Jane & Rog Plod to Portugal

[Bonsaiman]

Oooo, do you have a recipe?

Equal quantity (8oz) of
Plain flour
Chickpea flour
Shrimps (you can’t get the Camarones in UK so I use chopped shrimps or if being really decadent brown shrimps)

1 x Egg
2 x Spring onions finely chopped
Pinch of salt
Pinch of paprika
Water

Basically make a batter of all the ingredients. Spoonful of batter into inch of very hot olive oil, spread out to form thin circle of batter, flip over when bottom starts to brown to cook other side, drain on kitchen roll and eat. Lovely

 

[BobJayne]

Equal quantity (8oz) of
Plain flour
Chickpea flour
Shrimps (you can’t get the Camarones in UK so I use chopped shrimps or if being really decadent brown shrimps)

1 x Egg
2 x Spring onions finely chopped
Pinch of salt
Pinch of paprika
Water

Basically make a batter of all the ingredients. Spoonful of batter into inch of very hot olive oil, spread out to form thin circle of batter, flip over when bottom starts to brown to cook other side, drain on kitchen roll and eat. Lovely

Is that recipe for one and what weight of shrimps for that recipe?

 

[Bonsaiman]

Is that recipe for one and what weight of shrimps for that recipe?

No not just one, it will make a few depending on size but never really counted how many
I use equal quants - 8 ounces of flour, chickpea flour and shrimps

 

[DBK]

We got to Cadiz market as it was opening, just after a tostada (cheese and tomato) for Rog and a couple of coffees.

View attachment 967044
All ordered in Spanglish!

The market is amazing. We bought all the ingredients for seafood rice / paella tonight - red pepper, tomato, squid, clams, small prawns, large show prawns to decorate the top. We also spotted tuna belly on sale, and as it was so delicious last night, decided to splash out on 100g. Just €5! Makes last night’s bargain €25 (which we were comparing to central London) look like the worst deal of the year.

View attachment 967046

View attachment 967048

View attachment 967049

Back to rescue Flynn and pay for last night’s carpark - €8, not bad for a night in central Cadiz in a double room with Tempurpedic mattress, central heating, ensuite bathroom and tea and coffee making facilities.

Our first stop was at the NMAC Foundation Open Air Gallery. Rog does like a sculpture park, and Flynn thinks they’re better than the indoor sort, as he’s allowed to view the artwork. His favourite was this one - we think he got the idea they’d suspended balls and sticks out of the reach of dogs. Perhaps the piece was about one’s inability to get just what one wants? Or perhaps the artist was a cat person.

View attachment 967050
Now, Mr. Flynn, our revenge for last night…

Rog mostly came to see the James Turrell work, “Secondwind 2005,” and I must admit it made the best photos. The bumf describes it as like a sacred site for another, better, species. Certainly a species which doesn’t need a comfy seat or a colour TV.

View attachment 967051
Both of these species do like a comfy seat.

View attachment 967052


View attachment 967053


Our pitch for the night was back on Camping Pinar San José, at Barbate, on the Atlantic coast. We stayed there for a weekend on our return from Morocco while waiting for the garage to get the parts delivered to fix our heating. We got a much better pitch than last time, and the woman on the desk was much friendlier, so a win.

View attachment 967054

We rewarded Flynn for putting up with our brief city break by taking him for a long walk down to the sea and along the coast.

View attachment 967055

Then past the Trafalgar lighthouse, through some lagoons and along the next bay, with stick throwing a plenty.

View attachment 967056

View attachment 967057

We stopped for a drink in a hippie surf bar.

View attachment 967058
Do I smell patchouli oil? Cannabis?

This whole area has a very different vibe than it did in February, that’s for sure. Much livelier. But it’s a lovely place, all the buildings are low rise and the coastline is backed with deep, sandy forests, through which we trudged back to the campsite.

View attachment 967059

Another massive benefit of this site is the warm doggy shower, so at least Flynn won’t be taking half the beach back into Denby this evening. We hope.

