It was actually raining as we left Tarifa. Having enjoyed the warmer brighter weather here, we made the strange decision to head back inland and upwards to cooler climes to see some of the Pueblos Blancas (white villages) that this area is renowned for. The first one we stopped at was Arcos de la Frontera which is absolutely beautiful. The narrow streets in the centre were lovely to walk around, with plant pots on the white walls filled with red poinsettias. It would be a lovely place to spend a warm summers evening, but on a cool December day around lunchtime there wasn’t much open unfortunately.
From there we continued our drive towards Grazalema. The light in the late afternoon and the route winding its way up a spectacular steep twisty road through the Parque Natural Sierra de Grazalema meant that we’d definitely made the right choice. The sun was setting as we arrived at the village, and we parked up in a car park above the village for the night. It was bitterly cold now the sun had gone, but we decided we should have a walk into the village that evening. It was a steep walk down to the main square, but it is a beautiful place. To assist with the steep walk back up to Lo11y, and to warm up, we found a pleasant cosy bar to have a couple of glasses of red wine.
It was another beautiful cold sunny morning the following day and we continued our scenic drive towards Ronda, one of the most famous and visited of the Pueblos Blancas. We parked up at a nice campsite just a 20-minute walk into the old town. We have visited Ronda before, over 20 years ago, and although we remember it being a stunning place, we couldn’t remember too much about it. The location of the town is spectacular on a mountain plateau. The historic part of the town is attached to the main town by a bridge over a gorge which is very photogenic. There were throngs of tourists, particularly Japanese, which we’ve not really come across so far on this trip.
Ronda is famous for bullfighting and is the birthplace of the modern Spanish bullfight. We headed to the Bullfighting Arena which has a museum and allows you into the arena and the equestrian centre that is part of it. Whilst interesting to learn about the history of bullfighting, we certainly don’t support the cruelty that is inflicted on the poor bulls and find it hard to understand why the practice hasn’t been fully outlawed in Spain (and other European countries) as polls suggest the population are largely opposed to it. Some cities have outlawed the practice, while other regions such as Catalonia did outlaw the practice but had the ruling overturned by the high court.
We had a wander around the shopping streets of the town, and explored the old town in more details, stopping for a late lunch in a scenic restaurant.
Our next stop-off was Malaga. This wasn’t somewhere we thought we wanted to visit. Like most people we’ve flown in here several times, then transferred straight out to another destination, but having done a bit of reading up it did seem like there were quite a few sites of interest in the city, and we thought there may be bigger bike shops who could sort Colin’s brake lever out. We headed straight to a large bike store on the edges of the city centre. As Colin walked in, he realised it was a Shimano parts dealership, so had everything crossed he’d struck lucky. Unfortunately, they also didn’t have the part, but after a bit of a debate, one of the mechanics said he had a set of used Shimano hydraulic brake levers that would do the job. Although these weren’t as highly spec’d as the ones Colin had on his bike, he agreed to go ahead and bought them off the mechanic. They said they couldn’t fit them that day but should be able to have it done for the following Monday morning when we were leaving Malaga, so we left Colin’s bike with them. We parked up for 3 nights at a campsite the other side of Malaga. It was a bit of a soleless place by a beach and was full of Germans, but we actually got a decent sized pitch that wasn’t overlooked.
On the Saturday we caught a bus into the centre and had a full day’s sightseeing. This included a look at the Mercado Central de Artarazanas, a colourful food market with an amazing nice stained-glass windows.
We then visited the Alcazaba. Set on a hill in the centre of the city, it is a lovely complex to walk around, looking at the Arabian style features of the building, the gardens and the viewpoints over the city. Then we had a closer look at the amphitheatre attached to the complex.
After a couple of tapas, we visited the Picasso Museum. Going in art galleries is usually Colin’s opportunity to break the land speed record as he rushes round, but he was strangely engaged with this exhibition.
I think he was most taken with watching other people looking at the exhibits (particularly this lady who colour coordinated with the painting).
We then had a steep long climb up to the Castillo de Gibralfaro which rewarded us with city wide views in all directions. A steep walk back down took us to the Port which was very lively with locals and tourists in the late afternoon sun. There was an enormous luxury boat moored up, with a second boat dedicated to its toys including a heli pad, a motor launch, two smaller speed boats, jet ski’s and presumably staff quarters.
On the Sunday we cycled up and down the coast from our campsite on our Brompton’s. The route was very busy with Spaniards enjoying a sunny Sunday strolling/cycling, and the restaurants nearby were packed with groups enjoying barbecued seafood. If you can’t beat then join them – so we did.
