16 – 19 April – Aquetera

Left Gib at 10:30 and headed back up the coast past Marbella and then inland to Aquetera. Another site which is pretty much part of a car park, but with a few dedicated motorhome places and with water charge and dump, all free so can’t be bad.

First impression of Aquetera – quite modern, quite nice, lovely views and countryside .. but then …. We discovered the old part of the town – beautiful, traditional, clinging to the hillside and with a very well preserved Moorish castle to literally cap it off – amazing.

On Wednesday – a lovely sunny day – we decided to take some lunch and go for a longer bike ride out across the plain to a reservoir we had seen on the map which looked quite pretty. So then we had a few issues:

1. Sat Nav kept trying to send us up private driveways which meant the original estimated times and distances went all to pot
2. Whichever way we went the wind blew the opposite way
3. Some of the plain was less flat than anticipated with some shallow but VERY long hills
4. (Summary) we got knackered and didn’t reach the damn, dammit

Thursday (happy birthday me)  we decided on a quiet day with a last walk around the old town and a birthday meal at a little restaurant we had seen before, which was off the main tourist area and only five minutes walk from the van. We haven’t eaten out much as we are watching pennies but generally there has been very limited choice of vegetarian food anyway. This restaurant was the exception which proves the rule though – we had local olives with warm bread, a fantastic warm avocado salad  and a bowl of roasted veggies in olive oil – aubergine, caramelised onion, tomato, green and red peppers – all superb. Two course meal, two rounds of drinks and two coffees – 32 euros.

20 – 22 April – The Road to Portugal

Friday 20th we took a gentle drive to the outskirts of Cordoba where we pitched up on a car park attached to a bakery called Peter Pan (!) for E6 – nothing special but clean, safe and quiet and a nice cycle from the city. The cycle paths were great which helped as the main roads were busy and fast (for Spain) so it made for a relaxing ride in.

The old city is gorgeous with the now-familiar narrow cobbled streets, beautiful balconies and hidden piazas. We were on a mission to find the medieval(?) Mosque, which we did – huge, magnificent, fortified and quite breathtaking – I’m sure the huge, thick walls could tell enough stories to last several lifetimes if only they could talk. Behind the Mosque is the river, majestic, green and wide with a lovely old bridge spanning the  gentle eddies and swirls of the current as it finds its way amongst little islets and mud banks.

Saturday 21 April we drove to Gabraleon – pretty enough little town but we have been a bit spoiled. The site just a car park behind the police station – uninspiring but we did encounter Bessie II!  This is our last stopover in Spain – we are suffering from ‘Wow’ fatigue and have decided to bypass Cadiz and Seville this time and head for Portugal, the Argave and some R ad R by the beach.

Friday 13 April – Monday 15 April – La Linea and Gibraltar
We left Casares in driving rain with limited visibility and took a careful drive down to La Linea which is the Spanish township linked to Gibraltar. A pretty tense journey from the rain and gusting winds which do knock Bessie about was exacerbated when the sat nav packed up and we got a bit lost in the narrow backstreets in the centre of La Linea de la Concepcion. Finally emerged onto the coast and found the site which is on a large car park with a dedicated Motorhome area and which forms part of the marina here – lots of rather pretty yachts, but mostly the kind which people really use for sailing rather than the floating gin palaces previously encountered. Carried on tipping down all day so we cooked some dinner, played scrabble and went to bed!

Nice Sunset though 👌

On Saturday we got up to find the sun trying to shine (hooray) even though still quite chilly and we set off to find the customs point where we met my friend Sue who I used to work with in Leighton Buzzard and who just happens to be living in La Linea and working on the Rock with her husband who works in the zoo there (as you do). We had a lovely catch up over coffee and Sue gave us the low down on the best things to see and do whilst we’re here. Spent the rest of the day exploring the town on Gib and visiting M and S and Morrison’s to restock teabags and other essentials! Went back to the van where we have a view of the yachts in front, the Mediterranean on one side, Spanish mountains on the other and The Rock behind us – could be worse.

