Monday was our first full day at La Manga.

La Manga is close to Murcia and after its urbanization in the second half of the twentieth century, is now a large and significant tourist centre. It has more than 3000 hours of sunshine per year with an average temperature of 18C.

It belongs to the municipalities of Cartagena in its southern part and San Javier in its northern part.

The coastal cord of La Manga forms a tongue of land that is 21 km long and extends from Cabo de Palos to the Salinas and Arenales de San Pedro del Pinatar. With a width between 100 and 1200m it partially separates the Mediterranean Sea from the Mar Menor.

To the west of this tongue of land is the Mar Menor, a salt water lagoon connected by channels, through which the water is exchanged with the Mediterranean Sea that is to the east. The central connection (El Estacio) is an artificial extension and provides access to the marina.

Today we set off on the bikes to Cabo de Palos which is at the nearest end to Cartagena of the La Manga spit. The entire journey was mainly on cycle tracks and gravel roads. We visited the lighthouse there which was first lit in January 1865. The lighthouse features a large pedestal and can be seen from a distance of 24 miles away.

Thursday and we decided to cycle to the far end of the La Manga spit of land. This was disappointing. Tower block upon tower block and the entire strip was close to deserted. We did manage to find somewhere to have a spot of lunch and a three course menu of the day for 12 Euros each. I’m sure that some of the dishes which arrived were not what we ordered but who knows. This is Spain.

I can only imagine what this place must be like in the summer months and frankly, we wouldn’t want to experience it! It was a nice cycle ride, despite the architecture…

Today we headed West to Mazarron. Our first stop was the mines of Mazarron.

The special deposits formed in this area were created by the eruption of two volcanoes, creating deposits that were mined first by the Romans, then a succession of cultures right up to present day. Mining created the vast wealth that lead to the explosion of housing in Cartagena and the up market villas of the wealthy in Alhama de Murcia, as well as providing employment for centuries in this area.

Many of the abandoned buildings have now fallen into disrepair.

The Romans mined this area extensively, creating more than 200 mines for iron, 100 for lead and silver, 5 for copper and 2 for alum. This last one was the most popular, and was much appreciated for fixing colours in the tanning process and in glass making. Most of the mines are situated in the Sierra de San Cristobal, at 186 meters. Around the mines are the remains of chimneys, the mine buildings, the mini castellated turrets, which were used up until the 1950s.

The countryside all around glows with a multitude of colours, due to the sulphurs of the extracted minerals and the waste generated in the extraction process. Also there is an extensive vein of red ochre, in the centre of which is the old factory which made alums and ochres, of its time, the only one in Spain.

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We ate lunch by the sea and in the afternoon visited the Bateria de Casillitos at Cabo Tiñoso. These two battery emplacements are well worth the visit along the hair-raising mountain-hugging roads. It takes a long time to travel the last 5 to 10 kms. They are a great place to take visitors, offering stunning views, interesting architecture and fabulous great guns.

They were constructed between 1926 and 1933 as part of a sophisticated defence network which aimed to protect Cartagena and its important military arsenal.

Forty-four elements covered every angle of attack and batteries were constructed in a ring which encircled Cartagena and cut along the coast as part of the Plan de Defensa of 1926.

The location of Cabo Tiñoso was chosen because of its strategic location, 218 metres above the sea on a rocky cliff with easily defendable access. The Vickers guns were made in the UK and at the time were the best in the world for anti-shipping defence.

There were two different batteries at Cabo Tiñoso. La Bateria de Jorel, which houses three 1923 model Vickers 152.4mm, 45 calibre anti-shipping guns, and the Bateria de Castillitos which has the enormous Vickers 381mm guns still in place, measuring 17m in length, capable of firing a projectile weighing a ton over a distance of 35km.

Part of the excitement of visiting the batteries is that these guns are still in-situ. The buildings have been tidied-up to some extent over recent years although the site wouldn’t pass muster with English Health and Safety! If you have kids, keep a close eye on them as there are many un-guarded drops and many of the buildings and maze of passageways are open to the public.

