Jane & Rog Plod to Portugal

[Barriesimpson]

Oooo, do you have a recipe?

You'll not be able to buy the necessary baby shrimps in the UK I'm afraid - not legal.

 

[Jane And Rog]

We had a reasonably long drive this morning, aware that Spain is very wide and we need to move east.

We drove along the A-7 from Motril until well past Almeria. I’d worried about missing all this coastline out, but I needn’t have worried, as it’s been totally wrecked (aesthetically) by agriculture. Apparently farmers started experimenting with adding layers of sand and mulch to soil along with a covering of plastic in the 1950s and 1960s, initially to protect the soil and plants from damaging winds and salty groundwater. They soon realized that crops grown under plastic were far more productive than outdoor counterparts because soils stayed warmer and retained extra moisture.

But it looks like this.

And this is a NASA satellite image.

Our campsite is by the same small chain as the aire in Ronda, so we knew we’d like it. It’s in Agua Armarga, a small beach town just north of the Cabo de Gata.

We got a good spot by the cliffs and had lunch, before I made ratatouille ready for dinner, and cleaned Denby inside and out (including windscreen!).

When it got a bit cooler, we set out to walk over the headland to the next beach. We chose the top route for the better views, including this one back onto the town.

But as we started to do down towards Cala de Enmedio, the path became really steep and rocky with loose stones. I got super nervous about re-twisting my ankle, given the fibula is still in two pieces and hasn’t fused after I broke it in Germany.

Rog had to help me down the path like an old lady - which I suppose I am.

Path down from the top of this hill

The beach was worth it for Flynn though, who luckily didn’t notice the naturists and their dangly bits, as there was sea! Sea! Sea!

Fortunately, it turned out there was a longer but much less precipitous path back to town, so we took that one, and the ankle returned intact. Well, not intact, but you know what I mean.

An ice-cream was permitted as a reward - nata for me & Flynn, chocolate orange for Rog.

Back at camp we showered & then sat with a G&T and calculated that it was a fuckton of kilometres to home & our tunnel was booked for Nov 5th - so we rebooked it for the 16th to give us a bit more time. Total cost £3, can’t complain.

Dinner was ratatouille (see earlier), warm potato salad with olives & olive oil (Spanish from the olive grove we camped in, amazing) and grilled red mullet.

Except…

As the mullet was grilling, an evil cat slipped round the back of Denby, and Flynn launched himself at it, furiously. His rope took down the barbecue and spilled the fish on the gravel. It wasn’t even properly cooked.

Rog had to be restrained from dogicide. We were both quite cross.

Dinner was ratatouille and luke-warm potato salad with olives & olive oil. We’re going to bed hungry.

 

[Dutch 68]

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:

View attachment 969337

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.

View attachment 969342

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.

View attachment 969343

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.

View attachment 969399

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.

View attachment 969346

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.

View attachment 969504

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.

View attachment 969509

Do you know anywhere good for chicken?​

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Just a tip if you really want to see the Alhambra at short notice, we booked and where lucky to get a slot 2/3 weeks ahead, my sister in law from the USA and her husband did not, however they found out that you could become a “friend” of the Alhambra which gives you unlimited access at all times, it’s only money so they just got out their card and problem solved

 

[Jane And Rog]

Not had a map for a while, so here’s our raggedy stops in Spain so far.

 

[cyberyacht]

Had a work colleague who bought a place in Orgiva. Not seen him for years so don't know if he still has it.

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[Jane And Rog]

Had a work colleague who bought a place in Orgiva. Not seen him for years so don't know if he still has it.

Apparently it’s the main town in Chris Stewart’s book, which I read ages ago.

Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucía

No sooner had Chris Stewart set eyes on El Valero than …

www.goodreads.com

 

[Grianan]

I’m not surprised Flynn was in the dog house. We try to give Nala a long lead when we’re parked up but she loves winding it around the table legs .

 

[BillyBear]

After seeing some of the things that you are prepared to eat I thought that a little bit of gravel on the mullet would not have worried you. We have a five second rule when using the barbecue. If it hits the floor and you can retrieve it within five seconds it’s still good to eat.

 

[Jane And Rog]

I’m not surprised Flynn was in the dog house. We try to give Nala a long lead when we’re parked up but she loves winding it around the table legs .

Yeah, I think the long lead is the problem. It’s nice that he can move into the shade and so on, but the demise of dinnee is a bit much!

 

[Jane And Rog]

After seeing some of the things that you are prepared to eat I thought that a little bit of gravel on the mullet would not have worried you. We have a five second rule when using the barbecue. If it hits the floor and you can retrieve it within five seconds it’s still good to eat.

The problem was that the fish wasn’t cooked. Rog did actually eat some but the gravel / raw combo was not for me. Flynn will get mine for his breakfast.

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[The Coops]

Yeah, I think the long lead is the problem. It’s nice that he can move into the shade and so on, but the demise of dinnee is a bit much!

You got away lightly. Lola did the same and snapped the awning legs chasing el gato's, Must be the GWP gene!

 

[Neilh]

Fond memories of Periana and the railway trail, is the old loco still at the top of the line, Mental De Zaffaraya I think?

Carzola park is an amazing place if you get time to visit, scenic walks, wildlife, we did a particularly good walk via Cascada de la Osera up to Embalse del Aguascebas, the trail went through an aqueduct inside the mountain.

