It’s been a funny couple of days…

I felt absolutely great after our walk up the big hill on 4th October but come the evening, after a celebratory zero beer, the affects of dehydration started & I was in agony for most of the night… It’s something I often suffer from when I spend a prolonged period in a sunny/hot environment, so you would think I would know better by now… 😔 It’s not that I don’t drink enough water (I drink loads!) but more that I forget that drinking water alone doesn’t replace the salts & sugars you lose through sweating sufficiently – especially when you do a bit more of exercise than usual! The result is that I end up with severe stomach cramps / kidney pain which is usually put right by getting some electrolytes into me and some pain killers!

The first time I suffered from this was in the early 90s when I first went to Goa (think it was for 4-6 weeks – remember that David Court?) when I thought I had eaten something dodgy from a beach shack & that I was actually dying! It’s something that’s probably happened at least once a holiday (if it’s somewhere continuously hot) until I/we remember about the dioralyte!

This time around, it was a bit scarier as the pain & nausea was quite similar to how I felt when I had an inflamed pancreas (caused by gallstone / alcohol apparently – hence why I don’t drink alcohol anymore! 840 days since I last had an alcoholic beverage… not that I’m counting! 🤣🤣). I thought I was dying then too… I know, I can be very dramatic when it comes to personal ill-health! 🤣🤣 Did make me start wondering what we would do if we did get really sick… but luckily, there’s an emergency department in Cortes so I think we would be ok! 🤞😄

I should have known better when I thought my ears & knee caps were sweating going up that big hill 😰! Ho-hum… I am glad to report that an easy day spent at home, out of the sun and a litre or two of electrolytes and I am more or less back to myself… phew!

One thing, if we had not spent the day in the shade resting, we would not have seen this (hope the video works – never included one before – thank you Gabs T for the idea from your blog (check it out: https://celticwalkabout.wordpress.com/ – much more interesting than my blog! 🤣):

Yesterday, 5th October, we took it easy as I was still feeling a bit tender(!), with just a little 4-mile walk down in the valley. It was very hot again – in the mid 80s so we’ve been super careful and not really spent that much time in the sunshine…

Today, it seems that the weather is finally cooling down a bit… apparently the remnants of Storm Kirk (previously known as Hurricane Kirk) are hitting Spain today and there are all sorts of weather alerts on the net! What this means for us is that it’s been a pretty hot morning (temperatures between 24-27 degrees), very windy and a bit cloudy this afternoon… it does look like it might rain but then again, it’s looked like this before and hasn’t so who knows? What’s nice is that the wind is definitely cooling everything down which makes moving about a bit more bearable…

We have, of course, been for a walk this morning / afternoon after popping into what was described on the net as an Aladdin’s cave of a supermarket, not far from us in Benadalid (up on the road to Ronda)… Honestly, if you saw this shop from the outside you would not think it very big but once through the door, we can confirm that it is exactly as described and a “Tardis” – definitely much bigger on the inside! Pete thought it was great because you could buy literally anything in there (including probably the largest selection of wine we have seen in any shops yet!). Personally, I was a little disappointed as I was looking forward to seeing what one online reviewer had described as “packets of crisps as big as a child”… but alas, if they were there, I didn’t spot them 😔! Unless it was a very small, like an average packet of crisps, sized child? 🤣

Our walk, about 4 miles was from Banoajan, along the Banoajan-Jimera de Líbar track… it was not too strenuous and very pleasant!

Well, we were sat outside around 5.30pm this evening and the weather was quite pleasant – just a little cloudy and a tad windy. Then all the power went off & stayed off… luckily, we still had hot water even if showering was a bit of a challenge in the gloom/half-light! 🤣

We have checked the trip switches and they are all fine… have to assume the stormy weather is causing some havoc elsewhere & this is affecting us… fingers crossed it comes back on sometime before we go to bed or we’ll be having crisps, coke & cake for dinner (I know… things could be worse right!? 🤣)… and the ice-cream in the freezing will melt & have to be eaten too (I know… complete nightmare! 😋🤣🤣)… Luckily we have some citronella candles bought the other day which should mean we can make our way to bed later if it doesn’t come back on… when it’s dark here it really is pitch-black!

… It’s now 7.30pm and it will be dark in about half hour… still no sign of the power coming back on… there are no lights showing in Cortes de La Frontera on the other side of the valley… although we can barely see it anyway as the cloud has come down and it’s just started pouring with rain! Seems like our run of luck with good weather might be coming to a sudden end!

Have to say, it’s a bit eerie being in the middle of nowhere when all you can hear is the dogs howling! 😂🤣😂 If we survive the night, I will be posting this blog tomorrow morning if and when the Internet comes on! 😱

Phew! It’s now 9.30pm & the power is back on – yay! 🥳 The Spanish chicken, chorizo & bean stew is heating up on the hob & all is well again ☺️ – the ice cream, crisps & cake are safe for another day 😁 – night night all xx