Wednesday 12th March 2008

We left Santa Pola at 10:00 and chose a route through the mountains rather than the coastal motorway suggested by the sat nav. Our route was marginally shorter than the coastal route but was also slower due to the effect of the hills! More importantly, it was much more interesting scenery with fantastic views and it made for a more enjoyable journey. We had to join the coastal motorway for the second half of the journey and this was much busier with many lorries. However, as soon as the toll motorway started, all of the lorries disappeared – they obviously found a different, free route. The view to the east from the motorway consisted of an endless procession of beach resorts with large numbers of high rise buildings. The view west was better however with hills and mountains in the distance.
With a stop for lunch and a shopping expedition at a Carrefour hypermarket, we arrived at the Peniscola campsite at 16:00. This meant that I had time to get the barbecue out and cook the fresh fish that we had bought at Carrefour. We had two large Dorada that were absolutely delicious and came at the very reasonable price of €2.20 (approx. £1.60) each. We rarely had fresh fish at home and cooking it inside the motorhome is not practical due to the lingering smell but fresh barbecued fish is likely to be a regular dish from now on.
Photos: Henrietta at the Peniscola campsite where there are many permanent plots that people have taken great care in personalising; One of our neighbours had made their pitch into a 'gnome from gnome'!

Tuesday 11th March 2008

Having said goodbye to Shirley and Ian, we set off for Elche and the archaeological site of La Alcudia. We took an alternative route down from El Berro, travelling along a ridge with beautiful views to the plains and then made our way to the main coast road. This was largely uninspiring but enabled us to progress quickly and we arrived at La Alcudia before noon. The site was run by a university and used for research and to teach students how to excavate. Unfortunately, they didn't set a good example in writing up their finds or presenting them well. There was very little English in the museum but that was not my complaint. There were very few labels on the exhibits and when they were present, they often only had a single word in Spanish. Although the rooms were arranged chronologically, there was no further dating on the finds. Very poor. The site itself was a little better in that there were explanation boards in Spanish and Catalan but visitors were not allowed in any of the excavated areas – one could only view the ruins from the elevated path. Amazingly, there were no guide books in any language, despite the fact that this is an important site with Iberian, Roman and Visigoth occupations. They uncovered the 'Lady of Elche', a major polychrome Iberian masterpiece, at the site and this is now held in a museum in Madrid. They were building an 'Interpretation Centre', so we can only hope that things improved. On the positive side, the entrance fee at €2.50, was cheap and, with the temperature in the late twenties, it was a pleasant walk around the site.
After a shop and the nearby Lidl, we moved on to a busy campsite at Santa Pola for an overnight stop.
Photos: View from ridge in the Espuna National Park; Decorated Iberian pot from the 'Helenistic' period (late 3rd century BC?). The decoration shows a horse and a figure that may be a female deity but, as Jane remarked, looks like a Mediaeval jester!; A replica of the 'Lady of Elche'.

Monday 10th March 2008

We had intended to move on to Elche today but we knew that the archaeological site that we wanted to visit was closed on Mondays, so we decided that staying in El Berro would be better. This gave us the opportunity to do another walk from the site. Shirley and Ian had also decided to stay an extra day and we discovered that we were both planning to do the same walk in the afternoon. The obvious thing to do was to get lost together and this we duly did!
We went off track fairly early in the walk but, much to everyone's surprise, we found ourselves back on the route a little while later. Shirley and Ian noticed some silk-thread pouches in some pine trees and we told them that they were nests of Pine Processional Caterpillars. Shirley then explained that they had seen some of the caterpillars the day before, easily identified because they follow each other nose to tail across the land. We had been told that they are dangerous and must not be handled as the hairs are an extreme irritant and can result in hospitalisation. Even handling a brush that has been used to sweep them away is dangerous. Just a few minutes later we found a procession of the caterpillars crossing the road. Later we found a website that said that they can cause immense damage to pine forests and because of their danger to people and pets, the nests and caterpillars on the ground should be burned whenever they are found. It even said that if the caterpillars are found on golf courses, play ceases immediately as it is too hazardous to clear them away! Needless to say, we didn't touch them but Shirley said that the day before she had nearly helped some across the road because she was concerned that they would get squashed – a narrow escape!
After a very pleasant walk, we all had a drink in the campsite bar and then exchanged contact details for the future. We thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Shirley and Ian and hope to meet up with them at some time in the future – perhaps in Italy in September?
Photos: View south east from a ridge east of El Berro; Pine Processional Caterpillars processing across the road; A close up view of the caterpillars; Shirley, Ian and Jane on the El Berro old bridge.

