The Banditos of Sierra de los Filabres

The Banditos of Sierra de los Filabres

Still no luck working out how Filabres might translate into English but I’ll keep trying. Meanwhile, here’s a funny story shared with me by Tom, geologist, artisan bread-maker extraordinaire and now, raconteur. He posted this as a comment to my blog piece on Bedar.

Tom recalls:

“Sierra de los Filabres…my old hunting ground (I mean fossils)! I used to go there on field trips with my students in the early seventies. The trip was led by Harry, a completely mad colleague of mine, who was mortally afraid of bandits in the Sierras. One day, walking in a deserted area, we saw a single figure approaching on a tiny motorbike. The figure had a rifle on his back. Harry froze in terror and announced that it must be one of the banditos, a guerilla left behind from the Civil War. I said: ‘Look, there are 23 of us, including fifteen big blokes with geological hammers and, in any case, according to my reckoning he (the ex guerilla) must be over 80 years old. Harry took off his rucksack and with trembling hands got out a sheaf of papers (permissions from the Spanish Embassy in London). The motorcyclist stopped and, obviously petrified, started offering his papers. We couldn’t work out who was surrendering to whom!”

I laughed out loud – what a hilarious image this story conjures up.

Meanwhile, 50 years on and it’s been raining on the Sierra de Los Filabres today. I just knew that Weather Report blog I posted would jinx things.

Never mind, it seems that normal sunny service will resume tomorrow…..

 

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