The big guns of Castillitos were only ever fired once in action against Nationalist forces in April 1937, but the knowledge of the havoc they could wreak was enough of a deterrent to ensure they were not required in further combat.

Tomorrow we had planned to visit Camping Pueblo Blanco in Olvera and explore the via verde which snakes past the largest griffin vulture colony in Europe – but the weather forecast is for a week of rain.

In the other direction, (towards Murcia / Alicante), the forecast is showing no signs of precipitation and the daytime highs should figure in the mid-20s.

We chatted with a few people about options and booked a pitch at Camping Capfun at La Manga. This is refuted to be one of the largest campsites in Europe and everyone says we won’t like it…

We booked online and it took an age for the confirmation to appear, despite repeated phone calls to the site. When we arrived earlier today we were assigned a pitch which was already in use. Groan. In the end we chose one on the edge of the site, just 5 minutes walk from the beach and the bar / restaurant. It’s a big plot, fully serviced with some great views so things definitely turning positive at the moment.

Question is, how will we feel in a weeks time!

Today we headed a few miles along the coast to Nerja and a visit to the famous caves there. This experience is quite expensive – at least in terms of general prices over here in Spain- and it’s certainly not lacking investment. There is no traditional rural Spanish feel to this tour!

As we approached the site, a man in a yellow jacket waved us into a car park next to the caves. As a result of his guidance, (and apparent entrepreneurial creativity), most cars were parking on this waste ground, as opposed to the pristine car park of the caves complex (which we subsequently found to cost 2 Euros).

It was clear his presence was opportunistic to say the least and his explanation that a 1 Euro “donation” for the parking would be appreciated failed to impress!

Here are some pictures from the visit to the caverns.

A quiet day yesterday with a meal at one of the local restaurants. The steak was as good as it looks…

Our second and final day at Antequera started with breakfast at Loulu bistro. Freshly squeezed Orange juice, strong coffee and a very nice toasted ham and cheese roll. Interesting decor and tables.

Then we walked to the top of Antequera to visit the Alcazabar. The views across the town and surrounding countryside are spectacular and the castle was originally a Moorish fortress erected over Roman ruins in the 14th century.

The city and its citadel fell into Christian hands during the capture of Antequera which lasted for five months in 1410.

There’s a very good audio book and website (scan the QR code) which tells the story of the castle. Entry to the castle and the Royal Collegiate of Santa Maria was available for a combined price of 6 Euros each before concessions.

The Real Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor (Royal Collegiate Church of the Great St. Mary) is known to be the first Renaissance church to be built in Andalusia (1530-1550). Its monumental façade is one of the most representative symbols of the city of Antequera.

After reading the first Ken Follet book recently (“The Pillars of the Earth”), I have a more nuanced view of such architecture. The buttresses, columns and arches, whilst elaborate and pleasing to the eye, are in fact engineering and mathematical miracles performed in an era without computers and what we might call “modern methods”. Essentially they are there to support the roof and to ensure that the weight of the roof didn’t result in the walls collapsing.

In the afternoon we set off to the nature reserve of El Torcal de Antequera which is in the Sierra del Torcal mountain range just south of the city. The jurassic age limestone is around 150 million years old and was laid down in a marine corridor which extended from the gulf of Cadiz to Alicante. The sea-beds were then lifted to a height of 1300m during the Tertiary era, resulting in a mountain range of flat-lying limestone – rare in Andalucia.

Later, a series of fractures, cracks and faults at right angles were exploited by erosion which produced the alleys and large blocks of limestone which we were able to see during our visit.

The blocks themselves have been the subject of calcite dissolution and freeze-thaw action which, working on the limestone’s horizontal beds, resulted in the various shapes visible today, many of which resemble, and have been named after, everyday objects such as the Sphinx, the Jug, the Camel, the Screw, etc.

