A proper treat today, as Álvaro offered to drive us and the bikes up and over the mountains above Málaga, to a village called Villanueva del Rosario. Close to the spring of the River Guadalhorce and snuggled in to the back of the Sierra. I have mentioned the village previously as one of my top birding spots in the province, with many species which are absent from our side of the sierra like the Azure-winged magpies.

These gregarious opportunists love nothing more than an olive grove, and throughout our ride we saw more of this species than any other. One or two solitary Iberian magpies flew over. Another bird that I have never seen down on the coast. More ornithological highlights were a brief glimpse at a pair of Hawfinches, a Buzzard being harrassed by magpies, and my first flock of high flying Beeaters as we stopped for our customary cheese sandwich. There were Fan-tailed and Cetti’s warblers on the banks of the river, and Corn buntings and Red-legged partridges patrolling the wheat fields.

70 kms with just over 1000 metres of climbing, with none of the never ending steep climbs we are accustomed to closer to home. This seems to be the sort of place that gravel bikes were designed for.

A quick visit too the petrol station to use the jet wash to get most of the mud off the bikes, and it was back to the car and home just in time for my neighbour Annie to point out some birds flying over, a new species for my back door birding list: the Glossy Ibis. Thanks for looking up Annie!

Billy was ready for a walk, and we headed up to our nearest wild patch where we were greeted by the resident family group of Wild boar, a female with three very chunky looking year olds: