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Like horses out the starting gates we were packed and ready by 9.40am, paying our 56 Euro’s (approximately £45.00 GBP) for our four nights at Camping Fuzeta, it would have been an extra 4 Euro’s plus hook up for Georgie, Oliver was desperate to get going. The last two nights had been mixed, we had gone for a meal out on Friday, mixed grill for Ian and Woolly and fresh Tuna steak for me and Woolly with a large jug of sangria we felt the 22 Euro’s (approximately £18.00 GBP) not bad value for money. Having settled down in the tent with Kindles (we would be towing a juggernaut behind us if we had to carry the number of books we go through!), I thought we were in for the night….Wrong…
Woolly says – I heard it first, drums going followed by the guitar, it WAS only just after ten, Ian caught my eye and next thing I knew we were hustling Jo out of the tent and across the road to my first ever live gig – AWESOME! The band was ok but I was happy to bop along and clapped mammothly for their efforts. Followed by
two other singers the evening was a great success and one I would gladly repeat. We spent are our last day at Fuzeta relaxing and chatting to some new friends who are cycling round Europe – they’re braver than me! An early night was on the cards and none of us were pleased to be listening to drum and bass coming from the beach at midnight, one o’clock, two o’clock and at three! Finally it seemed to stop until we got the screaming and shouting as all the party animals started to head past the site on their way home. With bleary eyes I was happy to climb into Oliver and wave goodbye as we set off on what was going to be a long journey.
A quick supermarket sweep for the essentials and before we knew it we were over the border and back into Spain. It was easy to tell this time, not just for the big sign saying Welcome to Spain but the sudden appearance of millions of orange trees along the roadside and the dark grey clouds which had appeared on the horizon.
Woolly says – Not more rain in
Spain, it’s really not on!! Luckily by the time we were sailing through Seville the skies were clearing and the temperature was a rather pleasant 26. We always knew that on this phase of our travels that we would have to weigh up what we stopped for and what we really wanted to see and Seville had gone on the we can miss it list, passing through was all I was going to get this time. Another 40km and we reached our destination of Carmona and I kept a look out for signs for the neck we were going to see…..
We knew that Carmona had several attractions but we had decided to view the Necropolis, we saw the sign and pulled over to be greeted by a little Spanish man brandishing parking tickets at us. Fifty cents later we were parked and peering through some wired fence at some Roman footings, was this it?
Woolly says – Ian was sure there was more when he looked on the web so we turned our backs on the less than impressive footings and followed a group of people through some gates on the opposite side
of the road. Amazing, incredible compared to the necropolis we had seen in Phallais, Turkey, these were HUGE!! Discovered in the 1800’s by an English archaeologist, Jorge Bonsor, they were opened to the public in 1885 and they are STILL excavating them. Dating back to the 2
nd century it was easy to see where cremation would have taken place, ashes were stored and burials were made, I loved the Tomb of the Elephant with chambers leading off all over the place. We followed the arrows round the site and found that it went on and on and on, it is still fenced off for several more acres where they haven’t even started excavations yet. We could see the remains of the decorations used at that time and different burial chambers, some for families, some for high ranking officers and some for the common or garden Roman. Turning a corner we came across the Tomb of Seville, it was massive, with the remains of columns and a circular mausoleum it was spooky to think that all it had once contained was dead people.
With Woolly imagining dead bodies and the rituals they would have used we made our
way to the visitor centre and the exhibition of funeral items, with good English information we were told about the coins found that would have been put in the mouths of the dead to pay the ferry man (Charon) for taking them over the river Styx to their eternal resting place, funeral urns were on display by the mass and funeral portraits made of terracotta were eerily staring at us.
Woolly says – it was just a shame we couldn’t take pictures inside, there was a fine collection on show. A very worthwhile visit and it cost NOTHING!!!!! Oliver was a bit warm on our return so with windows open we set James the Auzzie sat nav and sat back for our journey further South, only another 255km to go.
We had planned to camp at Camona for the night, but having the extra lazy day had put us behind a little. Having worked out that we could be at our day afters stop by 5ish we were happy to look at the Olive groves, the many kilometres of arable land and the rather strange black bulls and matadors on the side of the
road. A quick coffee stop even allowed us to see the last 15 laps of the Monaco Grand Prix (Oliver is looking forward to trying that out in a week or so!). Starting to head through the mountains we found ourselves coming into Wind Turbine country, thousands of the ugly things breaking into the beautiful views, what a shame.
Woolly says – the journey passed quickly enough and finding our campsite was easy. Pulling on Jo jumped out and booked us into Camping Rio Jara on the outskirts of Tarifa for 20 Euro’s a night (approximately £6.40 GBP). It’s rather nice here, the facilities are clean and modern, and although the pitches are a little small they have managed to squeeze some of the biggest RV’s we have seen onto them. Were now on the Straits of Gibraltar, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, Africa is only 15km away, a trip to Tangiers is tempting but that comes on another phase of our travel. I’m ready for tomorrow with my sterling clutched in my paw as we head back into Great Britain!
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Cheryl Newton
We're following you in to southern Spain in 10/14 days or so... hoping to stop initially in Seville :o)