In the picture below as well as the ancient El Torcal, you can see the very modern high speed railway which links Madrid with Malaga.

Another out of sequence post here, but we’ve done such a lot over the last 36 hours that it’s better to post whilst everything is clear in our minds.

Tuesday morning, the last day of February 2023, and we set off for Antequera, which is a little over a 1 hour drive from Torrox. Joe had booked a hotel overlooking one of the squares in the centre of town – Hotel Infante.

Antequera is known as “the heart of Andalucia” due to its central location between the cities of Malaga, Granada, Cordoba and Seville. In 2011, Antequera had a population of circa 40,000 inhabitants and is situated at an altitude of 575 meters.

The city dates back to Roman times and there is a lot to see both in the city and the nearby national parks.

The large wooden shutters revealed stunning views across the square and of our local bell tower. There are a lot of bell towers in Antequera, and the city is steeped in history. In fact, if Joe had dug a little deeper into his pocket, he could have secured a room at the back of the hotel with views of the Alcazabar.

Before we arrived at the Hotel car park – or more aptly the waste ground near to the hotel where literally hundreds of cars were parked for free – we visited the Dolmens of Antequera.

The Dolmens of Antequera is a world heritage site but it is actually an ensemble of several cultural monuments. The Dolmen of Menga, Dolmen of Viera, Tholos of El Romeral and two natural mountain features – the El Torcal and the Pena de los Enamorados.

The Dolmens of Menga and Viera were the ones we would visit en-route to our hotel and they are just a mile or so out of the town. The Dolmen of Menga is a megalithic mound called a tumulus, long barrow form of dolmen and dates back to 3700 BC. We also visited the Dolmen of Viera, which is in close proximity and is a type of megalithic single-chamber tomb.

We queued for an hour to gain entry into the Dolmen of Viera and were somewhat underwhelmed – if I could understand more Spanish, I think I would find this isn’t a unique opinion.

And some photos of the Dolmen of Menga.

We then headed to the hotel and set off for a whistle stop tour of Antequera. This was when Moe discovered that Antequera has an marvellous collection of bell towers.

We passed the Bullring, which has largely been rebuilt in recent decades and is no longer used for bull fighting but holds local events and concerts.

We had picked one of the worst days of the year in terms of finding somewhere to eat in the evening – 28th February is Andalucia day – marking the anniversary when the region became an autonomous community of Spain. Eventually we found Abrasador Bodegas Triana and had an excellent close to the day. Food, service and atmosphere was excellent.

Some more photos below of our whirlwind tour of Antequera and the meal at Bodegas Triana.

We have a little bit of catch-up to do on the blog so it’s a fast rewind to Torrox…

Thursday (23 Feb 2023) we walked into Torrox costa from the campsite on a very windy and rather chilly day.

Dinner was at the local restaurant, La Roima.

Friday Moe had to visit the Doctor so we drove into Torrox and to the “Centro de salud”. She took her passport and GHIC card and was triaged by a nurse straight away followed by a short wait before she was examined by the Doctor and prescribed some medication.

Very fast and efficient but we should have been better prepared, with more stuff written down and translated. We assumed incorrectly, that in this part of Spain, everyone would speak good English but this was far from the case at the Torrox health centre.

After lunch we drove to Nerja and looked around this charming old town. The old and new meet along this coastline.

The Eagle Aqueduct, also known as the Eagle Bridge was built in the 19th century and has been used continuously since – presently used to irrigate farmland. It was built originally to aid the industrial revolution and was intended to carry water from the town of Nerja to the local sugar refinery in Maro.

The aquaduct was commissioned by the factory owner, Francisco Cantarero Senio and his signature is visible in the central pavilion of the aquaduct.