View attachment 967060

We had a quick game of Paris Cité de la Lumière. Good points: very good for windy campsites, nice and compact. Bad points: Rog remembered an important scoring rule from the one and only time we’ve played before, and won.

View attachment 967061
Cheaty remembering in progress

Then dinner of sashimi then seafood rice with our amazing haul from the market. Delicious.

View attachment 967062
Tuna belly sashimi

View attachment 967063

View attachment 967064

We've stayed at that site I think 3 times now. It's a big site but the pitches seem well spaced out. The walk to the lighthouse is memorable.

 

[Jane And Rog]

We've stayed at that site I think 3 times now. It's a big site but the pitches seem well spaced out. The walk to the lighthouse is memorable.

View attachment 967143

That’s a very similar photo

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[Jane And Rog]

I hate to quibble but I think Nelson died in 1805 at Trafalgar!

I actually went back to my sources (Wikipedia) and I have no idea how I generated this mistake. Must be the advanced state of refreshment I was in when I finished the post.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

I actually went back to my sources (Wikipedia) and I have no idea how I generated this mistake. Must be the advanced state of refreshment I was in when I finished the post.

Ha ha, we don't allow Wikipedia as a source at University, but do allow it for info and a pointer towards a good source. That said on things like that it's not normally wrong.

 

[varaizian]

Ok, I will confess a personal interest in Nelson. My birthday is the 21st of October i.e. Trafalgar Day. Sadly neglected nowadays despite it’s influence on the wealth and the influence of our country around the world. It is a difficult topic to introduce in my chosen country of residency where a “coup de Trafalgar” means an underhand trick! So, one man’s brilliant naval manoeuvre is another’s cheating and unfair move. Leaving aside, of course, the hundreds of dead and mutilated sailors.

 

[Jane And Rog]

We both woke up with the idea of staying another night for a walk in the woods and maybe eating at one of the restaurants. But, when I took Flynn for his early morning constitutional there were hunters in the woods. Lots of hunters. Some alarmingly close.

I’m not sure what they were hunting but I also spotted this paw print so it’s probably bear or tigers.

…or a dinosaur​

Flynn is a half trained gun dog and has a bad habit of excitedly running towards gunshots. I put him back on the lead, returned to the van and we packed up and left for Ronda. But first lunch and a walk on the Via Verde de la Sierra. The VVdlS is part of the Spanish Rail Trail network and our lunch was on the platform of an old station.

The next train at platform two will be the jamon express
​

Ex train tunnel​

Sierras over olive fields​

The walk itself was just out and back 7km - it was a little hot for Flynn towards then end but he kept himself cool with judicious use of the puddles remaining from the rain ereyesterday.

Mud! Mud! Etc.​

The plan was to drive on to Ronda via a quick mooch round Sentil de las Bodegas. As we drove though though it was obviously overstuffed with day trippers so we parked up at El Nogalejo Camping just outside town to wait them out. The site boasts a very well liked restaurant so we don’t necessarily need to eat in town.

At about 5:30 we set off down the hill. We’re about 20 minutes walk away and had to push through hoards of other sightseers returning to their busses. Sentinel de las Bodegas was still fairly busy though.

SdlB is built into caves and overhangs in a tight canyon. Some historians believe it’s been more or less continuously inhabited for 25000 years - that would put cadiz in its place.

“Bodegas” in the name is because all these houses used to have wine cellars in their caves. We’ve been wondering why we haven’t seen more wine production on the road and especially in this little town. Seems that after the wine plague in the 1850s killed most of the vines in Europe the local farmers concentrated on their almonds and olives and never looked back. Nelson famously reported this in his best selling diary when game here on Holiday in the early 1900s

We had a non-wine drink in a cave bar and returned to give Flynn a break.

The Spanish serve massive G&Ts​

The camp site’s restaurant was indeed excellent. Bao buns with smoked fish, assorted crocettas and then bbq lamb shank.

