Gredos day 3:
Another
brilliantly sunny day! We started a carousel of activities, with groups heading
off for horse riding, mountain biking, cookery/archery and community
service/creative workshop.
The legendary Juan Fran, local mountain
man, led the cyclists along dirt tracks down into the valley, then on a steady
pull up along forestry roads before a final exhilarating descent around
sweeping hairpins into the local village of Navarredonda. Mr Spencer did
sterling work, encouraging those with tired legs and replacing chains that had
jumped of the cogs.
In the kitchen at the Centre, the cooks
showed us how to prepare a typically Spanish dish: tortilla espanola. Budding
chefs were quickly chopping onions, slicing potatoes and whisking eggs whilst
building their Spanish vocabulary. The end result was a delicious snack, wolfed
down with orange juice.
This was followed by an archery session in a specially
constructed butt at the south end of the site where, after some coaching in
technique, we split into teams and competed for the "Robin Hood"
award. We finished with a fun competition, trying to shoot balloons fixed to
the targets.
Today, we had a 3 course lunch at the
Centre, then switched to a new activity on the carousel, after a siesta.
Already, some of us are picking up a tan and the breathtakingly beautiful
landscape is a far cry from the London skyline; a real break from the intensity
of urban life. Supper was followed by another post-prandial stroll to the
village shop, with Aquarius flavoured isotonic drinks being the most popular
product in year 10 shopping baskets.
