Southern Spain Part 1

The next morning we headed to the motorway services as our GPS told us there was a motorhome waste disposal point there.  We have a campsite inland in mind for in a few days time, but we wanted to spend some time on the coast first relaxing.  Over the last day or two we have noticed the terrain change significantly.  Dale tells me we are in a desert area, and it is very dry, and very different to what we have seen in Spain so far.  Another thing we have seen a few times are unfinished roads and building projects, due to the credit crisis.

That afternoon we stopped in an interesting town called Rodalquilar.  Surprisingly we meet up with a lovely British couple from Blackpool whom we met last night in Agua Amarga.  They have done a very basic conversion on their son's van and have been away for 7 weeks so far.  As we entered the town there were numerous stone house ruins (the old mine village), but the majority of the new town has a lovely feel too. It is very quaint and quiet. The National park centre is in town as well as ruins from an old Gold mine and a nice church. The Gold mine site was incredible.  Essentially left untouched since it closed (except as sets for movies), it is now in ruins, but the remains of buildings, wash pans even outdoor light stands are all there.  The site also lacked any safety precautions usually associated with such sites in the western world, except a couple of signs.  There were stairs that clearly shouldn't be climbed, with a railing only half attached, but yet no barrier to stop you from climbing them.  There was no information in English, so we could only make assumptions as to what the story was.  The full story can be found at http://www.faydon.com/Gold/Gold.html. The last work on the site ended in 1967.

That night we stayed at a beach side car park with 3 other motorhomes in the next town along called Isleta del Moro.  We woke to a sunny morning and had a walk through the town before continuing along our route to the towns of Pozo de los Frailes and San Jose.  We visited the beach south of San Jose which was on a gravel road.  At this time of year the road is open as it is quiet, but in summer they like to bus visitors in from San Jose to reduce the environmental impact of so many people going there.  It was a beautiful beach, but a little windy and I was tempted for a swim.  We ended up returning to our spot from the previous night as it required minimal back tracking and it was such a nice spot.  This time there were about 6 other motorhomes there.  We went for a swim about 4pm just as the last of the sun was disappearing from the sky.  The water was cold, and we swam for about 15 minutes before we decided it was time to head in.  It took us some time in the van before we fully warmed up again.  We made the most of it again in the morning and had another swim, as we thought this could be our last for the year.

Isleta del Moro Beach

At midday we left the beach and drove one hour to Oro Verde campsite near Tabernas.  Our boss whom we worked for at Hadrians wall campsite owned the site however if we understand correctly his ex-wife owns it now.  Since we were in the area and had previously heard about it we wanted to check it out.  Nearby are film sets where they have filmed spaghetti westerns and still put on daily cowboy/gun fight re enactments for visitors (too expensive for us).  We spent two nights as Oro Verde taking it easy.  We enjoyed our first tapas at the local hotel and also spent time sitting reading in the sun.  The nights were horrendously cold.  We left our old heater at the pub in Hertfordshire as we didn't have room for it and wouldn't have needed it for the first 6 months of our trip anyway.  The little 60w bar heater I installed doesn't do much, so we wrapped up warm in thermals, hats and gloves.  We woke in the mornings to frost on the ground and van.  Once the sun came out about 9am it soon warmed up though.

Our next stop was Guadix for groceries as food rations had reached an all time low.  The fridge had 200g mince, margarine and beer left in it.  We stocked up on UK cheeder cheese as they were a premium brand and on special.  We then made it to Granada and parked up with 3 other motorhomes with a view over the city and the Alhambra (hill top castle, palace, grounds).  It was thankfully not as cold overnight, but woollen hats and thermals were still required.

Thanks to all those hanging in there and reading all our stories.