The final day of last weeks creative course, ‘Caminos Altos’ saw us walk up to the snow line of the Sierra Gigante. Through the forested north facing slopes of the mountain amongst the Aleppo Pines we followed these rather strange foot prints (left). Like us they were using the camino as good access through the countryside but unlike us they seemed to have a pretty clear row of rather fearsome looking claws across the front of the pads. We suspected a wild cat but could not be sure until we met a local hunter hanging off a precipice in his 4×4 about to fall to his death. Once rescued by our Land Rover he indeed confirmed that it was the print of a wild cat.

Once the hunter (I won’t use his name) was restored to his bar in Vélez Blanco we all returned to Los Gázquez. To our delight we got an ‘up close and personal’ encounter with this eagle (above) which was on the ground, with his rabbit prey, very close to the road. Getting this close allowed us to confirm positively using the Collin’s Birds of Britain and Europe that it was indeed a rare Bonelli’s Eagle.

Our favourite course and the first of three scheduled before next autumn, 2011. Last years was a great success and we are looking to amplify the experience this year. Contact us here for further details…

There is a good chance that we are going to have an early Spring this year as the weather has been so mild and warm. Come and join us…..

We are actually doing a bit of a discount on this one. The idea being to encourage folk to come ‘out of season’ so to speak. It’s a great time of year for landscape painters, the sun is low, shadows are long and snow lies in the sunshine on the mountain tops.

We have availability for this course at the end of the month and the weather has been so mild and warm recently. It would make a great break!

the rest of us. The whole of the EU. Yes, Italy has banned the use of plastic bags. Read more here.

So day one, and here is another reason not to consume…