Saturday 16 February 2013

Continuing onward  our intention is to avoid motorways wherever we can and also take a look at the towns and cities as we pass. We are in absolutely no rush.

So first we headed into the city of Malaga, the place where millions have started their holidays on the Costa del Sol for so many years. Busy as expected, we found it quite attractive, not at all like you might think although it is a large city.

We think this was at
Rincon de la Victoria

Working our way out east along the coast, the countryside started to get more mountainous. The N340, in places becoming the autovia A7, has been well reconstructed and is a delight to drive on, by-passing town centres but staying close enough to provide a proper feel of the typical Spanish way of life. There is far less evidence of tourism here, as generally the topography doesn’t lend itself to blocks of hotels and holiday apartments.

We paused for lunch just after Nerja, again a lovely, slightly touristy town, at one of the parking places made out of the old road which, you can see from the pictures, gave spectacular views along the coastline. The road is often up and down, in and out of valleys falling down to the sea and it made a super drive. We attempted to take more photos but the views always seemed to appear suddenly and with no opportunity to stop.

Looking south to Nerja

Typical beach

La Calleta

This, for instance, was La Calletta, a fort built on and into a large hill and overlooking La Herradura (we think!), but trying to get a good picture from the moving van was a challenge and the photo does not do it justice. 

But it does at least provide us with memory reminders, (so yah boo sucks to you!!!)

Sierra Nevada

Whilst at Torremolinos, we thought we could see snow-topped mountains to the north, and during the afternoon we caught glimpses of the Sierra Nevada range, which goes up to almost 12,000ft. A reminder that, despite the warm sunshine we are enjoying, it is February.

Fields of plastic sheeting

Climbing up out of Almunecar, we started seeing lots of plastic covered structures and dropping down onto the coastal plain we saw the land virtually covered with them. This is where, of course, all the winter grown fruit, tomatoes and such, is produced and exported all over Europe. Coupled with the somewhat industrialised area around Motril, this was a less attractive part of the coast, but everybody has to make a living and if this is where it grows well then that is as it must be.

The countryside now changed to the more crumbly brown desert type landscape, lacking much in the way of vegetation, and the villages more separated. The day was getting on and we had earlier identified three possible campsites. The first was right on an unattractive, flat beach and did not appeal. The second was right in the centre of Castell de Ferro, a nice looking town, but not for us. The third was a little further on, again set on a narrow beach at Castillo de Banos which, apart from being the last of the three, looked quite attractive.

At first it seemed quite crowded, but we were told that the Camping and Caravanning Club were holding one of their annual rallies here and had taken over half the site. The rest was just fine, busy but not overly so and, joy of joys, each pitch had water and waste connections as well as electric! No more humping heavy water carriers.

We settled down with mugs of tea to enjoy the late afternoon sun.