La Venta San Juan

2nd July

Ride to venta San Juan.

Well I know I ain't written in a while but the rides we've done have been relatively short and to the same places so I thought I would wait till I had built up a small bank of experiences. Fortunately Malcolm joined us toda and he fills up the bank all on his own, usually to overflowing.

We decided to try Breakfast at Los Timbales , a recently refurbished restaurant that Denny discovered last week when he decided to brave gale force winds by himself while i recovered from a hangover.( actually i did wake up, looked out the window and thought, feck this! And went back to bed- sorry Den). Anyways, back to the breakfast. It's definitely not recommended, at least not the tomato.

We stopped for a drink at Gaucin to make the most of the view and lovely morning. After being told to remove the bikes from the pavement by a not so simpatico waiter, Malcolm proceeded to help me tighten a loose screw on my bike, unfortunately at the cost of burnt fingers!

From there we proceeded to La Venta San Juan, a lovely little place situated in the valley on the road from Algatocin to Estepona and straddling the river Guadiaro at almost it's source. This place is well worth a visit, though try to get there before 2 or finding a table is virtually impossible. The two staples at this idealic location are the chicken or rabbit In a pot and the hazelnut Flan- both garanteed to add a few, well enjoyed inches to the waistline! Now today we had a new rider with us who had in fact purchased Denny''s old bike. Malcolm took it upon himself to discover if Santi, the new guy, was related to the owner of the restaurant who, according to malcolm, looked like his long-lost twin.In normal circumstances, this would have been funny enough but the fact that the owner thought Malcolm was serious and proceeded to give us a breakdown of his family history, interspersed with insightful comments from Malcolm, soon had us all in tears. Well except Santi who by now was a bright shade of red as he was forced to list any relatives from the area. Any of you who have happened to come across an old spaniard who thinks he's related to you will Know that they are like a pit bull worrying a leg!

From here we proceeded to cross la Sierra de Jubrique. This ride is particularly recommended for nature and bird lovers. Griffon vultures will ride the updrafts coming extremely close to the roads and offering some extreme close up of these majestic birds in flight and the panoramic views from the myriad of miradores are stunning, particularly when you cross the saddle and find yourself looking down onto estepona and the sea. Before you come to this point,however,there's a little spring, known to those who travel this area for the water's freshness. Today there was a young couple enjoying the solitude of the area, the romantic atmosphere of the almost virginal mountains, a young couple who almost went into shock at the site of Malcom diving head first into the fountain. Now let me digress a minute and explain that ever since my dad would take me exploring every Sunday into these mountains, it was customary for us to stop at these local springs to cool down. My dad unfortunately , would insist on drinking from every one of these springs to my mums dismay- dismay because she was well aware of the runs that would inevitably follow, and I'm not talking about jogging! My dad, nevertheless thought they were well worth the moments enjoyment. It was with this thought of cooling down that I suggesting stopping at the spring. The sight of malcom's legs sticking out of the basin I think is one that I will never forget. Nor, in my opinion, will the young couple!
Well after this, it was just a straight ride back to gib to finish off the day with our usual coffee at al fresco!

Well I hope you enjoyed this weeks adventure. In a couple of weeks we'll be unleashing Malcom in the the bike rally in faro. So won't write till then as that will probaly become a whole ten episode saga.

Oh forgot to mention that I have now attracted my own personal stalker thanks to this blog ( waves at cris). Apparently he hates my photos and detests my writing but still reads and analyses everything thoroughly enough To critic it worse than my old Exeter university literature professor, guess I must be doing something right!