Intimate Detail Alert – so – showers have become gold dust because Bessie’s bathroom (although now mended with serious quantities of sealant) is still not shower ready. Turns out that there are showers here (hooray) but only available to rich yacht-owners who get a special swipe card (boo)…. However ……. The wonderful Sam decided that “if there are showers, I’m bloody having one!” … and so …. We put our shower gear into our rucksack and trundled off in the hope of sneaking in with someone else but nobody was around. We had a little look about and I found a little unit with three push buttons (a bit like you get at the entrance to apartment blocks) so I pushed one to see what would happen and, after a brief ringing tone, a Spanish voice said something (in Spanish of course). I was a little non-plussed but not the redoubtable Sam, hence:
Sam: “excuse me, but can I use the toilet please?”
Spanish female: “ (something unpronounceable)”
Buzzer: “ bzzzzz” (door opens)
Sam: “ Thank youuuuu” (we both proceed to have wonderful hot showers)
(I love this woman!)

On Sunday the sun reappeared and the weather really warmed up. We spent the whole day on The Rock, bought Hopper bus tickets to save our little legs and cable car tickets to save them some more (it’s all a bit steep). The top of Gibraltar is fabulous, with stunning views across the straits to Morocco, the Spanish mountains behind us and the tiny streets and buildings far below. The Barbary Apes are really charming and amusing and the flowers and little trees are captivating – a whole vibrant pallet of colours, shapes and textures to delight the eye.

The place is steeped in history too – from many centuries ago, through Nelsons times and WWII – we visited O-Hara’s battery, created in the Napoleonic wars (the huge ring bolts used to haul the cannons to the battery by hand are still visible on the trail up the Rock) and now armed with the 9.5 inch guns which last saw action in WWII and which have been refurbished to great condition by various British soldiers in recent years. Given that this technology is now something like 80 years old it was amazing to learn that the Straits of Gibraltar are about 26000 yards wide and these guns could fire 29000 yards – enough said.

We also discovered the path created 100 years previously which allowed soldiers for Nelsons time to move between lookout points and we followed that for some way across the backbone of the Rock. The views were truly stunning but we nearly lost our footing at one point when we disturbed a pair of Barbary Partridges (beautiful plumage) under our feet which took to the air with squawks of alarm – but trust me, we were more alarmed than they were!
Gibraltar is a place of contrasts – where the mad high pressure world of banking and gaming business and associated wealth which seems to dominate the economy of the Rock itself meets the relative poverty which is visible in parts of La Linea. We found Gibraltar to be enchanting, confusing and full of life.

Namaste

Paul and Sam x

Wednesday 11 April (Happy 95th Birthday Mum) – Casares

Left Ronda in the rain but it soon stopped and we had a pleasant run through to Casares. Here we found a very pretty, quiet and secluded parking area outside the village with room for three vans as well as public parking which was barely used during our stay.
Fresh water and facilities all provided at not cost with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and valleys – just about perfect (provided you don’t mind a bit of windiness).
As we had arrived quite early we decided to take a walk into the village – which entailed a long walk round the valley which gave us a fabulous view of the village hugging the side of the hill and of the stream gurgling through the valley below. We fell in love (not for the last time) with a house at the head of the valley, just outside the village, with a view along the length of the valley, the stream tumbling over some little rapids beside it and it’s own swimming pool – we’re easily pleased.

Casares is a traditional Spanish village with whitewashed houses, narrow winding cobbled streets and the kind of amazing views which are pretty much the norm in this part of Spain. We had discovered that Casares is well known as a breeding site for Griffon vultures – beautiful birds with a nine foot wingspan – so we decided to grit our teeth and continue on to the beautiful church and ruined fortifications at the top of the village in the hope of glimpsing a vulture.
The views from up there were utterly transfixing – the terracotta roofs of the whitewashed houses, the narrow winding streets, the stream meandering through the valley and the mountains beyond. The church and ruins were also captivating and the whole scene was so lovely we felt it couldn’t be improved upon until …..
Standing at the highest point to soak up the scenery, we suddenly became aware of a large shadow drifting slowly across the wall in front of us, looking up we saw our first Griffon vulture soaring in the thermals and updraughts created by the heat of the sun and the steep slopes of the mountains. Within a matter of minutes, as our eyes adjusted to the movement, we had seen perhaps 25 or 30 of these utterly magnificent birds, both above and below us, cruising majestically across the valley like airborne galleons under full sail!

An absolutely magical experience which left both of us feeling quite humbled and truly blessed.
Thursday it rained sideways, then it rained some more…. after that, it rained. We stayed in the van, played scrabble and solved all the troubles of the world by lunch time. (We didn’t really do that last bit but I don’t have much content for Thursday).

Nam (moist) e

Sam and Paul x

Saturday 7 – Tuesday 10 April – Ronda – we were sad to leave the lake and dam as it had been so peaceful and beautiful there, but we were almost out of water and almost full of the result of that so needs must. We left the dam just before lunch and had another exciting drive through the mountains, taking our time, so that we arrived at Ronda at around 5:30pm. The site was another simple gravel area near the football stadium but had fresh water, waste disposal and good wifi for E10 per night so not too bad.

