Another exciting drive – there were real fields with crops in
them and vineyards and hardly any olive trees. I have to say that, although
olive groves are attractive (Greek ones are more attractive than Spanish ones),
it was pleasant to have a break from them. Jaen is said to be the centre of
Spanish olive and olive oil production but we have spent weeks travelling
through hundreds of miles through virtually nothing but olive groves. To put it
in perspective, Spain produces nearly half of the world’s olive oil with its
400,000 olive growers and 1,755 oil mills. The Jaen area alone has over 66
million olive trees (we saw most of them), covering an area of 550,000 hectares
and produces 43% of Spain’s olive oil
We travelled through areas on extensive marble quarries where the quarry faces
looked like a hilltop village of whitewashed houses. Flatbed lorries carried
huge blocks of marble to their markets.
We arrived at Camping El Saler, just on the southern outskirts of Valencia,
close to the beach and a nature reserve. This area is packed with campsites
that must be heaving in Summer but the area was quiet at this time of the year.
This campsite was one of a number in the ACSI discount scheme and was therefore
quite busy. Our pitch was compact and right next to the sanitary block – they obviously
thought that we had weak bladders! It was great to have mains electricity and
WiFi, although the Internet access was poor – slow and often dropping out
altogether.
Photos: One of the marble quarries that we passed.
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