Ham, cheese, tuna.

If I was being picky, the lamb was a little over sous-vide so a bit soft but really good - especially for a campsite kitchen.

Annoyingly Spanish eating times don’t fit with my digestion. The late start brought on acid reflux so we had to skip puds.

 

[Zoobec]

I love the photo of Flynn in the puddle

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[Grianan]

Great photos … love the train tunnel. I don’t know how the Spanish manage to sleep after eating so late.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Bodegas looks interesting. Hope you like Rhonda, in the summer they have a free flamenco festival that is really good.

Still some work to do on your history of Nelson I’m afraid.

 

[VXman]

I started to look at this thread but had to stop as we should be there now but had to cancel for health reasons. Will look at you route again in the new year though as we will hopefully do it in March/April.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Bodegas looks interesting. Hope you like Rhonda, in the summer they have a free flamenco festival that is really good.

Still some work to do on your history of Nelson I’m afraid.

I’ve seen a paid one at one of the museums. Where is the free one?

 

[Jane And Rog]

I started to look at this thread but had to stop as we should be there now but had to cancel for health reasons. Will look at you route again in the new year though as we will hopefully do it in March/April.

All the best for a speedy recovery and we’ll look on your posts with envy in March.

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[Wanders from Glos]

I’ve seen a paid one at one of the museums. Where is the free one?

The free one was in June I think and was one of those typical Spanish festivals, lasted three days and flamenco was being staged in a number of locations outside. A couple of squares and near the castle walls from memory. If we are ever in the area at the right time we will definitely return.

Mind you the main attraction didn't start until after midnight, in true Spanish style.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Today we had the shortest driving day we’ve ever had in Denby - 13km to the aire at Ronda. We were greeted by a very friendly Guardian of the Portal, which makes all the difference, I think. “Stay as long as you want! You can get your chairs and tables out!” We also lucked on a massive pitch, with a westwards view over the mountains, so we have high hopes for the sunset.

We decided to discard our massive walk plans, as despite the fact that we were pretty much up and out after coffee, it was already 11am and the sun was high and hot in the sky.

Instead, it would be a walk through the shady streets (we hoped) to see some sights and have our main meal at lunchtime, given our issues with Spanish dinnertime. On the way, we spotted this.

A festival of ham! I think Rog was seriously thinking of waiting 3 weeks for this, given that the only way this could be improved would to be a festival (yay!) of ham (double yay!) with Black Sabbath playing live (yay squared). (Yes, as Rog and I both have maths degrees, I am aware that if yay has a value of one, then double yay > yay squared. For the sake of non-argument, let’s say yay = 3).

There’s quite a walk from the Ronda aire through the new town to the main centre, but it’s worth it.

You start seeing shops like this:

And then you come upon the bridge. This, believe it or not, is the newest bridge. The aptly named Puente Nuevo crosses a very deep and narrow chasm which separates the newer town from the old town.

New Bridge, v2

There were already two lower bridges, but this was the first attempt at bridging the canyon at this height, and it wasn’t a simple job. The chasm is relatively narrow, but about 130 metres down to the Guadalevín River below. The architects Jose Garcia and Juan Camacho were chosen for the project, and they began work on a single arch design in 1735. They completed the bridge in good time, but not to a high standard. The entire bridge collapsed in 1741, killing 50 people, most of them residents of Ronda.

The houses each side are clinging to the rock.

We took the photo above from the terrace of a café-bar which had this interesting menu outside. Chinese clearly fairly frequent visitors. Russians not approved of at all.

We walked on into the old town, and came across the Iglesia Del Espiritu Santo. Apparently this dates from 1485, and Ronda’s reconquest by Catholics - it was built on top of the former mosque.

Rog had a visit while I hung around outside and refreshed Flynn and myself with water.

After The Last Supper

Before the First Lunch

We mooched all around the streets of the old town for an hour or so. It was lovely, although filled with tourists groups and their guides.

