediately for a vacation with injuries.

Candidates for personal accident insurance?

Meet new friends in Marbella

New venue for June’s TweetUp. We are moving to East Marbella to hopefully give new people the opportunity to come along if they havent made it already.

Join us for our monthly informal TweetMarbella in Terra Sana ELVIRIA.

Whether you tweet a little or a lot, tweet for business or pleasure, TweetMarbella is an excellent opportunity to put a face to that tweet or make new contacts.

Starting at 6.30pm, this is a casual, friendly tweetup open to everyone.

More information? Click here.

Friday Fun.

Here are this weeks selection of funny insurance claims.

Have a fantastic weekend!

• I thought my window was down, but I found it was up when I put my head through it.
• As I approached an intersection a sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident.
• To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front I struck a pedestrian.
• The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intention.
• I knew the dog was possessive about the car but I would not have asked her to drive it if I had thought there was any risk.

Parking does not come naturally to everyone!

Friday Fun.

Here are this weeks selection of funny insurance claims.

Have a great weekend!

• The accident occurred when I was attempting to bring my car out of a skid by steering it into the other vehicle.
• The pedestrian ran for the pavement, but I got him.
• I was backing my car out of the driveway in the usual manner, when it was struck by the other car in the same place it had been struck several times before.
• I thought my window was down, but I found it was up when I put my head through it.
• I told the police that I was not injured, but on removing my hat found that I had a fractured skull.

When it rains it pours!