Old Estepona discovered at last

Today was cooler than yesterday 29C with a gentle breeze from the south. Having posted the link on WhatsApp for today's Morning Prayer before breakfast, afterwards I completed next week's Reflection, recorded it and the Office before lunch. The house was fairly quiet, although I was aware of noises from next door, as another holidaymaking family took up residence.

After a siesta, I walked to the Casco Viejo, a distance of about four and a half kilometres. There's a hill overlooking la Playa de la Rada where the Romans had an octagonal watch tower. This bay was the centre of the fishing industry, where fish caught were salted and dried for preservation, unless they were ground with olive oil into a pesto, regarded as a luxury food item in other part of the empire. On the same site a castle was built during the occupation of the Moors. The ruins of some of its stout walls are still imposing and the streets wrap around them, or lead up the hill to where the  municipal market stands, a post-war town hall, a large school, and a huge clock tower overlooking a square with a bandstand, ready equipped for a concert with rows of plastic chairs.

I didn't know where the Old Town was. It no longer dominates the skyline as it would have done until the holiday resort building boom filled all the low hills and valleys in the coastal plain beneath the huge Sierra Bermeja with high rise dwellings. Now it can't be seen until you reach its narrow streets of whitewashed casitas with iron window grills and balconies, decorated with flowers. Suddenly you're wandering around a typical old Andalusian pueblo blanco, quiet and clean, in refreshing contrast to the stark brutalism of so much of the twentieth century architecture around it. Such a pity it's an hour's walk to get there.

I returned in time for the Archers - yesterday's and today's - and then a light supper. In this hot weather I make sure to drink plenty of liquid, and seem to do well not eating quite as much as I usually do. While I still enjoy a glass of wine, my alcohol tolerance has dropped considerably. Light headedness I can do without. I need all my wits about me, living on my own with work to do. And more sleep too. It comes easily when the weather is warm.