Southern Spain

Monday 11th February.

Into the Alpujarras.  

What a good day to chose to work at the campsite. It was very windy with the occasional shower. Mike went off on the bike to do the shopping, then cleaned the bikes while I got my student's project marked. We ended being at the campsite until 5.00pm. We headed for Orgive which is near the Rio Guadolpeo in the Alpujarras. It was another pretty drive and we reached this small town as the sun was going down. We had found a parking spot from a Spanish website. It was no more than a car park and we were the only Motorhome. But we were not disturbed other than by the wind, rain and the fast flowing river next to the car park. 

Tuesday 12th February.

Orgive to Almerimar. This morning we were up early, 7am, so that we could leave our overnight stop promptly - not wishing to upset and locals who wanted their day time parking space back.

Unbelievably the wind had died down completely and it was another sunny day. We set of looking for a breakfast stop which we found in the mountains just before Cadin. The wild weather of the previous night had deposited snow on the higher ground softening the quite harsh landscape. We spent the morning touring through the Alpujarras dodging the frequent "road slips" where the rocks had fallen from the mountains onto the roads.We feared f or the houses built up high into the mountains. By lunchtime we had dropped down to the coast. It was quite a shock to see everywhere covered in polythene sheeting. We deduced that it was mainly to protect the tomato crop from frost but later saw orangetrees under cover too. But what a mess it all looked, for miles and miles. We arrived early evening at Almerimar where we paid the Harbour Master 7,95 euros to stay the night on the key side. It was a lovely spot with the marina one side with the yachts on front of us and the beach and sea on the other. It had warmed up nicely so we got the bikes out and cycled along the esplanade into a nature reserve. I even had a short paddle but the sea was still very cold.

Back at the van we got our books and chairs out and read for about two hours on the sunshine. In the evening we went or a walk around the marina and dreamed about having a boat.

 

Wednesday 13th February.

Another lovely sunny day. I went for a walk first thing and then Mike and I set about cleaning the van inside and out. The good weather helped as it meant I could get the carpets out and scrub them.

 We had lunch outside and then went for a long cycle westward along the sea front. We saw lots of motor homes parked in unauthorised places. Up to 20 of them in some areas. But no one seemed to mind. None of the spots were as nice as ours in the marina. So we paid a further 7.95 euros and stayed another night. In the evening we joined the Danish couple from the van next to ours and watched Man United v Real Madrid in the local tapas bar.