White villages

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A leisurely start to the day. We walk up to the local cafe to get breakfast - they are offering bacon and eggs, lovely. The bacon has a very strong flavour. We think it might be the speciality bacon cured up here because of the mountain climate.

Now to the electronic dashboard. I manage to find my way into settings and hey presto, I can change the language to English - Ian is much happier and as impressed as I could ever expect him to be.

We set off for our tour of Sierra Nevada. It’s a mountainous region with white painted buildings dotted throughout. There are fabulous views and terrifying hairpin bend roads.

A massive thud on the car indicates a large pine cone falling from above. I’ve also noticed something that looks like rain drops on the window. The wipers don’t remove them. I really hope that’s not stone chips in the windscreen? Turns out to be pine sap. Phew.

We pass through Yegen…home to the English author, Gerald Brenen, who wrote ‘South from Grenada’. He lived here in the 1920s and there’s a plaque on his house…if only we could be bothered to look for it! Next Cadiar, a village where free wine is in tap during their October fiesta. Sadly it’s only September.

The next white town is Trevelez, which we approach by turning sharply and driving along a steep sided ravine. The water below is practically dried up as a result of this years heat wave. Right at the end we find the town, which is known for its production of cured ham and brightly coloured woven rugs. The roadside has ornamental pinnacles of cured ham and, what we presume to be, the drying kilns. It is the cold dry air of the region that makes the ham so special. Although today the air is far from cold!

Crossing the river, the road does a complete U turn taking us along the other side if the ravine. But before this we do take one wrong turning, finding ourselves in a no through road…with very little space to do a three point turn on an extremely steep incline. There is a strong smell of clutch burning. :-( Fortunately it doesn’t seem to have completely burnt out and we are back on the road again.

More scenic views and we reach Fuente Agria. People come here to drink naturally rich carbonated water. So, probably foolishly, we do likewise. Yuk it is horrible. I hate sparkling water in any case but boy does it have a strong taste!

There are three more villages but they require a detour and we have had enough so we decide to press on to our accommodation where a pool is promised.

We have reached Orgiva, so now to find our guest house for tonight. It’s up another of those narrow steep roads. Not at all easy and now we have missed the turning so another tricky three point turn is required and a mild ear bashing for me. I do have trouble analysing distances on this map app…our sat nav is much easier!

The guest house is at the end of another no through road. Again no parking! We are told to park on the pavement for now and move the car to a better place later. It’s not terribly satisfactory - I obviously didn’t read the write up properly as I would not have booked this place if I thought there was no parking. Our room is basic but in fairness it was quite cheap. They have a nice little pool in a shady garden. Far too small for swimming but nice for a cool off dip.

It’s 4pm and we feel we really should find a better parking place for our car. A young Swiss couple staying here tell me there’s a car park just down the road which is practically empty. We find the car park easily. It’s a bit of rubble covered waste ground with graffiti on the walls. And as the guy told us, there is just his van, us and one other vehicle. Eek I hope this will be OK! We don’t have much choice. :-(

We go for a walk around town. Everything is closed as it’s still siesta time but we see the town hall, the baroque church and the town square. It’s been thundering for around an hour and now, suddenly, the heavens open for one almighty downpour! It lasts about ten minutes and then it’s all over. The sun is out again and humidity levels shoot through the roof. We return to the guest house and I’m straight back in the pool!

It’s gone six, siesta is over, time to find somewhere to eat. Initially we try the expensive place down the road. The food has been given some kind of award? But the seats are so uncomfortable and in direct sun that we decide to move on. There is an Italian place in the town square with comfy seating and all under large shades. That suits us fine.

We amble back to the hotel where the owner is hosting a loud party. Not ideal. We are invited to join in but we really just want to relax now. This is hard as our room has still not been made up despite it being 7.30pm. The woman who does it has gone home (again!) saying she couldn’t do our room because she didn’t have a key! Ridiculous since I was in the room and said hello to her when she was doing the room next door. She has been in and out all afternoon and we were here for most of it. I’m glad we are only staying here one night!

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