El Bosque to Granada

On Friday both the tourist office and the natural park visitor office were open so we visited both. After arming ourselves with plenty of leaflets we set off on a walk up the river to the next door town of Benamahoma which was 5 km away having a picnic lunch along the way. It was another very hot day but luckily the route along the river was quite shady. Once in Benamahoma we walked up to the top of the village and sat and enjoyed the views, then began the walk back. Although the walk was along the river it was quite rocky for quite a lot of the way as the river runs along a narrow valley.

On Saturday morning there were about a dozen motorhomes parked up, a lot of them Spanish who had maybe come to the mountains for the weekend. We left El Bosque and headed east on into the natural park and on up into the mountains enjoying fantastic views along the way. Being the weekend there were lots of walkers, cyclists and motor bikers out. We stopped for an early lunch at a viewpoint near the top of one of the mountains. After lunch we carried on our way enjoying more mountain views until we reached the very picturesque village of Grazalema, we parked up and went for a walk around the village which was bustling with locals and tourists. Grazalema has the highest rainfall in the Iberian Peninsula, shops were selling postcards of the town in the winter showing pretty snow scenes, something we’ve not seen before.

We then carried on our way to Ronda arriving mid afternoon. Ronda is a very scenic town which attracts lots of tourists. It is built across a gorge which is 100 metres deep. The views over the surrounding area are stunning. We stayed in Ronda until Tuesday, then drove north eastwards to Fuente de Piedra which is the main breeding ground for flamingos in Spain, we had a walk around the visitor centre area and saw some flamingos, but they were too far away to take any decent photos. We then drove on up into the hills along lots of winding narrow roads to Cuevas San Marcos, for miles around all we could see is thousands and thousands of olive trees and occassionally an olive oil factory! On Wednesday we drove on to Priego de Cordoba and then on Thursday on to Granada. As we drove closer to Granada we could see the Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance. The photo to the right below shows the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains. We hope to go up into the mountains in the next few days.

Seville to El Bosque

Wednesday was a sunshine and showers sort of day. We walked through the Parque de Maria Luisa which is a large park in front of the Plaza de Espana and then to the Museo Artes y Costumbres Populares (Museum of Art and Costume) and then Museo Arqueologico (Archiological museum) which were both at the far end of the park. Between the two museums was the Plaza de America, another nice plaza which had hundreds of doves flying around. In the afternoon we went in search of a supermarket, we were getting low on fresh food but only bought the essentials as the prices were extortionate! Later on we went to get some water, taking 8 x 5 litre empty bottles with us. Luckily we’d found a tap about 5 minutes walk away earlier in the day so we didn’t even need to move the motorhome. So were able to fill up the tank with enough water to keep us going and will probably keep topping up each day now that we’ve found water so close by.

Thursday and Friday were both lovely sunny but breezy days and we did lots more touristy stuff, the main visit was to the Alkazar and gardens. It originated in 913 as a fort but later became a palace. The palace was similar to the Casa de Palatos that we’d visited a few days previously, but on a larger scale. The Alkazar is surrounded by lovely gardens. From what we’ve seen over the last few days, Seville is a really nice city with lots of lovely buildings, plazas and gardens/parks. It’s also appears to be completely flat, we haven’t seen a hill in days!

Saturday was a lovely sunny day and hot, probably the warmest day since we’ve been in Spain. We decided to leave Seville and head South to Jerez de la Frontera which is famous for being the home of sherry making and also Andalucia’s horse capital. During our time in Jerez we visited the flamenco museum and the Gonzalez Byass Bodega (sherry makers). The Bodega visit was really good and included a tour around several of the Bodega’s in Jerez via a mini tourist train. Gonzalez Byass are famous for Tio Pepe sherry (plus lots of other brands including Croft Original).

On Thursday we drove through some lovely countryside to Arcos de la Frontera and had a walk around. It’s billed as one of the prettiest villages in Andalucia, we thought it was ok but not fantastic although it had some lovely views over the countryside. We then drove onto El Bosque which is a pretty village in the hills with some nice walks. We tried to get some route information from the tourist office but it was closed, so we had a walk around the village and then stopped for a well needed drink in the shade. The last few days have been extremely hot, over 30 degrees in the motorhome. Amazingly the locals are still wearing lots of warm layers!

VRSA to Seville (Spain at last!)

We left VRSA on Tuesday and drove a few miles north through a nature reserve consisting mainly of saltpans and onto Castro Marim. Although only a small town, it had a lovely castle and fort with great views across Portugal and Spain. We managed to catch up on plenty of washing as there was a very popular public laundry area which had dozens of motorhomes using it each day. It also had a very clean shower block so we both enjoyed a nice long shower! Before leaving Castro Marim on Saturday afternoon, we watched the start of one of the legs of the Algarve Cycle race which was held from 18 - 22 Feb at various locations across the Algarve. We then returned to VRSA as the Carnaval (Carnival) was being held on Sunday.