We’d hoped to have lunch in a Michelin Bib Gourmand, but hadn’t been committed enough to book. We got there 10 minutes before it officially opened but were cheated of a table by a large party of locals (well, Spanish) who seemed to manage to do some advanced persuading and got the only remaining outside tables manoeuvred into a massive table for 10. Slightly discouraged, and very hungry (1:15pm makes for a very late breakfast), we moved on, but lucked on a place which specialised in ham, organic tomatoes and its own olive oil. Obviously our starter was ham, and a tomato, olive oil and tuna belly salad. With my first cava of the holiday! (People who know me in real life will find this very hard to believe.)

Right, my work here is done. We can go home now.

For mains we had two more starters - scrambled egg with black pudding, and seafood croquettas. Both delicious.

It turned out we made a good choice, if you put any store by Ernest Hemingway’s skill as a restaurant critic. He ate here in 1959.

I ate the tuna. The tuna was good.

Also worthy of note, given his propensity to bathe in mud and kill chickens, Flynn was very well-behaved indeed. He was persuaded to take up residence under the table, and stayed there without a squeak for the whole, lengthy meal. (Water was provided.)

Good doggy!

He was rewarded with a proper human ice-cream on our way back to Denby. (Vanilla with forest fruits. He says he won’t be fobbed off with plain vanilla any more.)

We got back around 4pm and had a lazy end to the day.

 

[Peavy]

with Black Sabbath playing live

Sounds about right

 

[Mr porky]

Today we had the shortest driving day we’ve ever had in Denby - 13km to the aire at Ronda. We were greeted by a very friendly Guardian of the Portal, which makes all the difference, I think. “Stay as long as you want! You can get your chairs and tables out!” We also lucked on a massive pitch, with a westwards view over the mountains, so we have high hopes for the sunset.

View attachment 967975

We decided to discard our massive walk plans, as despite the fact that we were pretty much up and out after coffee, it was already 11am and the sun was high and hot in the sky.

Instead, it would be a walk through the shady streets (we hoped) to see some sights and have our main meal at lunchtime, given our issues with Spanish dinnertime. On the way, we spotted this.

View attachment 967976

A festival of ham! I think Rog was seriously thinking of waiting 3 weeks for this, given that the only way this could be improved would to be a festival (yay!) of ham (double yay!) with Black Sabbath playing live (yay squared). (Yes, as Rog and I both have maths degrees, I am aware that if yay has a value of one, then double yay > yay squared. For the sake of non-argument, let’s say yay = 3).

There’s quite a walk from the Ronda aire through the new town to the main centre, but it’s worth it.

You start seeing shops like this:

View attachment 967977

And then you come upon the bridge. This, believe it or not, is the newest bridge. The aptly named Puente Nuevo crosses a very deep and narrow chasm which separates the newer town from the old town.

View attachment 967978
New Bridge, v2

There were already two lower bridges, but this was the first attempt at bridging the canyon at this height, and it wasn’t a simple job. The chasm is relatively narrow, but about 130 metres down to the Guadalevín River below. The architects Jose Garcia and Juan Camacho were chosen for the project, and they began work on a single arch design in 1735. They completed the bridge in good time, but not to a high standard. The entire bridge collapsed in 1741, killing 50 people, most of them residents of Ronda.

The houses each side are clinging to the rock.

View attachment 967979


We took the photo above from the terrace of a café-bar which had this interesting menu outside. Chinese clearly fairly frequent visitors. Russians not approved of at all.

View attachment 967980

We walked on into the old town, and came across the Iglesia Del Espiritu Santo. Apparently this dates from 1485, and Ronda’s reconquest by Catholics - it was built on top of the former mosque.

View attachment 967981

Rog had a visit while I hung around outside and refreshed Flynn and myself with water.

View attachment 967982

View attachment 967983
After The Last Supper

View attachment 967984
Before the First Lunch

We mooched all around the streets of the old town for an hour or so. It was lovely, although filled with tourists groups and their guides.

