The Natural Beauty of Catalunya

Catalunya is in the north east part of Spain and has areas of stunning natural beauty one of which is Els Ports Natural Park
Anyone interested in Bird watching or walking, this area is a must and in fact the whole of Catalunya could be a natural park because the scenery is stunning.

Gandesa (Terra Alta)

Gandesa is our local town, ten minuets walk from our house, is the capital of its region (Terra Alta) meaning high ground, approximately 360 mtrs asl and has a population of around 3000.
The area around Gandesa is an important wine growing area with excellent wines and of course Olives and Almonds
The photograph below, is of the Wine Cooperative finnished in 1919 by Cesor Martinell a pupil of Gaudi.
Gandesa has a long history first recorded in 1153 when Ramon Borenguer the 4th gave the castle of Gandesa to Prieto Della Rovere, Master of the Temple of Province and Hispania.
Much later in 1938 when Gandesa was at the centre of fighting during the Spanish Civil War when the republican forces crossed the river Ebro in an attempt to throw back the nationalist forces of General Franco.
There is a very good museum in the town showing artifacts and video's from this time in Gandesa's history.

Local places of Interest.
Miravet is a lovely picturesque village on the banks of the river Ebro, with the castle high on the hill over looking the river and once home of The Knights Templer.
A truly lovely day out is to visit Miravet pottery on to the castle and then spend the rest of the afternoon sitting on the banks of the river Ebro sipping wine with a menu del dia from many of the local bars in the village.
See this link for some wonderful views of miravet and views of and from the castell.

One kilometer out of Gandesa on the Tortosa road is the village of Fontcalda, this lovely Hermitage spar has some spectacular views on the way down into what was once a volcano with a small river running through the village and some lovely rock pools of cool water for swimming on a hot summers day.

This is Pepe our Beagle, we bought him after we arrived, typical Beagle loves roaming all over the place and barking and virtually does as he likes.










Biddy is our Scottish Terrier, she was a border with us and was to stay six months waiting for her Pets Passport, during her time with us she stayed in our house we got so attached to her we asked her owner if we could keep her.
Her likes are Bed, Food, more bed, more food and then she has a nap.

Then theres Sabe one of our three cats we found her in Sabeco supermarket under the Red Bull Counter in Tortosa, hence the name.




Lucy and Lucky, both were left by there owners so we took them on, both lovely cats, brother and sister.

The two cats we bought from England 22 year old Poppy, died after being here for three years, we were worried about bringing here but she had three great years here, and Fozzy our big fat lovely tom died last year as did our Darling Joe our Bichon who we miss so much.






And finally Toby our ever faithful Lab with Joe and Sandra sat in our garden in Barnstaple.
They were both bought at the same time from the same breeder and were inseparable.
Toby is 11 years old now and has such a fantastic nature although a little daft at times, he tends to follow our beagle if we ever let them out together and turn our backs.
Joe our lovely Bichon died of cancer last Christmas, we were devastated and miss him so much he was such a character.



21 March 2009.
Toby has been diagnosed with enlarged prostrate, we've been having daily visits to our local vet for him to be catheterised, he's been on a shed load of tablets and injections.
Finally we had to take him to Vineros Veterinary Hospital, on the coast.
Because of his age and hip displasure we decided not to give him the operation due to the possibility of him putting on weight but this would solve the problem, so the vet suggested an implant of Suprelorin, this, over time will reduce Testosterone and hopefully have the same effect of reducing the prostrate.
The implant is for six months at a time and although expensive (100 euros) not so invasive, we are then thinking of some type herbal treatment.



3rd April 2009
At last Toby seems to be back to normal, you can see the relief on his face, so the implant must now be working.

13 May 2009.
We have a new addition to our family, this little kitten was abandoned in Flix, a village quite close to us and was found in a sewage pipe with two others, we named her Susie, she has no fear of the dogs but the other three cats are not too impressed.






She's only been with us a few days and already she has settled in, certainly with the dogs but Lucy is not too happy with her, the other two, Sabe and Lucky seem to except her.