Sunday 9th March 2008

We chose the long walk from the walk leaflet which I christened the 'Rosemary and Pine' walk. British whodunnit fans will be pleased to know that no bodies were involved! The vast majority of the walk was in pine forest and from beginning to end the forest floor was carpeted in rosemary bushes – I have never seen so much rosemary!
The weather was excellent, warm with no wind and the dress code was T-shirt and shorts. The views in the first park of the walk were tremendous, down from the sierra to the plains below with more mountain ranges in the distance. Later we walked passed the peaks of Morron de Alhama and Morra de las Cuculas and views of the observatory on another peak. We saw the wild boar wallowing hole and attempted to find the dinosaur footprints just of the footpath. If there was a dinosaur footprint there, we needed an expert to point it out to us! We came to a valley on the last part of the walk and spotted a flock of about 20 moufflon. These wild sheep are very shy and we considered ourselves lucky to see them. Although we had seen evidence of wild boar and we knew that there were many in the area, we didn't see any. It is one of my ambitions to see a wild boar (preferably not too close!), but today was not to be the day.
We had chatted earlier to our neighbours on the site and invited them for a drink. Shirley and Ian are kindred spirits and a very pleasant evening followed. Too much wine was drunk and an impromptu dinner was organised – Shirley provided some smoked salmon and we added pasta and cream to produce a basic but tasty meal. We said goodnight with promises to exchange contact details in the morning.
Photos: A lovely house with a view on the outskirts of El Berro; Jane standing next to the wild boar wallowing hole; A flock of moufflon in the national park.

Saturday 8th March 2008

We really wanted to stay at Camping Orgiva much longer. This is definitely the best campsite that we have stayed on – friendly, lovely views, lots of options for walks from the site, easy access into a town, excellent showers, good bar and restaurant, reasonably priced especially for longer stays. Highly recommended.
However we have an appointment in Rome at Easter and must move on. We will return to the area at some time to see Ronda and Granada and to do more walking in the Alpajuras. We will certainly use Camping Orgiva as a base then and take advantage of the additional 10% discount for returning customers!
The sat nav wanted to take through Granada and to the north of the Alpajuras but we wanted to see more of the mountains. Our destination was another National Park, Sierra Espuna, about 5 hours driving to the north east. We guessed that the road would not be very good but were pleasantly surprised to find that the N348 had been recently improved and was a very good road. It was another glorious day of blue skies and the air was crystal clear. The views were fantastic – looking across the valley, we could see the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Navada and their were fantastic views down the valley with its white-washed villages clinging to the sides of the mountains. I would have loved to taken some photographs but there were no places to pull in on the road, so you will just have to image the pictures.
They were still making improvements to the road, adding many bridges to cut off narrow bendy sections and this entailed us driving over temporary surfaces and dirt tracks. Later it became obvious that the road improvements were by no means complete and we travelled for miles on dirt tracks alongside sections of partially-built new road. We then travelled on the old road – narrow, undulating and poorly maintained and we realised what an improvement the new road was! We were soon back on another section on the new road and continued on it until we joined major roads near Almeria. Once the whole of the N348 has been upgraded, it will open up the centre of the Alpajuras, which has its benefits and disadvantages for the inhabitants.
The scenery changed considerably as we approached Almeria with hundreds of rounded cone-shaped low hills. On the road towards Murcia there was a wild-west feel to the view with deep ravines in loose sandy rock and vehicles driving on the dirt roads created huge dust clouds – no a place to be on a blazing-hot, windy Summer's day!
Shortly after Lorca, at a town called Alhama, we started the climb up into the Sierra Espuna. The roads became steep, narrow and windy as we approached the village of El Berro where the campsite was located. Conveniently, a large Dutch motorhome was in front of us as we wound our way through the narrow streets, so they cleared the cars out of our path! The campsite is sited on a terraced hill with lovely views over the village and the National Park. As we had hoped, there are walks directly from the site and we were provided with photocopied details of 5 walks drawn up by a previous British visitor. To make us feel really at home, the site has free Wifi Internet access.
Photos: View from the pitch at Sierra Espuna Camping at El Berro.

