Fab photo's

A selection of pictures from the files...

The castle (someone's house) at Rodalquilar beach




The frog in the sluice at Rodalquilar gold mine




The octopus tentacle and bread at Agua Dulce harbour


The view of the Alcazaba walls to Almeria below

Latest news...

We have had a fabulous few days lately. I am really impressed with Cabo de Gata, it is an amazing area, with lots to recommend it, not least the lack of mass tourism!

We have been going to the local Saturday market where you can buy 2 kilos of oranges for 1€, and they are the sweetest juiciest oranges that I have ever tasted. We found another market on the way to Almeria and stocked up on more wonderful fresh fruit. Had a bit of a drive through of Almeria in our rented car, no narrow street nonsense in 8.5metres of Behemoth (aka Astrid)! I missed the turn for the castle and we ended up in Agua Dulce. We had an impromptu picnic at the beach and then went for a wander around the harbour. Believe it or not the fish in the harbour actually follow you waiting to be fed! The locals come down and give them stale bread. On our visit an octopus (polpo)came up from the depths and took a piece of bread then glided through the water to a safe overhang to inspect its catch! Amazing. We have some pics which I will post once they are on the computer.

We have been up to Rodalquilar to the gold mine and had a wander around the old plant. The plantlife is lovely, lots of herbs, dwarf palm, prickly pear cactus and good old broom and gorse (not like in Aberdeen). We even found frogs and lizards around the sluices and walls of the plant. Visited the local botanic garden and left some helpful hints on interpretation and interactive material for children...still rangering! I have to say that the quality of the interpretation in the visitor centres is really high quality, but is mostly in Spanish in the more remote centres. Headed down to the beach and found a wild camp full of younger travellers in their campers. Came across a fossilised beach and found a really old copper button. Would like to imagine it is a Roman relic, but don't think the Romans had buttons? Someone please fill in the gaps.

The boys loved playing on the beach. we have found a few. Playa de Genoveses beyond San Jose was deserted apart from the natterjack toads in the slacks behind the dunes. There were even tadpoles in the pools...in January!!

Today we went up to the lighthouse at the end of the Cabo de Gata promentary. Before the lighthouse there is a beach called sirens (mermaids) playa. It refers to the seals that used to haul out to pup. Apparently they disappeared in the 70's and never returned. On the way back we went past the salinas, past the piles of salt glistening in the sunshine. Joshua was amazed that they used JCB's to move the salt in to bags for processing. There were flamingos in the pools feeding. I had hoped to see Avocets, but no joy. Lots of bramblings, pied flycatchers and redstarts...heaven...did I mention all the different larks?

We stopped at the beach and built shelters, searched for shells and I sunbathed. The weather was too glorious for words, so I'll stop there.

Actually, I won't. Visited the Alcazaba (castle in Almeria). Wow. Imagine crenallated walls, gardens, fountains and pools, towers with views to the hills, harbour and city. There are excavations within the walls of the old Arab castle and the christian extension with its cannons. The population of wild cats gave the boys lots of fun, seeing who could get closest to touching one. The slums and tips outside the walls are amazing too. Hard to believe Spain is a first world nation sometimes.

One of my favourite pics!

Bill took this pic at the viking ship museum in Oslo & I love it! You get some idea of the scale of the ship by the people standing at the other end. Well worth a visit.

More pics for you.

Agave forest at cabo de Gata

Cabo de Gata, plains & mountains with snow

washed up shells & other stuff in Oliva

Happy Euan with scar from bike crash!

Bamboo washed up at Torrox

Our van dwarfed by a couple of Concordes at Torrox wild camp

So many greenhouses at Almeria...

Another place in Spain...

Well, after a successful couple of weeks in Marbella (enforced relaxation with the odd bout of activity between thunderstorms) we decided to move on. The weather denied me my trip to Granada, but hey, we can always come back!?

We have come back east and are in the south east corner of Spain beyond Almeria (pronounced al-mereea rather than al-meerya). How educational is this...read on, you are learning! This part of the country is part desert and is a nature reserve. It is very unusual. I particularly like the flower stalks of the agave plants. They form a low level forest across the plains, as the stalks are really high and branched, just like a tree. At one of our campsites some wag had cut one down and decorated it with tinsel. There are lots of small perching birds, mostly warblers, won't embarass myself by trying to name or guess the ones I've never seen before!

Forgot to mention that it is called Cabo de Gata. One of the few places along the coast that hasn't been covered in high rises and greenhouses. Obviously popular with full-timers (almost exclusively english). Met one the other day when I whacked a tennis ball on top the roof of his van, not the best introduction, but he was very understanding!

For those of you considering heading south to escape the snow and ice, you can stay here for 10€ a night (a couple, motorhome/caravan, 6A electricity and access to showers with an ACSI camping card if you are going to stay longer than a month. The camping card costs about £15)

Tempting isn't it.

Right, I'm off to go through some of our pics, which i will then post on the blog...hope you like.

Happy New Year

Hope that you all had a blameless New Year...start as you mean to go on! Ours was suitably quiet. Went to bed before midnight and were all woken by the fireworks that went off next door (on the roof of the apartment block next to us). Euan very drowsily enquired if he was seeing lightning!

We have had a few more trips in to Marbella and found the charming old town with its wonderful white-painted houses, old churches and beautiful plazas with orange trees and fountains. Even more satisfying, for the children, was the toy shop with 50% off Lego. Birthday money got spent and then they were eager to get back to the van for an afternoon of building. We detoured to the main street for some exertion...there was a wii display with about 10 machines for trying out games. Joshua, Euan and I all had a shot dodging rolling logs and swinging balls and jumping from platforms! All in a tent so we missed the rain shower too!

Not much else to report. We have had some days at the van, sunbathing when the sun shines (me), also cleaning the van (Bill). Had the odd movie day when it was a bit rainy.

Moving on tomorrow hopefully to a place with wifi so we can keep in touch with you all. I think we are going back up the coast towards Valencia rather than round to Portugal. We figured that the extra driving for the same weather wasn't worth it! That and the infamous Portuguese driving...say no more.