Beech's Euro Tour Part Deux

Lenny HB said:
Grub looks good, I need to hone up my van cooking skills.
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A lot of our favourite meals are quite well suited to van cooking luckily. Curries particularly and I've carefully chosen some good quality cookware that's a bit smaller than the norm. Love my baby wok and it was only £12
 
So we knew that Franco spent a lot of his holidays in Barbate, so much so that the town used to be called Barbate de Franco! What we didn’t realise when we parked up last night was that we would be right in front of his old villa!

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It‘s very run down now and all references to him have now been erased from the town as decreed by law in 1998.
We can see why he chose this location though; it’s stunning and right on the seafront.

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This is the view out towards Cabo de Trafalgar which is where the famous sea battle took place. The beach’s nickname is the “Beach of Lost Souls” as so many bodies washed ashore here.

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Another beautiful day so we’re off to the local market to re-supply now, although Chris & Andrea have recommended the local pizza delivery shop…
 
We’ve been meaning to post a map showing where we’ve been since we bought the motorhome late November 2019. Every gold star is at least 1 overnight spot.

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More detail of the UK below

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And France with a little bit of Italy

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Spain & Portugal

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Loving the trip and the pictures. Thanks.
ps, Your in van cooking puts my in house cooking to shame.
 
It's been a very very windy few days and we fancied a break from coast and beaches so decided to head inland for some rural activities, after first stocking ourselves to the gunnels with water, food and booze.

We found a quiet little picnic area just inside the Parque Natural Los Alcornocales to stay last night and managed to get out of the worst of the wind and had a quiet night with the place to ourselves then we drove on into the park a little further today and went for a nice 7 mile hike next to a reservoir. A bit of light drizzle at the start is the 1st we've seen of any rain in 3 weeks or more!

On the hike we found caves that were used as prehistoric settlements with seats or beds and bowl shapes carved out of the rock, a rock shaped like a dinosaur and dozens of vultures soaring above us and dropping down to have a look at us! They were enormous and we got a great look at them.

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We've had a pretty sedentary month and I'm really excited to be in an area of Spain now where we can do lot's of hiking and mountain biking and I'm loving being out in nature again with hardly another person seen all day.

Another overnight in a deserted picnic area tonight then hopefully another hike tomorrow.
 

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Some more pics from yesterday’s hike. Recreation of an old style of house.

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Looked a lot like the Cairngorms in places.

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You can see Gibraltar in the distance in these pics.

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And we found the “Piedra Cráneo de Dinosaurio“, dinosaur skull rock after a bit of scrambling.

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Pre MH days, we used to overwinter in a villa near there. There is an Aire in the 'new' village of Castellar de la Frontera. It is nothing special to look at but is next door to a bar!

The old village it was built to replace is worth a look and is/was a typical Pueblo Blanco with some long windy hills to get up to it which would test your cycling stamina.

If you carry on up the road towards Ronda, you'll come to Gaucin. Again worth a wander around.

The train ride from Algeciras to Ronda is well worth doing and we used to get on at either Jimena de la Frontera or San Pablo du Buceite.

Ubrique is worth a visit if you like leather work.

Ronda is a nice town. There is a site there but quite expensive.

Edit. Meant to add that the Repsol Service Station at San Pablo de Buceite acts as a selling out point for local produce, oranges, mandarins, clementines, avocados, lemons etc at this time of year. Straight off the tree and cheap.

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We stayed up at Gaucin a little while back, we were in an apartment which had been an old olive oil mill called Molino del Carmen. It was September time and there were lots of cranes migrating South to Africa, very impressive, as we're the vultures that launched off the cliff face on the road up to Gaucin.
 
namwaldog said:
Pre MH days, we used to overwinter in a villa near there. There is an Aire in the 'new' village of Castellar de la Frontera. It is nothing special to look at but is next door to a bar!

The old village it was built to replace is worth a look and is/was a typical Pueblo Blanco with some long windy hills to get up to it which would test your cycling stamina.

If you carry on up the road towards Ronda, you'll come to Gaucin. Again worth a wander around.

The train ride from Algeciras to Ronda is well worth doing and we used to get on at either Jimena de la Frontera or San Pablo du Buceite.

Ubrique is worth a visit if you like leather work.

