Final thoughts from Andalucia

We’ve been back for 24 hours and recovered enough for a summary of our trip.

Yesterday, the journey back to Almeria Airport reminded us of the bubble we’d been living in for the last few days. The minute we left the national park we were back in the land of tatty plastic greenhouses and they go on for miles. We’ve been told these greenhouses are the only constructions to be seen from space because they reflect so much light.

From plastic greenhouses to snow across the top of the Sierra Nevada, the first 10 minutes of the flight were interesting.

We had a fun and exhausting few days so we asked our friends for their most memorable moments but first our final group photo.

Ann was particularly proud of negotiating the steep descent into San Jose without falling and killing herself. That was the nastiest part of any of our routes and we were all relieved to reach the bottom. As to the most memorable? Standing in Eckhard’s garden at Rodalquilar and experiencing the stillness and quiet of such a beautiful place – it was very special.

The descent into San Jose will stay with Dave for a long time too but his moment was looking back at it, across the bay, from the terrace of the hotel and the sense of achievement. Dave used to play football and as a result has knees that don’t work as well as they once used to, we can’t begin to imagine how difficult it had been…..but we won’t tell him that.

Jacky and Ken enjoyed the walking in such an unusual environment, with amazing scenery and warming sunshine. Now it has to be said that Jacky is fit, competent and organised but still managed to fall over while looking at her phone. There was talk of confiscating it in much the way you would with a dippy teenager.

For John, a holiday is always about local experience and meeting people and to be fair, he doesn’t really like walking. Each day at Rodalquilar we visited Chrisol’s Bar. It’s run by an elderly, heavily bearded biker playing John Mayall blues music really loud and John loved it. He was also taken with the ice cold beer at the end of a long, hot walk.

And Kim? Well, she would have happily stayed at Rodalquilar looking after Eckhard’s garden but her highlight was somewhat different – the relief felt by her feet when she went for a paddle at Los Genoveses beach. Is now the time to admit that she slipped over three times and has grazed knees? At least she wasn’t looking at her phone….

Kim is taken with the Agave flower stems. Some of them have been over 3m high and everywhere we’ve been they are used decoratively. She finally recognised, with poor grace, that she couldn’t get one in the suitcase or on the plane as hand luggage. Research indicates that, if she’s lucky, she might get one to flower in about 50 years. It might be worth the wait for an alternative Christmas Tree.