On Sunday morning we caught the ferry over to Ayamonte in Spain for a few hours before the Carnaval at 3pm. Ayamonte was a really nice town with some nice squares and lots of pavement cafes. It was very busy and a lot of people were in Fancy Dress ready for their own Carnaval. Before leaving Ayamonte we stopped for a coffee in one of the squares and watched the world go by. We returned to VRSA for a late lunch then into town for the Carnaval. By 3pm the main street was very crowded, the procession was large and very colourful with an Olympic theme. The procession carried on circling the main square for about 3 hours.


On Monday we stocked up on food and then drove back to Castro Marim, we were only going to stay there until Tuesday, but the library was closed both days (due to public holiday) so we stayed until Wednesday. We needed the library so we could get on the Internet to check out where we could hopefully obtain a spare part for our water pump. It’s been playing up for a while, Mark seems to have temporarily fixed it, but he’s not certain that it will hold out for long. On Wednesday afternoon we finally drove to Spain! We were sad to leave Portugal, but were excited about going somewhere new.

We crossed the bridge over to Spain, it was only a 5 minute drive from Castro Marim. The first thing we noticed is that the roads are definitely less bumpy, as soon as were were over the bridge the road improved! We decided to head to Isla Cristina which was not far from Ayamonte (which we’d visited on Sunday) but on the coast rather than the river. On the way we saw loads of pink flamingos on the salt pans, we hadn‘t seen flamingos at all in Portugal. We were a little nervous about finding somewhere suitable to park up (after speaking to others who had told us it was more difficult that Portugal), but we quickly found an area just outside the town with some other motorhomes in a clearing of pine trees and behind the sand-dunes. We went for a walk along the beach towards the town and then returned along the path through the pine wood We’ve lost an hour as we’re now in Spain, so instead of going dark at 6.30pm it went dark at 7.30pm which suits us fine! The next day we cycled into and around the town, stopping at the tourist office for some maps of the local area and Andalucia in general. Isla Cristina was in Carnaval mode too, their Carnaval ran for 3 weeks ending this coming weekend! We weren’t very impressed with the town, it was a bit grotty, but where we were parked up was nice so we stayed another night. We tried to find some chamelions as they can apparently be found in the pine woods in this area, but we didn’t have any luck.

On Friday we moved on and drove further than we had in weeks, eventually ending up in Moguer after driving eastwards along the coast through Islantilla and La Antilla, then slightly north to Lepe and Cartaya, then to Huelva and eventually to Moguer. None of the places en route grabbed our attention, so we kept going! The weather over the last few days has cooled down and the blue skies have gone. It’s refreshing to have it cooler for a while as it was getting quite hot in the motorhome at times! On Saturday morning we went for a walk around Moguer which was quite a pretty town and then in the afternoon decided to drive on to Seville. We drove round the centre of Seville for a couple of hours trying to find a suitable place to park, eventually by late afternoon we found an idea place behind the Plaza de Espana which was only a 10 to 15 minute walk from the centre of the city.

Sunday was quite overcast with sunny spells in the afternoon, we headed into the centre and after wandering around for a while went on a tour around the bullring and its museum. As the weather had brightened up we decided to have a tour round the city on an open top bus tour which was a great way to see a lot of the sights easily. Monday was incredibly wet, it didn’t stop raining all day long! We popped to the library for an hour in the morning and went on another open top bus ride late afternoon (a slightly different route) in the drizzle. We decided to move the motorhome to the front of the Plaza de Espana so we’re slightly closer to the centre in case it continues to rain over the next few days.

By the next morning the motorhome was well and truly surrounded by cars in all directions! Parking in Seville seems to be a free-for-all in the free parking areas. We managed to squeeze out of the drivers door, but only just. It appears that a lot of drivers leave their cars parked with the handbrake off and then pay unofficial parking attendents to keep an eye on their car and push it out of the way if another car needs to get out or in! Thankfully it was a dry day, so we made the most of it and walked miles and miles around the city. We visited the Casa de Pilatos which is a 16th Century palace which is covered in brightly coloured tiles. We also visited the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Art museum) which was in a lovely old building which was previously a convent. In the evening we attempted to drive to a tap that we'd seen a couple of days ago (we'd saved it on the sat nav so we could find it again easily) - however it was a complete nightmare, the sat nav kept getting confused about where we were (due to the tall buildings) and was directing us around in circles eventually ending up down very narrow old streets where I had to jump out and watch Mark through. We were dreading having to reverse back on ourselves as we had a lot of traffic behind us. As soon as were were able, Mark parked up and walked ahead to check the route back to a main road. We then gave up the stressful water search and returned as quickly as we could to our parking spot!