View attachment 967985

We’d hoped to have lunch in a Michelin Bib Gourmand, but hadn’t been committed enough to book. We got there 10 minutes before it officially opened but were cheated of a table by a large party of locals (well, Spanish) who seemed to manage to do some advanced persuading and got the only remaining outside tables manoeuvred into a massive table for 10. Slightly discouraged, and very hungry (1:15pm makes for a very late breakfast), we moved on, but lucked on a place which specialised in ham, organic tomatoes and its own olive oil. Obviously our starter was ham, and a tomato, olive oil and tuna belly salad. With my first cava of the holiday! (People who know me in real life will find this very hard to believe.)

View attachment 967986
Right, my work here is done. We can go home now.

View attachment 967987

For mains we had two more starters - scrambled egg with black pudding, and seafood croquettas. Both delicious.

View attachment 967988


It turned out we made a good choice, if you put any store by Ernest Hemingway’s skill as a restaurant critic. He ate here in 1959.

View attachment 967989
I ate the tuna. The tuna was good.

Also worthy of note, given his propensity to bathe in mud and kill chickens, Flynn was very well-behaved indeed. He was persuaded to take up residence under the table, and stayed there without a squeak for the whole, lengthy meal. (Water was provided.)

View attachment 967990
Good doggy!

He was rewarded with a proper human ice-cream on our way back to Denby. (Vanilla with forest fruits. He says he won’t be fobbed off with plain vanilla any more.)

We got back around 4pm and had a lazy end to the day.

Fantastic. The walk into the valley to look up to the bridge is worth doing. Last time we where there a bar/hostel was in the valley.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Fantastic. The walk into the valley to look up to the bridge is worth doing. Last time we where there a bar/hostel was in the valley.

Thanks - also planning the longer country walk tomorrow so let’s hope we have the energy!

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[Dutch 68]

Fantastic. The walk into the valley to look up to the bridge is worth doing. Last time we where there a bar/hostel was in the valley.

You can also go down to river level through a beautiful cave staircase which brings you all the way down to a piece of decking over the river, right in the heart of town , very close to the bridge , it’s gorgeous

 

[cliffanger]

Today we had the shortest driving day we’ve ever had in Denby - 13km to the aire at Ronda. We were greeted by a very friendly Guardian of the Portal, which makes all the difference, I think. “Stay as long as you want! You can get your chairs and tables out!” We also lucked on a massive pitch, with a westwards view over the mountains, so we have high hopes for the sunset.

View attachment 967975

We decided to discard our massive walk plans, as despite the fact that we were pretty much up and out after coffee, it was already 11am and the sun was high and hot in the sky.

Instead, it would be a walk through the shady streets (we hoped) to see some sights and have our main meal at lunchtime, given our issues with Spanish dinnertime. On the way, we spotted this.

View attachment 967976

A festival of ham! I think Rog was seriously thinking of waiting 3 weeks for this, given that the only way this could be improved would to be a festival (yay!) of ham (double yay!) with Black Sabbath playing live (yay squared). (Yes, as Rog and I both have maths degrees, I am aware that if yay has a value of one, then double yay > yay squared. For the sake of non-argument, let’s say yay = 3).

There’s quite a walk from the Ronda aire through the new town to the main centre, but it’s worth it.

You start seeing shops like this:

View attachment 967977

And then you come upon the bridge. This, believe it or not, is the newest bridge. The aptly named Puente Nuevo crosses a very deep and narrow chasm which separates the newer town from the old town.

View attachment 967978
New Bridge, v2

There were already two lower bridges, but this was the first attempt at bridging the canyon at this height, and it wasn’t a simple job. The chasm is relatively narrow, but about 130 metres down to the Guadalevín River below. The architects Jose Garcia and Juan Camacho were chosen for the project, and they began work on a single arch design in 1735. They completed the bridge in good time, but not to a high standard. The entire bridge collapsed in 1741, killing 50 people, most of them residents of Ronda.

