Day 12 - Campo Creativo

Now the shower is taking shape, details start to be added, such as a shelf, tidying up the surrounding area.... and Pixie's favourite part: the plants!

This Bali-inspired shower room is now a beautifully welcoming and useful addition which fits in nicely with the very fine adjacent stone “alberca” (water deposit) – and has been built entirely with materials found in Pixie's shed and land!

The only thing that has been purchased are the plants, who will now thrive happily – this is a shower to splash about in!

"I'm a little teapot..."

Also, the used shower water runs through a small cannal to the nearby plants, which are the water-thirsty variety – so everybody wins!

A very enjoyable working creative Saturday culminates with everyone taking a well-earned shower - sorry, no photos of the group shower available ;)

A very satisfied pair of creatives...

Pixie, Ras, neighbour Keith and wwoofers Vicky and Eddie all head off to Etnosur, a festival held a couple of hours away in the town of Alcala la Real.

The party troupe with the protection of the greenheart...

Not feeling up to the hussle-and-bussle of a big urban party, Danny and Ana stay behind to watch over land, cacti, veggies and dogs, and we enjoy a very magical nightime moonlit tour of Pixieland... what a place! It's hard to imagine that when she bought it, Pixie was told she could never make anything of this land. A few short years later, and thanks to her own strength and determination, this place is truly a slice of paradise. Here are some piccies....

Pixie's outdoor living room:

A very fine double-chambered composting toilet:

Lovingly cared-for ancient olive trees are dotted around...

Rainbow living!

How lucky we were to find the Pixie at the bottom of the garden!

Day 11 - Alpujarras Adventure

Following up on the contacts made at the Orgiva weekly Thursday market, we went yesterday afternoon to visit “Huerto Lechuza”, a lovely piece of land within an ancient olive tree orchard.

Ras and Ana sitting on the edge of the trunk of an olive tree that is over TWO THOUSAND years old - and still going although it was chopped!

Ras, a very easy-going, permaculture-inspired young man with an old soul, owns and manages this land, and has filled it with vegetables, flowers, trees... and especially cacti, his passion.

Check out his cacti site for more info!

Ana very much enjoyed carrying out some garden tasks to the sound of Ras's reggae music - Rastafari culture is his other passion, while his space reflects his inner and outer voyages...


Two yurts with wooden floorings hold his room and his office-cum-fruit-drying space. Four of Ras's friends from London were there, at the end of their two-week stay – quite a change from urbanite London life!

We stay over for a lovely group dinner, during which Ras's next-field neighbour, Pixie, invites us to park down in her drive, which we gratefully accept, especially as we can tell from our chat that we seem to have a lot in common with her – and after all she was the one who had picked us out at the market, pointing to the greenhearts we wore!

The view from the bottom of Pixie's garden: Orgiva mountains - wow!

Friday morning begins with trying to get showered, but Pixie is embarrassed to show us the outdoor shower (which all the - very spoilt - London boys have been using during their stay - eek!). Pixie, we discover quickly, has great attention to detail and loves things to be “nice and pretty”. So this shower, made hurriedly and unlovingly by someone who stayed on her land for a bit, breaks the balance of her beautifully sculpted piece of paradise. Also, it just don't work!! Staring at someone else's stagnating dirty shower water, Pixie wishes outloud she could just rip the whole thing out and start again... Danny's “Mr.Fix-It” side is awoken by this cry, and he offers to help her take it down and build another one! So begins a three-day adventure in Pixieland... an experience of creativity, recycling, use of natural materials, enjoyment of the task in hand, team work... a common vision that grows as it becomes a reality in caring, talented hands... Here we offer you some shots of before, during and after...

This has just got to go:

Back to basics, and start afresh:

On a plastic undercover, stones and pebbles from the land are placed to make up a natural shower floor:

Three doors Pixie's mum had saved for her are used as the back wall...
This gives the shower an Alice-in-Wonderland feel!
Maybe through those doors is another dimension...

Ana screwing:

Danny relaxing after a good day's work

Day 10 - Alpujarras

Waking in our fabulous spot, we breakfast and make the plan: aim for Orgiva, where there is a weekly market on Thursdays where we hope to find some interesting info / contacts...



The drive through the Alpujarras is truly breath-taking... The arid land has pockets of green where streams run through or people farm the land. Many many olive and almond trees here, perched impossibly on steep hills. The soil is every colour from cream through yellow, red and brown... and has parts, like veins, that "shimmer" in gold, ochre, silver, blue, pink and purple! Together with the colours of the bushy, resilient plants, a very striking landscape.

Alpujarras is the area that was given to the Moors for them to settle in when they were beaten out of the rest of Spain by the Reyes Católicos. It must have been harsh living! But a magical place...

In Orgiva, we have made contact with a couple of very, very interesting places to visit... on our way there now, we will keep you posted!

Day 9 - Heading South

The morning sky is moody, and as we breakfast we can see a storm out at sea. The wind suddenly changes and it comes inland towards us. Time to test the weatherproofing of the Renault Express! Pepe, the owner of Casita Verde, has done a truly fantastic job on what was a roof like a colander, and not a drop comes inside. Thanks Pepe, and all the wonderful friends who have helped us, allowing us to ride off for the summer!

