dolly

For those of you lucky to have flown high over Saliente there is a phenomena that the chosen few can observe : that is the 'vision of dolly the sheep'

To put it in context : Saliente the monastery was allegedly built on the site of a 'vision of the virgin' and lovingly referred to as la pequenica (the little one) its obvious to all who come here

that the place not only provides kicking thermals and pleasant evening flying (for the devout)

but there is an air of mystery here, and for the 1000's of pilgrims who flock here in September

this is a deeply spiritual place .

Anyway as you know , Saliente is also the Twin Peaks of the almeriense landscape and although the magical appearance of a sheep on the second peak at 1500M high is not exactly the sort of thing that David Lynch might have scripted, we like to think he would have approved.

so whats so strange about seeing a sheep anyway? well being from wales , errr nothing !

except that firstly this is a very different sort of sheep, we have seen dolly on and off for over 6 years of flying here, we didn't see her for almost 2 years and feared the worst , but this year she's back with many sightings . she always appears on or very near the top of dolly's mount (as its come to be called) and has become so huge , that she bears no similarity to Spanish sheep.

As far as we know there is no obvious water there, very little food and an extremely hard climb

to get up there! the monks abandoned the monastery years ago but could this be a rare and last remaining hermit sheep order?

Dolly seems to like watching us flying past , and we all feel a little privileged when we see her!