Sunny Spain...still!

You remember when we said we were going to travel through west africa...well what we really meant is we are going travelling through Spain!! Yes, still here, but sooo close to Africa.
Travelling further south through Spain the battery on Palli´s bike exploded.While Palli and I waited at the roadside, Magga, Haukur and Pierre drove off to get a new battery from the nearest Honda garage 25 km´s away. However, on their return, all eager to fit the new battery in the bike and speed off, we carefully read the instructions to find that only after 2 hours of putting the acid into the battery and 10 hours of charging it would we be able to go anywhere at all. So leaving Pallís bike covered up on a slip road we left to find the nearest town to stay for the night, get the battery charged and have the jeep checked over for a few minor faults on the way.
Next morning Palli and I set off to find his bike and fit the new battery. Passing the jeep on the way out of town we saw that our Michelin Desert bike tryes and been stolen from the top of the jeep. The security wire we had wrapped around them had been cut. After a few tears we tried to get the bike started with the new battery...no such luck. The day was then spent with Benito, our friendly hotel manager who hired a van to collect the bike which weighing 250 kilos was no small feat trying to get the bike up into it. He also contacted a friend of his, a Honda motorcylcle mechanic in Jaen (nearest big town) where he drove with us, found us four new tryes for our bikes and stayed while the mechanic explained what he thought the problem might be...basically the blown battery ruined all the electrics...the alternator suddenly sent too high voltage to the battery and boom! ´Being a Friday, we would have to wait til at least Monday or Tuesday to get spare parts and fix it.´
Ok, plan B....after reporting the stolen tryes to the police...in a mime and pictionary type of way, which was hilarious, we decided to use the days to go and explore the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Found a lovely camping place in the mountains where we stayed for a couple of nights, did some filming and spent some time relaxing in Alhambra, where we took a night visit of the palace there...absolutley breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful. Then moving on to find the hippy commune, ´Benificio´ in the Alpajurras mountains, south of the Sierra Nevada, that Haukur had read about in Lesbok!
Encountering along the way a problem with the breaks on the jeep , just to keep us on our toes!
Found the commune in a very beatiful setting but kinda wishing we hadn´t....Haukurs advice for anyone visiting this place...´just don´t´!! Or at least, take your shoes off, dont eat meat, dont drink alcohol, dont wash and preferably start talking to yourself alot!
We did actually spend one night there by the camp fire with the locals and explored the area a little but eager to move on and after checking the breaks were fine we set off to collect the bike from the mechanic back in Jaen and then wizzed down to Marbella. Losing each other on the motorway after all of us missing a rather tricky turn off and then unable to find H,P & M, who had found a nice spot on the beach to camp, Palli and I gave up after six hours on the bikes and with bums aching and phone out of battery we found ourselves a hostel and re-united with the gang this morning.
We will spend the day planning the next few weeks and sort out bits and pieces and hopefully cross over into Morrocco in the morning.
Someone once said.. ´its not the destination, it´s the journey....´