Next morning we cycled to the bus station, folded the bikes, and took the bus for the 47 initially boring kilometres to Lanjaron, the first village in the Alpujarra, the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada. We cycled down past Orgiva, then started the 600m ascent to Pampaneira up a steady 12% or so gradient hill. Half way up Ann complained that her gears were inoperable. On inspection, it was apparent that the derailleur was quite badly bent, presumably from the bus journey, because all was working properly before. We free-wheeled back to Orgiva, hoping, in vain as it turned out, for a bicycle shop. There was no point in taking the bus to a big town as the next 2 days were holidays. So we had lunch in the sun and found a hotel.
Then I looked to see whether I could effect a repair. The derailleur was made of quite flimsy sheet steel, and I found I could bend it roughly back into shape using my hands and an adjustable spanner. In the end, I got the bottom 3 gears working. We thought that 3 low gears would be enough in the mountains - you are either struggling uphill or free-wheeling down - and we decided to restart the climb next morning.
In the evening we found a gourmet restaurant, el Limonero, owned by a Canadian. Superb food at a reasonable price, served at hours to suit Northern European visitors.