Some of you know that I often refer to September and October as my 3C season. It's a time of year where I spend a fair bit of time behind the computer - coaching, writing Bible curriculum or working on email communication for KKI gatherings and upcoming training courses. Last week, however, although I kept up with communication that needed to be done, I laid the other two Cs aside for a few days, so that I could have a mini-break with my friend, Sue, who was visiting from England. I've known Sue since the 1980s and she's visited me in different parts of the world, to see the work I'm doing, as well as to renew our friendship and take time to pray for each other. I'd worked hard to complete various coaching and curriculum commitments by the beginning of last week, so that we could have a more relaxed schedule and the freedom to "play tourist" in the mild Spanish autumn weather.
As it turned out, rain was forecast for the weekend, so we made the most of the first two dry days for getting out and about. One day we drove into the mountains to visit the stunning El Torcal national park, where we did a two hour hike among the beautiful scenery and amazing limestone rock formations. Sue's a bit of an ornithologist, so she had her binoculars around her neck for spotting unusual birds; we saw some eagles at one point. A highlight, though, was seeing some ibex (mountain goats) very close up, including the young one in the photo, who peered around a rock, bleating for its mother.
On another day, we drove inland to the beautiful turquoise lakes near El Chorro. (If you ever fly into Malaga, these are the lakes you can see from the plane, shortly before landing.) It's my favourite place to go swimming in summer, but I hadn't been there this year because of spending most of the summer in Africa. So I got a shock to see how low the water level is at the moment. Instead of the clear water coming right up to the tree line, it was low enough to reveal many metres of steep, pebbly "beach"- like shores. We scrambled down to dip our toes in the water - long enough to ascertain that the swimming season is certainly over for this year. The scenery was beautiful, though, and we enjoyed climbing up to a lookout spot where we could see the greenish blue lakes in every direction. Each of these day trips also allowed us to visit an old Spanish town; this part of the country is scattered with medieval castles and Moorish fortresses from the centuries when Spain was occupied by the North Africans. So on the first day we stopped to see the fortress in Antequera and on the second day we drove up narrow winding streets to see the medieval castle in in Álora.
Closer to home, we took the dog for several walks on the mountainside behind my house, we celebrated Sue's birthday by eating out in a Brazilian carvery restaurant, and we walked on the beach, stopping to take photos of green Amazon parrots that were occupying the palm trees there. All in all, it felt like a semi-holiday amidst the 3 Cs of my autumn ministry season.
