Ramblngs on the ramble..

Nearly a month now down the aisle and it's mostly heaven and sometimes hell.
It also comes highly recommended as a positive impact physiotherapy program for an ex broken leg.
Heaven is being on horseback pretty much everyday, it's being as free as you could be, it's the countryside & the lovely people we encounter along the way. It's Mark cooking, us laughing, a cold beer after a day in the sun, it's just looking at the horses & knowing they're fine. It's heavenly finding a perfect night spot & finally getting into our cosy bed, we've come to love our tiny tent and food tastes glorious because we're so hungry!
We've had little or no problems camping each night, if it's near a town, almost everybody is welcoming & helpful.
Kids flock around the horses, we often reach a town at 2, just missing the shops - doh! but catching the kids coming out of school to rings of 'Caballo Caballo!' People want to take pictures of them beside the horses, sometimes we sit kids on top, but often we want to save the horses & don't offer.
Kids are great! They will hang around & be honoured to fill the horses water containers from the fuente, delight in just touching them & in awe of their size, feeling proud to have come so close. Strange how in some of these very rural areas there are hardly any horses and often the kids have never touched one.
Heaven is the simple way of life.. as in things like this, now sitting under the bridge in the shade by the river for the horses to graze and drink, chatting to passers by, improving my spanish no end!
Some of our night spots are so perfect, you feel like it's a miracle, there has to be water nearby for the horses and plentiful grass, but often there's a natural boundary or even fencing, where we are now, there's loads of grass next to the track going under the bridge on the edge of Bicorp town. There's a lavandería here, an old washing house, they still exsist in alot of small towns, so our clothes and the saddle pads are now drying on the fence.
The other day, just as it started to rain, we came to an abandoned mansion with a beautiful & very handy portch we could all get under to keep dry, it was an amazing place, gone to ruin, as many have in Spain, obviously wealthy & luxurious in it's day, but times changed, in this case, perhaps a slump of the silk textile industry in the area.
There at the mansion was a perfectly fenced area waist high with grass! As we led them to their night spot (forsaking our preference to put up our tent in the beautiful portchway) I saw a nasty hole in the ground ahead of Mark & Tio, said 'mind the hole! ' & Mark said 'there's a toad in it' and sure enough there was a toad in the hole.
Later we ate dinner beside the old ruined swimming pool. Stir fried noodles - yummy! 😂
Going back a couple of weeks, we've enjoyed various hospitalities.. That of Julia & Ian, such a lovely over night stop while Tio saw the dentist, (wonderful vet called Rocio). Apart from having her own horse too, Julia has a lovely husband &
Beautiful house with a playboy back terrace, swim up to the bar pool, fluffy headed chickens & very lucky cats. we had such a fun time, ate out (chinese!), showered & slept in a bed in a room!
Then realising we could actually plan ahead & get some more luxuries, we have since booked in to a couple of campsites, both of which have been totally horsey friendly..Villa Carmen in Bocairent, with Roger & Nina, a really nice dutch couple.. Beautiful place & we got a pitch with the best view of the old town and castle. Then an oasis in the midst of the pine hills & valleys from hell - for horses! The paths were at the max you could expect a horse to do, it was slow going, their boots on & off, some of it like a deep rock staircase!
Yes, we had realised it was a long and barren stretch, so had booked into Las casas de Benali, thank heavens! A lovely vegy dinner, great attentive staff & a friday night (the next day) party with a band who were jolly good!
Off at dawn which was difficult! But since then we've taken the forest pistas & C roads that are generally very quiet, but loads of cyclists & motorbikes, Rayo sees the roaring motorbike speeding by as a challenge, he hears them coming & really seems to want to race!
So we've pepped up their grain rations to give them the energy they need (not to race motorcycles of course!) but Rayo, even with the work he's doing, the grain soups him up like a turbo.. I'm going to have to give him little & often.. Yesterday he was manic. He couldn't settle to eat grass, he pooped everything one by one, spinning around a tree in the shade insensed by flies & watching for any scary/exciting things that could be coming towards him, I had to put the bit back in (after goung bitless for a couple of days) because I thought he might leap the armco of the bridge if a bike came by. This is a horse that isn't normally spooky. Yesterday was a really difficult day and this is where the hell bit comes in.. We had been drenched in the evening before, no sleep because Tio doesn't stay inside his pretend electric fence anymore and is now tethered, we had a piece of elastic tied to his tether rope, which if Mark felt stretch, whilst tied round his hand whilst sleeping, he would run out to the rescue.. Hmmm, that didn't work! In the end we filled a hay net with alfalfa from a nearby field & left him the rest of the night tied short with the alfalfa.
He was fine, we were exhausted ed. The day passed with exploding tempers, everything was so hard.
It rained throughout the day, but gloriously as it does here in Spain the sun came out in the evening, we found a lovely bar, then walked 500 metres late at 8pm & found heaven again!
Last night Tio was tethered and stayed on it happily with no problems, he was tied firmly on the long rope, but with string that would break AND he was inside a fence..
Another fab night was spent in Ontiyent with Manolo no problemo & family.. Manolo drove up beside us on the road outside the town & literally ordered us to come to his brothers house! You go to my brothers, he has horse he has stable he has picadero he has english friend with horse, your horses, no problem, you no problem! So we followed him there and met his whole family who were visiting because his brother Paco had just broken his hip! What a great family! Full of fun & character! Paco was super genourous & funny & really looked like Steve Buscemi..we met their English horsey friend Suzanne who has a stunning palomino arab & kindly gave us some alfalfa for the boys.
It was a good thing Manolo did order us there as the next day we headed on up to the pine forests & there was no grass or water (apart fom puddles - thanks to the rain!).
Today we left our lovely riverside camp and our new friends in Bicorp, as we came up the hill looking down on the village you could see the old houses nestled in the valley so perfectly, pastel coloured, not ugly & out of place but like they've always been there.
The road was empty, we had 25 kilometres feeling like kings on fresh & happy horses, Rayo calm & bitless again, maybe 5 cars passed us and out of those, 1 man stopped, waited for us, directed us on to a shortcut (saving 10 k) & told us of a great camping spot by the river here in Millares.
You know those happy feelings you get from time to time ? They happen alot here.

