The Ending

It took a few years, but this blog was indeed finished. Catch up on the rest of the story under Wild > Spain at https://cosmofalcon.wordpress.com/

Woof!

Eagle-eyed

The weather has calmed and it's quiet now. I realise this is another isolated place. Three Swiss women come during the week and run a small aromatherapy business in one of the buildings here. Who knows what kind of arrangement they have with the dirty old despot. We don't see much of them. 

A couple who live on a neighbouring piece of land also come over now and again to do some cleaning. Cleaning what, I don't know. Maybe they follow Buzzel around his house, mopping up the hypocrisy as it accumulates in his wake. The guest house and other yurts are all empty. There is no one else around.

With fewer people about my attention moves onto nature and my surroundings. The light brown rolling mountains dotted with grey and green, and of course the white of the ubiquitous wind turbines. The trees and reeds by the lake, all facing away from the wind, permanently angled, lop-sided. The gentle ripples of the wind on the water. Tentative birdsong and grasshopper sounds, the occasional bell or chime on the wind. 

There are turtles in the lake and I've seen a few raptors soaring high above, seemingly motionless as they glide through the air. One eagle even floated down to perhaps fifteen metres, casting its eye around the lake here. I stood silently in awe of its majesty as it made a few slow circles then effortlessly glided away towards the mountainside. It took a while for the little swallows to return to their water-skimming.

Animal bullies

Sleep at night is often disturbed by the dogs bolting past, barking at the top of their lungs, bouncing off the tent in their frenzied rush to chase whatever animal it is they've scented nearby. Sometimes I wonder if they do it just to mess with us.

Asleep in the tent one night, I slowly returned to consciousness. There was something fluffy moving across my face. As the surreal haze gradually cleared from my mind I realised it was one of the cats. The tent door was open a crack. She must have squirmed through and promptly snuggled up with me. Apparently I murmured "Thor" as I woke up with her on top of me. Thus, she is named. 

Thor comforted, sleep resumed. But later that night a horde of cats climbed onto the roof of the tent, depressing our ceiling chaotically low. At the same moment one of the dogs managed to shove her head through the door and rested it on the floor, motionless but for her eyes watching the squirming madness within.
 

Thor doing what she does best.

Wwoofing Begins

Bewildered, Mark and I shovelled down a quick bite of lunch while attempting to remember the names of the handful of other wwoofers in the kitchen. It was an international mix, with young people from Sweden, Germany, USA and South Africa. 

We were then led out of the main house, up the winding path to our accommodation. This was, in theory, a wooden room extended on the back of the hosts' cottage. But it was clear on entering that the four beds were already claimed. Great stuff. We threw our packs down and set off to find our evasive hosts.

Assured that we would be sorted out, I was asked to get to work. I had hoped for a little time to settle in and rest up first, but if work was needed then I was happy to pitch in. Alas, my helpfulness was unappreciated by Mr. Host who I quickly found shouting in my face. I'd done what I was told, transferring several loads of almonds into a storage container, but this wasn't good enough. Supposedly we weren't meant to stop working whenever we'd finished a job...

The rest of the day passed largely without incident and was spent helping prepare dinner for a dozen guests. As well as the washing up, of course! I should mention that most smaller organic farms in Spain seem to also operate as guest houses. So there is plenty of hostel/catering style work.

We eventually finished for the night. It had been a stressful and exhausting day. We trudged back up the path, threw together a tent that had appeared for us, and fell asleep to the sound of chirping grasshoppers and snuffling dogs.