A Brief Résumé of the Last Few Days

Cloudless skies, warm weather, cliff top walks, cycling, sunbathing, a little beer and wine etc etc. You get the picture.

Friday 13th

We know that you are enduring harsh weather back home but it’s not all plain sailing here you know! There’s only so much warm sunny weather a person can take.

After a lovely cycle ride this morning we had decided to stay just one more night at our beach plot, which would make it 4 nights in the same place, a record for us. However, the local council decided to erect signs at the entrance to the beach stating a whole load of legal jargon (oh how I miss that!), with the upshot being a fine of 1,000 euros. My first thought was, we were here before the signs so, I’m sure we would be ok in the European Court of Human Rights (that’s if we’re still in Europe?). Then something made that incredibly short journey across my mind, ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’, so let’s play safe and make like a tree, leave. After all it is Friday 13^th, do we really want to risk it?

So we headed west, with a hint of north, towards an embalse (reservoir), and en route stopped at a free aire to shower, take on water and do all the other unmentionables one needs to do after a few days living rough. It was still beautifully blue skies with the sun shining, but temperatures were dropping quicker than the pound.

The approach to the reservoir was stunning, by now the sun was very low and the mountains were looking so defined with the strong black shadows against the red rock, photos can never do justice to the occasion.

The aire itself wasn’t right for us, so we scratted about for somewhere handy and safe. We stopped at the top of the dam and Rachel pointed out some waste ground several hundred feet below, so we took the precarious winding road down and found, to no surprise, that we had no phone signal (should we get mugged in the night). So, back up the precarious road and continue north with the light fading. To cut a very long story short, 56 miles further on we arrive at a place called Ubeda, still in Andalucia (surprisingly), but about 60 miles north of Granada and 160 from the beach! I had no desire to drive over here in the dark but needs must. The downside was we missed the stunning scenery, the upside being we couldn’t see the drop on the dodgy mountain road. Time to take stock, open a bottle of wine, rustle up a spag bol, and plan ahead.

Saturday 14^th - Ubeda

It’s decidedly cooler up here despite cloudless skies but we are so glad we came. It wasn’t until daylight that we could really get a grip of our surroundings and see that we are perched at the top of a 2,500’ hill/mountain which explains the cool breeze we are experiencing. Having said that, the old town is quite a size with several plazas, and the views across the olive groves to the surrounding mountains was well worth the drive up last night. The aire is immaculate, looks new and of course free.