There was a good turnout for our 2nd AGM on July 16th. We followed it with a gentle 6km walk under the Full Moon and socialised afterwards with a small buffet around midnight.
Our venue was the Escuela del Charco of La Bermeja, but in the last 15 years I’ve never actually seen any water in the ‘charco’ (pool). The schoolhouse closed about 55 years ago and as well as being an educational establishment it had also been the home of the school teacher. Nowadays it is maintained for local meetings by the Ayuntamiento of Ricote and we were very pleased that the Alcalde gave us permission to use it. With two toilets and plenty of parking space it was perfect (and we didn’t pay a thing!).
Lots of ‘willing’ volunteers arrived early in order to reorganise the furniture and do a bit of sweeping up, then everything was ready. Our AGM performed its function and the main item of news was that we elected a new secretary: Norma Harris. You may recognise the name – Norma wrote the March article. I’m looking forward to working closely with her in future. Her relentless professionalism was more than evident during the production of our first walking book and I know that WARM will improve even further with her energetic input.
On the walk, the moon eventually made an appearance at about 11pm above the summit of the Sierra de Ricote. The progress of the eclipse was fascinating, but blocked quite a lot of light. We advanced slowly by torchlight, enjoying the atmosphere of the night on the northern slopes and back at the schoolhouse Rose said that she’d been able to watch our progress down the mountainside from several kilometres away giving her plenty of time to get the food ready. I had however been forewarned that we shouldn’t dawdle too much – with Rose guarding our buffet there was a risk she might succumb to temptation! Luckily, she resisted and we arrived back in time to appreciate the cold drinks and delicious finger food which Carla, Fiona and Judy had organised. Thank you to all of the volunteers, but especially to the food team and Donna for clearing up afterwards and the following morning too.
Thank you also to Antonio (aka Tony Kelly) for writing, singing and strumming such a lovely ‘Hymn to WARM’ on his guitar. After everybody’s efforts, maybe the Alcalde will allow us back again next year.
Details of future outings will be sent automatically to those who are already on the WARM mailing list, normally about a fortnight ahead. If there is anyone who would like their email address to be added to this mailing list then contact me (Jessica) on: Warm2005@gmail.com. Please indicate where is your nearest town (I don’t need a full address).
The next organised walk is in the Sierra de Ricote on Saturday 28th September.
Note:
Only those who are on the mailing list can access the closed WARM Facebook page;
The majority of outings will be in the northwest of the region (approximately 1½ hours’ drive from the coast).