Living With Nature On Your Doorstep

Four years ago my husband and I led a 'city life', he was a successful commercial photographer and I was the Director of the Netherlands Institute. But there was something unsatisfactory about our lives and we decided that we wanted to make a change. Not just a change of country but a bigger, all encompassing change of life and lifestyle. We wanted a different way of living, with a smaller carbon footprint and more connected to nature.

So we embarked on a journey of searching for that special place. High on our wish list was a place in a natural park, where we would have nature on our doorstep. That however was a difficult box to tick, as properties in nature reserves are scarce. During our search we somehow ended up in La Alpujarra and I am not sure whether we chose it or it chose us.

You would imagine that this gem in Southern Spain would attract many tourists but it actually doesn't and is therefore relatively unspoilt and peaceful. The small trails and old bridle paths that lead through fertile, green valleys and along rugged mountain tracks are definitely off the beaten track. It is a picturesque place where it feels like time stood still.

We exchanged our city life for a life in the mountains, we bought a traditional, stone built cortijo with 2 hectares of land. The house was ready to move in to but the land had been neglected for many years and it needed trees planting, a lot of water and tlc.

One of the reasons we wanted to live in nature was because of our two horses and our desire to go out on long rides. We wanted to be able to just ride out of our own gate into the natural park, and that we found!

We slowly got to grips with running a household and a small farm off grid, partly self sufficient. As romantic as it all sounds, it also meant a lot of hard work and you come to realise that the impact of the weather and the seasons on your life is quite dramatic.

We were inspired and enthused by permaculture ideas and we embarked on a learning curve of what we could do with the different parts of our land. We designed a circular vegetable garden that now provides us with vegetables almost year round. To date we have planted over 250 trees and we’re still planning to plant another 50.

Having the Natural Park on your doorstep also means being able to go for walks from home. The villages Pampaniera, Bubion and Capileira are each about 1 to 1,5 hours walk away, along small trails. Our neighbour, the shepherd, used to follow these paths to school every day when he was a little boy. It is quite amazing to realise you can walk from one village to the next without ever stepping on tarmac.

Our finca has gorgeous views south towards the Contraviesa and on clear days you can see the Mediterranean and the coast of North Africa. Our views north are of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Iberian penninsula ́s highest mountain, Mulhacen.

Living as we do is not always easy and it can be quite demanding in many ways, but every day I enjoy the beauty of nature around us and feel grateful for having landed here.

Author: Sietske Meerloo