Planning meeting in Spain: 12.-16.11.2008

Stalactites in the cave at Nerja

Agenda

Wednesday, 12. November

Arrival of the German teachers from Stuttgart, Martin Rausch, Schickhardt-Gymnasium Stuttgart, and from Sindelfingen, Renate Holzmann, Goldberg-Gymnasium Sindelfingen, and of the English teacher, Howard Horsfall, Dronfield School, Dronfield, transfer to the hotel Don Curro in the centre of Málaga.

More Spanish language documentation and walking maps for the Sierra de los Nieves was purchased at the  Libreria Mapas y compañia, calle compañia, 33, 29008 Málaga, Tel.: 952608815.

Thursday, 13. November

Excursion with the Spanish teachers, with the head teacher Mariló Acosta, and the department head Antonio García and the other Spanish teachers Mario und Estrella and a group of 25 students from class 1 de ESO (13 and 14 years old). Destination was the famous cave at Nerja, a cave with stalagmites and stalactites in the mountains to the north of Nerja.

The rocky outcrop to the west of Nerja

The cave at Nerja has been used for approx. 25 000 years as living quarters, as a place of ritual worship and  as a cemetery. Evidence of this includes cave paintings of animals such as roe and deer and horses' heads. At that time there was a wide beach stretching from the coast, which disappeared 10 000 years ago owing to a global warming and the resultant rising sea level. Today Nerja lies at the western edge of a rocky outcrop, which is protected as a marine natural park under the name of Acantilados de Maro/Cerro Gordo.

Since the discovery of the cave in 1959 and the development of tourism the biology of the cave has changed. In the light of the artificial illumination coatings of algae have developed. The fauna of the cave consists of species like bats, which have adapted themselves to the life in the cave and species like the beetle Platyderus spelaeus, which live exclusively in caves.

In the evening meeting with teachers of the Spanish school in a typical bar in the centre of Málaga.

Friday, 14. November

The impressive root system of the Ficus magnolioides

In the morning the Spanish teachers showed the guests of Germany and England the Aula de la Naturaleza in the mountains near Málaga. This Aula is a nature conservancy centre which offers accommodation for school and other youth groups. Here, by means of small excursions and biological investigations, the children learn about the flora and fauna in the mountains near Málaga  The fully glazed observation platform is particularly attractive. From the platform mammals like wild boar can be observed during the hours of darkness.

At midday the teachers met a school group at the Finca de la Concepción, a botanical garden with a multitude of  mediterranean and tropical trees, which was laid out in 1850 as a private garden of the Heredia family, a rich trading family. Here, for example, one sees species of palm trees (Cycas), living fossils, which flourished in the woods at the time of the dinosaurs, the Australian Ficus macrophylla with its impressive root system, the dragon tree (Dracaena draco) from the Canary Islands, the monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria heterophylla) from the Norfolk islands and the elephant's foot tree from Mexico (Beaucarnea recurvata Lem. = Nolina recurvata (Lem.) Hemsl). Of course climate change has had an impact in this botanical garden, too: with the result that this year the huge glycian alley has blossomed three weeks earlier than usual.

The elephant's foot tree, Nolina recurvata

Finally a questionnaire relating to the students' knowledge about climate change was devised.  Following the dates for the subsequent visits of the school groups were clarified:

• The visit of the English and German students to Spain: 11.-15.03.2009
• The visit of the Spanish and English students to Germany: 03.-08.05.2009

• A visit to the Aula de la Naturaleza in the mountains near Málaga
• An excursion to the Spanish fir tree forest (Abies pinsapo) in the Sierra de los Nieves to the west of Málaga

Saturday, 15. November

Sunday, 16. November

Departure of the German and English teachers