It's been three years since we bought our olive farm in El Burgo and the first spring of 2004 we could hardly cross the raging torrent that separated us from the outer world. Since then you wouldn't have thought it ever rained in Andalucia. We have had three dry warm winters which have played havoc with the growing cycle. Spring flowers have appeared much earlier than usual and record short snap freezes have played havoc with budding almonds and other fruit trees.
These last ten days we have had 250 litres fall and the idle stream has once again turned into a torrent. This is just under 30% of our annual rainfall, but it will take more rain this spring to bring up the aquifers to pre-drought levels.
Our spring water has never dried up but instead of a gushing outlet we've been reduced to trickle over the last 3 years. I'm walking the GR7 next week and we are forecast more rain before then. With a bit of luck some of the early spring flowers should be making an appearance as we walk from Tarifa to Ronda.
