Periana, Spain - Day 2 ⛰️

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Day Dos (that's Day Two for the uninitiated) began with a bright beam of light calling me from above. Had I passed away in the night and been called up to heaven? Unlikely, for a number of reasons, but the powerful ray of sunshine was enough to ensure that I could no longer keep my eyes closed. As I began to stir from my slumber, I surmised that I was not in fact about to be handed my very own cloud, harp and opportunity to reunite with my childhood Goldfish (RIP Choccy & Goldie), but was in fact in receipt of a direct blast of Spain's finest morning sunlight. A small window wedged into the space between the wall and ceiling of our room that was perfectly concentrating a small but very strong beam into exactly one spot into the room which was coincidentally where my head lay. Time to get up, I guess.

I headed upstairs out into the back garden area of the property. The hillside location of the house makes the design very unique, with the rear of the house having a set of very steep stone steps leading up to the pool/garden area, meaning the window in the ceiling of our room is at ground level from the outside. The thick stone walls also make the whole house feel very 'off grid' as although there is WiFi, it only really seems to work outside. A good opportunity to disconnect from the outside world, for the most part at least, as I still needed to keep tabs on Norwich's never-ending process of appointing a new manager. Speaking of walls, this mill appears to have been built at a time before the straight line was invented. Our bedroom demonstrates this best - three sides of this are built at relatively normal angles but the fourth bulges drunkenly outwards at the top and the wall is a pronounced slope rather than a uniform straight line down, which gives the impression the room is stretching outwards. Wouldn't it be fun if modern houses were built this way?

The Hubbard clan had gathered for a light morning breakfast before we planned out a shopping expedition to ensure we had sufficient supplies to see us through the week. There was a chance for a quick bask in the sun (Factor 50 all round) and refreshing dip in the pool before we headed out. Sam and Ruth were sitting this trip out so Ellie and I joined Steed and Karolyn in their hire car for the 45 minute journey to the nearest supermarket. A trip to the shops is a far greater commitment than it would be at home, and that's not even taking into account that the first half of the journey was around, up and down and over the same perilous mountain tracks I'd navigated to get here yesterday. These roads are often precisely the width of one car with nasty looking drops to the side, which can make meeting another vehicle coming the other direction an experience to say the least. Mercifully we eventually reached what could happily qualify as 'real' roads and could enjoy the scenery around us without fearing for our lives, rolling hills of orange and olive trees with scattered white house nestled amongst far grander mountains. At one point we passed a huge lake that had been created by a nearby dam which looked like it could make an interesting walk as long, as we weren't baked by the sun in the process.

Eventually we reached civilisation and the more mundane surroundings of a retail park where Lidl was to be our destination. I always enjoy a first food shop in a new country - it's a good window into the culture and an opportunity to sample unique products that you wouldn't get in the equivalent stores back home. We gathered together what we needed for lunches, tonight's barbecue and beyond, although sadly my suggestion of the large bag of tentacles I found was rejected, along with a few comedy purchases to keep myself amused (the 'Kong' brand drink that appears to be Strawberry Cheesecake flavour definitely falls into that category). The journey back was relatively uneventful apart from a quick stop off in the nearby village of Periana to visit a cash point and to see if their local shop had a pool lilo for sale, of which there was no such luck.

We arrived back at the house just after 2pm and had a quick lunch drawn from our recently purchased supplies. With the sun at its highest it seemed the perfect opportunity for a longer session in the pool. Sam, Ruth, Ellie and I engaged in the kind of games that you'd probably expect from people 20 - 30 years younger - balls and frisbees were thrown, water pistols were fired, a 'lazy river' (formed by the four of us sprinting around the pool as quickly as we could to leave a circular current) was created. Good times. After this we retreated to the sun loungers where I picked back up on the book I'd been reading, 'Finders Keepers' by Stephen King, the second volume of the Bill Hodges trilogy. I've been pretty hooked since I read the first just before our departure and would have this book finished shortly before the end of the day.  I also occasionally added my input to the game that Steed and Sam were creating - we were all familiar with 'Owzthat', a cricket game played with dice that I'd brought with me on the trip, but collectively we were trying to turn this into a far longer and more complex game that would accurately reflect a full 5 day Test Match. We had great fun coming up with modifiers and ways to stretch the game out into a lengthy tactical battle, including weather, different types of bowling attack and batsman skill and aggression. The current plan is to finish a prototype and then to send it in to TMS to see if we can get Aggers to review it live on air - if we're successful and I'm rolling in dice cricket millions by this time next year then you heard it here first!

With the sun at a more reasonable level I decided I would try and tackle the walk set out on the maps that the owners of the property had helpfully drawn for us. Sadly no-one else could be persuaded that a slog through the Spanish hillsides seemed like a good idea so this was to be a solo mission, so with promises that I wouldn't die and a photo of a map that had a questionable sense of scale I headed out into the countryside. The first challenge came almost immediately - the map said I was to cross a plank over a river but said plank was nowhere to be found. I was definitely in the right spot as the map indicated I was to cross at a point between two nearby houses, so I surmised this had been swept away during the heavy rains the region had experienced a couple of months ago. Luckily the river was now ankle deep at best so I temporarily dispensed with shoes and socks and paddled across. From there the trail was relatively easy to follow and the first two thirds of the 60 minute walk were nicely shaded. It was a beautiful evening with hardly a soul around with some incredible landscapes rising steadily around me as I wandered the gentle slopes, the orange/red colour of the ground contrasting with the green plantlife on dramatic hills being strangely similar to Southern California, even though that was a whole continent and many thousands of miles away.

The final third of the walk was a bit more of a slog, and not just because I knew a barbecue would be waiting for me when I returned, as it was now in full sun and also contained some of the most extreme rises and falls of trip. At one point while crossing a bridge some dogs appeared from a nearby house that were less enthused by my presence than I would have hoped, and subjected me to a hearty woofing until I was safely on the other side and out of their territory.

I returned to the house where a delicious feast had been prepared in my absence. I stayed for the post-dinner quiz hosted by Ruth that followed before retreating downstairs to finish off my book - thankfully I've also packed the final edition of the trilogy otherwise I'll be at the mercy of the villa's bookshelf by the end of the week!