Returning to the Scene of the Crime

After leaving our winter bolt-hole of El Puerto de Santa Maria we headed to the Extremadura region and camped in Merida. This is, of course, where I fell off my bicicleta and broke my ankle. We really wanted to return to the region as the Roman ruins and historic towns are unbeatable.

Merida itself has a 5km medieval aqueduct, 12^th – 14^th century Alcazabar, a 700 metre Roman bridge, the most intact Roman theatre in Europe, Roman amphitheatre and temple. Of course we saw none of this last time.

Incredible Roman Theatre in Merida

Again, we hired a small car and drove to Elvas in Portugal. You may remember (although I doubt it) that we had coffee here last year.  It was such an interesting town that we booked a hotel for night so we could see the area. The hotel was a 17^th century convent, beautifully restored and within the city walls. 60 euros for one night including breakfast (bacon butties, what a treat!!), WIFI and parking!!

Elvas is protected by star shaped fortifications, the double walls cleverly designed to allow the inhabitants to take pot shots at would-be intruders. The walls are completely intact and further protection is provided by outlying forts.

Elvas Fort

Elvas Aqueduct - note ominous grey sky!

Driving back to Spain the weather was terrible. It was the kind of heavy rain where you wonder if you did something really bad in a past life and this was payback time. We managed a decent lunch in the pretty hill town of Monsaraz. With only 2 streets and only a couple of alleys, we managed to see the whole town without getting wet.

We arrived back in Span with a bounty of wine and olive oil.  Not that there is a shortage here, but we love the Portuguese stuff and it is so cheap and the quality is brilliant.

We also spent a day in Trujillo, another town we saw briefly when I was on crutches. It’s one of those classic Extremadura towns. Beautiful plaza, mediæval palaces, churches, alleyways and a wonderful Castle at the top of the hill.

Trujillo Castle

Rick Stein recently said of this region “it’s like Provence pre Mayle”. Now, I didn’t see Provence before Peter Mayle wrote his best-seller, and there’s no lavender to be seen, but it does have an untouched, ‘untouristy’ feel to it. At times you need to ignore the urban sprawl, but there are very few places where this is not the case.

We are now in Caceres, which seems to be the epitome of Extremadura towns. The small city centre is jam packed with palaces, churches, towers, plazas all in a charmingly haphazard layout, complete with nesting storks.  

Caceres

A real highlight has been the food (Maggie, you need to stop reading now). We found a wonderful restaurant in the main square that serves really innovative Spanish food. We generally like mainstream Spanish food, but it can become a bit dull, a bit ‘same same’. This place serves a tapa with every drink, of great variety. The first visit was great fun - ordering wine by the glass (2 euros) and wondering what little treat would arrive. We only needed to order one thing off the menu. However, day 2 we decided to be more serious. Pork cheek cooked in Pedro Jimenez, Patatas Brava and Pimiento stuffed with black pudding, accompanied by local white wine made from grapes we’ve never heard of.  We were in Foodie Heaven, we hadn’t had food this good since San Sebastian.

Food!!

Happily we’ve had 2 days of sun to enjoy all this, but the forecast isn’t good. The plan was to head to Monfragüe National Park for Easter but that doesn’t appeal in the rain so we may just stay here and eat ourselves to death.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It’s Friday night and we’ve been in the Canary Islands for 2 days. I’m sitting on our balcony watching the ocean and the passing parade, drinking an unremarkable local wine.

We arrived very, very late Wednesday night and after getting lost, inevitably, we found our apartment and went seeking food and beer. Tired and hungry, we weren’t fussy and found a dodgy bar that had an atmosphere of cigarette smoke and salmonella. We survived.

On waking we realised that our El Cheapo apartment was rather ghastly and have now upgraded to a sea view with balcony. The ocean and promenade are brilliant for people watching and indulging in our favourite game – ‘guess the nationality’.

Breakfast in the balcony

The Poms are obvious, dressed for 45 degrees. The Spanish are dressed for winter. The Germans are dressed in their sensible clothes as though about to head off on safari. The Finns are strutting about with their suntans and Barney Rubble haircuts drinking beer for morning tea.

This is Tourist Central.  You may wonder why we chose Gran Canaria.. It was simple, the flights worked, it was cheap and we could get accommodation, AND the sun was shining. Our apartment is conveniently located above a Finnish Karaoke Bar. This is really not our kind of place, but certainly an eye opener.

Day one was simply spent pottering about, buying some cooler clothes etc. We found the weather we were looking for.

Day two we ventured out on the road looking for some walking trails and some interesting scenery. Well, we found it.

This is going to be a long blog I’m afraid. I normally try to be succinct, but this one will be wordy. I suggest you go and pour yourself a decent glass of wine and get a bite to eat. Are you ready?

