In late August we had tenants organised for our house for the first time, and we were not due to fly to the UK for another five days, so we decided to go and see The Alpujarras, the area made famous by Chris Stewart in “Driving over Lemons”.

The last minute cleaning and tidying was done in a panic and we eventually got away at midday, passing the tenants on their way in. After some farewell visits in Iznajar, we stopped for a late lunch at the Abades Services near Loja – much improved if you haven’t been there for a while. The journey subsequently took us through Granada and down the Lecrin valley as far as the Lanjaron turn.

The Lecrin Valley itself is scenic enough, especially where it narrows to become a deep gorge, but things pick up even more as you follow the windy road into Lanjaron, only marred by the menacing presence of the electricity generating giants which seem to confront you at every turn and every brow for a while. Lanjaron itself looked an attractive touristy town which we decided to come back to, but never did. We pressed on as we knew that our destination, Bubión, was still some distance up a very twisty mountain road.

We had chosen our accommodation from Alastair Sawday’s “Special Places to Stay in Spain” which has given us many excellent nights’ accommodation. This time we had a budget place, Las Terrazas de la Alpujarra, but it could not have turned out better – small, basic but clean room with en suite, breakfast of yogurt, toast with jam or tomato and coffee, and best of all a huge terrace from where you got spectacular views of the hills and villages – and all for €35 per night for two! Although there were quite a few guests staying, mostly we had the terrace to ourselves, with a choice of chairs and tables or sunloungers.

Bubión itself is a very attractive village; the small houses with Moorish flat roofs and fascinating round, hatted chimneys cling to the hillside, separated by the narrowest of streets. Frequently the houses cover in the streets, and these tunnel-like passageways, called tinaos, are invariable smothered with flowering plants. Frequently the steep streets are stepped, and rainwater gulleys run down the centre. Water is everywhere, with springs and Fuentes at most street corners. Bubión is very popular with tourists of all nationalities, including Spanish, and so the locals just set about making you welcome. Restaurants are plentiful and good, we never needed to go elsewhere to eat. After dinner the terrace was a wonderful place to sit sharing a bottle of wine, and watch the sun sink behind the mountains. After dark you could see cars driving along the roads that criss-crossed the area.

For the first 2 days the car stayed in the car park while we walked to the nearby villages of Pampaneira (downhill) and Capileira (uphill) – both similar to Bubión but a bit more touristy and in our opinion not quite as pretty. All three villages nestle in the Poqueira Ravine, and all three are on the Historical Villages list.

On subsequent days we drove a bit further a field. Once to Orgiva which was Chris Stewart’s local town and significantly bigger than the villages around where we were staying. I have to say that its charm eluded us, so we did not stay long – perhaps it’s not always good to stay in such a beautiful place – everything else seems that much duller!

Another day we drove in the opposite direction through more picturesque villages. We stopped for a while in Portugos, one of the nicest. Just out of town on the road to Trevelez is the “Fuente Agria” – the sour spring – whose water contains so much iron that the spring and the waterfall are both stained red. Driving further up the Blood Ravine we reached Trevelez in time for lunch. Trevelez (named for the 3 slightly separate areas, upper, middle and lower) is at the foot of Mulhacen, the highest mountain in Andalucia, and is itself the highest village in Spain. Not surprisingly it is popular with hikers. Trevelez is the centre for the Alpujarra cured ham industry; the hams are dried in the wind - as it is so dry at these altitudes that there is no danger of decomposition. We eventually completed our circular route back to Bubión via La Solana, Torvizcón and Orgiva.

It was the local fiesta in Bubión during our stay, but the relatively sleepless nights were compensated by the stunning views of the procession from our balcony and the fireworks which were set off from just outside our bedroom window.

All in all, a wonderful trip, but Bubión was best!