Ronda is absolutely stunning – a city of two halves, ‘new’ and ancient, each of which sits on a rocky outcrop with a gorge between, bridged by the most beautiful bridge/viaduct. The ‘new’ town is clean, pretty, bright and attractively laid out whilst the old town is like something straight out of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones – narrow cobbled streets, huge iron-clad doorways, ancient stone buildings and around every corner a new view of the surrounding plain and mountains.

On Sunday we explored our way through the old town, past the impressive bull ring and steadily down the side of the mountain on a winding path which eventually gave us a fabulous view back up to the viaduct linking the two towns with the buildings and cliffs towering above us. Some young, fit types made their way right down onto the gorge at the foot of the viaduct but we decided once more that discretion was the better part of valour and returned home after a delightful stop for lunch at a tiny restaurant in the old town with a mere 12000 (up and down) steps under our belts. I don’t think I have ever taken so many photos in my life before – proper tourist today!

Monday the shops were open and we decided to have a bit of a browse, partly because there were some lovely little shops selling all kinds of fascinating things you never knew you wanted and partly because we has spotted a dress in a closed shop window on Sunday which we both thought might look a bit special on Sam (she is rather special after all). The shops were lovely, the views were as spectacular as before and the dress was a perfect fit – what more could you ask?  …. Well…. you could ask for another cracking lunch at another lovely little restaurant – so we did – and it was 🙂

Tuesday the heavens opened, the wind went bonkers. After a brief foray into town we retreated to the cosiness of Bessie and battened down the hatches. The site got waterlogged rather quickly so we decided to leave the next day before sinking without a trace.

Namaste

Paul and Sam x

Wednesday 4 April – Mecina Bombaron – so – we have been thinking about what we might do once the travel bug flies away and in amongst our thinking Sam had done some research and found a lovely family in Devon who make traditional yurts – they take it seriously too – Paul has been to Mongolia to learn how to make ‘em, so we emailed to find out a bit about them and discovered …..

It just so happens that this couple also own a tiny farm (read small-holding) in the Sierra Nevada mountains (Spain, not Canada) which is totally off grid and pretty much carbon neutral so we decided to pay a visit. Well….

The Sierra Nevadas get quite steep in places and the journey to Mecina Bombaron (the nearest village) took us up some steep inclines on rather narrow roads with many 180 degree hairpins. Bessie gave perfect satisfaction however (albeit often in second gear) and hardly ever rose above her optimum temperature.

Mecina Bombaron is a very pretty village perched high in the mountains. It seemed incongruous to flat-landers like us that business-as-usual goes on in a very matter of fact, laid back Spanish way in such an amazing place! After checking out the directions Paul had given us we decided we would make our way the few kilometers to his farm on foot. We found a place off the road to secure Bessie and off we went…… Now then ……

It turns out that our decision contained elements of both good and bad karma – fascinated? Then read on!

On the plus side in favour of walking:

1. The road was steep enough so that sometimes we were convinced it should have been stairs or a lift and not a road at all
2. Some of the bends were sharp enough to challenge a fat donkey, let alone a three and a half ton elderly campervan

On the downside however:

1. A few kilometers seems a long way when it’s very much all uphill
2. There was one particular large and unhappy dog which clearly needed dinner and felt that Sam would serve nicely as Plate of the Day

Anyhow, we eventually found the beautiful, tiny, wonderful farm which is a two room building in the traditional style with a well for water, woodland above to feed the woodburner and terraced fields below to grow your crops and graze your goats and sheep – (Oh yes, on the subject of goats and sheep, we did have to wait in Bessie just outside the village whilst the local shepherd took his large mixed flock through to fresh grazing. The whole place was utterly enchanting but also very isolated and high enough for snow to be a serious issue in the winter – the distant high peaks were glistening in a thick coating of snow as we drove.

There was nowhere suitable in Mecina Bombaron for an overnight stop so we decided to head to a pretty site by a reservoir we had found on line. Turns out the way we came up was the best way…umm.. How shall I put this? …. Down….

The descent could be described as exciting, interesting, scenic or adventurous and I have no doubt each of these has some value and relevance in the right context, but we just called it scary and left it at that. Suffice to say that we were very happy to finally arrive at the reservoir after discovering that:

1. Hairpin bends on steep descents with no kerb and a 1000 meter drop have the effect of causing some muscles to want to contract and others to relax, and
2. Not being able to always see the drop thanks to the addition of driving through low cloud fails to alleviate this condition.