Come on a journey with me. We head to what we thought would be an interesting jut of land in the north west. Now, I need you to use your imagination. Picture a moonscape, and then add seriously bad apartment developments. In your picture you can see that financial crisis has hit and most of these were have never been built. The land, however had been prepared, therefore ruined irretrievably. Turn a corner and you can see acres of poly tunnels growing bananas. Some abandoned and left to fall to shreds where they stand, most still producing. 

Now picture a nuclear holocaust and lay that over your image. Next put in some wind turbines, some ugly flat tumbledown buildings, and then add a feeling of abandonment and despair. Do you see it??

Bear with me, we are about to take a couple of hairpin bends. Close your eyes, if you will, and drive around the long bends. Now open them to take in a coastline of such staggering beauty and drama that it takes your breath away. The scene is so dramatic we feel giddy. The road is a master of engineering and we wonder how it was ever built. We stop whenever it’s possible to take in the extraordinary beauty of this coast. Photos cannot do it justice, but we try.

The Coast

We drive and drive exclaiming at what unfolds before us, and then, the next town appears. Our hearts sink, a beautiful valley filled with acres of plastic. Try to recall this scene next time you are inclined to buy out of season fruit in the supermarket.

After leaving this dreary town we head into the National Park with the intention of driving across the island.  Once again the road is something to behold and we hold our breath on the single lane track each time we need to pass another car. Once again the scene before us is astoundingly beautiful but incredibly rugged and harsh as a result of its volcanic ancestry.

National park - thank goodness it's protected

 We gasp, we exclaim, try to stop for photos but it’s really impossible to capture. Once over the highest pass we are suddenly in green hills and natural pine forests. This is an island of contrasts.

As we head down towards the coast, we are once again struck by the dreariness of the towns.

Day three saw us back into the centre of the island to do some walking.  We did a lovely 7km walk in a natural pine forest dotted with flowering azaleas and bright yellow daisies.  A teasing mist accompanied us on our ramble, allowing us glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean far below only to snatch them away again. We didn’t mind as yesterday was so extraordinary that our minds were all ready full.

Lunch was enormous and I have to tell you that we ate our favourite black pudding! It’s so delicious, flavoured with aromatic spices and filled with nuts. YUM!

Day four and we are on the road again. We head south via the coast and try to ignore the miles of hideous development interspersed with falling down plastic ‘greenhouses’. The environmental vandalism that has been allowed is astonishing. We drive right by more ugly ‘tourist resort’ towns and finally climb our way into the mountains from the south coast. Accompanying us this time are 100s of cyclists wending their steady way up the road. Such determination on their faces!  We climbed to almost 2000 metres through more incredible landscapes, stopping for more black pudding (Morcilla Dulce) for lunch.  Once again we drive home through dreary coastal towns and enjoy a beer by the beach.

Black pudding again for lunch

I’ll let you get back now to whatever you were doing before reading this dissertation. We are back in El Puerto de Santa Maria and it’s raining and windy and muddy. Sun is promised tomorrow and we’ll pack up Hilda in preparation for heading north through Extremadura.

View of Las Palmas beach from balcony

Heading for the Hills

We’ve been back from our side trip to the Sierra de Grazalema for a few days and are not impressed with our weather. Hurrumph!!

However our sojourn in the mountains was wonderful. The hotel was an absolute delight. Typically Spanish, it was tastefully decorated and run by a wonderful man called Andres. Our view of Grazalema was perfect, only improved by the blanket of snow on the second day. Snow was forecast, but we didn’t really believe that we would get 4 inches.

aVERY white 'pueblo blanco'

We did a marvellous walk on day 1 – about 4 hours - sweeping views, craggy outcrops, steep pointed granite peaks. Our planned walk for the second day (you must book ahead as they limit the numbers) was not to be, as the snow had blocked the access road. Instead, we did the walk close to town through the snow – such a strange feeling in the south of Spain.

Day 1 walk

Day 2 walk

We ate so much for lunch on the first 2 days that we couldn’t eat dinner – they really know how to feed you here. All delicious local produce and fabulous wine from down the road. On the 3^rd night we tried really hard to do ‘grown ups’ dinner and eat late with the Spanish, but when we left after 10.30, we were still the only people in the restaurant. I don’t know how they do it. The wild boar was worth it anyway.

We drove home through one more pueblo blanco Zahara, another dramatically located white town.

Lovely Zahara

Back in El Puerto it has been raining, raining, raining. So much so that we had to move pitch as we were in danger of floating away – fortunately in the direction of the bar. Anyway, in a fit madness we booked a flight to Gran Canaria and we leave tonight. 5 days in the sun and some good hill walking is just what we need.

We’ll return on Monday 11, and head to the Extremadura area on the 13^th.

Rain, rain, go away!!

I’m sitting here looking out the window at pouring rain, the puddles are forming into small lakes and we are housebound. Lawrence is ready to get the gin out! We’ve had rain on and off over the last month but enough sunny days to keep us off the gin, mostly. Today however is AWFUL!

