It wasn't as easy as we had thought searching for a home. We left Canberra with a vision of something, probably a little utopian, and finding that place wasn't easy - impossible actually. It just didn't exist. We found this out after a lot of driving, searching and 'not quite rights' until we realised that it really didn't matter that much. It was up to us to make a home.Ideal criteria;
1. Not too cold, not too wet
2. A small town or rural setting near a small town which is not too far away from a big town
3. Near snow covered mountains
4. Near the coast
5. Perfect white houses with bouganvillea cascading from balconies and roof gardens
6. Spotless town with a nice array of shops and 'artesiana'
7. Castillian spanish so we have some chance of communicating
8. Village fountain must sprout wine
9. Muy tranquillo (peaceful)
yeaaaaah right! But you wouldn't believe that all this, yes EVEN number 8, is within 30 minutes of where we are now!
So we settled on Orgiva, completely by accident. We booked a week in a caravan park bungalow just out of town (because it had an internet connection) and drove about. At first we were not really fussed, it wasn't quite perfect....a slightly grubby town with weird traffic lights. One day we just looked at each other, shrugged and decided that 'hey its not so bad here'.
Anyway the place grows on you, there is a definate hippie element - a hint of Mullumbimby. Lots of people escaping real lives which I guess is a bit like us. It is nice and slow, no one seems in a hurry. We left bag in the supermarket and a week later they gave it back when Amber walked in. That's nice.
Our House...
Us...
It was by sheer accident that we ended up in the town from which Chris Stewart described his life in the Alpujarras in 'Driving Over Lemons', a book fortuitously lent to me by my good mate Kate 'Kluggo' Coolston while we were planning the trip. Life has changed here a bit since then but we still have the laden donkeys clip clopping through the town, patatas pobres and oodles of lemons.Our google maps/earth address is 36.897623,-3.412049 if you want to see exactly where we are.
2 comments:
That looks like a great place to set up house. I read that book as well, it all sounds pretty idyllic. Enjoying the blog too. Keep having fun.
hey guys, love casa del clearys! we can smell the lemons - we are coming over! (with our mulumbimby-esque tie-dyed happy pants...!)
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