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Friend said there was snow in the mountains east of málaga yesterday:nod:

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Not a chance here, thank god...The only ice we get is in drinks

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We didn't get any snow but did have a violent hailstorm followed by absolutely torrential rain in the morning, it did slacken off a bit later in the afternoon but carried on raining into the night. Very cold for here too, only 11C in the town centre when I ventured out shopping around 1.00 pm.

Thankfully, we got back to a nice sunny day today and much warmer too.:D

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Yep, though it's so cloudy you can barely see, we did glimpse more snow on La Maroma than we've seen for a good while....... oh, and OH commented we were getting through the logs rather fast:( so not warmer here!

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We seem to be getting through our logs fast too!

Though the temperature in the daytime is not too bad here it's going quite cold at night, I find I'm sitting in my office wrapped in a fur blanket to keep my legs warm....
I may try watching some TV in front of that cosy fire to get warm tonight though. :unsure:

I've made a mental note to buy some sheepskin slippers for next winter, tiled floors are lovely in the summer but cold on the feet at this time of year!

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The gritters have just been round but we have the heating on and a big pan of corned beef hash for comfort food. Wonder if corned beef is in spanish supermarkets?
Still wish we were in Spain though!

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Yes you can get corned beef here in Euromarket and Iceland stores. :)

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We are on the coast but the mountains across from us had a small amount of snow this morning. They are 1600m so not surprising.

We recorded 26mm of rain over the day.

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I paid 90 a cm and everything arrived bubble wrapped on the pallets in perfect condition. When I priced it, it was by far the cheapest method of getting things to Spain. The trouble is that I now spend most of my time in Goa..what to do??

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If it's true what I have read they are chucking out all the Brits in Goa so you will get to use it one day:rofl:

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We did try to get a quote from the bubble wrap people but they are not shipping to Malaga at the moment!
We have had a number of quotes, this one seems to us to be the best as they have a depot in Uk and their own depot in Malaga and include insurance, storage for short term and any transshipping for difficult access. Some of the more well known ones charge extra for trans shipping and insurance ( at outrageous rates and excess).

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If your stuff will fit in a large van, you can get a one way van hire for about 500 quid.

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Then you also have to add the ferry or tunnel, tolls, fuel, overnight stays.

Rosemary

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Self drive may be an option for some but we are not very young and would rather stick red hot needles in our eyes than even drive our Landrover to Spain let alone a van. Some things are worth saving money on others are not but we all have different priorities.

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I see your point, but if you get the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, the drive to Andalucia only takes about 9 hours. The ferry is quite expensive though. We do it quite frequently. Where in Andalucia are you moving to?

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We are hoping to be in Tolox. Seriously, we cannot do a self move as lifting anything heavier than a shopping bag is difficult for both of us. We have a variety of arthritic and rheumatic problems, one of the reasons for moving to Spain as the climate is better. The furniture will also have to be stored for at least 3 weeks. We would have 6 hour drive to the ferry at this end add to that the ferry time and 9 hours in Spain. We feel we have made the right decision to spend £2k on professional removal. A 2 hour flight from our local airport to Malaga is cheap as chips and not Ryanair hehehe.

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Good luck on your move, and be happy in Spain!! We are.

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Thank you! I'm sure we will be if our buyer here ever gets her finger out and completes. We were supposed to complete in early January here and she is still fannying around getting a survey done. We expected the usual 8-10 weeks but its now 14 and counting. Crazy as its only a chain of 3!

Still i suppose banging our heads against the wall is good practice for dealing with Spanish officialdom. ;)

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The trouble is with things as they are at the moment you don't want to rock the boat too much in case they pull out! Byers are hard to come by at the moment.

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Tolox is remote, in the mountains and quite a long drive from Malaga airport. Ideal for those who enjoy hill walking. If you have arthritic and rheumatic problems, perhaps you might be better to consider somewhere on the flat? You might want to research the local amenities, particularly medical facilities.

Just my tuppenth worth, I hope you enjoy wherever you decide is best for you.

