I'm getting my travel knickers all in a twist - I've already posted about my autumn break in Crete, and here I am writing about my two week holiday in August in inland Andalucia, and I haven't even written about Prague yet, having been there 12 weeks prior to that

Mention Andalucia to a lot of people and their immediate reaction is 'well, I know it's in Spain, but don't ask me where'.

To be fair, I have done the 'beach thing' on the Costa del Sol myself, having stayed in Nerja a few times several years ago. Even then, it doesn't take long for somewhere like Nerja's admittedly pleasant attractions to wear thin, leaving me with itchy feet, so my seaside resort then becomes a base for some forays inland. On such previous holidays, I've used this principle to visit both Sevilla and Granada, so my appetite was whetted for a bit more inland touring.

This year we hired a villa with two good friends in the hill town of Jimena De La Frontera, which lies I guess about 30 miles north of the port of Algeciras and within shopping distance (if you MUST) of Gibraltar.

Our directions for the villa were quite emphatic - 'DO NOT go to Estepona', although they really only meant 'stay on the right road'. However, we never did go to Estepona - sorry.

WHERE WE STAYED

You will need Spanish here, in some shape or form, despite the allegedly large Brit ex-pat population (according to the Rough Guide anyway). Just speaking English LOUDER gets nowhere, and why should it?

Jimena is no diner's hot spot, although one or two good local restaurants were to be found. More impressive was our villa's 'resident' chef, who could be pre-booked to rustle up tapas or a full meal, with enough left over for the following day all for the price of a single good meal out.

Like most of southern Spain this year, there was a severe drought, and Jimena's water pressure was practically zero. Fortunately, the Villa Fuente Vieja (the old well or source) had its own water supply although this involved much electrical pumping by the owner. However, this did enable our home for the fortnight to look like an oasis in a sea of golden burned grass. According to the owner, your own well is worth about 600 €/month when it comes to keeping gardens green and swimming pools filled and I can well (ouch) believe it.

You can be nosey at www.villarentalsjimena.com, which is the villa's own web-site. Speaking of being nosey, the swimming pool is so seclude that 'clothes are optional' is that's your wont, although we did make sure that the owner's car had gone first!

For a start, the villa itself is on the edge of the Rio Hozgarganta and Los Alcornales nature parks, and so is a perfect place to start a hike into the wilderness.

Within striking distance would come Jerez De La Frontera (yes, THAT Jerez) and the port of Cadiz. I'm not scared of city driving, but it's hardly a holiday for me, so we stuck to visiting small towns like the charming Medina Sidonia, perched yet again on a hill - there's a pattern forming here, eh?

I guess the high spot of our visits was a day in the beautiful hill city of Ronda, some 40 km more inland from Jimena. Warnings in the visitor's book at the villa, admittedly 5 years old, counselled using the train as the road was 'awful'. Well, it wasn't. Apart from two temporary sections still being surfaced, it was amazingly smooth, and I'm certainly not going to let a road that twists and turns like a twisty-turny thing put me off. After all, bends equal scenery usually.

Another good place to gawp at the drop is from the iron railings that stand between you and manned flight on the edge of the Mirador De La Alameda, a shady park giving welcome relief from the unrelenting sunshine. If you look closely, you'll find yourself looking DOWN on eagles and other large birds of prey taking advantage of the thermals.

I'd love to stay in Ronda, maybe at the state-run Parador (when my ship comes in, that is). The newly-built but traditional building looked palatial, and even had its swimming pool perched near the edge of that drop.

We did however get to take the train too, this time for a lunchtime at El Molino Del Santo (hotel and restaurant) in the village of Benoaján, which lies some 50 minutes by train from Jimena, and a couple of stops short of Ronda on the Algeciras-Bobadilla regional line of the RENFE state railway. Return fares for four of us? 18.60 € - yes that's for four of us, you did read it right.

Benoaján also distinguishes itself as being the station for Montejaque - these stations frequently double up on locations served, as they tend to be in valleys whilst the towns are on hills! Montejaque, a peaceful hill town, is the scene of probably my most frightening experience with a hire car in years of driving abroad.

"No, there's no point in sending a tow truck unless it's a lot narrower than a Ford Focus".

"How about I strip it for spares now, starting with the door handles?"

Another drive worth the effort is to cruise the coastline west of Gibraltar, as Spain heads off in the direction of Portugal. The coast here is very different, taking on, not surprisingly, an Algarvean appearance of sand dunes and quite windy beaches - this is the Atlantic we're looking at now remember. As we pass the town of Tarifa, the closest one in Spain to Africa, the Straits look like you could reach out and pull the two continents together. I fact, I did recently see the plans for a bridge, although it would have to be the biggest of its type in the world, and a rail tunnel to Morocco is also mooted.

Driving back to Jimena on the road from Algeciras we noticed that even the railway freight marshalling yard had safe nesting environments built into the top of each lighting gantry, most of which were actually in use by mating pairs of storks, and a very strange sight they make. At first you think they're dummies like those plastic herons in fish ponds, and then one of them moves!