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Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Ardales
September 27th 2022
Published: September 27th 2022
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We’re leaving Granada today and heading to the mountains. We’ve decided to have a lie in and leave at 9am. Hopefully the rush hour traffic will have died down? No chance!

We decide it’s easier to lug our cases up the steep hill to our parking spot than to have Ian do a several point turn twice on the incline. At the moment the car is pointing in the right direction to leave town!

We make it on to the first motorway, it’s the same one we took yesterday. But today we are going in a different direction and because we are driving in the right, the changeovers are a little less seamless. We also have to change several times and do come unstuck at one particular point. The trouble is that they do have a habit of giving the same road two different numbers. Some of the positioning of road signs can also be a little confusing. Ie Ian is adamant I am telling him to drive down a no entry road when in fact the no entry applies to our left and not straight on. loud sentences are exchanged but eventually Ian believes me and re enters the road we should never have left in the first place!

We are stopping about half way to visit the town of Antequera. I have not managed to find any suitable out of town parking today so we are going t9 have to take our chances and hope for the best.

We begin on the outskirts of town at an archeological site stuck right in the middle of an industrial estate! It’s a burial chamber, called a dolmen. There are another two a little further along the road. The car park is empty but there’s a huge group of school kids there visiting. The school teacher is non too happy at seeing us arrive and tells me to go away and come back later! Cheek! We are slightly pressed for time and won’t be coming but never mind, I’ll just take a photo of the outside. OMG, now she’s saying I can’t take a photo either. You know I’d understand it if any of the kids would be in the photo, as we could be a couple of paedophiles, but the little darlings are not anywhere near the chamber entrance as they are either inside it or in groups standing behind us!

We have driven a couple of km further down the road and located the site of the second two dolmens. We are half way up the hillside when a gentleman tells us we need to get tickets from the museum. Back to the museum we go. Inside we are issued with tickets for free entrance to the monuments, which are duly checked by the man half way up the hill. We can only assume they want to monitor how many people are entering the site.

OK, everyone is happy. Can I take photos I ask the ticket checker? Yes, no problem! We are directed to walk via a pathway around the outside of the monuments first. Finally we arrive at the entrance of monument two and an officious lady says we cannot go in…apparently it’s closed because they are filming today. But why were we given tickets? She doesn’t know but she isn’t going to let us in! Can I take a photo? Yes, if I’m quick!

The third chamber is just around the corner and thankfully we are allowed in there. We examine the stone pillars and a deep pit and then walk down to the museum. The man there tells us they have finished filming so we can go back up there if we want. Ian has lost the will so we decide to look at the museum photos of the chambers instead!

It’s feeling rather warm today and it’s getting on for eleven so we decide to brave the ride into the historic centre of the town. This takes us along some very narrow streets, then up a steep hill with a ninety degree bend that is impossible to see around. We meet another car head on but fortunately he is taking it steady too so a collision is avoided.

Now we have reached a little square and I see a parking spot. Hurrah, we will stay here and walk to the historic centre. We are right at the top of the town so I don’t think we can get any higher and it’s just a short walk along a shaded street ti reach the cluster of things we want to see.

We reach the Arco de Gigantes (gigantic arch) and here we can see the whole of the town spread out below us. It’s also the entrance to the Alcazaba.

More fun and games with QR codes for the audio guide. I explain we don’t know how to work them, we are the older generation! No problem, I am handed a good old paper plan and then as an afterthought the guy decides we should be given old fashioned audio guides.

We start our tour around the old castle, first on some battlements and then up through the gardens to a bell tower. Here we climb the to the top for some breathtaking views, though my legs have turned to jelly. There’s another tower to climb but I send Ian off to do that on his own while I sit in the shade. It’s a bit of a shock when suddenly the bells start to clang…it’s twelve o’clock!

We have examined the barbicans, which were added at a later date to strengthen the defences and now we reach some dilapidated ruins. It’s the site of the original mosque on which the castle was built.

Descending down to the exit we get some good close up views of the upper details of the facade of the church next door. Once outside, we see the same church at ground level. Below it are the ruins of a Roman Bath.

