Needless to say we felt little pain during the Easyjet flight itself, the only minor panic on arrival being the non-appearance of my guitar on the baggage reclaim carousel. In fact it had fallen to the floor out of our line of sight and nobody was kind enough to replace it. Quick whinge, why must everybody ignore the markings and crowd tight up alongside the carousel?

Dave and Carol were there to meet us and 20 minutes later we arrived at their villa just outside Estación de Cártama. To the rear of the villa was the detached bungalow which was to be our home for the next 2 weeks. We quickly deposited our luggage (and our clothes), took a quick dip in the pool and got the barbecue burning. Dave has a gas barbeque and there is also a charcoal barbecue for use by guests on the small private patio to the rear of the bungalow. In practice we put the barbecues together and used the charcoal for grilling and the gas (with its swivelling cover) as an outdoor oven for roasting.

During this time we got ourselves acquainted with Trixie, Ben and Toby, terriers whose job it is to mind the 'estancia' while the humans are out and about their business - and gain as much of their attention as possible whilst they are in!

A few notes about the bungalow. It sleeps 4 in double and twin bedrooms, has a lounge with Sky TV, video and hi-fi. We can only presume that they work as they are 'luxuries' we are happy to sacrifice when on holiday in a beautiful country with marvellous weather! A sliding patio door opens onto the private patio equipped with table, chairs and sun-loungers. We enjoy a quiet start to the day and the patio was an idyllic place for a leisurely breakfast prior to a hard day soaking up the sun beside the pool!

Although there is no air conditioning the patio door and all windows are fitted with sliding fly screens which provide a nice flow of air. Despite daytime temperatures in the high 30's and low 40's we had no problems sleeping and never found ourselves sharing a room with flying, biting nasties.

Although the village of Estación de Cártama is within walking distance (just over 2 miles) the situation is rural and you can be naturist at any time and in all parts of the property. Trees, bushes, and where necessary screened fencing, ensure privacy. Although aircraft can be heard approaching (a very busy) Malaga airport they are sufficiently distant not to be intrusive. In fact the main disturbance is when the local goatherd drives his animals past the bottom of the garden as they go in search of grazing.

The village itself is pleasantly Spanish although with a few places favoured by ex-pats. Giorgios is a bar and pizzaria, now under British ownership which is well worth a visit. Their spaghetti in garlic sauce is evil, or so everybody kept telling me the next day. Toppers Rest is an 'English Bar' which has Worthington on draught - not quite Timothy Taylors Landlord but... and Pepes is a cafe which sells cakes to die for. The Chinese was recommended though we didn't try it.

Our favourite eating place was up the hill as you enter Cártama Pueblo. If you are a serious lover of seafood then Cafe Bar El Pescaito is THE place to go. A huge plate of the local catch costs about € 8.50 and you are likely to get anything that's available, prawns, octopus, squid, cuttlefish, anchovies, clams, you name it. Everything is absolutely fresh, tender and very tasty. For the more conservative minded, the cod and chips will probably knock spots off your local takeaway.

So what did we do apart from laze by the pool, eat and drink (why bother with more you might say)? We had to revisit some holiday spots of the past.

We spent a day at Costa Natura near Estepona but unfortunately the place was going through a difficult patch with a bankrupt management company and unpaid workers demonstrating outside. This didn't greatly affect us visiting for a day but we were told of various difficulties being experienced by people staying in the complex.

We also visited Almanat near Torre del Mar to the east of Malaga. We had fun finding our way to the beach without going through the Almanat site itself. Finally, after following a track through a field of maize growing about 3 metres tall and almost forming a living tunnel we found a parking place at the top of the beach just 200 or 300 metres from the Almanat beach bar and cafe.

A place we hadn't been to before, but had heard a lot about, was the naturist cove at Benalmadena. Easy to get to, you can park close to the flight of steps leading down, probably about 30 metres, to the cove. There was a good atmosphere and mix of couples, some single sex, and singles. The beach bar and cafe provided good food and service and overall it seemed the kind of place where we would have been happy to spend our time if a beach holiday had been our intent.

So what else? We always thought Dominoes were a total bore till Dave and Carol taught us 'Threes and Fives'. This became our regular evening pastime (evenings by Spanish custom extending to 2 or 3am) played on the veranda and accompanied by copious quantities of brandy and coke. If you're interested the rules are available at dominoes.com, we played with a double nines set - much better than the regular double sixes.

In conclusion, if you want a relaxed naturist holiday in rural Spain you could do much much worse than Casa del Sun. It would be possible to do without a car (Carol will take you to the supermarkets with her) and from Cártama station you can get about by rail. However for most people car hire would be a practical necessity. If you really hate dogs you'd probably be going to the wrong place although they're a (very) friendly pack and added much to our holiday. Sue was constantly threatening to dognap Ben to the point of training him to travel in our hand baggage! (See our photo album).