Latest from Leadchanges Andalucia - Lake Bermejales and Dog Holiday development

Dogs in the woodland at Lake Bermejales

Finally the house is finished - only a few more pictures to put up and we are there!  The boxes are unpacked, which must be about the first time in 13 years, although there are a few we are using for storage.  The shed is up, the dog fencing is (as I write this) almost finished, the agility area is getting organised and the pool is almost ready for swimmers!  It finally feels like we are getting somewhere and  we have been able to get out and about and discover a few more beautiful places - Lake Bermejales being one of them and only about 15 minutes from Alhama.

The local Feria of San Juan also starts this week (Thursday) and runs through to Sunday.  A great event for kids apparently and I see on the schedule there is a "foam" evening.  There isn't a bullring in Alhama so I wondered if there was such a thing as a portable one when I saw the adverts for the coming bullfighting events and lo and behold - there is!  It has been erected on a bit of scraped field along one of our dogs walks not far from town and is visible from the house.  It's quite a thing and a tad larger than the portable round pens I'm used to!

Portable bullring (Plaza del Torros) on one of our
regular dog walks 

Lake Bermejales is the most spectacular colour
in the sunlight!

The lake is very peaceful and so far whenever we have walked there, apart from one or two people in the parking areas, we have met no one on our walks!  There are large fish that can be seen close to the surface and with the water, it's a dog walking heaven.  The girls love it and dive, splash, play and swim whenever they get a bit hot.  They love to race in for pine cones and then jump on top of each other.  the walk we did at the weekend was around 7km and a nice gentle Camino practice.





We also finally discovered the gorge walk and a lovely little legend within it.  Just outside of Alhama there is a little chapel built to celebrate the story.  The photos of the chapel and story are included below.

Chapel of Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles

Here out dog visitor (Rose) with her human (Bryan) explore the gorge with us.  It's a lovely shady walk although a couple of very steep bits to bring you back into the town!

View of the church/convent from along
the gorge

Inside the chapel

I have also finally ordered two harnesses from Daphne Lewis of ChaloSulky (take a look at her website http://chalosulky.server271.com/).  There is also a tab on our website about "Driving Dogs" and I plan to teach the girls to pull and later invest in a Sulky.  I really hope to promote us with it and maybe attend a few events - my plan is that I will do another Camino once I have finished the walking one, with the dogs and sulky and raise sponsorship for a couple of the dog rescue groups I have helped out here.

The ChaloSulky Suspension Sulky!  Hopefully soon
to be seen in Spain!

Watch this space for training news and video clips and information on the sponsored pull when we eventually get to it.  Hopefully some of you might like to contribute when the time comes.  However, first things first and we need to finish our walking Camino first and get training!!

The girls enjoying a swim at the stream a little below
our house.  We call them Bourkes Luck Potholes after
a place near to where we lived in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
The potholes are interesting shapes carved out by the
water and these are a mini version

Rose - our first dog visitor, checking
out the facilities

Rose getting acquainted

Akina and Ndzilo at "the potholes"

The last pieces of fencing to go up and the pool looking
more welcoming each day!

The dog areas - fencing almost done
gates in, each with their own
mini play area in addition to
the main play/agility area and
country walks

We still have some strimming and weeding to do to get the area of the kennels finished, but our neighbour's cat has had kittens under an old chair that had been dumped in the back of the garden and so we can't go there until he is ready to move them up to his house.  We have a HelpX helper arriving this week - due Thursday for about a week - and hopefully we will be able to get on top of all these last things when he arrives!