It’s 1pm and the sun is scorching. We retrace our steps to the little square and wander into a bar for a cold drink and tapas. Here we are having a fine old conversation with a Spaniard who tells me that the tapas here are the best in Antequera. And actually they are rather good!

Back to our car. We really don’t want to return the way we came so I sort out a route that will get us out of the old quarter and back on normal roads as quickly as possible. We want to go to a supermarket to stock up as we have no idea what, if anything, will be available where we are going as it’s in the middle of nowhere!

I have located a large Lidl. Rather nice that all the car parking spaces are covered so the car stays nice and cool…that’s once we find a spot of course…it’s literally heaving! We hover as we see a car leaving. The car behind is getting very annoyed and peeping it’s horn at us. Sorry, our car doesn’t speak Spanish. We ignore them and wait for our space. :-)

Shopping completed, we are back on the road. It’s supposedly less than an hour to our destination but we know not to trust the sat nav in the mountains!

We have reached Ardales and are now leaving the main highway for the snaking mountain roads. It’s a pretty, though somewhat unnerving, route taking us past a dried up lake. On the way we stop to look at a very steep mountain with sheer sides, eek, I think that just might be where we are headed tomorrow?

Completing our drive, we arrive in El Chorro, the nearest town to where we are staying. I’ve arranged with our hostess, Julie, that we will check in at 4pm. It’s only 3pm now but I’d like to suss out parking and bus stops for our walk tomorrow as we have timed tickets so we can’t be late. The internet had sparse information, and what little I found was somewhat confusing. We need to sort it out!

El Chorro is a tiny town with one road going through it, one hotel/restaurant, one cafe/sandwich shop and one railway station/platform. That’s about it. Having missed the car park entrance, we wonder if there will be street parking? There is…and plenty of it as most arrive here on tourist buses or on the train. We park up.

Now we are at the bus stop. The timetable is listed but it refers to the winter schedule which starts at the end of October and the the year says 2018! There are other tourists milling around - they are equally confused!

Let’s buy a drink at the cafe, and whilst we are at it I can see people eating plates if delicious looking chips. I can then ask the locals if they have any more information!

At the counter I ask for the menu and start off in broken Spanish. The lady raises her hand for me to stop…she then calls out to a customer in the cafe. The lady comes up and speaks perfect English. That’s because she comes from east London! I’m booked for the camito walk tomorrow I say…and I need some information. The lady can answer all my questions…but by the way…are you by any chance Gill? Yes! Haha! You must be Julie! Yes! Julie is our hostess and just happened to pop down to town this afternoon.

We order an omelette and pork dish with a share plate of chips. Ian is surprised that his omelette arrives between two toasted tortillas. And my ham, which is bacon, arrives likewise. Anyway it’s all delicious and very reasonably priced…especially as they have little to no competition in town!

Now we are making our way to the Casa where we are staying. We’re so glad that we met Julie, who gave us directions otherwise we would definitely be lost by now! The pot holed dirt track of a road has to be seen to be believed. And the police had a barrier across the road leaving town which was erected an hour ago with no warning. Julie told us to tell them Casa La Paz and they would let us through. The guards looked dubious and asked us to show them the place on the map. After a bit of head scratching they let us through.

Our sat nav has died a death. Little to no mobile coverage out here and the arrow is darting all over the place. Luckily there are wooden signs directing the way. Ian and I agree we would never have found it otherwise.

We have arrived at Casa La Paz and pleased to see a well made driveway. Julie is there ti greet us and show us our accommodation. It’s really lovely. A large bedroom with fridge (bliss, finally we can keep our drinks cold), a kettle (bliss, finally I can have a cup of coffee) and a huge modern shower room. Outside we have comfy sp chairs and a covered patio. And not forgetting the lovely little swimming pool. It’s really very comfy.

I spend a very pleasant hour cooling off in the pool and then a chill out on the comfy patio chairs. Ian has made friends with the resident dog, Dana. She belonged to the man up the road, but spent all her time with the current owners so in the end it was agreed that they would adopt her!


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