The bus went along the A357 motorway cutting through the Guadalhorce Valley citrus groves towards Cartama. Along the side of the road there were some building sites, crops covered with white plastic, and ugly ramshackle houses. After about half an hour, we turned left onto a road which goes past Casarabonela and on to Ronda. Here, the countryside was less spoilt and sprinkled with small white cottages beneath the shade of the occasional palm tree. Later on, the number of orange trees dwindled and were replaced by lines of olive trees. Craggy brown mountains rose above small, benevolent-looking hills to the right. Up ahead, loomed the massive Sierra de Las Nieves and on our left lay the hazy Guadalhorce valley and the sea. (The bus from Malaga leaves punctually at 8:00 a.m, 2 p.m and 5 p.m. from platform 13. You have to buy the ticket from the driver telling him you’re going to Alozaina and costs 4.05€ one-way. The bus continues on to Ronda and the line is Sierra de Las Nieves www.pacopepe.com).

When the bus got to Alozaina with its hilltop church towering over the village, it was just after nine o’clock. I got off the bus, crossed the road and peered through the window of the Sango Restaurant. My friends Bernie and Carlos were not there so I walked through the triple Arch (built in 1951 to commemorate the village’s Moorish past) and down the quiet, winding streets to their house. This Saturday morning was as peaceful as any other, and there were only a few people, a car or two, a couple of dogs barking and a cock crowing nearby.

I banged on the front door and Bernie shouted to me to come in. I made some coffee while Bernie and her husband Carlos got washed and dressed. When we got to the restaurant, I grabbed the broom and, later, the mop in order to help them with the cleaning. The place is modern, well kitted out, and very big. Apologetic costumers gingerly stepped around me and the wet floors. The previous nights’ musicians came in for their breakfast and to take their speakers and microphones away, stepping all over my wet floors, too!

Later, while we worked in the kitchen, Bernie told me about the classes given at the Sango Restaurant; landscape painting, traditional country cooking and the cosmetic and culinary uses of herbs all taught by qualified teachers. People come up from the coast, to take part in the cookery or painting classes at the restaurant, or to go on one of Bernie’s walking tours around the countryside, an olive factory, the church and the village. Bernie herself takes walking tours to the burial sites and ruins near the village, which is in an area known for its numerous fossils, stone-age and bronze-age finds which are now displayed in the Archaeology Museum in Malaga. Iberian, Phoenician and Roman objects have also been found. Close to the village there is a hermitage and Arab tombs dug out of the rock. On another of her walks, about 4 kilometres towards Coin, Bernie visits the mountain stream Rio Grande which is where villagers go for the water’s curative properties. For more information about the activities organised at the Sango, see www.spanish-country-courses.zoomshare.com.

I decided to walk around a bit and had just passed by the town hall when Bernie’s friend Karl, the owner of the hotel called La Posada del Rio, invited me in. The posada had been beautifully renovated and furnished with terracotta tiles, wooden beams and carefully crafted woodwork and nearly all the rooms have spectacular hill and mountain views. Karl is also a cook, using only organic food and making his own bread, and a doctor (specialising in reflexology). We spent some time looking out over the hotel’s courtyard and he talked about how he was going to convert one of the out-buildings into a small practice. In addition, when his guests want to participate in any adventure sports or would simply like to explore the Sierra, Karl gets in touch with the tour operator that organises trips on horse-back, kayaks pot-holing, hiking, mountain biking, and other outdoor activities (www.pangea-ronda.com). If there is a group of 3 or 4 people, they can organise activities closer to Alozaina, or they can pick people up and take them to events further away in Ronda. In this lovely small hotel, the rooms cost between 50€ and 70€ per night and the price includes a continental breakfast (www.hotelposadadelrio.com).

I left the posada and went out into a country lane lined with goats and pine trees. The day was heating up and, believing that I had found a short cut, I tried to climb up the wrong side of the hill beneath the church. All the same, it was good exercise and I loved the view from up there of the countryside, Malaga and the sea. Although the church of Santa Ana was built in the 18th century, part of the adjoining castle wall and tower is of much older Arab construction. It is here they celebrate the olive festival in September where there are free concerts and olive tasting for all. By now, the sun glared so much that I could not see the camera screen or take any more photographs. So I slid, hot and exhausted, back down the hill and back to the restaurant.

Carlos came out of the bar to greet me and Bernie laughed at my red face. After a cold drink, she cooked lunch and I did some washing up. Bernie cooks both international and Spanish menus for the restaurant. For lunch we had a salad with locally grown avocados and tomatoes, a vegetarian chilli, and some grilled pork loins followed by sweet, juicy oranges and coffee. The area of Sierra de Las Nieves has a rich variety of popular dishes such as rabbit cooked in garlic and tomatoes and gazpachuelo which is a creamy potato and fish soup. In winter, chickpea stew with cod and garlic and fried eggs with wild asparagus are quite typical, and in summer the locals enjoy roast pepper salad or gazpacho (the cold tomato and vegetable soup found all over Andalusia). Fig cake and fried honey and pastry rings are the preferred desserts.

With a full stomach, I headed towards the nearest olive factory but, because I had not made an appointment, the factory was closed for lunch. Out in the street, I bumped into the local taxi driver and asked him about trips from the coast while he sipped coffee and the taxi engine hummed. Taxis cost about 50 – 55€ from either Malaga or Marbella, as the distance is the same from those towns.

Once back at the Sango, I said goodbye to Bernie and Carlos. Bernie pushed a big bag of avocados into one hand and money for the cleaning in the other. An elderly couple waited next to me for the bus back to Malaga under the trees alongside the road. We had a friendly chat about the unusually warm weather and the bus arrived right on time at a quarter to five. The day’s escape, although not everybody’s idea of a holiday, had been peaceful and refreshing. It had opened my eyes to the variety of possible things to see, eat and do in a small, whitewashed village in the Sierra de Las Nieves.