So this brings us up to date & I hope to continue with shorter, more in the moment updates..

Extra photo accompaniment on the facebook post..

Sending love to you all !  

Horses.. My observations

So if you're not that into horses, this one might be dull, but I'd like to comment on things from their point of view.
I try to think in a horsey way, limit (& open) myself to their understanding of what's going on - see things from their point of view.
For the first few days they want to go home, they know direction, they're used to doing a long circular ride & getting home at some point, but home is changing now, home represents food, water, security & that now happens at each stop, they like to have some expectation & know roughly whats going on.
Rayo is learning to eat whenever possible & I'm showing him how to snack on route!
As the end of the day comes & we're looking for a stop, Rayo might try a dash into a grassy terrace saying that'll do! He knows if I'm relaxed or dispondant about our night spot..
But there must be water.

The horses are beginning to enjoy the nomadic life, our herd moving on from grass to grass, water to water, they get grain in the mornings when we plan to move, not stay, this gives them energy & with this habit, expectation.
Like having a baby, life is almost simplified, as long as the horses are fine.. Nothing much else matters..

My relationship with Rayo is deepening & this is inevitable but particularly special as Rayo isn't a particularly human-loving horse. It's wonderful to notice some appreciation, respect, comradary & even love from him.
Of course one imagines the horses are also reading & learning about us.

You know, with a bit in their mouths, horses salivate, so whilst Rayo can be a difficult (very lively) ride in normal circumstances & requires a bit, on this journey, alot of the time he doesn't need it & I've noticed he needs to drink less.

On this trip so far
our boys have surpassed themselves - & most of us, in heart courage trust & generosity.
Oh! and there's lots of giving of carrots & apples which certainly help! 😋

❤❤❤

Guerra de las Avejas!

Yesterday we found a great area of grass near the riverbed in Elda, so today gives us a well earned rest.. It hasn't been so easy this time around finding good grazing with water, so poor Mark is having to fetch and carry while we're here.
I can't walk that far yet, let alone carry 20 litres of water.
Lo & behold here comes Mark already with some water & telling me there's a lake just over there! - and we're leaving tomorrow! Doh!
Tomorrow is exciting! For us more than for Tio who may have a tooth ache - we've been invited to the house of a very kind co horse owner in Spain, 6ks north of here for the night, but our alterior motive is for Tio to see the dentist! He has been gurning on & off for a few days, as if he has toothache.. Can't let him suffer & though he does seem to be eating normally, we can't let him be under par on such a trip as this.
We have naughtily been inside another house with a fenced in paddock recently, by invitation of course, lovely man called Trevor throwing a bbq! We certainly have some luck!
We have endured some harrowing experiences though! & no exaggeration! Passing between two rows of bee hives  (right on the GR7 route!!)  was terrifying, we were swarmed! stung on our faces & heads riding through at an increasing speed, panicking, swearing, Marks most sentimental & ingeniously repaired cowboy hat falling to the ground amidst the hives...
He had to go back of course, wearing a full (rain) cape with hood, it was a tense few minutes as me & the horses waited at a 'safe' distance for his return, Rayo was stung on the nose!
I pulled a sting out of my cheek which gave me a chubby cheeky look for a few days which Mark found endearing.
He thankfully returned unharmed & with his hat on.

There's plenty of time in this mode of travel to wonder about the glory of nature, most of our daily routes go over mountains (smallish ones) between towns. So the terrain changes, lush grassy plains, planted, not to be eaten! Then stoney climbs (very hard on the horses feet) amongst the pines, through high gorges, eagle country, bandit country, always wondering whats over the next hill or round the next corner.
Sometimes as we enter towns you can almost hear the eerie whistle of 'The good the bad & the ugly', the tumble weed blows across the dusty track blowing up a cloud & there's not a soul in sight.