On the Monday we were on tenterhooks waiting for the message from the bike shop that Colin’s bike was ready to collect. We were hoping for sooner rather than later, as we were heading to Granada as we had tickets for the Alhambra early the following morning. We went and picked up some food supplies and had a coffee near our campsite – still no news. Colin tried calling the shop multiple times, but they weren’t picking up. We knew the shop closed at 2pm, and we had to check out of the campsite by then, so we were getting a bit cheesed off. We also didn’t want to be driving to Granada in the dark. We checked out and just made it to the bike shop with ten minutes to spare before they closed for the afternoon. Colin was not impressed to find they’d not started work on his bike yet and was even less impressed when they said he should have called them this morning – he waved his call log in front of them. They then said they’d have it ready by 6pm. We didn’t have a lot of choice, so we were left with a few hours to fill in a not very nice part of Malaga. We had a walk to the seafront and back, then a lot of twiddling thumbs while we waited. Colin eventually went and hovered in the shop, and we were finally on our way around 6.30. It was not an enjoyable drive getting out of Malaga in the dark then the drive to Granada, so we were relieved when we finally parked up in a parking area high above the city. It was freezing cold, but we managed some warming beans on toast before crashing out.
We had to be up and out relatively early in the morning to be at the Alhambra for our timed entry tickets. Again, we have visited here, we think on the same trip we visited Ronda, but again we worryingly didn’t recognise too much of the site. The Alhambra is Spain’s most visited attraction and is one of the best preserved Islamic Palaces in the world. We suspect it wasn’t a busy day for visitors when we were there, but we did feel like we were jostling with lots of other tourists to look at each area in the palaces and take photos. It was also bitterly cold and although we had multiple layers on, we could really have done with woolly hats and scarfs which we didn’t think we’d need for this trip. It was more pleasant once we were out in the gardens in the sunshine. It is an amazing complex to visit though, so we’re glad we revisited it.
When we left we headed further into the Sierra region to a recommended campsite.
We did think about heading straight back to the warmer coast, but we’re glad we stuck to our original plan, as the site was very nice (it even had heated shower rooms) and we had a nice walk in the surrounding area ending up in the local village that as usual was down a ridiculously steep slope that had to be climbed back up.
There was a heavy frost when we set off the following morning, maybe it was even a smattering of snow which was already topping the mountain peaks here. We had toyed with the idea of visiting a Western film theme park called Fort Bravo. It also had camping spots for the night. It had been a pretty scenic drive largely downhill, and as the landscape became more arid and we’re sure there was even tumbleweed, we knew we were getting close. The site was developed for film sets for spaghetti westerns in the 1960’s with the site being bought and developed by a stuntman hoping it would improve his job opportunities if the sets were used for filming more western films. Although there does seem to be a list of movies of varying genres filmed here, it looked tired and jaded from a distance and there were no signs of other vehicles in the car park, so decided we’d give it a miss. Maybe it would have been fun – they put on a Western Show each day and there is a Western saloon with dancing girls. We’ll never know.
We continued on to Mojacar on the coast, its Pueblo being tagged as ‘one of the most beautiful villages in Spain’. On the way we started to notice more and more polytunnels covering the landscape and it reminded us of the Simon Reeve programme on these plastic greenhouses in Spain.
They cover hundreds of kilometres and are visible from space. Although the output of these is filling supermarket shelves across Europe, they are basically killing the environment as the plastic is discarded and finds its ways into the oceans. Moreover, they are largely worked on by migrant African labourers who live in appalling conditions.
We parked up at a nice campsite just outside the town, and walked up to the pueblo just as it was going dark. The campsite receptionist warned us not to walk back down the back road after dark as we would be likely to run into wild pigs. It was an attractive white village and looked pretty with the Christmas lights on, but we think we’ve visited nicer pueblos on our travels. We just about managed to sit outside a bar for tapas in the cool evening air.
The following day we got back out on our road bikes at last and did a 45-mile route down the coast and cutting back a little inland. It was a disappointing route with the initial coastline consisting of unattractive tourist developments and roads that were very busy. We did have one nice stretch in the middle when the road was quiet, and the coastline looked beautiful. There were lots of campervans parked up in scenic spots. Back at Mojacar we visited the beach area – this wasn’t anything special either.
The following day we headed across to a place called Camposol (near Mazarron) where my old work colleague Beryl and her husband Martin live.
It’s hard to believe it is over 24 years ago that we worked together in Woburn Sands, but it was lovely to catch up with her and Martin – they are certainly a good advert for living in the sun, looking healthy, happy and relaxed.
When we left them, we drove to Cartegena where we plan to visit more Roman ruins and stock up with goodies for Christmas.
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