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SPAIN
'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.'
Mark Twain
23rd -24th September 2005
We said goodbye to our family in Buckinghamshire and drove to Portsmouth, where we joined the queue of vehicles waiting to board the P&O ferry The Pride of Bilbao. It would be a two day trip to Northern Spain. We saw dolphins in the Bay of Biscay, a wonderful sight but unfortunately no whales.
We met Sian and Phil on the boat, travelling to Morocco to see an eclipse with their converted, ex-army ambulance Land Rover. We were to meet up with them again later in Spain to discover, that due to an unfortunate incident, it had been necessary for them to return to Madrid for a new passport. We hope the rest of the journey goes well for you.
25th September
We arrived in Bilbao to a grey and damp day with heavy cloud and disembarked shortly after 7 a.m.
Our first campsite was at Villoslada de Cameros in La Rioja and situated in the beautiful National Park of the Sierra Cebollera. No sound except for cows bellowing across the hillside and the music of the bells around their necks.
We visited the Laguna Negra in the Sierra de Urbion with a wonderful heady scent of pine. A beautiful glacial lake, that reflected the colours of the surrounding trees and towering, rocky sides. The trees were well into changing their colours, brilliant yellows, oranges and deep pinks amongst the deep green of the pines.
26th -29th September
A long and tedious journey to one of our favourite campsites, Camping Despenaperos at Santa Elena, situated in a little village in the Parque Natural de Despenaperos.
Moby has gone really well and we spent an extra day at the site sorting out some of our gear. We had a lovely meal at the local bar/restaurant El Meson, where the venison and olives were delicious!
We followed fields with row upon row of olive trees as far as the horizon, to our next campsite at La Guijarossa near Santaella, Cordoba. It was very special. A small, family run site that was almost empty, surrounded also by fields of olive trees and serving wonderful, local food. It even had a swimming pool. The really helpful owner who spoke some English, tried to help us locate a new valve for our camping gas bottle in La Carlota but we were unlucky again.
Cordoba was very hot, full of tourists and very expensive. Most of the flowers in the window boxes were over, so the town was not as colourful as we had expected. However we did find a cool bar in which to have a lovely tapas of prawns and wild mushrooms for our lunch.
30th September
We headed south to Malaga today along the coast road. We were getting desperate by now to locate a valve for our camping gas cylinders and stopped to ask a policeman in his patrol car if he could help us. 'Follow me,' he said and took us straight to a shop that had one! We were quite overwhelmed by his kindness and so relieved that we could now start to do our own cooking.
Climbing slowly up into the awesome mountains of the Serrania Ronda, we discovered El Sur campsite, clean and in an attractive setting but very expensive.
1st-3rd October
Another long drive today to the recommended Playa Mazagon campsite. However, although it was well situated close to the beach with undulating dunes and pine forests, it was sadly a bit run down. The sound of the sea was drowned out by very loud disco music that began playing around midnight, until about 9 a.m. the following morning! A very disappointing site and we had been hoping to spend a couple of days by the beach. We decided to return towards Jerez and Cadiz via a stretch of coastline between Chipiona and Rota.
Two days of intense driving but we came upon an idyllic site next to an almost deserted, sandy beach that stretched for miles. Camping Playa Aguadulce near Rota on the west coast, another family run site with mainly established, tented areas for local Spanish. As they all gradually left after their weekend break, by Sunday evening we had the campsite and beach all to ourselves. Late afternoon we enjoyed tapas from the bar/restaurant situated at the edge of the beach and we could hear the sea from our tent at night.
4th October
We went into Jerez and bought tickets to watch a show at the Royal Andalusian Riding School. Such beautiful horses but sadly we were not allowed to take photos during the show.
We struggled to find our camp site in Rota again after dark but the bread, cheese, ham, tomatoes and wine that we had stopped to buy at Carrefour, were very welcome once we finally found our way back 'home'.
The town of Rota was typically Spanish and very interesting, with a beautiful beach front of spotless, white sand that stretched for miles. We really liked this place and could easily have spent much longer there.
5th October
We left Rota and headed south again to spend our last night at Camping Tarifa on the Costa de Luz, a very windy area. We passed huge wind farms on either side of the road.
We have been surprised to see how many fields in Spain were growing cotton and passed a number of lorries piled high with it.
6th October
We caught the 11 a.m. Transmediterranea ferry today from Algeciras to Ceuta (a Spanish enclave in Morocco), a journey of approximately 1 hour.
Adios Espana!
Miles so far 1671.
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