Now at dusk, sitting next to Mark as he cooks just outside the woods, I'm looking up at the orange lit town and I can hear kids playing & one in particular, a girl, singing flamenco, sounds amazing, dogs are barking, all very Spanish. I hope no one walks by, as I think it's embarrassing sitting here cooking our dinner on the track! But as Mark says quite rightly, it's too dangerous to cook in the woods, even though it's been a wet spring, the undergrowth is tinder dry.
We had a lovely sighting of a family of wild boar! Animals aren't so disturbed by the sound of hooves approaching, so we could watch them for a bit, none of them were large & the babies were so cute with little stripey bodies.
One night a lone adult boar wandered quite calmly around our camp, it came quite close to us & almost seemed tame, the horses were interested & a little nervous, but actually Rayo lunged forward at the boar to see it off!
Down to the lake now with the horses for a drink, beats a walk to fill bottles at the garage!

Non stop to the border

So here we are in Los Ramanos just over the border from Murcia into Alicante ..next week we'll leave Alicante and enter Valencia province ...it took us about 11 months to get out of Andalucia ..but just a week to get through Murcia ..so we're on the good foot finally!!
  And now about a week later we're at a ruined mansion in ontinyment , Valencia ..
  It's been a long year since that car ride to Baza hospital to see my bionic woman. A year of treading water , a sense of waiting a year to have that year you where gonna have last year...And now it's this year again. .
   This year the boots on the other foot, I've managed to work and walk my way to 90per cent recovery on my ankle . Nikkis recovery is obviously less advanced but being stalwart and stoic she's making a fist of it and is now able to just about mount from the ground..
   However not to be outdone I decided to drop a speaker on my big toe , left of course ,3 days before we left , see attached photo ...will the nail fall off or not? Answers on a postcard to 2000mileaisle. ..
   My understanding of life is that bad luck comes in threes so that's an end to that. ..
   Good luck to all...m

The horse console..

Hours of roaming the glorious Spanish countryside what's a cowgirl to do?
Snacks, suncream, make up, power bank & data... Not to mention the hip fask.. 😀😀

Start of the 2000mileaisle part 2

Nikki striding past the site of last years disaster and hence striding onto the 2000mileaisle part 2 .. looking strong brave and lovely .....

Back to the future!

On the road! Right now with the horses on tow - tentative, but ok, always so admire horses for allowing us to put them on a big square tin, overcoming their fear & trusting us.
So this is the last stressy bit (haha!), getting them safely there & then it's just us & them..
A few days on and us & them, we, have become the herd. After several nights of watching the stress/comfort signals of the horses, we've established a good dynamic for tent/horse/fence positioning.. Tethering is our only certain method of keeping the horses overnight, but Tio isn't an experienced tetherer, so for now, at night he's in a pretend electric fence, by day he's in supervised tether training & doing very well.
Both horses are coping brilliantly with the change & with the work.
We're coping too, amazing how one becomes adjusted to outdoor life so quickly - I'm blotting out a few days of stormy weather & tempers - but yes, even with the rain, we have coped & really enjoyed ourselves.. Infact I have felt guitily glutenous - the scenery has been so wonderful! Gorges so high & so deep, colours vivid with flowers everywhere.. (Please look to facebook for more photos).
Today is our first 2 night stop, we haven't done many kilometres yet, as we plan to increase work gradually for the horses & their packs are heavy.
It's us that are exhausted! My back, my knee where the pin gives pressure both suffering, mainly from damp & mounting which is frequent & difficult.
However! I do say that the kind of exercise needed here for survival, bending over getting things in & out of bags, putting the tent up & lots of core muscle exersion, in the saddle & otherwise, are all in favour of fitness & in that I feel well on the way.
Supplies around here, here being Murcia - at last! Are not easy to come by, at each stop we lack something but thankfully water & grass have not eluded us. We have noted a distinct bit of luck in the last hours of the day, finding a good place after passing barren & dry areas for miles.
It's no accident though I suppose as we always have a mapped aim for the day which has a town within reach if nothing is found.
Right now this is lovely, we've got both horses free in a big one-tape-wrapped-round-trees paddock with an unlikely cliff exit to the back...Mark's cooking breakfast, It's sunny but not too hot, we're next to a lake made by Presa la Risca & will take the horses down to the shore later on.
I'm very much enjoying being gadget girl - might have been the only badge I got in the guides. Some of my bespoke equipment is worth talking about all you horsey people out there! 2 short pieces of a hang glider wing skeleton, joined by slotting into a section of Hep20 plumbing pipe, make perfect fence posts in no time, small & light & portable.
Though I guess most people would have trouble finding a bit of hang gliding wing bone 😂!!
Eggs & coffee just landed beside me.. Thanks to my betrothed.
The rest of this afternoon was spent meeting (out of perhaps 4 cars in 24 hrs, she happened to pass by!!) the lovely maryrosemolenaar.com horse analyst would you believe?! She bought knowledge, understanding, total encouragement & Gin & Tonic!!
What we don't manage to drink we leave under a tree.
Serendipity or what?!

Hopefully this one will post properly unlike the last one of which only a quarter of it was published.. Only 2 photos allowed on here, so do look out for more on our facebook page.
I'll leave you with a Spanish ditty 'Si Mayo te moja, te seca' Thankfully this seems to be true..
Love from us to you all..