Our newly installed swimming pool

Lawrence exposes his lilly whites to the sun - sent the neighbours rushing for their sunglasses.

Anway, enough griping. Since we last spoke, Lawrence has been to Australia in a quest to source the perfect vehicle for our long journey home. Yes, he does seem to have a habit of flying around the world to buy 4WD vehicles. The latest is a Landcruiser 79 series of which we will keep the body and chassis, do all sorts of ‘things’ to it (L will fill you in at some stage) and then bimobil will build a wonderful camper body onto it in Munich. This will be the last gasp in 4WD campers – we hope.

Hilda will be for sale in September and we have some interest in her already. The new vehicle should be ready in October and then we start the next adventure. The current plan is Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and across Russia to Vladivostok. I can see you all rushing off to consult Google maps and exclaiming “they must be mad”. Quite possibly, but what the hell, we could be dead.

Whilst Lawrence was rushing around Oz sorting out registration, insurance, banks, shipping etc, I stayed in sunny Spain and entertained my lovely Irish friend, Ruth. We had glorious weather and spent our 5 days cycling about seeking out sunny lunch spots, sipping sherry and munching olives whilst contemplating yet another menu.

Favourite lunch spot

On the homeward journey, Lawrence was flying into Malaga from Sydney (via HK and Amsterdam) and I was chauffeured there by our Dutch mates, Henk and Patrick, to meet him. We took the coast road via Marbella and Torremolinos. Oh boy, I had wanted to see the Costa Del Sol just to see how bad it really is and I wasn’t disappointed. Words fail me really, but ghastly, hideous, hell etc, spring to mind. It is truly awful.

Malaga was slightly better as the old town is nice enough to potter about, but one hour was enough. We hired a car, stayed overnight and drove home through the hills and had lunch in our favourite pueblo blanco (white town) Grazalema.

It's been festival season in Cadiz, with El Puerto de Santa Maria hosting a mini version last weekend. The usually quiet, conservative locals really let their hair down and we joined in the fun.

We like Grazalema and the sierra region so much that we are going up that way for a few days and do some walking in the hills. Weather is forecast to improve.

The sun has just come out, but we are surrounded by water. The wellies will be well used today.

Lunch in nearby Jerez with the neighbours.

Once More With Feeling!

I last left you in Portugal about 3 weeks ago. From Beja we drove to Milfontes to visit friends Caroline and Nigel. We spent a wonderful boozy night with them catching up and making a fuss of the dogs Indie & Dixie. We were spoilt with roast lamb for dinner and a bacon and egg breakfast.

Lawrence, Caroline, Nigel, Indie and Dixie in foreground

Next stop was the most south-westerly corner of Portugal, Sagres. Stunning coastline, but not much else to keep us any longer in Portugal. We drove straight past the Algarve as it has been largely ruined by development.

Sagres Coastline - western Algarve

Call us predictable, but, we headed straight to our favourite wild west town, El Rocio for Christmas. The weather was wonderful, the horses entertaining and the beach still beautiful. Christmas lunch was roast goose for me, and venison for Lawrence with a view of the lagoon, of course.

Sunning ourselves at the beach near El Rocio

Fabulous El Rocio

We flew to Bonn for New Year celebrations with family. Unfortunately the weather was quite dreary and the lovely walkway along the Rhine was flooded, but it was lovely to catch up with the Johnstones.

Lawrence and sister Helen by the Rhine

From there we flew to Seville, my favourite city in Spain. It’s such a treat with its wide avenues, cobbled alleyways, streets lined with orange trees and lots of sunshine. We were blessed with blue skies each day and spent our time walking, eating and drinking in the sun.

We celebrated my birthday early (like Australia does for the Queen) as I had a hankering to do a repeat of last year and eat in the Moorish bathhouse, now restaurant and have carpaccio of ostrich again – so that’s what we did. Talk about dull!!

Seville by night

And now? Yes you guessed it, we are back in El Puerto de Santa Maria (sherry country). It’s a real sense of déjà vu as we did this exact itinerary for Christmas and New Year last year. Coming back to this campsite was a bit like coming home and we will stay for as long as the weather is good, perhaps 6 weeks. So far it’s about 18 degrees during the day, blue skies, chilly nights and crisp mornings. If we can have lunch in the sun everyday, we are happy. Doesn’t take much.

There are a few familiar faces around from last year and a few familiar dogs. We have now moved to our old pitch as it has the best sunlight until around 5.30 – these things become important when the weather rules your life.

We are now on the wagon until my actual birthday as we have overindulged again over the festive season. 5 days of vegetables and water with lots of excercise!!!

You may not hear from me for a while as we simply will spend our days cycling, walking on the beach and eating lunch in the sun – someone’s got to do it!