Monday 20-11-2006

We have now been in Spain for four months, my how time flies when you’re having fun.
Today we did not start with a plan but as the sun was shining we decided to have a further investigative roam around Heurcal Overa. We called at Lidl but bought nothing and then we said that we would park up about 1km out of the town and walk down into the centre. This is what we normally do. As we were going to do a right at the roundabout that leads down to the high street we saw that the entire road was blocked to traffic and that the area was full of badly parked cars. It soon dawned on us that we had arrived on market day so we parked up equally as badly and walked the full length of the market. It occupies just one road from the roundabout right to the heart of the town centre. We estimate that it stretches about 2km in total and must be one of the longest markets in the whole of Almeria.
As you can imagine in this typical Spanish market you can buy just about anything at all to do with clothing and food.
We stopped at one stall that had tables piled high with brand new jumpers (probably seconds). It was like a jumble sale with all the women pulling out the items that were on the bottom and throwing them on the top (frightened the life out of me). Well this proved too much for Elayne and the next thing I know is she has also got pitched in the morass. We walked away with four thick and colourful winter jumpers, very good quality, for 10€ that’s about £1.65 each. You will already have guessed that it took a long tome to get to the town centre and then back to the car.
We had a pint and a snack on the way back and ended up talking to a couple who have fallen foul of the illegal building disease that is rife over in the town around Albox. They have been fighting for their right to live in their in their homes with a legal habitation licence for nearly four years now. They were originally given a licence by the town hall but then someone, again at the town hall, told them that it was a forgery. Obviously they are very bitter and they and a lot of the residents in the area that are of the same fate are forming an action group to lobby the town hall to sort out the mess once and for all. They have got the TV and newspapers interested in their plight and they are seeking to join forces with the Valencia action group who are successfully fighting the ‘land grab’ farce up there. They are planning a protest march in Albox shortly, I have said to them that I will join them for any peaceful demonstrations that they are organising. They are also hoping to charge a membership fee of €50 and that this will include social and legal support in the event of more illegal ‘goings on‘. We’ve never been in a resistance movement before.
On the way back to camp we saw our only second (live) snake as we were coming up off the Taberno rambla. It was thin, light orange and about half a meter long, making it’s way across the tarmac road, so, after we had taken it’s picture we persuaded it to turn round and head back to the safety of the bushes. Once it got the drift of our intentions, it departed from us very quickly. We later identified this as a Southern Smooth Snake, not sure if it is poisonous.
Today’s mystery object is??? It's nylon/plastic, 300mm long and 75mm in diametre. We found it out on the campo yesterday, we have no idea what it could be except that it is most probably a farming item. Go on have a guess in the comments section.