Jeff: Waiting in Spain... and the journey onwards

So we managed to have a good look around the Villaricos market the next morning and bought some veggies to keep us going for the next few days. On the way back to the van we ran into someone I used to work with which just makes you remember how small the world is! The weather wasn’t really beach weather so we decided to head out on the bikes for a bit and we rode into a town called Gurrucha for it then to totally pour down with rain so we quickly retreated back to the van, but not before we were soaked. We managed to get out onto the beach for a short time once the rain dried up but all in all it was a quiet day for us.

The next day we had planned to meet Clare, who I worked with for lunch and drinks (well the rain came down again so there wasn’t too much else to do). After far too many gins, a quick swim in the pool and so much needed catching up we retired to bed. We were hoping to pick up the toilet cassette we had order but the tracking had not moved since Friday so we were losing hope and the next morning we decided to go on a short way, into the national park, and come back once it had been delivered. This meant that the next few days were going to be a bit more low key and we wanted to stay about an hour or so away from Vera.

So on the Tuesday we headed out to Parque Natural del Cabo de Gata which is a marine natural park and had great beaches for swimming and snorkelling. We first headed to playa de los Muertos which is dead beach and I don’t think we have ever seen water as clear as this (and this is a theme throughout the natural park). The beach is a short walk from the car park and was lovely and quiet but due to the wind it was a little wavey. We did manage to snorkel a couple of times though and chilled on the beach until it was time to find somewhere to sleep. Now wild camping is not allowed in the natural park at all and you can be fined (depending on how the guards who find you are feeling, some will let you off with a warning, some wont) so we had to be more thoughtful on where we planned to sleep. We did a little bit of searching and found a little place on top of the cliff near the beach and overlooking the next town, Agua Amarga. This was a great place to watch the sun set and relax and another campervan came and parked nearby who were also trying to avoid being caught and we both agreed not to dob the other in if the guards came!

The following morning we decided to spend the day at Agua Amarga and after going for a morning run then struggling to find some parking for the day we managed to get to the beach for a bit. What we have learnt is we are still not on Spanish time, we get up too early and we are usually on the beach a good couple of hours before the Spanish make it down. After a couple of hours relaxing, swimming and snorkelling we decided to have an ice cream and headed onto the next town Rodaquilar where we planned to spend the night in the hills again. The place we were spending the night was an old gold mine.

The next morning we got up nice and early and continued into the gold mine and explored some of the tunnels which were totally dark and fairly creepy but had some great views over the area. Once back at Jeff we drove down to La Isleta del Moro to again spend the day by the beach and snorkel. This little town is great as there are two beaches on the different sides of the outcrop and if its windy on one side (which is was Thursday) the other side is usually fine. We managed to have a good swim and snokel and watch some divers have what must have been a try dive from the look of their abilities. After a couple of hours we thought we should do the usual boring stuff like some shopping before we run out of food and headed into the middle of nowhere for our stop for the night but we weren’t the only ones there, there was another british van to keep us company.

On Friday we got up and headed back to the beach playa de las selinas where we managed to snorkel again. Over the last few days we have manged to see lots including fish we have never seen before and birds swimming underwater. It has been great and really worth going to the different beaches but there is only so much beach relaxing we can do so you can imagine how pleased we were when we received the email saying the parcel is ready for pick up! We had to go back to the area we stopped at the previous night as Rich had accidently left my flip flops there (they dropped out when he was getting out and he didn’t see them!) and then we headed to pick up the toilet from near Vera and then headed back through the park towards Granada where we planned to spend the next couple of days.

On Saturday we headed towards Granada with a stop in Guadix, where there are thousands of houses build into the terrain, to have a look around and climbed to the top of the hill to have a good look before continuing on to a paid camper stop in Granda where we jumped on the bikes and explored the city. We soon found it was not a city to explore on bikes so we managed to find some parking for them and explored on foot. We explored lots of the city including the high view points which over looked the Alhambra palaces which we had booked for tomorrow, we walked in the park near the Alhambra, found a nice tea shop in the centre, walked through the old town and ended up watching a couple of weddings start at different churches throughout the town. We had dinner at a nice veggie restaurant and as it had been a hot busy day we treated ourselves to a very nice vegan dessert and cocktails before the ride back to the camperstop.

The next morning was a dreaded Sunday again and we did let Spain lull us into a false sense of security. Rich wanted breakfast and so after moving the van closer to the city (and the top of a hill which Granada is full of) we went off in search of something healthy to find everything we wanted closed so after a quick stop in Starbucks we entered the Alhambra and proceeded to spend a lot of time walking around taking photos, getting lost and running into the couple who had spent the night in the camper van next to us last night. We visited several of the palaces and the Generalife which was a set of gardens. It was a beautiful place with calm gardens and stunning Islamic palaces which was first started in the 1200’s. After the walk back up the hill to the van and drove onto Hoya de la Mora which is in the Sierra Nevada national park and is at 2,500 meters. We parked up and had dinner up here and the aim was to get used to the altitude before climbing the mountain tomorrow but oh my god the wind wanted us to know we were high! We did try and get to sleep but after about an hour we knew it would be fruitless so we went down the mountain a little to get some shelter and finally got some sleep but were still rocked by the wind for a lot of the night.

The next morning we got up fairly early and drove back up to Hoya de la Mora and got the bikes out for the ride up Pico de la Veleta which is 3,396 meters high and can be cycled from the car park we were in. The ride is only 12km with a gradient of around 7.5% and while this was going to be challenging enough the winds were still really strong and we often battled with 30-40 km head winds. It was tough going but we did it slow and steady and we made it up in under 2 hours. Once there though it was cold and had a temperature in the single figures and a feels like -2. We had a little food, took some photos and then quickly started the journey back down. While the downward portion was less work the wind still made it difficult and we had to take care as the wind could push you off track (and it was strong enough to slow us down when we were coming into the head wind). It took us less than 40 mins to get back to the van and we quickly made some very hot tea and food to warm us back up. We just aren’t used to cold weather anymore! We didn’t want to stay in the mountains for another night and so headed down and in the direction of Malaga. Back at sea level (or nearer sea level) and the temperature rose to 30 degrees which helped finally warm us up!

Now we are going to spend a couple of days in Malaga and do some exploring nearby.