Friday 7th March 2008

We wanted a relaxing day today, so the morning was spent reading. Jane finished Chris Stewart's 'Driving Over Lemons' and read a third of his next book 'A Parrot in the Pepper Tree'. She will have to slow down or she will run out of books before we return home next!
In the afternoon I took a walk into Orgiva and found that the main street was again being filled with firecrackers. Today is a holiday, as I discovered when I attempted to buy some supplies – all of the shops were closed. Tonight the statue of Christ from the main church will be paraded through the town and, it appears, there will be more fireworks.
When I returned I got out the laptop, determined to get the blog up to date whilst we still have Wifi access. We discussed going into town for the parade at 18:00 but decided that we weren't that keen to experience more firecrackers, so we decided to stay in.
The firecrackers went off at 17:30 but were relatively brief compared to yesterday. However, that was just the start and they continued sporadically until well after midnight. After sunset they had 'proper' fireworks i.e. coloured rockets and we were able to see these from the campsite.
Photos: In the three weeks that we were away, the furrowed field had changed into a field of potatoes - Spring has arrived; Orgiva's main street prepared for World War III.

Thursday 6th March 2008

Thursday is market day in Orgiva and, after a late start, we made our way into the town. When we got to the main street, we found it closed by barriers and the road full of stands with strings of firecrackers attached. Asking a passing local, we found out that it was the festival of 'El Christos'(?) and they would be letting off the firecrackers at midday. We wandered around the town and bought some essential supplies and made sure that we were back in the main street by 12:00. Sure enough, as soon as the church service finished, the firecrackers were set off. We were standing in a doorway just above the firecrackers at, what we thought, was a safe distance. The firecrackers were very loud but they had also included a large number of very big ones that were absolutely deafening. The noise was concentrated by the high buildings and the echoes amplified the effect. Everyone around us had their hands over their ears but it was still deafening. Jane evacuated our position but, being a man, I was determined to see it out. And then the smoke hit – it was choking and blinding – we all evacuated! We were all relieved when the firecrackers finished we breathed a sigh of relief but then the rockets started with more rapid-fire deafening bangs directly overhead. Long canes and lumps of plastic were falling all around us. It was totally ridiculous and very Spanish - far too loud and the smoke meant that nobody could see anything – but we had certainly experienced some local culture.
We returned to the campsite and barbecued some pork cutlets and intended to have a quiet afternoon reading before we were distracted. Our neighbours Marie and Rex invited us for a drink and we explained the mystery of the unoccupied motorhome – they thought that there might be a dead body in Henrietta given that there was no sign of life. We were shortly joined by Marie and Rex's neighbours, Andy and Laura and a very pleasant afternoon followed. Marie told us about http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/ and we signed up to this very good free site later in the evening.
Photos: The firecrackers start with lots of spectators; I missed the shot of people, hands clamped over their ears, bent nearly double, running away but here is one as the smoke approached. Within a minute of taking this, the smoke engulfed me and I felt my way up the street with the other hand on my ear. Fortunately, I managed to find Jane sheltering in an almost smoke-free area.