Thursday 5 and Friday 6 April – Embalse de Beznar – our (free) location here is a simple car park in the trees, right on the edge of this huge and beautiful reservoir and next to the impressive dam which created it. The whole scene is as I imagine the Norwegian fjords to be – blue-green waters following the shapes of submerged valleys and reflecting the greens of the foothills and the granite grey’s of the surrounding mountains – their mood shifting as the wind reveals and obscures the sun amongst the scudding clouds.

This place is the perfect antidote after our adventures in the mountains – serene, peaceful, immersed in the majestic beauty of nature in the raw – we love it here. Sam has led gentle yoga sessions above the shore of the lake each day and we have taken time to just be, to reflect on this journey so far and to reground ourselves – absolutely magical.

Om Shanti, Namaste

Paul and Sam x

Well here we are again (finally). We have had no wifi and not the best 3/4g lately hence long silence (it was nothing you said). To make up for lack of blogging there may now be 2 or 3 in short order, so ……

Thursday and Friday, 30 and 31 March – Sen Sleep, Cuesta Blanca – We stayed at Sen Sleep with John and Saskia throughout this period. Most days we took the bikes out and revisited the 12K ride just because the scenery is so lovely and the combination of up and downhill just suits our current (un)fitness levels. We have had a few conversations about the balanced life John and Saskia are creating here with a very small, easily serviced business, enough land to build a degree of self-sufficiency and plenty of time to integrate with the local community, enjoy life and just ‘be’.

Sunday 1 April – Cartagena – Decided to brave the cycle into Cartagena to witness the Easter celebrations and processions. We took the quick route in so that we didn’t miss anything and then came home by the scenic route – longer, a loooong steeeep hill but so worth it for the spectacular views of mountains and sea!

Cartagena is a truly beautiful city with some awesome architecture and beautiful little plazas as well as some quite astonishing giant trees (type unknown but working on it). It must be lovely to visit anytime but on Easter Sunday the city centre is madness in a good way. Literally hundreds of people take part in the processions and everyone else and their pet cat comes into town to observe the fun. All the streets are lined with chairs from local businesses and public services and the colours and variety of the marchers and the floats, the mismatched music from a dozen marching bands, the shouts of the young men as they shoulder the weight of the floats for the for the next period of march and the applause and encouragement from the crowd are a glorious riot of noise, colour and community.

We eventually got procession fatigue so we headed down to the harbour to be met by a much more peaceful but equally beautiful scene. The bay of Cartagena is gorgeous, nestled between the surrounding mountains, the water was sparkling blue and the sun shone down on us (so we’re not righteous but it still did ok?). We watched a street performer doing tap dance / flamenco on a half metre square pallet accompanied by a couple of musicians playing traditional Spanish music and we saw what must be the oddest posh yacht in the world. It’s apparently owned by a Russian billionaire, is a one-off sailing design (it looks like something between Star Trek and Nelsons Navy) and is plagued by continuous technical problems so it never goes to sea. A brilliant day and some more great memories filed away.

Monday 2 April – Our last day at Sen Sleep, consisting of a farewell ride round the 12K and another shared meal with new friends on the site. We now have two invitations to stay when/if we visit Holland (with the rather lovely Max, Mineka, Govert and Rianne).

Tuesday 3 April – Almerimar – Bessie started up in her usual faithful style and we trundled off armed with some great tips of places to stay (and to avoid). After a few hours of fabulous views climbing into the mountains we decided to drop down and catch the toll road as that kind of driving in Bessie does take some concentration and pushed the old girl somewhere near her limits.

The most striking aspect of the coast here is the swathes of plastic poly-tunnels – acres and acres of them – twixt mountains and sea. Probably very efficient and necessary but a real eye-sore and we did wonder about the environmental impact of all that plastic (as we rumbled past in our elderly dirty diesel).

The site at Almerimar was ok if very basic. Right near the beach so I had a paddle (very cold) but we decided this part of Spain doesn’t really float our boat so we moved on after one night.

NB: struggling with the technology and connection so unable to access camera and gopro images to wordpress – oh well onward and upward!

Namaste

Paul and Sam x

Hello All – just spent 2 hours writing the blog and 3/4 of it just vanished. Can’t find an auto-save so I’m going to go and sulk and try again tomorrow.

P 😦