Cadiz and El Puerta de Santa Maria



Cadiz – El Puerta de Santa Maria

 We parked up in the main car park area next to the ferry port, and went on recce to see if we could find the place we had been told about by other travellers, it had guarded parking and cost of €1.00 for 24 hrs. On our walk we saw all the sherry wharf’s where the huge barrels of sherry are stored, the air is mixture of the strong smells of the stored sherry and bad drains mixed in with a bit of dog do, then you get an overwhelming smell of the Orange blossom from all the trees lining all the pasada’s (squares) & pavements which smells like jasmine flowers in the summer ( the smell of the Med), but don’t let that put you off.

Igesia Mayor Prioral in the square at Santa Maria

 

Ferry to Cadiz,(day 2 in Santa Maria)

It is easier to visit Cadiz via the local ferry service leaving every hour or so from Santa Maria ferry port, where we had found the low cost parking place. It is very windy today and we were told there would be no return service by boat, as the weather forcast wasn't looking to good. On arrival in Cadiz  we strolled around the city watching all the road & building works, it looks like the city is being eaten away by the wind and weather.  We found a small bar to have lunch of beer and Montaditos (small bocadillos) (sandwiches) of Serrano ham and cheese.  We continued our walk around the old city, taking in the sights and found another pretty plaza surrounded by orange trees in bloom and had a cool refreshing Caña (175ml of draft beer a small half with lots of froth, all beers mentioned in the blog are Caña’s, not pints, just in case it sounds like we drink a lot).  Eventually we walked back to the port for our ride back to Santa Maria by bus. In the evening we decided to go out for a few drinks in a local bar, well it was Friday night.  We arrived in the bar at the end of “early doors” this is where the office workers go for an early beer after work (the Spanish do always seem to be drinking maybe it is to keep hydrated?) about 7.30 ish, we sat at the bar on stools with our drinks I tried the  Vino Fino Sherry (well all the men were drinking it there) and Jo ordered a white wine then a busker walked in and proceeded to play a popular flamenco number.  Well everybody seemed to know the song and started to start singing and the ladies started dancing with their arms in the air and there was lots of hand clapping.  I don’t think it was for our benefit, I think it was just a Friday night in Cadiz.  We stayed in the bar and started chatting with the local Spaniards in our pigeon Spanish and their limited English, unusually our conversations improved the more beer and wine we all drank, we met some very nice people and thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

"Nice hair" Its windy in Puerto De Santa Maria (Cadiz)





Been watching too much Miami Vice in the 80s

Cathedral in Plaza de la Cathedral



Our night out in Santa Maria



Back on the road again



A view of Benidorm in the distance with Calpe in the foreground

 Leaving Moraira, we decided to make a leisurely 'dash' down the coast, dropping family off at the airport in Alicante, our first stop for the night was previously visited La Marina, as its only 30 minutes from the airport and has a couple of beach bars close by. From there we went to Elche to a large motor home accessory shop, as we had a problem with the fridge, hoping that they could fix it, problem with fridge not resolved but journey continues, driving inland passing Murcia, Lorca and stopping for lunch is a small town called Librilla, thinking there was a lake to stopby, but the river feeding it had been damned up mainly years ago.  After a long drive we stopped at a lovely stop on the beach just outside Aquiilas for the night.  In the morning we drove onto Villaricos to stay with Jan and Ian for one night and the following day arrived at Almerimar, so now we are back on track.

Moving on, we passed through Adra, Motril and dropped down into Salobrena, initially, we thought to be a typically Spanish tourist town, with a long sweeping promenade, however once we found the wild camping spot and had time to explore, we found an Moorish castle in the old town up on top of the out crop of rock and next door, the tiny village of La Caleta which houses the last sugar factory in Europe.

Salobrena town, nicer place than it looks - sugar factory in foreground

Dashed through the Costa del Sol, passing around Malaga, through Benalmadeba, Fuengirola and Marbella, stopping in a coastal town called San Pedro, for a couple of nights over the weekend.  San Pedro is only a couple of km's from Puerto Banus, so we decided to walk down and see how the other half live.

"Time to dump the motor home - I've got my sights on something better"!!

 

Gibraltar - well nearly!!

We decided to move onto Gibraltar for a couple of days, mainly to do abit of duty free shopping.  However when we arrived at what is commonly known as the "sandpit" a very popular and apparently reliable wild camping stop, the police were moving all the vans off, so we made a hasty retreat and change of plan (several days later we discovered that there had been a bomb scare and all the vans could return at 9pm).  We decided to carry on through Algeciras and onto our next stop Tarifa.



