Do you know the way to San Jose?

Cabo de Gata, San Jose and Santa Pola.....what a day!

After a gorgeous breakfast at our desert oasis we hit the dusty trail to San Jose,  I haven't figured out on the tablet how to do accents over letters yet folks.

Amazing countryside, dry, dry desert shale mountains and ravines and then you turn the corner and gasp at the deep blue sea. In the last census only 1050 people lived down here permanently and most of the area is national park. It's stinking hot and we marvelled at hardy folks cycling the mountain passes and hiking the trails, there is nothing out here for miles.

The original San Jose is a tiny fishing port turned tourist base for the hardy adventurers that want to bike and hike  the Parque Natural Cabo de Gata, it's pretty as a picture, but about 29degress at 9.30am and climbing......hot, hot, hot!

We turned inland as we were heading toward Elche which is in between Murcia and Alicante.

  

We passed miles and miles of the plastic shade houses, they are as far as the eye can see, white plastic low structures. 

 Yesterday on the way down the coast we drove for 100k's and all we saw were these and cactus. The land is barren and dry with very little vegetation apart from prickly pair cactus. 

Apparently there is 26,000 hectares of green houses/white plastic shade houses. Half of all of  Europe's fruit and veg is grown here which generates approx  €1.5billion p/a. Until 30yrs ago they filmed spaghetti westerns here as the land was useless. Now with shade houses and transported in fertilisers, this waste land has completely changed. Temps inside the shade houses are approx 45degrees and many locals won't work there so there is a big demand for immigrant African and Eastern European workers who are not paid very well, approx €36 a day. It must be appalling to work inside the shade houses.

The University of Almeria studies show the plastic sheeting is so enormous it is actually reflecting light back into the atmosphere and altering the local climate by a couple of degrees. You cannot believe it unless you see it, .it's vast. All you see is white and  then you see a little splotch of terracotta tiles swamped in white plastic, once an isolated  old desert village now encased in plastic.

We found our hotel  courtesy of the wonderful NavLady and Graham's great navigation skills. There must be a dozen autovias and roundabouts on the way into Alicante. We  then set off for Santa Pola, about 15mins drive to a stunning natural salt lake area and bird sanctuary.  

More than 3000 flamingos live here along side commercial salt production and residential housing, incredible. I wished we had our big camera with all the lens and zoom control, seeing these birds going about their routine in nature was stunning. We saw a lot of flamingos, herons, terns, white egrets, this place must be a bird watchers paradise.  Apparently the salt productions benefits from the minerals in the birds droppings and the bird feed off the fish and crabs that come through the salt pond channels. 

How we got to the places above, our trip to Cabo de Gaya,  Friday 3 June

A mix of motorway driving until we got bored and then back onto the coastal B roads to get to the southern tip of this coast, Cabo de Gata. Incredible countryside, huge ranges and mountains with snow still visible in places way up high as we sweltered in 29degress, thank goodness for air con. The land is barren and dry, very little vegetation and with  steep valleys and passes and then you turn  the corner and all you can see is white plastic.....as far as the eye can see, what is this stuff?  We drove for 100ks straight and all we saw was white terraced plantations. Once we got to our desert oasis we found out more about this, see above.  Thank goodness every so often you could spot a road down to a playa (beach) and we went exploring.

Still little traditional fishing boats in action along this coast with winch systems to launch.

And at last our little oasis for the night. If it wasn't fully booked for a wedding the next day we would have stayed longer, this place was paradise in the middle of know where but a great base for the Parque Natural'.

What a fantastic day of contrasts and the swim in the pool at the end of the day was great for my foot.