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We do know the area and we actually want to be remote we will have a car and both drive. We aren't incapacitated in any way just suffering from old age really. It's only that we don't want to be heaving heavy boxes and furniture around at our age.
Thanks for your advice and concern though.:)

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Just wanted to say: I love remoteness. Love the countryside. Didn't want to be near anything very much. Love driving. Six years down the line I'm frustrated to the nth degree about having to drive no less than 15 minutes to a shop and no less than 35/40 minutes to a decent shop and so on. I appreciate you've expressed yourselves very clearly but would simply caution a second or third thought about what you might be letting yourselves in for. Washer goes on tap. Car has to come out (ok you might have a copious quantity of spares but sod's law comes up all too often...!) You realise you're out of x y or z ingredient and the local Coviran doesn't sell it... guess what. Two hour round trip.
I know I'm kind of exaggerating the priority of these kind of things, but please take it from me it can get wearing........particularly if you (for remoteness) choose a property literally off the beaten track, with dirt rather than asphalt and 4x4 required rather than cheap and cheerful economy car.
Just saying, as they say;)

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My OH thought that I was looking too far ahead when I refused to live too far from anything, especially facilities like hospitals. To his way of thinking this would not be relevant until we were many, many years older. As he became ill when he was 64 (big shock to us both as he had always been very healthy) and has spent so much time in the hospital he now realises that I was right to insist that neither of us would have to drive too far if one of us was in hospital.

Rosemary

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I take both your points but the property is on a concreted track and only a couple of minutes to the road. We know there will be some frustrations with remote living and will need to to prepare for emergencies. Our only problem would be if neither of us were able to drive. Anyway as for 2hour round trips, what else do have to fill our days? ;)

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I would not say it is remote, villages like this are very much self sufficient with there own supermarkets, bakeries, butchers and greengrocers, chemists as well as hotels, bars, schools and surgery not forgetting the village pool. Ours has its own football pitch and football team. They are also in the process of building a large hospital for the area.

http://www.inmalagatoday.com/content...ed-60-0?page=2

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Have you been here in the rain when hillsides slip, roads get blocked for days sometimes and thats even in places near where I live, in the sticks is worse.

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I admit to not having been there when the hillsides slip but I have seen the resulting road damage. I also have friends who have been trapped by floods and other quirks of Andalucian weather.

Well we will have to be organised shoppers and I already bake my own bread if needed. Will grow my own veggies and live on soup and bread until life returns to normal. Note to self buy gin by the case and tonics by the pallet.
You will not dampen my spirit.
I notice that lots on this forum must have survived some of the adversity mentioned and even appear to have lived to tell the tale.:p

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Sounds like you have survival instincts.

I know nothing about the area that you are planning to live so would you tell me what it is like. Things like size of nearest large town, is it out in the campo totally or is it a small village etc.

Rosemary

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The property is in the campo and 7 mins by car to either Alozaina or Tolox. The nearest town is Coin (15mins) and Malaga airport is about 50 mins away.
There are other properties along the track from the A 366 so although remove not isolated. However, importantly for us, we can't see them so it feels as if we have all the privacy we need while some of the security of neighbours if we need them. I know sounds almost too good to be true so we will probably end up hating the neighbours ( or them us ) LOL

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15 mins from Coin is hardly isolated. I'm sure you'll be fine and be able to get most things you need from either Tolox or Coin

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That was our thinking :D

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We wasn't isolated. about 5 mins drive to A-7 coastal road. Popped out for bread and was stuck for 2 hours in an accident:rofl:

If you live in the campo you need 2 cars (and 2 drivers). We moved to an isolated place once, close to Ronda. OH had accident with chainsaw, terrible journey to clinic. We had already decided to move and when we did we chose a place close to hospital, a few minutes away from the main CDS one.

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Ouch!
Wouldn't dream of letting my OH near a chainsaw. He needs a disney plaster and a lie down for a papercut!
No doubt a year or so from now I'll be relaying my horror stories to others wanting to move to the sun.:lol: