Monday – Via Verde de la Sierra

Other than finding better weather than in England, top of our ‘To do’ list was to cycle Spain’s No.1 green lane, the 23 mile Via Verde de la Sierra.

You may remember that about 2 weeks ago we did 8 miles from the other end (Olvera) in sunny, but freezing temperatures? A lot of planning went into this 2^nd leg, as we couldn’t afford to do the remaining 15 miles (x2) in such a cold climate. Detailed checking of the hourly forecast proved its worth and we had perfect conditions for our longest ever bike ride together. The ‘turning point’ was the huge rock where we had seen 20-30 vultures last time, and they didn’t disappoint us this time. In fact, during lunch we had the binoculars out and Rachel saw one land high on the rock above. After it had been there a few minutes its mate landed next to it, and we could see them preening each other, a unique sight for us Northern Europeans!

Rachel crossing the most impressive of the 4 viaducts

The old railway stations have been turned into restaurants and accomodation

Gibraltar with Atlas Mountains in the distance

Zahara

Sunday - Lesson Learned

Sometimes we lose track of the days, but we must always remember a Sunday. Not just because we can't get provisions, but because Sunday is the day all the Spanish families come out and pack all the tourist places us tourists want to see in peace and quiet!

We departed Casares and took the very scenic and incredibly uneven road over the Sierra Crestellina to Gaucin where, thankfully the road condition improved to allow us to break 25mph! After taking a few photos of the view back to the Med, Gib. and the Atlas Mountains (photos to appear later) we continued upwards for another 1,500' before descending to Ronda. Having visited the town this time last year we passed it by & stopped off at Zahara, perched on a rock above a reservoir (photos to follow, AGAIN!). Yet another steep climb for some amazing views and a reservoir so blue, when you see the photos they really haven't been enhanced! After lunch a 20 mile drive north to Puerto Serrano. This is a very significant place as you will find out in the next entry.....

Sugar Cube Village at Night

Photos of Casares, and Griffon Vultures

Our free aire for the night

Casares - sugar cube village

Photo of another 'bird' but not a vulture!

Saturday – The Real Castellar de la Frontera and Casares

The 6 mile drive up the steeply winding, sometimes breaking away at the edges, road was well worth it. As we arrived we were greeted by our guides, a Labrador and a scruffy Heinz 57. Exiting the van, they led us up the path to the castle and continued to show us the proper tourist route, having obviously done it with hundreds of previous visitors. They stayed with us throughout the whole trip, up to the castle and around all the narrow streets of the town, and only left us when we got back safely to the van. After we departed the car park and slowly drove back down to the main road, what should we meet coming up, but a coach led by its walking guide! The road was barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass, never mind a coach and a campervan, but we managed.

We travelled southeast, picked up the notorious A7 (no resemblance at all to its namesake at home, the Carlisle to Edinburgh road) and enjoyed the sea views along Costa del Sol, before making a left turn and heading 6 miles inland to a place we visited in January last year, when it was raining and shrouded in low cloud. Casares is your typical hilltop Spanish town and features in most ‘Top 10 of Spain’ guides. I walked into the tourist office, which is also the free aire, and the lady behind the desk did usual usual tourist greeting. I didn’t come out with any of that “Hola, no hablo Espanyol” stuff but said “You speak very good English don’t you”. She said “Have you been here before”? I said “Yes, last year, you were playing David Bowie on the radio”. I won’t bore you with the rest of the conversation, but we got free wifi, hence the blog update, and she was very helpful as always. We had a great walk around the town, very very steep, and the highlight being the number of vultures above us. How enjoyable it has been in the sun with beautiful views down to the coast, Gibraltar and also inland.

I wasn't happy with Juan standing on the wall with a 40' drop
but he's obviously done it many times before!

Friday – Castellar de la Frontera

Don’t ever come here. The aire itself is good, clean and allowed us to do all the things campervanners need to do, but the town is awful. To say it’s a one horse town without the horse would be incorrect, as there is a statue of one on the midi-roundabout. The place is like a 1960’s Butlins camp in winter although, to be fair, we did walk around during siesta time. We walked past the oldest boy racer ever, he was in a clapped out car, sounding his horn at any opportunity and he was 70 if a day. The church tower is made of concrete and has graffiti on it. Apparently the place was built in 1971 to house people from the original Castellar de la Frontera which is 6 miles up the hill, so it proves that it wasn’t just in England that planners got it wrong in the ‘70’s! We will be visiting the castle and old town tomorrow.

En route to this soul-less place, we stopped off at Medina Sidonia, a hilltop city which, according to some, is the oldest city in Europe, probably along with 50 others claiming the same. Quite a remarkable place and well worth a visit, there are panoramic views and to the northwest we could clearly see Cadiz 20 miles away.

Cadiz with a fine variety of trees!

Wednesday & Thursday – Cadiz (still)

This was Rachel’s chance to have a free look around a proper cruise ship, the recently docked 85,000 ton Costa Mediterraneo. We were walking into town when she spied on the pavement what looked like a credit card. It turned out to be a boarding card for the ship, but being the honest person she is just returned it to security instead of blagging her way on board.

In the afternoon we were joined by the Ross’s in their moto-kennel, it’s maybe not fair to say that they brought the Scottish weather with them, but the build up of clouds did seem to coincide with their arrival!

We had a lot of catching up to do, so Rachel rustled up excellent chilli and we chatted the night away with a few bottles of red to the accompaniment of Spain’s most notorious brass band, again!

We decided to stay Thursday night, so had a return match at Neil & Kath’s van but no brass band accompaniment this time, probably due to torrential rain that was coming down. During the day Rachel & I went on yet another 5 mile walk around the lovely city bringing the total walked mileage to 15!

It is now Friday morning and we are heading about 70 miles east towards the hills above the Costa del Sol whilst Neil & Kath go north towards Portugal, we may meet up again later on our trips.

Entrance to the old city

La Palma Beach and former La Palma Spa

La Palma Church

Central Market (swordfish)

Cadiz

Wifi = Photos!