Thursday 6th March 2008

Thursday is market day in Orgiva and, after a late start, we made our way into the town. When we got to the main street, we found it closed by barriers and the road full of stands with strings of firecrackers attached. Asking a passing local, we found out that it was the festival of 'El Christos'(?) and they would be letting off the firecrackers at midday. We wandered around the town and bought some essential supplies and made sure that we were back in the main street by 12:00. Sure enough, as soon as the church service finished, the firecrackers were set off. We were standing in a doorway just above the firecrackers at, what we thought, was a safe distance. The firecrackers were very loud but they had also included a large number of very big ones that were absolutely deafening. The noise was concentrated by the high buildings and the echoes amplified the effect. Everyone around us had their hands over their ears but it was still deafening. Jane evacuated our position but, being a man, I was determined to see it out. And then the smoke hit – it was choking and blinding – we all evacuated! We were all relieved when the firecrackers finished we breathed a sigh of relief but then the rockets started with more rapid-fire deafening bangs directly overhead. Long canes and lumps of plastic were falling all around us. It was totally ridiculous and very Spanish - far too loud and the smoke meant that nobody could see anything – but we had certainly experienced some local culture.
We returned to the campsite and barbecued some pork cutlets and intended to have a quiet afternoon reading before we were distracted. Our neighbours Marie and Rex invited us for a drink and we explained the mystery of the unoccupied motorhome – they thought that there might be a dead body in Henrietta given that there was no sign of life. We were shortly joined by Marie and Rex's neighbours, Andy and Laura and a very pleasant afternoon followed. Marie told us about http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/ and we signed up to this very good free site later in the evening.
Photos: The firecrackers start with lots of spectators; I missed the shot of people, hands clamped over their ears, bent nearly double, running away but here is one as the smoke approached. Within a minute of taking this, the smoke engulfed me and I felt my way up the street with the other hand on my ear. Fortunately, I managed to find Jane sheltering in an almost smoke-free area.