Ring a ring of walkers

I went for a proper walk today for the first time in I don't know how long. In the absence of Jasper, who normally runs this group, it was organised by Antonio. Well, I say organised -- he was making it up as he went along. It was advertised as the circular walk round the olive groves in Orgiva, which I've been on before. He'd suggested we eat afterwards at the Viejo Molino in Orgiva and since there were 16 of us we assumed  he'd phoned them to reserve. But he hadn't, and it turned out they were closed for holidays (or possibly forever, judging by the state of the place). But all was not lost as he called in at an out of town restaurant en route and arranged lunch with them.

Halfway through the walk he went off piste for reasons best known to himself, and we wandered randomly round rough, broken ground laid waste by a recent campaign to eliminate invasive sugar cane. I went with J and she was annoyed as she'd phoned him to check there was no scrambling because of her dodgy knee. But she got plenty of help, which she appreciated when after a rest by the river we went back over the same rough ground before resuming the route of the circular walk we were supposed to be doing, which is all on wide tracks or metalled roads. 

Later Antonio lost track of J and me, thinking we were miles behind him, when in fact we were in front. We had eventually stopped to wait for him and several others, but he had gone back to look for us. This was sorted out with phone calls and WhatsApp position sharing.

We eventually arrived at the restaurant, hungry and thirsty. Stats: 12 km, 3 hours, probably about 160m climbing. Ten of us stayed for lunch on a lovely shaded terrace. It was a good enough choice, a very traditional cheap and cheerful place where we thirstily downed beers and most people ate large lumps of meat (egg and rather soggy chips for me). It was good to meet some new people, and lunch was very convivial with much practice speaking Spanish. Kudos for the patient waitress dealing with ten people and then working out the bill for each person or couple individually with only a scribbled bit of paper and her memory of the prices on the menu.

We eventually left at about 4:15 and I dropped J back home an hour later. At my home I was greeted by a plaintive Mystère, horrified that he'd been left to himself all day. This hasn't happened since we've been here.

It was a social day yesterday too, a good intercambio followed by a long and chatty catch-up over a beer with Norwegian friend S, whom I've only seen in passing since we've been here. A cosy evening in is definitely on the cards now.