mud slides

Due to the strange weather in May 2004, we had some fearsome storms which resulted in stupendous downpours. Sat safely on our ridge of land at the head of our valley, we did not suffered any leaks or floods but the water had been pouring off the hillsides in torrents. One Thursday, we went to collect the cats from the vet and as we left, the sky melted above us.

Being very British about a little bit of rain (!), we pressed on through the streams and rivers that tried to block our path. The other side of the valley, we started our descent towards a village called El Jaramillo when we came across mud and rocks strewn over the road. My rally driving aspirations overcame the first few obstacles, dodging around many boulders the size of footballs until we rounded a bend and were stunned by a new feature of the landscape. The road had completely disappeared under a 12 inch deep, mud and rock landslide which made it totally impassable. We had to do a 3 point turn on a narrow road which was covered in slimy mud in order to find another route. Not to be recommended…

Within 2 days, all of the mud had been cleared and the road looked like it had never even seen any rain for months.

These problems are caused by farmers who harrow all of the weeds off their land and loosen the soil. They all seem to be in some crazy competition with each other to have the “cleanest” olive grove. As it never rains in Andalucia (!), this is not a problem until, of course, it does rain, when the soil turns into mud and washes down onto roads and blocks water courses. The regional government encourage farmers to just weed under the trees (we are avid supporters as it is a lot less work…) but most farmers will continue scouring the land until it is made illegal to do so.