Late Friday afternoon, and we went for a walk down the pista to see what the Cat had been up to, as we hadn't been able to see it but had heard rumbling and clanging noises. We waited till about 6pm, when he'd finished work as Cats and dogs don't mix well!
The clanging had obviously been a delivery of rocks - the tailgate of the large lorries bang when they shut, and the rumbling was the noise of the rocks hitting the ground. This is the extra large version of dry stone wall building! Only about a dozen rocks per delivery, no idea what each one must weigh......
The original wall has been dug out to widen the pista and the new stone one is to support the land behind.
Further up the road, the side of the pista was very soft and crumbling and Saturday morning the Cat driver dug out the soft soil and replaced it with more rocks. For such a large machine, it does an incredibly delicate job.
Earlier today, 6pm, I was just squeezing the last of the pomegranates for juice and my mobile rang.
It was Connie, our neighbour, to say there was a fire behind the cortijo of Miguel, which is at the top of Montenegro near the fuente. Micha, their son Ringo and the driver of the Cat were on their way up to try and beat out some of the flames while waiting for the Bomberos to arrive.
I grabbed the camera and ran, John grabbed the video and locked up, by the time I'd reached the ermita (chapel) the helicopter was coming in, to land next to the cortijos there - to start with I thought I'd better wait till they'd lifted off - but then decided to try for a photo of them attaching the water bucket. I ran again through the dust the blades were churning up and got some pictures. Five or six of the bomberos walked up to the fire and I carried on up to the path that leads to Miguel's and ran across the land to see where the fires were. There were quite a few areas, I could see Micha and Ringo and then the helicopter was coming in behind me, coming for it's first run to dump water on the flames. I got a bit damp from the spray!
The Medio Ambiente (environment guys) were next on the scene wanting to know where the access was - sorry, no vehicle access, only on foot! So they parked, and walked up assessing the extent of the fire. Then the helicopter returned again and again, dropping more and more water on the burning bushes.
After what seemed a long time but was less than an hour, the fires seemed to be smoking rather than flaming and under control. The helicopter landed to pick up the bomberos and went back to it's base, leaving the Medio Ambiente guys up on the hillside.
Here is a video of the action in Montenegro, this evening . . . . .
Almost an hour later, I came in to look at the photos I'd taken, when Monty and Pip started barking. I heard a rumble outside and going past was a fire truck from Cadiar.
Now, the fire station in Cadiar is a recent addition, the Cat has only just this afternoon finished widening and levelling the basis for our new road - what a day to need the fire truck!!
The work continues, yesterday morning the Cat was perched above the pista, flattening off some rocks and picos - probably to use the material for landfill.
Most of the morning he was out of sight but we could still hear rocks falling, the clanging of the machine and a steady rumble of his engine.
Today it's been gradually clearing and widening the existing track on it's way up towards us.
If you look here there's some footage of it - the Cat - in action early yesterday morning.
We are in the lucky position of seeing lots of birds around here, from the usual sparrow to the more exotic looking hoopoo, but don't often see blue tits. However, yesterday afternoon we had a flurry of blue tits - there may be a proper name for seeing lots all at once - a gaggle is geese I know, maybe someone out there knows the name for seeing about 12 blue tits all at once???
They were in and out of the jasmine, grape vines, pear tree and the olives so fast it was hard to focus for a photo, but John managed to get this one reasonably well. We think they were eating the last of the dried unpicked grapes, not sure what was so tasty in the jasmine although it's in full bloom so maybe they were eating the buds or some bugs!
Saturday afternoon and the Caterpillar has finished for the weekend, leaving a cleaner, wider pista. He's probably about half way up to us now. It's driveable in places but there are stretches that are very soft, dusty and stony where he's cleared back rocks and hillside to widen the bends.
We went down this afternoon for a walk, and I was amazed at the size of the Caterpillar having only seen them way above us moving hillsides when they redid the road from Yator to Cadiar a couple of years back. They looked big then but standing next to it today it's a very impressive machine. It's arm must have a reach of over 8 metres and the bucket on the end is enormous.
