Back to the coast (warmth) 18-20 February

SAT 18/2

Pack up, empty out, fill up, big grocery shop and headed for a sticky beak around the white villages nestled high up on foothills of Sierra Nervada. 

Spain quite active with sustainable energy technology.

Contradictions continue to abound as we traverse elevated superhighways past large wind turbines, solar farms and hydroelectric dams alongside large scale erosion. Crops terraced everywhere, sustained by old aqueduct technology.

Jeff had crash up yesterday on Segway whilst driving one-handed & attempting to get that great photo. He clipped the edge of a small post making the Segway whizz about, the more he corrected balance the more it spun, ultimately slamming him into a sharp cornered building. The result - building fine, camera fine, Segway fine, Jeff fractured rib + ego buggered. 

Possible skiiing adventure into Sierra Nervada now not possible. Driving into the  mountains painful turning the wheel on windy roads & so we stopped in only one town, Orjiva - now largely Bohemian - and came back down to coast. Hippies the same the world over - funny, multi-coloured scruffy pants & scarves, dreadlocks, decked out combies, a few missing teeth, guitars, funny hats, aromatherapy shops.

Patchwork of visions as we weaved past white lego town completely covering the hill of Solebrano. Crowned with obligatory Phoenician/Roman ruins - quite similar to a dilapidated Alhambra. Tiny bumpy roads through fields of sugar cane+salads crops toward a mass of fancy motorhomes parked up close in a cleared field only 5 mins from the quiet ocean.  Beach of black pebbly “sand”  & still, crystal clear, green water with innumerable smart dining teterias half way down the beach.  Clearly, the tides don’t change much.  Here is the obvious start of the crowded time shares & European, especially British, sun-seeker holiday-makers.

Mediterranean!

Cook up and eat OUTDOORS!!  Jeff put on some shorts!  Wrinkly brown grey nomads playing boche,....mas perros (Kel is thankfully well & truly over her dog phobia - she be-friends & brings home all the strays - having to educate her about rabies now)

Perro applying for adoption

Inspired by fellow travellers, Liz and Morris who come down from the UK for 1 month every year to ski the difficult runs.....aged 77 & 80!

SUN 19/2

up at 0900. Will need to start modifying this nearing the year’s end....

Exercise along a promenade - woo-hoo.  Jeff’s rib grounding him.  Kids came for play on beach. Home for brekkie & school. Lie on beach, adults dip in Mediterrean ocean whilst kids float cork-boats in mountain stream. Home for  chicken pasta before Get Smart tonight.....ahh.

Kel's boat

Wil (human construction) my little boat made from milk cartons & corks because it works well. I blew it about in a small crop aqueduct.

Kel (worst part) falling off scooter and bashing up my knee. I only cried when I got into Eddie.

Jeff (fave taste) - Spain’s natural, slightly sweetened yoghurt with creamy milk & strawberries on cereal mix.

Jen(best part) chill out day by the beach, slow school, time to cook up and eat in the sun.

MON 20/2

run through bean crops, up hill to Castillo Araba & back through Solebrena’s beautiful, cobbled, well kept and very lived in serpiginous streets - quite the prettiest white village yet - and not in the tourist books.

Burriena playground

Burriena sunset

Kids school, lengthy exchange of generous information about what’s coming up from Liz & Morris. Off to Marco and the Cueva Nerja where the archaeologically significant cave drawings and findings date human inhabitants back to neolithic 25,000 BC (possibly even before!) It also houses the world’s largest stalagmite cave column. Delicious lunch in Eddie and then down to the cove of Burriana for a beach walk before turning in, having summoned up the courage to park Eddie right in the lane behind the restaurants on the beach.