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Published: August 19th 2008
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Our arrival into Spain was met with 40 degree heat, the first we had encountered so far, proving too much for our delicate British bodies and forcing us to head for the hills. We stayed one night in a lovely little camping ground in Los Alcornacales National Park. The area around was extremely rugged with little villages tucked in amongst the hills. It was getting late before we found a camp ground but we managed to find a little oasis in the desert with the help of a Spanish ranger and lots of gesturing!
Next day included a trip to see the British colony of Gibraltar, tucked into a southerly point of Spain still clinging to its big rock that has seen many battles. We had a pint here but left it at that as the price for using euros instead of pounds was criminal! Headed towards Costa Del Sol after this and ended up staying in a little (read: very cramped) campground just past Malaga and enjoyed a swim in the warm Mediterranean waters.
The heat was still scorching and finally proved too much for Clancy on the climb up through the Serra Nevada range
(see separate blog!), landing us in the grungy city of Granada for five days afterwards. We enjoyed our time in Granada (despite hassles with mechanics and RAC) and really got to experience the city and its history.
Spent the next five days combining phone calls to mechanics and the RAC with seeing the sights of Granada which included the amazing Alhambra complex and the cool cave houses of Sacromonte. Having to stay in hotels meant that we ate out every night, something our budget normally doesn’t accommodate, enjoying our nightly Tapas and Sangria. The town has a great relaxed feel to it owing to the long history of being home to Gypsies, Travellers and more modern alternative populations. The music scene was very lively and we enjoyed watching buskers late at night. We have now added Granada to our list of cities that we would come back to visit due to its relaxed feel, cute little streets and traveller culture.
The drive out of Granada was tense as we took Clancy to the hills again….this time a bit later in the day so it was a little cooler. She coped well and we passed through
some spectacular country with villages dug into mountains, marble quarries, almond groves and general desolate, desert-like country that amazingly has snow in the winter months. Hard to imagine in the heat!
We spent a night out here in a ghost-town caravan park….deserted but still well sign-posted from the motorway. Arrived here late and some locals gestured that it was closed (pretty obvious due to the overgrown sites and lack of people) but we were tired and a free night camping helped the budget. Fay did a good job that night of making a meal out of nothing and helping us to ration the water…we still had a bottle of white wine at least!
We paid astronomical prices the next night to stay in a beachside caravan park but thoroughly enjoyed the location. Fay especially enjoyed her first experience of ‘sex on the beach’ (the drink that is!!!) and we cooked up a fish feast in preparation for our assault on Valencia the next day.
Trying to make up time, we took speed tourism to a new level (for us…Fay was more acquainted with this) and saw Valencia in a day ending with lovely
What the ??
Hard to believe. Paella on the beach. We just got into the Cathedral in time to see the inside but were hussled out before we could locate the Holy Grail (apparently it is housed here…the Pope says so).
Fay enjoyed the chance to get on a bike in Valencia (we hired one for her and took our own) and once she found the correct trail we couldn’t keep up with her excitement! We enjoyed riding through the old parts of town, drinking freshly squeezed Valencia OJ, riding down the river that no longer flows and riding past the futuristic science centre before Jas took a spin on part of the F1 track which was in preparation for the upcoming Grand Prix. Next stop Barcelona…………
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valda mason
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Thanks Kirstyn
Received your email, thanks, have looked at your latest travels and you have had some wonderful times. So pleased to see Fay and she is enjoying the experience so much. Hope you can pass on the message that Aunt Adelaide has passed away. Things look good at the moment on the farm, but we are really wanting a lot of rain. Helen has about 1 1/2 weeks till the baby, not much else to report everyone is well, Liz loved having Fay really misses the Aussie connections. Bye for now Love Aunty Val.