The design of the aqueduct is typical of the period of its construction (19th century), when the Mudejar style (copied from the ornamental architecture originally used by Muslim craftsmen in Spain between the 13th and 15th centuries) was very popular. The aqueduct is four stories high; each tier is constructed from a series of brick, horseshoe shaped archways, of which there are 37 in total. These are topped with a mudejar-style spire, on top of which is a weather vane in the shape of a double-headed eagle, from which the aqueduct takes its name. The origin of the eagle symbol is not known for certain, but it is rumoured that during the time of construction eagles were seen nesting in the hills of Maro.

Saturday we returned to Torrox old town.

Towering above the main square, with its warm, golden bricks contrasting against the white houses stands Torrox’s main church ‘Nuesta Senora de la Encarnacion’.

The church was built in the 16th Century over the site of an ancient mosque. Today the main parts date from the end of the 19th century as the church had to be completely rebuilt after it was damaged in a strong earthquake.

The new church was built in a Baroque style. It is a surprisingly large church for a pueblo. Constructed with 3 naves and a beautiful square tower which has semi-circular arches supporting a roof with pinnacles

Sunday we drove back to Lake Vinuela and walked part way around the reservoir. We also visited Periana because there’s a rough gravel track from Periana to Ventas de Zafarraya. In fact, with some decent electric bikes I think one could cycle from Lake Vinuela all the way to Zafarraya itself.

Monday we visited one of the pretty white villages – Frigiliani. Voted the ‘prettiest village in Andalucía’ by the Spanish tourism authority, Frigiliana is also important from an historical viewpoint. El Fuerte, the hill that climbs above the village, was the scene of the final bloody defeat of the Moors of La Axarquía in their 1569 rebellion.

We had a good look around this stunning location which is a tangle of narrow cobbled streets lined with whitewashed houses, their wrought-iron balconies filled with planters of brilliant red geraniums

Moe is still under the weather with a cold so cycling for the two of us was off the menu for today. We decided to head inland from Vejez – Malaga. It was a warm sunny day but a heavy haze was present in the mountains.

Our first stop was lake Viñuela.

Lake Viñuela is set in the stunning landscape of the Axarquia in Malaga province and we arrived from Torrox in less than an hour. It isn’t actually a lake but a man-made reservoir which was formed by a dam being built across the Guaro river, one of the two tributories of the Vélez River that run through the area.

The other tributary is aptly named RíoSeco (Dry River), because there are so many months here without rainfall. At full capacity the reservoir can hold up to 170 million cubic metres of water and the surrounding lush pastures allow for thriving agriculture based on its olive groves, its vineyards and its cereal crops.

Prior to the creation of the reservoir, extensive archaeological excavations were carried out, producing evidence of Neolithic and Roman settlements, demonstrating the longevity of this area’s historic legacy.

Whilst the reservoir can hold up to 170 million cubic metres of water, it is looking remarkably empty. It is our first visit here so have no prior years with which we can compare. There was an area close to the lake where a number of campervans were wild-camping; a truly stunning location.

We then drove further up the mountains to the town of Zafarraya. Or at least a rocky outpost some 3km from Zafarraya.

Here is situated the cave of Bouquete de Zafarraya.

The cave is located at an altitude of some 1,100 metres in the foothills of the Sierra Tejeda. The cave opening is in the centre of the above image, about a third down from the top. We felt the track up to the cave was a little beyond our capabilities!

In the summer of 1988, during a series of archaeological excavations carried out in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, a Neanderthal jawbone was unearthed in Boquete de Zafarraya cave (Alcaucîn, Málaga) which, due to its exceptional state of preservation, is considered one of the finest pieces ever discovered in Western Europe.

The jawbone, along with a femur and other remains, belonged to a male approximately 40 years old and 1.61 m. tall whom archaeologists christened Zafarraya man.

We also discovered that the track running below the cave is a disused railway line – or via verde – running from Zafarraya to Periana. If only we’d had the bikes with us…

The Mirador provided the perfect place to eat our packed lunch.

Having missed out on the opportunity to cycle the via verde, we set off for the village of Alcaucin. The route was single track with a very steep descent and subsequent ascent into Alcaucin.

