Oropesa del Mar

Monday  6 June

Driving today with an aim to find a sleepy little beach town beyond Valencia. We had to stop off at Bennidorm and see what all the fuss is about. There is a huge ex pat Brit population here and from time to time they get a bad wrap for wild stag/hen party shenanigans (cheap weekly package deals from the UK)  but in the main they are retired folk lapping up the sun. 

It looks horrendous in terms of towers block apartments but if you were on a pension living in a tower block in Manchester, I think Bennidorm might be a bit attractive. 24degrees at 8.30am, no wind, great walking along the beaches, your pension paid direct.to you👍. There is a lot of discussion in the Brit Spanish papers re the decision to stay or leave the EU as it could change the ex pat health care options.  There are British supermarkets , shops and English signage everywhere.

There are plenty of sun chairs for basting on and the lager can be delivered to your lounger from the pub across the road.    

On a traffic roundabout in Bennidorm I found the sculpture of the day, beautiful.

Quite a contrast to our beautiful Bay of Islands beaches back in New Zealand where more often than not we would have the entire beach to ourselves.

We found our kind of beach, an old fashioned sleepy resort, Oropesa,  but more on that tomorrow, the sea is calling, swimming  time.

Sunday 5th June, Alicante

A little Alicante exploration. As it was a Sunday everyone was at the playa soaking up the sun. It was about 26degrees when we set off mid morning so we knew it was going to be a hot one.  The waterfront has this fantastic paving and there was a lot of promenading going on. There are a lot of ex pat Brits here and we heard as much English as Spanish spoken. The castle looked fantastic but way too hot to hike up there in the mid day sun.

There are so many apartments here and nearly everyone has a car so parking is horrendous.  They have 'parking pimps' that wave you into a park and then ask for a tip. We came across this in Seville and wondered why all these people we didn't know were waving at us, literally jumping into the traffic and waving...... dangerous.  Anyway we just zoom in to the parking buildings, no hassle with the parking pimps that way.

By 2pm 36degrees so shade was necessary and we made for the Palmeral of Elche. Great spot, 97varites of palm tree reflecting Elche's historic relationship with the humble palm tree, which it turns out is not a tree as such, more on Google. Anyway there are over 70,000 palms in orchards still and the city of Elche has approx 200,000, yikes!  They are protected wth UNESCO World lHeritag status as they reflect the exchange between

cultures and continets, the Moors and the Christians and Africa/Europe. what a fantastic place to seek refuge from the baking sun.

Sculpture of the day comes to you from Alicante waterfront, I think it would look great in Wellington harbour.

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.

Caseras and Ronda

Thursday 2 June

Decided against going to Tangier and hit the mountain road to Caseras, a little town of cobbled streets and traditional village life.

Then on to Ronda through a mountain pass that was spectacular with sheer walls and you could see it covered in snow in winter.   Ronda is a town in the top of  a dramatic gorge,  El Tajo.  The pictures don't show the depth as our little snap happy camera couldn't take it all in.  The gorge separates the 15th century new town from the old town and you can still see the ruins of the old town down goat tracks beyond the gorge.  Interesting to see Orson Wells had his ashes scattered in Ronda, a village he loved.

Gibraltar and Tangier

Wednesday 1 June

More lovely  driving along the Costa da Luz. We had a stop at Tarifa, the world's most popular windsurfing and kite boarding beach ... allegedly.  Perfect wind conditions due to its location on the Atlantic ocean with the Mediterranean breeze coming round the corner. Lots of young people having fun, we came across a young guy who had just caught his breakfast.

A bit further along and hey presto we could see the Rock of Gibraltar clear as a bell. We found a park to have our picnic lunch and  take in all the ships lining up to get through the straights. The Gibraltar straights are approx 14ks wide at the narrowest point and serve as an entry point from the Atlantic ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. On average 71,000 ships pass the straights each year.

Sitting in Spain, looking at Africa...Tangier looks so close .Jump on the fast ferry and you can be there in an hour!

After Tarifa and Gibraltar gazing, we made for Estapona, a great little seaside town with a lovely beach, old town and time for a siesta.  On the beach (playa) I found the sculpture for the day. Just after I snapped this photo a wee boy came along and sat next to the sculpture and was leaning on the man and rubbing his foot...interactive art, spontaneous and natural, love it!

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Seville to Cadiz

Tuesday 31 May

Farewell gorgeous Seville and Hello Cadiz!  We drove to Chipiona and then hugged the coast from there. Chipiona has both a naval and army base and we saw a star lifter looming in the sky as it swooped across the  harbour, also a lot of helicopters zipping about, perhaps monitoring all the marine traffic?

We left sleepy little Chipiona and made our way to Cadiz, what a fascinating place. Architecture a blend of Arab and Spanish design and palm trees everywhere. We were amazed to see yellow arrows.....the start of the pilgrim walk Via de la Plata......that's one long walk to Santiago. 

Cadiz is still an active port and has a gorgeous old town, an active fishing fleet and is joined to the mainland by a series of bridges. 

The architecture is stunning.  

The port  is still very active and when the tide is out...the little boats just  rest on the seabed, their siesta time👍.

The sculpture of the day......a modern one,  plonked in the pavement alongside the old Cathedral....great contrast.

But wait, there's more ......we stayed in Zamora, a sleepy little beach town with a big history.  

We had planned to stay in Canons  de Meca  but the hotel   was a dud. We were getting tired and found a little finca that leased out habitations....and they were so cute.

The beach is a bit off the beaten tourist path but some folks have discovered it and it has an arty/hippy feel with wee beach bodega's and chilled out dudes.  We loved the beach and the light house is Carbo Y Faro de Trafalgar, the battle of Trafalgar took place just west of the lighthouse . As we sat on the beach we were looking across at Tangier, Africa across the water!