Not for the faint hearted!

Living up in the mountains brings new ways of living and traditions to living on the coast. Here people still live off the land and all over the hillsides you see signs ' Coto Privado de Caza' warning you that this is private land for hunting.

Hunting is mainly done on a Sunday so you are well advised to be wary of stopping by the roadside and taking an unofficial Sunday stroll on any picturesque area with this sign or this one.

We have already seen many rabbits, robins, snakes and mice but there is one other creature up here that is of significant interest to the locals that we haven't seen - the Wild Boar.

We know these animals live in and around the hills and ramblas and our neighbours even saw one wandering along the roadside late one evening about a week ago.

Last night we were told by a Spanish neighbour that the hunters would be on our hills and in our rambla today hunting the 'jabili', the wild boar. The hunters take up their positions in open areas of the pine forests where they can get a good view of the boar and then packs of dogs are released to chase the boars out of their hiding places and towards the hunters.

At about 11 this morning we saw the hunters, carrying their rifles, walking along the bottom of the rambla through our land (everyone has right of way through the rambla)

They walked to the far end of our land and beyond, as our land is not reserved for hunting but the land at the far end of the rambla is. There will be many more hunters all over these hills today. We were told that there would be approximately 100 dogs used in todays hunt. There are various spotters on the hills and there were 2 or 3 loud bangs indicating the start of the hunt. Since then I have heard a couple of gun shots and a lot of barking from the dogs but we cannot see anything as it's all happening over the hill among the pine trees.

It will end about 3 this afternoon, so until then our dogs are being kept inside behind a locked door - for their own safety. The hunters know we are here, we were outside as they walked by and waved to us so I'm fairly confident they will respect our land and keep away - but their dogs may not be so considerate.

Any boars killed today will be cooked and eaten over the coming weeks - it's the way of the land.

For more info on the Spanish Wild Boar take a look here: http://www.iberianature.com/material/wild_boar_spain.html