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In Spain you are never far from the past.  As you drive around, even in the towns and cities, you must be prepared for what presents itself and have a camera handy.  This morning we were on our way to San Pedro for a walk along the beach by a different route on the lookout for a restaurant recommended to us the previous evening – and there they were.

This Gitano (Gypsy) couple had parked their little van off the road adjacent to a large clump of wild bamboo and were very industriously producing beautiful baskets. Firstly cutting the bamboo into lethally sharp strips of split cane, then smoothing the sharp edges with a knife before weaving.  We saw them about 11am and there were already four large baskets on the roof of the van for sales, with two more in the making.  They were quite happy for me to take photographs.  Twenty Euros poorer, I now have a super basket and I have no idea what to do with it. Offers please on a postcard to . . . . . .

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When we arrived in Spain a week or so back it was our first visit since the horrendous fires here in the Summer.  It came as a big shock to see the devastation to the pine forests and cork oak groves that are such a beautiful feature of the Andalucian countryside.

The fire covered an area of some five hundred and eighty square miles, four thousand people were moved from their homes for safety as eight hundred firemen and military personnel and thirty-two planes fought the flames. Three people died.  The police believe the fires were started deliberately on three or four fronts at the same time.

I made two visits into the blackened  hills.  The first to a luxury development named La Mairena, a once beautiful old cork oak forest where the trees were  harvested for their cork.  The second, to Coin, a small white town (Pueblo Blanco) in the hills behind Marbella and the area between there and the sea, some twenty miles away.

It is hard to imagine how the residents of La Mairena feel now, two months after the fires.  Initially relieved that they and their property survived but now facing the realisation that it might take years before the view from their properties improves significantly and possibly longer before its value returns.  In this location property prices range from around four hundred thousand pounds to several million.  There must be many shattered dreams!

Courtesy Daily Telegraph