A wash-out

The news from the Alpujarra today is that an ancient bridge over a gully on the A4127 has been washed away by torrential rain. (That's the road that runs up the hill from Cadiar to the junction by the mirador, where you turn right for Mecina and left for Berchules.) This has isolated our village (and its neighbours) from the main local population centre and means that kids from Juviles going to school in Cadi are faced with an 85 km trip (well, according to the paper. I think you can get there on a rough wee road via Nieles or Castaras, which would be more like 10k.) Engineers are visiting the site today but current opinion is that the old bridge is beyond repair, and a brand new one will be required. Locals say there hasn't been any signifcant water in that gully since 1973.

So that's why they call it the Sierra Nevada...

I'm sitting here in Glasgow watching snow fall outside the office window (see right) and idly wondering how it is in our part of Spain. Well, a whole lot worse is the answer. I've just checked the weather forecast for Juviles, and it's thick snow every day for the next week. Already the Cadiar - Mecina Bomberon road is closed, while chains are required on the 4132 going the other way, and the 4130 to Torvizcon is badly affected. So Juviles is effectively cut off, or will be soon. Altogether there are fourteen major roads closed in Granada province, and they've had to close the ski resort in the Sierra Nevada because there's too much snow. Article in Spanish here. We have no guests in the house at the moment, which is perhaps a shame as getting snowed-in (providing there's enough firewood, food and wine in the house to keep you going) would be rather exciting.

New flights from Ryanair

Economic and environmental concerns be damned! Ryanair has just started taking bookings on four new routes between the UK and Malaga, which is good for us, particularly as the new motorway is bringing the journey time to the Alpujarra down towards the 2 hour mark. And of course Malaga is a pleasure in its own right, despite the horrors of the Costa del Golf that starts just the wrong side of Ikea. The new flights go out of Prestwick (or Glasgow Prestwick to the optimistic), Edinburgh (one of Britain's more civilised airports), Stansted and Birmingham. Now if we could just get someone to fly to Almeria or Granada from Glasgow, we'd be away to the races.