The only shot of Gibraltar we got due to the fast exit required



Tarifa

We arrived in Tarifa, early evening and parked in the town for coffee and cake, before finding somewhere to stop for the night.  Tarifa is the most southerly point of Spain and only 14 km from the coast of Africa, it is apparently one of the windiest place in Europe and therefore very popular for windsurfing and kite surfing.  We headed northwest to Tarifa Beach and settle there for the night amongst the surfer dudes.  The following day we had planned to go into town and look round the surfer shops for some t-shirts for Simon, then head back to the beach and watch the display of surfers, however the police where knocking on van doors at 7 in the morning moving people on, so off we went again.  We decided it was time to check into a campsite and freshen up, moving up the coast, we passed fields and fields of wind turbines and called into Zahara de Los Tunes for breakfast, a pretty fishing village with some small hotels and pensions and drove through the busy town of Barbate.

Some of Spain's wind farms- they are everywhere, along this coast

Me taking the dog for a shit - "we don't have a dog silly"

Zahora (Caños de Meca)

We stopped at campsite in Zahora, after parking up we walked to the lighthouse at Cape Trafalgar, off the south west coast, where the famous battle of Trafalgar was fought on the 21st Oct 1805. British Royal Navy’s fleet of 22 warships went up against the French & Spanish combined fleet of 33 warships, the Spanish losing 22 ships with no British loses.                         We chilled on the windy beach and pondered what had happened all those years ago. We made our way back to the town via the long sandy beach (like one of those you see in  adverts)  All the beaches along this coastline are stunning, beautiful soft white sand that stretches for miles and miles.  Jo forgot her sun hat and had to improvise!







Just like a chocolate flake advert



nice pose

 



Lighthouse at Cape Trafalgar

 

Jo looking like a member of the Spanish Inquisition

La Palmar

The following day we walked to La Palmer and had lunch in the “cervezeria” which looked like the one all the surfers frequented.

Si contemplating his next meal - "I think I'll now have the left hand side off the menu"



Surf dude central



 

Continuing up the coast to Cadiz, we passed through La Barrosa, a tourist resort with 5 golf courses. Stayed for lunch in the harbour area of Sancti Petri, a small spit of land a beautiful place to camp, but it was a little early to set up camp so we moved on, Jo photographed a statue of a man before heading for El Puerta De Santa Maria




It's nearly down to his knee, nice of the sculptur to add an extra inch

 

Moraira with our Mum's



View of Moraira from the Cap D'or Fort

 

The Fort at Cap D'or El Portet Moraira


We arrived at our villa in Moraira, the villa was lovely; so much better than we expected, beautiful views over the valley, Sky, Wifi , all the mod cons and even a bath - ooh what a luxury after 4 months in a motorhome.  We explored Moraira; a pretty seaside town with 3 beaches, small tourist shops and excellent seafood restaurants.  Much of our time was spent relaxing and chilling out in and around the town, visiting the local market and beaches, we did a couple of day trips, one to the Xalon Valley and visited the Bodego to fill up on supplies!! and Javea.

Our last night in Moraira with Mum



Si and Mum - Marion in Moraira



Mum chilling on the beach

  


I think we're going to need a bigger glass

 

Sally and Si on El Portet Beach

We really enjoyed catcing up with our family and now we are heading of on our adventures again.



Benidorm - Travelling back up the coast

Benidorm still under construction

Look closely the contrast of sunbathers & people in coats n scarfs

Benidorm (day 106)

  The trip to Benidorm today was about 80km and we decided to take the N332 Rd North.  As we approached Benidorm the towering hotels and apartments appeared from behind the mountains, they look so imposing against the landscape.  We drove along the back of the town and entered on the North side, arriving at Benisol Camping located just next to the Cisne Rastro (flea market), which we visited a couple of times on Sunday and you could sit with a racion of Paella, a couple of Pincho’s (meat kebabs) and a jug of Sangria while listening to a live artist singing.  On Saturday afternoon they had Flamenco dancing, which we unfortunately missed, maybe next time. The campsite was very busy with a lot of long stayers (people staying over the winter months).  It was well equipped with good hot showers and a great restaurant with a log fire roaring away,which we huddled around in the evenings while sampling the food and drink again purely for research purposes.

Pan pipes spectacular

  While we were in Benidorm a special day arrived; Valentines Day and we visited the old town the previous day to investigate the possible eateries for this special occasion. We were told about a particular road in the old district called “ Sante Domindo Calle “ where the tapas bars are concentrated and we found a popular bar and edged our way in, viewing the various tapa’s while we waited for a couple of stools at the bar and soaked up the atmosphere soon we were seated.  I ordered drinks of Rosé Cava and made our selection of Pincho’s (kebab) Tortilla (potato based omelette ) Habas con Jamon (beans & ham) and Carne (meat stew).  This came with fresh bread and Alioli (mayonnaise with fresh garlic), a very enjoyable Valentines afternoon.