The houses each side are clinging to the rock.

View attachment 967979


We took the photo above from the terrace of a café-bar which had this interesting menu outside. Chinese clearly fairly frequent visitors. Russians not approved of at all.

View attachment 967980

We walked on into the old town, and came across the Iglesia Del Espiritu Santo. Apparently this dates from 1485, and Ronda’s reconquest by Catholics - it was built on top of the former mosque.

View attachment 967981

Rog had a visit while I hung around outside and refreshed Flynn and myself with water.

View attachment 967982

View attachment 967983
After The Last Supper

View attachment 967984
Before the First Lunch

We mooched all around the streets of the old town for an hour or so. It was lovely, although filled with tourists groups and their guides.

View attachment 967985

We’d hoped to have lunch in a Michelin Bib Gourmand, but hadn’t been committed enough to book. We got there 10 minutes before it officially opened but were cheated of a table by a large party of locals (well, Spanish) who seemed to manage to do some advanced persuading and got the only remaining outside tables manoeuvred into a massive table for 10. Slightly discouraged, and very hungry (1:15pm makes for a very late breakfast), we moved on, but lucked on a place which specialised in ham, organic tomatoes and its own olive oil. Obviously our starter was ham, and a tomato, olive oil and tuna belly salad. With my first cava of the holiday! (People who know me in real life will find this very hard to believe.)

View attachment 967986
Right, my work here is done. We can go home now.

View attachment 967987

For mains we had two more starters - scrambled egg with black pudding, and seafood croquettas. Both delicious.

View attachment 967988


It turned out we made a good choice, if you put any store by Ernest Hemingway’s skill as a restaurant critic. He ate here in 1959.

View attachment 967989
I ate the tuna. The tuna was good.

Also worthy of note, given his propensity to bathe in mud and kill chickens, Flynn was very well-behaved indeed. He was persuaded to take up residence under the table, and stayed there without a squeak for the whole, lengthy meal. (Water was provided.)

View attachment 967990
Good doggy!

He was rewarded with a proper human ice-cream on our way back to Denby. (Vanilla with forest fruits. He says he won’t be fobbed off with plain vanilla any more.)

We got back around 4pm and had a lazy end to the day.

Amazing photos!

We stayed in the Parador on the side of the bridge on our tour of Paradors a few years ago. We loved Ronda, window shopped in countless Jamon shops, and walked down the valley to look at the bridge from the bottom.

 

[sedge]

That pez espada on the fishmonger's slab in the market made my mouth water tonight - been a long time since I tasted any - or serrano ham (though I never fancied it when it hung above the bar with everyone smoking including the bar owner) and attracted the flies!

 

[Jane And Rog]

Today’s drawing is of two chaps in the old town of Ronda, studiously ignoring each other while waiting for Sunday lunch.

 

[Jane And Rog]

We got up fairly early and took Flynn for a walk into the hills



The video looks like it’s a sandy desert up there but it was fairly green. The graffiti at about 00:30 says:

THE NEW NORMAL IS THE NEW WORLD ORDER: TOTALITARIAN CONTROL OF OUR LIVES FREEDOM, PRIVACY, RELATIONSHIPS, [AND] PERSONAL ECONOMY. THINK!

Which we did. I also added punctuation so, also: PAY ATTENTION IN SCHOOL!*

By the time we got back it was lunchtime - we managed to cobble a meal together from supplies. Luckily Spanish supplies are excellent so it was good.

We spent the hot hours sitting around Denby and nipping to the local Medcadona before heading out for some serious trouristing. First up, the bull ring:

The Rhonda bullring was keen to emphasise its place as a horse riding school, keeper of history and lots of other things that don’t involve killing bulls. But still, they do hold bull fights here and are keen on Hemingway who hung around the Ronda bull ring and said of Bull Fighting:

> There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games​

Which does imply he’d never played Dungeons and Dragons or he lived before a lot of other “hobbies that might kill you” like base jumping, heroin, wing suits and pogo sticks. Also, there’s not many photos of Hemingway actually fighting bulls, racing cars or going up mountains. When it came to doing, he seemed keener on fishing, drinking, typing and being mean to ladies.

