Today we visited Texas Hollywood / Fort Bravo near to the town of Tabernas. It was here that in the 60s and 70s, Sergio Leone produced among other films, the Spaghetti westerns. Films like “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.

The location was chosen due to many similarities in the landscape with the Wild West of America and particularly because it was cheap to mass produce films here.

This is Universal Studios on a beer budget!

The film sets and buildings remain largely in tact and the “actors” at the site produced a couple of western “acts” during the day.

 

 

 

There was also a film crew at the site, the main presenter arriving by helicopter and judging by the number of selfies, he must be a famous TV presenter.

 

He’s the chap in the picture with the white shirt and blue shorts. Answers on a postcard please. Seriously, I’ll leave the comments section open so comment to me your suggestions as to who this famous personality is!!

 

 

Evening was a BBQ back at the campsite.

Day 22 and 23 were quiet days. On the Monday we drove to Almeria for a large shop at the Carrefour hypermarket before lounging at the campsite. Another lovely day weather wise with highs in the early to mid 20s.

 

 

Tuesday, Day 23 was another lazy day. I helped Mo with her jigsaw puzzle – am struggling to recall just how many years this has accompanied us in its part completed state.

Anyhow, with a joint effort, the puzzle is now complete.

 

Another hot and sunny afternoon so we waited until early evening before walking to La Isleta del Moro; enjoyed drinks outside the harbour restaurant before heading back to the campsite for a late dinner at the restaurant.

We awoke to another bright and sunny day at Camping Los Escullos and spent much of the morning and first part of the afternoon lazing around the campsite.

Late afternoon we set off on a cycle ride along the coastal path from Los Escullos to San Jose.

On leaving Los Escullos the track climbs steadily for around 3 – 4 miles with beautiful views over the cliff edge and across the Mediterranean sea.

We knew we wouldn’t be able to complete the entire journey because on the outskirts of San Jose is a large volcanic mountain and it isn’t suitable to cycle over it.

 

In fact, much of the path was barely suitable to cycle along, without at least a decent mountain bike. Still, we managed to complete a circular tour of about 8 miles over the rugged and hilly terrain.

 

 

 

 

Today’s route

Day 20 and there was some catching up to do with respect to work and admin. Another fantastic day weather wise with unbroken sunshine from dawn to dusk.

In the evening we hiked to La Isleta del Moro.

 

La Isleta del Moro perfectly embodies the typical fishing village of the area, the small boats near the beach, the white houses of modest fishermen and the extraordinary peace and tranquility. Save perhaps for the summer months.

 

We found a waterfront restaurant at La Isleta (or more precisely, the waterfront restaurant) and dinner was served from 20:30.

It’s not ideal the Spanish eating times when there’s a 3 mile hike at the end of the evening in the pitch dark.

The food was good. Mo in particular enjoyed her sole.

After Mo’s exertions on the bicycle yesterday, another bike ride today was not on the cards. Instead we drove to Nijar and had a look around the hillside town. Níjar has been described as one of the most picturesque towns in the whole of Spain. It therefore comes highly recommended as a place to see.

 

 

The most notable site was the tower or Atalaye which is situated high above the hillside town. It was quite an effort to climb up to the tower and slightly disappointing that the tower itself was closed.

 

 

Still, the viewing area provided nice panoramic views across the Cabo de Gata National Park, all the way to the ocean at San Jose. Apart, that is, from the sea of polytunnels!

The weather gradually improved as the day wore on and the evening was nice and sunny and pleasantly warm. The early part of the evening saw a group of Brits descend on the bar (well, it is Friday). We joined them for a beer or two before heading back to the van and cooking a rather nice piece of steak.

 

Day 18 and the bikes were dusted off for a ride into San Jose, which is probably the largest of the little coastal villages within the Cabo de Gato National Park.

We started along the track behind the campsite but it wasn’t really suitable for hybrid bikes. Maybe a proper mountain bike would have been fine but the dirt track was littered with stones and small boulders making cycling difficult to say the least.

At around 2 miles, abandoning the dirt track, we re-joined the road for the remainder of the trip to San Jose. The roads are fairly quiet and the drivers very cyclist aware, considerate and patient – just like blighty (not).

We ate at a restaurant in the port with stunning views across the bay and town. Menu of the day was priced at 10 Euros each – Mo had Sardines and Sole, I had the Calamari and Grouper – all very good and a long leisurely lunch.