Cisne Rastro (flea market)

Our camping spot in Benidorm

This is not an N332 girl



This isn't either



Big Guns at Cabo Tinoso -Traveling back up the coast



Si and his big gun



Puerto De Mazarrόn (day 104) The Big Guns of Cabo Tinoso

 We travelled further up the coast to Mazarron and camped wild on an unfinished urbanisation, we had stayed here before and knew it would be ok.  In the morning we made our way to Cabo Tinoso right on the tip of the peninsular, too a turn of the century gun emplacement; we had been told about by another traveller.  The guns were installed to defend the harbour of Cartagena against invaders, the road is very narrow but there are places to pass, so we made it to the National Parc and parked outside the car park, because it was too tight to get unless you own a Smart car ??? (amazing what European funding can do).  The journey was well worth the drive up those scary roads. On arrival we were presented with an impressive sight of these great 15 inch guns pointing menacingly out to sea, they were manufactured at Vickers of Barrow in Furness around 1918, and were last fired in 1973. Definitely worth the crazy drive.

Travelling back up the coast - La Garrucha, Calabordina and Calnegre

La Garrucha fishing port

La Garrucha Fishing Port (day 101)

We stopped off in La Garrucha to camp wild in the fishing port car park, while we were there we visited the fish market to see the fish being landed and then sold in the auction. The car park felt very secure, although we were disturbed by the local line fishermen turning up at 5.00am to make an early start.

La Garrucha fish market

Calabardina & Calnegre near Canâda de Gallego. (day 102-103)

We stopped at a couple of wild camping spots between Aguilas and Cartagena, we found a huge community of wild campers along this stretch of coastline, some we had met before and also we found a whole town not even on the map,” well not ours ” called  Canâda de Gallego nestled between all the plastic greenhouses, the local BP fuel station had a waste disposal round the back an you could buy 60 litres of drinking water for €0.50, bargain.

 

Sun rise at Calnegre



Wild in Calabordina

The pretty town of Calabordina

Aquillas beach

Travelling back up the coast - Cabo de Gata - Rodalquiler Goldmine and St Isleta



Abandon Goldmine of Rodalquilar



Cabo De Gata again (day 99)

 We liked it so much at Cabo De Gata we decided to go back – well we are meeting our parents in Alicante mid-February, so we have a chance to visit the places we missed on the way down.  First we visited a small Spainsh fishing village; La Isleta a short drive from San José, a beautiful whitewashed town with cleanswept streets and small café bars. Seemingly untouched by tourism, that mightbe because it is winter and also siesta time, we always arrive at siesta time we can’t get used to the meal times, it was very quiet. Jo spotted a wall mounted “Indalo Man”. We walked into village, it was very windy and the temperature was dropping. Back at the van, we had lunch while trying to decide if we could stay for the night (we were parked in a parc natural) we voted to move onto San Jose, just a few kilometres up the road, where we knew we could park for the night and have a few beers & tapas in the local bar, in the main square which seemed to be the best bar in town.



Indalo Man

In the region of Almería around about  60 years ago paintings were discovered in caves of Valez Blanco dating back 4500 years. It is said to be a man holding a rainbow and is said to bring good luck and ward off evil. The town of Mojacar in South West Spain is said to be it’s adopted home.  As a consequence of the discovery of the cave paintings Mojacar’s fortunes changed in the 1950’s from a virtual ghost town to a very prosperous pueblo with new beaches and hotels, which at the time of our visit was having a new underground car park being built in the centre of this historic hillside old town….durrrr??? We did stop at the Fuente (natural spring) to fill up with drinking water which tastes great (we’ve become connoisseurs of water since we started this trip, the water in Spain is good but some places it is a little strong on the chlorine & some is  desalinated).

We woke today with icicles hanging off our nose; it was seriously cold last night (-4ᵒ), we set off for Rodalquiler without ,we just wanted to put the van heater on, about 20km to the gold mine we parked up in the Eco Centre car park and had a breakfast of tortilla & toast with coffee (a typical Spanish breakfast obviously without the wine or the brandy which seems to be the norm). We then wrapped up against the cold, but bright & sunny day and set off for the goldmine, keeping our eyes to the ground just in case they'd missed one.  The abandoned goldmings are a fascinating and extremely atmospheric spot, the mines experienced a minor gold fever in the 1880's. and they reopened for a briefly in 1989, before finally closing a year later.

 

Si's really let himself go!!



A converted windmill on Cabo de Gato