Day 26, Friday and Mo has a migraine so a lazy day at the campsite. Another hot and sunny day.

Day 27, Mo is feeling a little better and despite waking up to rain, the clouds slowly cleared and so later in the day we decided on a short hike from Las Negras, following a river bed into the mountains.

Although the route claimed to be signposted, we saw no evidence of this.

The terrain was rugged and progress was slow but the peace and quiet of the region was once again most evident. We only saw one other group of ramblers on the trip.

 

There isn’t a great deal to tempt the traveler to El Argamason, near Carboneras – there are no shops, bars or cafes – just a random selection of traditional white Spanish dwellings.

 

 

There is however a signposted and little frequented, circular walk starting and ending in the village.

 

 

 

 

Heading out of the village and downhill to the bridge, there is a left turn some 200m further ahead and here one can pick up the trail along the semi-dried river bed. The vegetation, typical of humid areas, acts as a shelter for various species of animals – apparently, according to the guide book – we just saw lots of frogs!

 

During the earlier sections, the river is wide but the final stretch of the river is slotted between two large masses of rocks, revealing a part underground basin at the source.

 

 

 

There were many different species of wild flowers on both the route out and the track back high above the river bed.

 

 

The weather again was hot and sunny with highs in the early 20s. Dinner was another BBQ back at the campsite.

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…