Caravaca de la Cruz

This year for the first time in the four years that Rosa's Tours have been taking parties to the wine horses fiesta at Caravaca the sun shone all day.

We arrived in time for the procession of horses that were due to race in the afternoon. This was followed by the procession of Moors and Christians groups. After a delicious lunch we went back to see the horses race.

Anyway back to the beginning. The story goes that the town was under siege by the Moors and the water supply to the town turned bad. People were falling ill so they sent out a party on horseback to find fresh water. They actually came back with wine which not only made the people better but also restored the quality of the water supply.

Although it is a fanciful tale it's a good excuse for the fiesta that is held on the 2nd May each year. There are obviously two facets to the proceedings. One is to consume large quantities of wine and the other to race the horses. The actual race takes place on the last 100m or road up to the church at the top of Caravaca. Each horse is accompanied by four young men who race alongside it.

There are actually two competitions; one for the fastest horse and the other for the best dressed horse. There ought to be other competitions; for the person who consumes the most alcohol, the person who ends up with the filthiest clothes and the person who leaves moving out of the way of the horses longest. Inevitably there are accidents and the proceedings stop to allow an ambulance to negotiate the winding road up to the church. By 5pm when the racing finishes most of the young people who attend are too drunk to either know or care which horse has won. These people have stamina though because they all go home, clean up and go back out for the night time party that lasts until the early hours of the morning.