We explore the north of Cabo de Gata natural park - this is indeed spaghetti western country! When the sun appears we take a dip in the cool waters, marvelling at the sand, which is a mix of gold and coal-black.


We continue South through Murcia and into Almería, deciding to make the most of the cloudy weather to travel, and not stopping off finally to see the Earthship in Murcia. But I must tell you: the particularity of this Earthship is that... they have just obtained planning permission for it! This is huge! It is such a revolutionary way of building, authorities just don't know how to handle it and generally prefer to say NO. Laura, who with hubby Dave are building this Earthship, explains a little on the phone about the process they have gone through, which is applicable to any sustainable, self-sufficient, wacky little construction project you may have in mind... and here are the main tips she gives:

1. get an official (or more!) from the council's building department on your side (slowly does it...)
2. divide the project into bite-size pieces they can handle, until all sides feel comfortable with a larger project
3. a good justification for the project: the reduction in CO2 emissions that Spain has officially committed to + benefits to the environment. Drum that in!
4. be patient. It will take time, probably years.
5. dont' hassle, but follow up and follow through

Laura and Dave's blog is well worth visiting, and they are available to discuss details further with those interested.

We avoid the Almería 'mar de plástico', or sea of plastics made up by the huge greenhouses where a huge chunk of the fruit & veg consumed in Europe is grown in the winter. Most of these greenhouse plastics will only last one season, and will then either be burned (releasing poisonous dioxins) or chucked somewhere.

No photos of this, but we ab-so-lu-te-ly recommend the following film: "We Feed the World". Find the original version (German) with English subtitles here.

It is 96 mins long, and in some moments feels a little slow, but is well worth watching all the way through. The last five minutes really are the punchline, all the more effective if you have seen the whole thing.

Top recommendation from us to you!

We drive into the Alpujarras - breath-taking views! Finding a perfect spot to camp out at, sheltered and with amazing views - a little of it on the photo above, in the forefront our comfy set-up, ready to make our evening meal and sit back and enjoy the moon bathing the wonderful views.

Day 8 - Hurrah, we still have a car!

The mechanic eventually hands over the car – they have spent many man-hours and done a pretty good job, repairing a couple of other things and doing a full oil change. Handing over 750 € is painful, but we are grateful to be able to continue on our way.

We say goodbye to our new-found friends in Sax and get back on the road!

Here we are, leaving Sax with our precious vehicle-cum-home...

We drive gently South, finding the coast at Mojácar, 'the Ibiza of the mainland'. It certainly had enough beach chiringuitos and souvenir shops, as well as big English tourists, to merit the name!

Wishing to stay away from over-run touristic areas, we drive on to find a watch-tower down the coast, which Ana had been to 12 years ago, and remembers as an isolated stone beauty on the beach. What a shock to find a huge luxury resort sprawling down from the nearby hill, still under construction, with the works going on right down almost to the doorstep of the ancient, silent tower!

Not wanting to wake up to 'obreros' and cranes, we continue and enter the Parque Natural de Cabo de Gata. We are also shocked to find absolutely massive hotels being built here, and finally find a little spot by the beach. Sheltered from the very windy night, we go to sleep in our little van to the sound of crashing waves nearby...

Day 7 - The painful verdict

First thing in the morning, the mechanic gives us bad news: the distribution box is gone, the car is a write-off. Forget it, it ain't worth the effort. Faced with the prospect of saying goodbye to our carefree, go-where-we-like, Anita-friendly mode of travelling, Ana persuaded him to try something, anything! ... and within a couple of hours the man had found a second-hand Renault Express motor in good condicion for 300 €. He warns us the work involved in changing the whole motor is big, and the bill will come to about 700 €. After assessing our options, we decide to fork out the cash and risk it.

Anita says 'go for it, guys! I'm having a ball!'

The rest of Monday is spent exploring the town of Sax and the neighbouring Villena. Around here, every village has its own fetching castle on the hill – this was one area that the Moors lived in a thousand years ago, and the remnants prove it.

Another thing we were surprised by was the friendliness of the locals - not in that Andalusian chatty style, but practically every person you cross says hello looking you in the eye. We realise not many places are like that any more - fear causes isolation... After a few days here, locals start to recognise us and we almost feel like part of the village!

Day 6 - Sun day

Fiestas in Spain are not always compatible with hot climates, especially the next morning!

After making the most of fiesta time in this picturesque town, 'Sax city' as our local acquaintances ironically call it, we take a trip out to a nearby small settlement called Santa Eulalia, a now semi-abandoned place built at the end of the 18th century by a marquis as a rural and agricultural settlement, with its workers' needs fully taken care of.

Here's a few pics of what we found in Alicantean Santa Eulalia:

The main square

The Flour Factory

The theatre

They actually held zarzuela shows here with famous Spanish artists of the time!

An amazing place, which is now a semi-derelict ghost town... the stories these buildings could tell!

So, as Sunday draws to a close, we await the opening of the mechanics tomorrow morning that will determine how the rest of our travels continue. With fingers crossed and the will of Saint Cristobal (the patron saint of travellers) our adventure and blog will hopefully continue again soon...