 

It’s now Day 17 and the stormy weather has passed. It took much of the morning to re-assemble the contents of our awning and begin to plan what to do during our stay here in Los Escullos.

In the afternoon we drove to Rodalquilar, which has a number of abandoned Gold mines and it was here that at least one of the Indiana Jones films was shot.

There are lots of old abandoned mine workings but despite heading up the mountain dirt track (by car!) we weren’t able to locate the mines but perhaps we will return a little later with some additional information.

We then drove to El Playazo, which is also the location of Castillo de San Ramos. From there we walked along a coastal path to Las Negras but we weren’t able to complete the entire walk as we’d set off without any supplies and in particular without water.

Dinner was at the site restaurant.

 

Sleep was difficult due to the banging and clattering from the sun shades above us and the pitch just behind us. The caravan was being shaken around, not dissimilar to airline turbulence. The “Sunshine” awning providing a giant sail to add to the discomfort.

At 04:00, we decided to take a look outside. Well, nearly every awning peg had been dislodged; the sides of the awning were being violently flapped  around, totally unsecured; anything not anchored down was blowing around – complete chaos. We dismantled what we could in the dark and re-pegged everything, just hoping it would last until the morning when we would have to take apart and stow all our outdoor items… Finally back to bed at 05:00.

Woke again at 08:00 and checked the weather – accuweather was forecasting winds of 55km/h and gusts of nearly 80 km/h. There was no way we would be able to take the awning down – it would behave like a giant sail.

In addition to this, a 4m length of rebar was hanging from the next pitch and being tossed around like a giant swing in the wind – nicely poised to impale itself into ours or one of the other vans nearby.

An urgent call to service and eventually Manuel arrived in his pickup truck and started to tear down the sun shade and it’s metal supports. We saw no evidence whatsoever that so-called EU bureaucracy has had any influence on Health and Safety, as Manuel climbed his ladder in the gusting winds and stripped down the shading!

Given we couldn’t dismantle the awning, we re-pegged everything again (in fact double-pegged most things) and have spent the entire day waiting for the winds to subside. It’s now nearly 18:00 when the weather warning expires, the wind is still strong in bursts but not quite so frequent. The awning is still just about surviving…

Perfect opportunity to get back on track with the blog…

A lazy start to the day and further sorting out of our campsite pitch. The pitches are all covered with a high mesh screen to keep the sun at bay. Probably useful in July and August but in April?

It’s all held in place by lots of wire and chunky steel rebar (re-inforcement bar). Some of this looks a little precarious, particularly if it becomes somewhat windy. The pitch behind us already had several multi-metre lengths abandoned on the ground and another loose piece poised to join them.

 

 

 

Later in the afternoon, we walked into Los Escullos via a far from picturesque service road.

 

 

We are in the Cabo de Gato / Nijar national park and it’s bleak, remote and quiet. Los Escullos was like some kind of abandoned wild west town (it is of course near here that the Spaghetti Westerns were all filmed back in the 60s / 70s). By the time we reached Los Escullos the wind had picked up and the walk had become rather unpleasant.

Evening was a BBQ under our new awning in chilly and rather windy conditions. That’s when the phone beeped to tell us of a severe weather warning for the Almeria region – extreme winds from 03:00 to 18:00. Time to check everything is secure…

So we are finally leaving Camping La Rosaleda and heading for Camping Los Escullos, near to Los Escullos, and about 25 miles east of Almeria.

As usual, we left later than anticipated, although upon our arrival at the campsite reception (to check out), we hadn’t factored in Sunday and its late opening. We had to wait until reception opened to settle our account, finally hitting the road circa 09:15. It took around 6 hours to cover the 300 miles to Los Escullos. Our journey times were considerably improved due to the recent opening of the A7 all the way from Malaga to Almeria. It’s just as well, since the old N340 road would have been a very slow journey.

There was some spectacular scenery along the way but nothing had quite prepared us for the endless polytunnels. Mile upon mile upon mile of plastic greenhouses and “structures”. Apparently this is where the UK gets most of its tomatoes from – an all year round operation. Maybe they supply all of Northern Europe too…

We arrived about 15:30 and were fully set up within around 4 hours – including our latest edition, an Isabella “Sunshine” awning.

Doesn’t she look splendid and so much space for all our toys and comforts. Of course there aren’t any front panels but then, this is Spain and the weather will be hot and dry…

Dinner was at the campsite restaurant, which was pleasant enough but the food not in the same class as the Camping La Rosaleda fare.