March 10, '24: Sendero de Carboneras
On Saturday evening, I arrived at around 6pm at Manuel Ramon Ternero Villalobos and Carmen Ruiz Ponce at Marchena. Like last year, a very warm welcome awaited me. Jennifer, an American Warm Showers cyclist, also stayed with Manuel. She had stayed an extra night because of the heavy rain on Saturday.
Manuel had unfortunately had to cancel the hike planned for Sunday due to heavy rain over the past 24 hours. We would have to cross a river three times and this would not be possible with the expected high water levels. A river near Marchena that is normally dry was indeed completely full on Sunday morning.
Instead of the planned walk, we went to explore a new route in a karst landscape (limestone) near Villa de Cañete la Real: the Sendero de las Carboneras, a walk of about 11 km, the first part along a high limestone rock face, the second part through a Mediterranean pine forest.
There was a stormy wind, but except for a few drops, fortunately it stayed dry.
In the middle of the pine forest, we suddenly bumped into a curious 'exchange library' with several books in a box and a text explaining the initiative. As it was a rather small crate, the text asked people to bring a book to free up space for new books. Carmen brought a children's book for her grandchild.
It became no ordinary walk. Along the way, we picked wild forest asparagus and edible fungi (lepista nuda - purple shamrock), which immediately appeared on our plates in the evening. And along the way, Manuel, who has taught for 40 years, habitually gave detailed explanations of the plants and trees we encountered.
To conclude my visit, I treated to a dinner of tapas on Monday afternoon. Manuel's mother (94) was also there.
16 September: Opening the door at Diamondway Buddhist Centre in Tallinn The centre's meditation sessions are open