Some lovely views from the house, top one is from our bedroom window, looking out towards the local vine yards and the villages of Horta St Joan and Bott.
The bottom is from our kitchen window looking towards Puig Cavaller, (mountain) the highest point at 709m ASL, the top of which supports the mast for mobile telephones and Internet for us and the local area.
There is also a lovely walk up the mountain close by and half way up is a small pool under rocks with a shrine, the views from the top are breath taking.
The area around us is very picturesque with pine forests and mountains and many wild flowers and herbs, the wildlife is amazing, with eagles and falcons often seen .
In the forests there are wild boar and lynx and although their tracks have been seen I have never encountered either.
We are very close to the Terra Alta Cycle route (Green Way), one of which goes from Gandesa through Bott to Horta San Joan.

Our small cattery, two with outside runs and sleeping quarters inside and one smaller inside pen.
In the fore ground is Sissy and Ada our friendly geese.
To the rear of the cattery is the aviary where we breed budgerigars love birds and cockertiels, we started with three budgerigars (cocks) one day a lady telephoned us, asking if we could look after her budgies (2 hens) for six months, need I say anymore, we now have over forty, all colours.
She got two back, who knows if they were the same ones, and later on she bought four more so she was very happy and visits us quite often.

This is our lounge today, the log burning stove was the best buy we have ever made, although very greedy for fuel it warms the whole house.
The floor was originally old flag stones very large and uneven and in the doorway was an old stone sink turned up side down, we had to hire a small JCB to remove the stones.
After moving the tiles around the house from place to place Sandra eventually persuaded me to lay them, after all I was a coach driver, you soon learn.


Water storage was a problem in the early days, we needed some thing near enough to the house and large enough to keep us in water for at least six months, we knew delivery wouldn't be a problem as we had sauced it in advance.
The only problem was we wanted it underground but that was impossible as we hit bedrock two feet down, still at least it had a good base.




Helped by our two friends Joe and Steve it took us almost three weeks to build, with reinforced concrete one mixer and buckets during temperatures reaching 46c, that was one hot summer.
18.000 litres later, at last we can have a bath.
The water is delivered by a local tanker driver (Jordy) from the next village, he even brings us cakes baked by his mum.
The top is then covered by a tarpaulin to keep it cool.






Money was running out, most of the building work on the house had been completed by now, we decided we needed an income, so the idea of the kennels was born, no way could I take on this job my self, so with the help of Phil, another friend of ours, we had some plans drawn up and started the build.















By the end of September 2004 we were ready for opening and within a few days we had our first bookings, five dogs.
Later we added a 5th kennel with its own compound and then in 2007 we added the small cattery.















Here we are today, five years on, we have been fully booked for Christmas and New Year 2008 since the beginning of September for dogs and cats.
We have had many new clients this year and even had two of our old dogs back with us when their owners visited the area from France, where they moved to two years ago.
Next year we must do some work on the kennels, we hope to extend kennel four with its own compound and have a larger sleeping area, the same with kennel one, kennels two and three will share a compound, and kennel fives compound will be fully covered.
All the sleeping quarters are fully tiled and each kennel is entered via a metal security gate and along the back of the kennels is a corridor with a food preparation area, water and electricity are connected.
Apart from the kennels and cattery we offer another service to those clients returning to the UK to live and that is a courier service, we find that so many people come over here with their pets and let their Pets Passport laps, so cannot take their pets with them untill they have been re-vacinated, that initially means a further six month stay in Spain, thats where we come in, we have had a lot of pets staying awaiting their new Pets Passport and then couriered them back to the UK via either a UK or Spanish Pet Courier.
This also works the other way where pets have been couriered over prior to their owners arival.

Lounge 2003

This was to be our lounge, there was a huge walk in fire place and when lit the room filled with smoke, part of the roof had to be removed to demolish the chimney.

Our house today, is known as a Masia or Farmhouse, top is the front terrace, middle is the rear of the house,showing our solar panels and the small shed houses the batteries and inverter.
Just above the kitchen window is the small dish for the telephone and Internet, if you click on the picture of our house and look at the mountain at the back (Puig Caveller) you can see the radio mast this is for all mobile phone networks and Internet/phone for us and the local area.
There is a lovely walk up the mountain (so I'm told) going past the end of our drive, or you can drive up to the mast from the Tortosa road but you'll need a 4X4 as its very steep and stony.

We've always wondered why our Labrador Toby always seems to come back from his wanderings wet, now we know, half way up the mountain is a small pool above the pool in the rocks are two small figures, one being a Madonna and Child. (click on picture)
We have always been told that the mountain is supposed to be mystical, what the two figures are for I'm' not sure but I will investigate.

View taken from above the mast looking down towards Gandesa and somewhere our house.