So, from GenX indignation mixed with fascination, to the Arab baths. It was a long way down: to the bottom of the gorge and next to the site of the ancient city gate. The Arab baths were very atmospheric. Sadly the informative video was in Spanish and although I think they did answer the question: “but wait, aren’t these roman baths?” It was lost on us.

From there, back up the hill to the old town. We wandered into a hotel and for €8 we got access to one of the best views of the Rhonda New Bridge with a free drink thrown in!

On the way back to Denby we started the serious business of buying souvenirs - mainly in our case, food. Rhonda is well blessed with ham, cheese, wine and almond cakes. We bought everything except the cheese.

Back at the site we freed Flynn and then cooked a some iberico pork and those-massive-tomatoes-you-wish-you-could-get-in-the-uk we’d picked up at Mercadonna between the walk and the touristing.

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[Peavy]

A few years ago (when I was a kid), there was a TV ad for the turrón from the shop Jane is standing in the photo.
The slogan was "1880, the most expensive turrón in the world."
By the way, fantastic pictures, and what a nice video format, I didn't know about

 

[Jane And Rog]

A few years ago (when I was a kid), there was a TV ad for the turrón from the shop Jane is standing in the photo.
The slogan was "1880, the most expensive turrón in the world."
By the way, fantastic pictures, and what a nice video format, I didn't know about

Oh, wow, we lucked out there. We bought a mixed set specially branded for Christmas. I think you do have to pay for that video app, but it’s worth, especially for longer walks, which we used for do more when I had an ankle bone that was just in one piece!

 

[Jane And Rog]

I painted a sketch of the hills from yesterday’s walk.

 

[Jane And Rog]

First stop today was the Paraje Natural Torcal de Antequera - an area of weird rock formations with nature trails leaning among them. Apparently this 12-sq-km area of gnarled, serrated and pillared limestone formed as a sea bed 150 million years ago.

I was a bit misled by the sea bed part of the description. The route up to the visitor centre turned out to be a very non-Jane-friendly mountain road with steep drops to the side.

Sadly for Flynn, the walking was strictly on lead only. (For dogs that is - I didn’t have to put Rog’s “special” collar on.)

We scoffed at the walking times - nearly two hours for the shorter route - but in the end it was very slow going, with lots of rocky clambers and a dog on a lead that spotted an ibis and wanted to admire the magnificent animal by killing it (and the person on the other end of the lead).

Poor still from video, spot ibex top centre.

After the walk we had lunch at the park’s café with an amazing view. A mixed salad and a soup - we were lucky to choose the local one from the nearby town. Porra antequerana is a part of the gazpacho family of soups. It’s supposed to consist of tomato and dried bread, but ours was made of ground almonds and mushrooms, with an egg on top. Bit of a difference!

Then a quick view from the mirador.

On the way back off the mountain, Rog set up the Insta360 on Denby’s bonnet to capture the drive.



As we left the car park, he pointed something out to me. “Not looking, I have my eyes tight shut,” I replied.

“So have I!” Came the reply. I hope he was joking.

Our stop for the night was going to be a free (and legal) car park in Montilla. Amontillado sherry is named after it, using the light white wine of the region. But then it was 26 degrees with no electricity for the Flynn air con. Not that we’d have needed it because all the restaurants were closed because Tuesday. And the sherry tasting place was fully booked, despite having masses of availability first thing this morning. After a brief, hot, mooch around town we headed off to the aire at Doña Mencía.

