Anyway, coated and with woolly hat which had been left in the coat pocket from the last wearing we set off north along the coast path. We got to a sad little bay beyond the palms. Sad because here was coloured paving in a moving pattern with broken edges, vandalised walls and ripped apart palms. Here were bags left hanging in branches, avenues of street lights overgrown. Broken this and damaged that.
The only life was three motor homes parked more or less together on the avenue above the tree plantation. If there were any facilities for them they must have been well hidden.
"Perros NO" signs, everywhere but no one pays any attention, a shame that we share with the Spanish. In the town the doggie doodoo is pretty well controlled. Once out of town look out. The coast path we took this morning as far as about 2-3 miiles north was a bit of a trial. The ascents and descents are fine you can pay attention to your surroundings and ooo and aaah at the scenery to your hearts content. Anywhere that a nice viewpoint exists or the path is flat and you can only look at the ground and in places you can not avoid the stuff. It is everywhere. In masses. Far more than I've ever seen anywhere, ever. It is awful.
Since arriving I have been wearing the sensible stout new shoes that I bought for this very outing but here they feel like clodhoppers and I've even taken to looking longingly at trainers in the well lit and rather arty shop windows. Not today, though, Today they were perfect.
Of course a shower of rain may clear it a bit, but they haven't had a shower since we've been here and with the density of dog ownership it's unavoidable unless the owners pick it up, which away from town they don't. In town you notice the smell ocassionally but along the seafront down by the concrete spreadsheet Edificios and Apartimentos Se Viende and Se Aquila the prom gets narrow, down to about 2m, up here it is about 20-30m wide. The road is delineated by posts in the ground, there are more streetlights than you can shake a stick at and every one is used umpteen times a day by a dog. In short, get to Club Nautica, from where we watched last nights sunset and you can't stay long. The stench is worse after a sunny day with no wind but even in todays light airs as we walked back our stroll became a sprint as our nostrils were assaulted.
In town every vertical junction with the horizontal is the same, shop fronts, bollards(hundreds of them), decorative faux granite cubes to mark controlled crossings, outside every shop but especially supermercados the stains of life in a dog obsessed culture are everywhere. I'm sure that the UK is the same but the rain keeps it manageable but here it is a different story. It really is not pleasant. In fairness they do keep their dogs on lead (mostly) and in the main they are small dogs there's not many of those huge things we get or many of those really ugly ferocious things either, but there are a few and usually well muzzled. It's just the sheer numbers of them.
Elderly ladies drag them about, young ones carry them under their arms, old men stroll about with theirs on short lead snd youngsters have theirs on long ones. Whole families wander about with a dog each, or one person will have two, three, four or even more but if you put them all in a sack you wouldn't need a big one.
The lady in the bar under the house three doors up says it's because most people live in apartments with small balconies so they couldn't have big dogs if they wanted to.
It really is foul and is worse than home only because we have enough rain to wash it away but even on our seafront it stinks at times as we cyclists have found out and in town, too, pedestrian precincts are becoming a place to only visit in the rain or wind.
However, as we approached base just before siesta time a lady was walking her dogs on the beach. Mr. Policia Locale drove up, briskly walked down to her and escorted her off the beach, taking details once back on the prom to the obvious delight of those out for a leisurely beer in the bars along the roadside. I was waiting to applaud and offer a grateful gracias but my mind was read and I was
dragged away. Got a photo or two, though.
Brilliant, why don't we do that at home? Get plod out and stop these selfish dog owners ruining the planet. That's what I say. Whether my editor will allow me to post it is another matter! I guess that as we're in the EC there's a law that says you have to like dogs like the one that says that if you don't think that climate change is driven by Range Rovers you are a pariah.
On a different note, tonights stroll up into town was undertaken in pullovers and coats.
On the way back it was 14C.
Last week I was in shirt sleeves in 12C.
Oh, dear, does this mean that we're getting used to this lovely climate?
Time will tell.
The headland past the three palms ... we almost went that far!
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