THE MIGHTY ALMANZORA.


   Sept: 16th has been and gone and no rain has come. Sept:16th is
traditionally the day the rains arrive, the weather cools and we find
out were the leaks are!

   The Almanzora river is, these days reduced to a dry river bed, or
rambler. On your maps you will see a lovely blue meandering line,
rising on the northern slopes of the Sierra de los Filabres in
Granada and emptying into the sea between Palomares and Villaricos,
some 90 kilometres away.
  All the old folk here tell us how, 50 years ago, the river always flowed.
It was full of fish. Then the fields were planted, on the flood plains, with
crops of maize, pumpkin, beans, oats, sugarcane, potatoes ect: This
was before the orange trees were planted on mass and the plastic
giant took over. Then the river had to be crossed on horseback, or accross
huge stepping - stones, or over the trolls rickety wooden bridge. The
dead were even taken by boat up the river to the cemetery .

  So now, with the lack of rainfall and the damning and redirection of the river
to irrigate the crops, of the multi billion £ corporations, who grow perfect
vegetables for export, it is said that, whenever the clouds gather in the skys,
two small aircaft fly back and forth spraying them to disperse them.
These planes are set in action by the insurance companies, because they
do not want to pay for flood damage!

   It's hard to imagine that a river flows here, but flow it does - 'The Mighty
Almanzora', roaring all the way to the sea. The first time we experienced it,
was whilst sitting on the doorstep one morning drinking a cup of tea. We
realised we could hear a thunderous noise, so load that at first we had not
registered it. We took one look at each other and said 'River'. Dropping our
mugs we hastily went down to see. There from bank to bank was a brown swirling,
raging river, pushing and shoving all in its wake The little wooden bridge was
 gone, we were trapped. How exciting!

   It was in 1973 that the rivers truly flooded, all joining forces, creating massive
waves,  that breached the bridge in the centre of Albox. The waters swept
away others, took farms, cortijos, mills, animals and even people in their beds.
It had been raining for sometime and the mountains had plenty of snow. The
ramblers started to run, slowly at first, then in the darkness of night it
rose and rose. This whole area was declared a disaster zone and the queen of
Spain came to see.

  It happened again in sept:2012. It had not rained for some years and the
ground was hard and parched. One morning l awoke to the beautiful smell
of wet earth. Wet earth smells aromatic here. Then the rain started, growing
stronger and stronger, next torential. The old house started to leak, the water
poured in under the kitchen door. l began sweeping it out the house.
For five hours l battled, eventually it eased. My daughter phoned to ask how l
was? l said that it had rained rather a lot and l had been
 sweeping water out  the
house for five hours. She laughed and told me that it had  rained from
Malaga to Murcia. All the bridges were gone and the main motorway impassable.
People and animals had been swept away. The mouth of the river was choked
with vehicles, fridges, washing machines, well, the whole contents of hundreds
of homes, farms and businesses. The crops were ruined. Infact they declared
that it was worse than 1973!

  It's not rained now for a few years, it has clouded over a few times, with rumbles
of thunder. This is always, these days, followed by the sound and sight of two small
aircraft, flying back and forth above us. 'Thats the army doing manouvers', l have
been told. Odd, because always, shortly after, the clouds disapeare and the rain
does not fall!