 

[Jane And Rog]

You got away lightly. Lola did the same and snapped the awning legs chasing el gato's, Must be the GWP gene!

I’m in total agreement with that!

 

[Jane And Rog]

Fond memories of Periana and the railway trail, is the old loco still at the top of the line, Mental De Zaffaraya I think?

Carzola park is an amazing place if you get time to visit, scenic walks, wildlife, we did a particularly good walk via Cascada de la Osera up to Embalse del Aguascebas, the trail went through an aqueduct inside the mountain.

Thanks very much for the suggestions- en route now but will take a look!

 

[Jane And Rog]

Healing crystals

We’ve mentally turned towards home. Of course we physically turned towards home in Portugal but last night (actually day before last as I had trouble posting this) we calculated the mileage to Calais and days to our Shuttle booking. We never really planned to be on the current 5th November crossing but by now it would have been far from a leisurely trip back. Who knew Spain and France were so big? We pushed back to the 16th after which we have to be back in Blighty anyway. It does make the trip back somewhat leisurely but even this means we need to move a little more quickly.

So today was a driving day. We also did some touristing: the world’s second biggest geode - or biggest if you, like the BBC, split hairs about geodes vs mere “caves filled with crystals”.

Jane near a mine​

We arrived at about 10am and rushed to beat a coach load of brits to the ticket office. Sadly we were informed the whole day’s tours were booked. It’s the Alhambra all over again. Thinking I’d grab a similar screen shot of the booking form I loaded the page and strangely it showed availability. In just an hour. I ran back to the ticket office where they explained they’d had two cancellations which, if we were ok with a Spanish tour, we could have them. Of course we would. Especially as they had talkie machine tours available.

And splendid hats​

The Pulpí geode was discovered in 1999 and only opened to the public twenty years later after the cave was made safe. The tour of the mine itself was interesting enough - originally a hand dug iron mine which switched to lead and silver when they discovered that. It was closed when all the gypsum started to be too bothersome. It’s not clear when it was closed but I’m guessing during the civil war.

The gypsum inspector ​

In my limited experience, there are only a few things that genuinely exceed the hype they’re given and make you say “wow!”. One other is here in Spain: Gaudi’s Sagrada Família. The Great Pyramids and James Cameron’s 1986 film Aliens also spring to mind. To enter the geode, we descended a long spiral staircase, then another straight flight before climbing a tiny set of steps, leaning forward “like Superman” then craning our necks to the left - unlike superman who could just X-Ray vision through the rock.

We’d later be smug about being able to climb these without needing a rest halfway up.​

Sadly, we couldn’t take photos of the inside of the geode but the BBC link above has one. The best we could manage was this photo taken by the guide at the whatever-the-hole-in-a-geode is called.

Lois and Clark​

After spending a couple of hours in the mine we wanted to get some kilometres under Denby’s wheels. We set the GPS for Banyeres de Marolia; a smallish town off the tourist trail with an impressive castle. As we approached town, signs started appearing directing us to a different aire. We dutifully followed - it was slightly further outside town but right next to a large park with a river, ruined paper mill and lots of sticks.

would camp here again.​

When Flynn and I got back to the van, Jane had been in investigating our new home:

“P4N people say only day parking…”
“… yeah, there is nobody else here, I’ll check.”

Sure enough for some unknown reason the whole park is closed from November to Easter. No reason given and not much obvious signage. As Spain seems hot on enforcing camping laws at the moment, we packed up and drove 200m closer to town to our original destination. It’s nice but not quite as good as the first one.

For dinner we walked 25 minutes up the steep streets of Banyeres to L’Almàciga a little bar promising to be open before 8pm.

Dos vermout por favor​

Although the bar was open, the kitchen wasn’t so we had to have a few drinks before they would feed us. they were really friendly and the food was very good.

“Russian” salad​

The Russian salad was just to keep us going. We pleaded with them for something whilst we waited for the kitchen:

“We’re English, it’s a long time since our lunch.”
“Yes, you should be in bed by now”

Veal tonnato, korean crocettas, squid soup and tuna tataki.

On the way back down the hill it started raining again.

Meh​

Flynn got a quick walk around a haunted factory just below the aire. He suspects rather strongly that this was also a paper mill and there’s a mill pond to be found.

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[Jane And Rog]

Jane here - my thing that very much surprised me by exceeding the hype was the Taj Mahal. I’d arrived in Agra by train at 4am and we made the great decision to go straight away and see it at sunrise - fantastic.

 

[mackeellan]

I spent a couple of years around Almeria. Seeing the plastic greenhouses again causes a flash of my memory.
Watching black African workers pushing a trolley overflowing with sacks of rice from Aldi. They were the only ones who could work in those greenhouses which had three crops per year. They paid serious money to live in a run down farmhouse and were packed like sardines inside. They said their wages were mostly sent home.
The farmers were contracted to supermarkets/wholesalers and any excess to their quota couldn't be sold. I would often see skips full of perfect tomatoes and salad produce. Made me think how lucky I am.
Thanks for producing such an interesting thread, don't stop! Good luck to you both

 

[jumartoo]

Thanks for the report on the Pulpi Geode. It's quite local to us and I've had it in mind to visit sometime. It's quite expensive, in Spanish entry price terms, but it seems it's worth the fee. It might be on the cards again.