Alcaucin borders with the province of Granada. The municipality is situated approximately 54 kilometers north of the city of Málaga. The name was derived from al-kautín, the Arabic of “the arches.”

The village of Alcaucín extends its lands to the north of the Axarquía, between the mountains of the Sierra de Alhama and Sierra de Tejeda within the corridor of Periana. It includes the “Boquete de Zafarraya” an important mountain pass in the mountainous region of Axarquía. It adjoins the Sierras of Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama Natural Park to the east.

Some photos from our walk around this rather pretty village.

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On Tuesday, we had a fairly lazy start to the day and visited the local Mercadona to restock our fridge.

Later on in the afternoon Joe took off on his bike to the old town of Torrox. The journey there was all fairly “off-road” although the first section was very much “on-road” – just that it was a road to nowhere!

It looks as though the town of “Puerto Narixa” was planned for this sub-division of Torrox but little exists other than the access road which meanders up to and then under the A7 and finally onwards (via gravel track) to Torrox pueblo. In fact it looks as though it’s been as good as abandoned.

It was quite a treat to wake up to a still morning. The sun is shining, it’s warm and the wind which has tormented us at Conil for the past few weeks has receded. Our view from the van as we ate breakfast was a large concrete wall. Like all the other concrete walls at Camping El Pino this one is painted green. It is not any easier on the eye for this and we are still squashed onto a plot barely big enough for a tent.

Then, after breakfast, a stroke of good fortune as Joe spotted a different pitch just 50m away which had been vacated by a large motorhome. We had a good look at this plot and decided to swap pitches, the caravan being just a 10 minute journey away via the motor-mover.

Our new pitch is much better. We can erect our sun canopy and there is room for the car.

This afternoon there was even room for a pop-up bike repair shop as we finally replaced our bike tyres – the Continental tyres we had purchased some 10 years ago and which have suffered on a single puncture between us.

Needless to say another 4 Continentals were popped onto the bikes.

The move and bike repairs took all day and it was finally time for an ice cold beer and a BBQ.

Our new pitch is is a far cry from 145 and we will most likely stay the planned two weeks.

We’ve now spent two thirds of our allowable time in the EU at Camping La Rosaleda in Conil de La Frontera and today it is time to head east to Torrox and Camping El Pina. Torrox is located on the Mediterranean coast around 30 miles west of Malaga and our total journey time was estimated at around 3.5 hours with a distance to cover of some 160 miles.

Google selected a route via the A381 which was inland from Vejer. Whilst it looked a little more direct I think following the N340 along the coast would have been the better option. We also took a wrong turn and added another 20 or so miles to our journey.

We finally arrived at Camping El Pino around 13:30 and made the mistake of trying to drive into the campsite. Fairly quickly we were ordered to reverse back out onto the street and to park at the bus-stop. It turns out there is no arrivals area within the site and given it’s a large site of some 400 odd places, the car and caravan were abandoned for a good half an hour.

The site doesn’t take reservations and I have been in frequent contact with them about availability so we were surprised for reception to tell us there was very limited space and that we should walk around the site and look for a suitable pitch. They said that this year has been extremely busy and space is limited – if only they had said so in the emails!

Finally we chose a pitch on which there was just room for the car and caravan. If you can’t fit the car on your pitch then it has to be left outside.

Our first impressions of the site aren’t fantastic. The toilet blocks and washrooms are well equipped, modern and very clean. Everything else is just really crammed in, disorganised and the site has a real shanty-town feel to it. The receptionist was efficient and we were able to pay initially for just a few days whilst we decide if we want to stay longer. If we do stay longer then we can utilise the special winter offers which are great value.

In the evening we headed to the local pizzeria (Roima) and they managed to find us a table. In contrast to Conil, there isn’t a great requirement to speak Spanish in this part of Spain! Food was great and the Pizerria Roima was packed all evening.