Ronda is a nice town. There is a site there but quite expensive.

Edit. Meant to add that the Repsol Service Station at San Pablo de Buceite acts as a selling out point for local produce, oranges, mandarins, clementines, avocados, lemons etc at this time of year. Straight off the tree and cheap.

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Ha we are at the aire now after a visit to the castle village! I was just looking on Wikiloc for a bike ride for tomorrow and have found one starting in San Pablo so will defo check out the local produce thanks! The ride goes up to El Colmenar.

Then the plan is to continue on up to Ronda.
 
jockaneezer said:
We stayed up at Gaucin a little while back, we were in an apartment which had been an old olive oil mill called Molino del Carmen. It was September time and there were lots of cranes migrating South to Africa, very impressive, as we're the vultures that launched off the cliff face on the road up to Gaucin.
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We saw dozens of the cranes nesting on the drive today. Beautifully graceful birds.
 
From our walk today.
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Rock of Gibraltar
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We spotted a vultures nest in a ravine. 3 vultures I'm guessing mum dad and adolescent all took flight whilst we were watching. We also spied a Great spotted woodpecker. Could get into this twitching lark!
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Ah yes,but what type of vultures are they? Get your book out as I don’t know! Nice pics.
 
I only found this fabulous thread last night. How did I miss it?!
Thank you for sharing your adventures. It’s lovely to recognise some of the places in your photographs too.
Lorraine x

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Podney said:
Ah yes,but what type of vultures are they? Get your book out as I don’t know! Nice pics.
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I think we were told that they were Griffon vultures, but I'm sure a more ardent twitcher will be along to correct me ?
 
Where's the 🌞 :frowny:
 
We were at Ronda Vieja Roman site many years ago, the site is sloping up to a steep escarpment(cliff).
We were stood near the top when a Griffon Vulture floated up on a thermal, what seemed a few feet away, we were somewhat awestruck to say the least.
On the road down to the coast at San Pedro there is a turn off on the left to a parking area, can't remember the name, about 10/12k along a dirt road into the Sierra las Nieves.
From there is a nice strenuous, for me, to Torrecilla, about 1900m.
We never made it to the top and never will now unfortunately but definitely an interesting walk.
 
matamoros said:
We were at Ronda Vieja Roman site many years ago, the site is sloping up to a steep escarpment(cliff).
We were stood near the top when a Griffon Vulture floated up on a thermal, what seemed a few feet away, we were somewhat awestruck to say the least.
On the road down to the coast at San Pedro there is a turn off on the left to a parking area, can't remember the name, about 10/12k along a dirt road into the Sierra las Nieves.
From there is a nice strenuous, for me, to Torrecilla, about 1900m.
We never made it to the top and never will now unfortunately but definitely an interesting walk.
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That sounds strenuous to me too!

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We had a little wander round Gaucin this morning. Beautiful little town and dead quiet on a Monday. All these little Spanish towns and villages are so immaculately kept apart from the dog shit everywhere! It's a real shame but as a lot of dogs here seem to be left to take themselves out for a walk that's the result. That and a number of road casualties that I've seen already on this trip. 😭

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Unfortunately after we climbed up to the Castle we found the gate locked as it's only open Wednesday to Sunday in winter. Oh well an excuse to come back.
 
Helen Ariel said:
We had a little wander round Gaucin this morning. Beautiful little town and dead quiet on a Monday. All these little Spanish towns and villages are so immaculately kept apart from the dog shit everywhere! It's a real shame but as a lot of dogs here seem to be left to take themselves out for a walk that's the result. That and a number of road casualties that I've seen already on this trip. 😭

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Unfortunately after we climbed up to the Castle we found the gate locked as it's only open Wednesday to Sunday in winter. Oh well an excuse to come back.
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Lovely photo of the old door. They’re often a good subject for the photographer. I also like man-hole covers, probably because I spend a lot of time looking where I’m stepping, especially on cobbled streets and Spanish streets with dog poo!
 
KiwiKampers said:
Lovely photo of the old door. They’re often a good subject for the photographer. I also like man-hole covers, probably because I spend a lot of time looking where I’m stepping, especially on cobbled streets and Spanish streets with dog poo!
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How's that for a manhole! From today!
 

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