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Europe 2014 - lakes, mountains and the coast




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Lakes Mountains and the Coast


We arrived at Zuheros and found a small car park on the edge of the white town set against high cliffs. After strolling along the narrow streets to the old castle we walked up to the small museum of customs and popular art in a large mansion house. We were given a guided tour (in English) around an old apothecary shop, doctor's surgery and registrar's office and were then able to wander around the upper floors with displays of old agricultural tools and industrial equipment, all for the €2 entrance fee. We stopped at a shady roadside fuente at Morellana for lunch before driving through the larger town of Priego de Cordoba and over a low pass to Cabra where we found a free aire at a pleasant riverside park by an outdoor arena. 

Zuheros castle
Zuheros castle
Zuheros museum apothecary
Apothecary shop
Zuheros museum
Zuheros museum

We continued our route to Iznajar set on a rock  by a turquoise reservoir, where they were preparing for another Romeria although on a smaller scale than the previous event. After a walk around the old town with it's hilltop castle we watched the procession go by. We got a few cheers of "Inglesee"as we stood at the roadside and wondered how we are spotted as so obviously British? Later that afternoon we drove on to an aire at Villaneuva de Algaidas which was rough and neglected so drove back to a campsite listed near Villanueva de Tapia that had long since closed down, so continued to the aire at Archidona with its unusual octagonal plaza in the centre of the old town. The sat nav took us along a road to a 1.75 metre width limit archway so we had to detour around the bypass to reach the aire.

Iznajar Romeria
Iznajar Romeria
The next morning we followed the signs to the autovia and Loja where the was a filling station listed for Autogas which luckily turned out to be true and it was even open on a Sunday! As usual we hadn't used as much gas as we calculated so it only took 7 litres for €5.6 to top up our 20 litre Gaslow bottle but it was worth the detour as LPG pumps are hard to come by in many areas of Spain. We retraced our route on the autovia for a few kilometres then turned south across the rough hills and were held up by a cycle race, to reach the flat plain of fruit and vegetable fields around Zaffaraya before climbing over more hills to Alhama de Granada where we found the well signposted new aire with basic but working services. From there we took a circuit of the large Embalse de los Bermejales with many parking places in the pine woods before returning to Alhama for the night. The town was quite run down but had a few old buildings of note and a view over the wooded gorge, although we didn't visit the Roman hot springs on the edge of the town.

ALhama de Granada gorge
Alhama de Granada gorge
We decided to give Granada city a miss so drove across to the autovia heading south through a steep valley then turned off into Las Alpujarras and passed through Lanjaron before climbing up the narrow winding road to Trevélez, famed for its Serrano ham, high in the Sierra Nevada which we had visited many years ago and stopped at the small rustic campsite just outside the village for the night.

Almeria - Costa Plastico
Almeria - Costa Plastico

 


Zuheros 
Zuheros

Iznajar
Iznajar

   Embalse de Iznajar
Embalse de Iznajar

   Archidona octaganol plaza
Archidona - octagonal plaza

Village sign in the Alpujarras
Village sign in the Alpujarras
  
La Isleta de Moro beach 
La Isleta de Moro beach

Following the narrow road back down to the valley we turned left onto the main road over barren hills and descended to the flat "Costa Plastico" stretching into the distance where our winter salads for our supermarkets are grown.

We decided to bypass the large city of Almeria and headed across flat barren countryside to the coast at Cabo de Gata. As it was overcast and misty towards the headland we retraced our route and returned to the coast at La Isleta de Moro a small seaside town mostly closed up but with a pleasant parking area by the sandy beach. As overnight motorhome parking was banned we continued along the coast to Las Negras and Camping Nautico la Caleta with its own small beach. We couldn't see the attraction of this area especially out of season so decided to head inland the next day for a tour of the desert region via the small town of Nijar and across the hills to Sorbas before returning to the coast at Carboneras, passing an unfinished and abandoned hotel, and through the large resort of Mojacar where it was blowing a gale. After a brief stop we again headed inland to the interesting ornately decorated motorhome aire at the tennis club near Vera.

Carboneras abandoned hotel
Carboneras unfinished hotel
Vera aire ornamental seat
Ornamental seat at Vera aire
Murcia coastline
Murcia coastline