There was a lot of soup in the Tizer before we managed to get admitted. You were supposed to have pre-booked. We found a guardian of the portal, who rather than actually letting us pay and then open the gates, mimed to Rog to book online on his phone. This (posssibly) done, said guardian didn’t speak at all, not even in Spanish, and his communication of detailed check-in requirements, including passports in duplicate and mother’s inside leg measurement, was not easy to understand when it was delivered by the medium of mime alone. Still, we did get in after a while, and were all set up with a G&T and a beer, and a view of the town and the hills, when the mute portal man sited a German van in the way of said view. The German chap apologised and of course we assured him it was not his fault.

Anyway, as the next door restaurant was closed (because Tuesday) I made a curry - onion, chilli, red peppers, chick peas, coconut milk, garam Marsala and turmeric. Plus chicken breast which we usually avoid but the packets of thighs were too enormous to manage in the van.

Not bad.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Although the thing we’re trying to do this trip is slow down a bit and not plan ourselves into seeing the Next Thing™ and. Ending up on a mad dash though country after country. But… you do need to plan a bit or else this happens:

Nope​

This is the booking calendar for the Alhambra as of last night. If you want the night tour, maybe because you have a dog, come back in January.

Hopes of cultural gawping dashed we continued with today’s plans: a walk along another via verde to Zuheros about 8km round trip. The going was easy, along the paved train line, except for a very sharp climb from the side of the valley up to the village . Flynn offset this relaxing walk by trying to supplement his breakfast with el pollo. Luckily Spanish farmers are more protective of their chickens than their cousins across the Straits of Gibraltar and he was kept at (frantic) bay by a chain link fence.

The walk to the village was through olive groves that stretched the (considerable) way to the horizon. The farming in this part of Spain seems to be a huge monoculture. There is a lot of planting going on but it’s nearly all olives.

It’s full of olives​

The village itself is classic white village with a castle perched high on a hillside. This being a day of the week and before eight at night, everything was closed. We had to make do with the view and a water fountain for refreshment.

The sun just started to appear over the top of the valley as we were leaving.​

We also got all sniffy about middle aged Spaniards behaving like UK kids and playing music on their phones whilst walking, running or just standing by a view. Today’s second example was doing both. He even asked me to take a photo of him with his phone whilst it was still blaring flamenco to the handful of tourists in the town square. Sadly although I can ask for three different types of drink and a parking spot for the night (7m only) I don’t have the Spanish for “only if you turn this incessant racket of, look at yourself, you should be more considerate”. Instead, I took his photo and bid him enjoy the rest of his ride (in English natch) whilst giving him my best Paddington stare.

We lunched on the road at a random grill because it had a fire in its outdoor kitchen. Our ordering policy (anything we haven’t heard of especially if Google can’t translate it) meant we avoided a huge steak cooked on the fire (also, lunchtime) but we did get fried aubergines with honey and cheese and a slightly less successful bacon and egg filled chicken Kyiv sausage thing. It was better than it sounds but still a little strange.

Not hotdog.​

As we ate, the restaurant filled up with farmers. Many of them arrived on tractors and had a few drinks before they ate. It looked like they were in it for the long run. Some of the older guys brought and swapped interesting looking food in huge jars.

Interesting jar not pictured.​

We’re spending the night to the east, up in the Sierra Nevada - more as a way to break the journey than having anything special on our not-planned-list to see or do up here. We’re at The Órgiva Aire - coincidentally in the hippy city of Órgiva. There are threatening clouds spilling over the mountains towards us but, Apple weather is convinced it’ll not rain.

Dinner was just next door at Parilla El Jardin. We were first through the door at 7pm but it really felt like this place didn’t get going until 9pm at the earliest, probably more like late May. Still, the grilled iberico chop and trout with ham were good.

Alone in a nightclub.​

Flynn has been obsessing about the site cat all day. As I took him out for his final ‘walk’ I said: “…and remember Flynn, this isn’t a cat hunting expedition”. Wrong. The moggy was investigating our pitch. They stood like this for about three minutes - both like statues pretending the other couldn’t see them. The cat caved first and ran for the door. Flynn tried to give chase but Luckily I had him restrained.

Do you know anywhere good for chicken?​

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