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
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
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