SUN 12/2
more skating/scootering before breakfast. Steve not well enough for a catch up so heading off for Murcia & Fortuna to explore some Romany stuff & indulge in hot baths.
Landscape very unattractive - signs of rapid development without environmental or aesthetic consideration. Big piles of chalky earth pushed about to create large warehouse spaces/housing and then just built open in chaotic fashion. Litter everywhere. Apparently the Mediterranean mindset has one clean one’s own house & simply dump the rest. Arrived in Fortuna to witness the release of racing pigeon’s in the town square - WOW - jewels in the sky!
Drove around (& around) to finally land at groovy campsite near thermal springs. Bars on all houses windows - seems standard. The Spanish seem to often have a cigarette hanging from the corner of the mouth - where are the women & children? Older men often loitering on plaza outside iglesia benches in small groups (+ cigarette & potbelly), younger men loitering on street corners watching tourists & motorhomes (+ cigarette & long hair) ugly, large mismatched rubbish bins all over the footpaths as no private household bins; every sierra scratched, mined, quarried, defaced,denuded ; haphazard town planning with large warehouses on top of crammed housing developments with no yards ; more ‘bitsa’ dogs than kids ; dog-do as plentiful as scrappy, thorny curb-side bushes..........mmmm not pretty but we'll find the good stuff!
MONDAY 13/2
we’ll stay here today & explore the old Roman baths & enjoy soaking in the new ones!
Honking horns woke us at 0830 as the Bread Man drove into the campground this am, van loaded with fresh bread loaves for $1.50 ish. European breakfast - bread,jam,cheese & coffee. Might not do this everyday - not good for the poo-shoot.
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| Roman Bath or sheep dip??? |
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| That's not a sheep dip!!! That's a Roman Bath |
Wil (best thing) banos (hot baths) at Los Palmeros because the contrast of 35 º C to -3 º C. It was soo warm. There were also cold pools (10deg). I jumped from one to the other. I was fascinated by the feeling on my skin, where one moment I felt like I was in a really cold, prickly shower of rain and then in a burning, tingling soup!
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| 10deg - rapido rapido!! |
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| ahhhhh!! 36 deg |
Kel (best man made thing) also the modern “termal piscinas” at the fancy hotel because I loved the warmth, the big pool shapes with cute domes & nice curves and feeling so toasty in a really cold place.
Jeff (funniest language experience/saying or word of the day) all the multi-country elderly men (German, French, English, Dutch....) playing boules in the campground collectively sounding like Pingu’s Dad.
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| Boules Mr Pingu vs Mr Pingu vs Mr Pingu |
Jen (best natural thing) lemon trees - they are everywhere in a chalky, barren land with NO visible water or rivers.
Yet somehow crops abound (especially citrus fruits), with trees so full of fruit that passers by are asked to come & take what they want for free, the only condition being, to strip the tree entirely. All the plantations drink mountain water channelled down Roman aqueducts and probably also have their feet in some subterranean lakes.
Julius Caesar by Wilsen
Jules was a courageous, brave, clever and cunning leader of Rome.
He wasn't the one who created the Roman Empire, he was simply the one everyone knows about (probably because there was a play written about him.)
He was very politically active, and moved through the ranks of Roman leaders very quickly. It is said that on a trip to Spain, Jules saw a bust of Alexander the Great and realized with dissatisfaction he was at an age when Alexander had the world at his feet, yet he had achieved comparatively little. You can find the remains of the Roman empire everywhere. We have seen remains of roman baths in Spain, the badlands (well, not quite. In Fortuna.) This goes to show how incredibly amazing this man was. His courage, bravery, intelligence and cunning has certainly left a mark and secured him in history.
TUES 14/2 - Valentines Day
Jen for run. Jobs in town of Fortuna. Gas in Murcia (only 5 re-fill spots in the WHOLE of southern Hispania - soo much to plan). Headed for Granada. Getting late. Still largely uninspiring surrounds. Pull off into wee mountainous town of Baza highway-side, starting to look a little pretty with snow cap amphitheatre framing town. Wil & I prepared dinner & headed for a short walk into a seemingly deserted town only to find a buzzing, cosy centre encircling churches & plazas several hundred years old. People re-commencing business on dusk as they wake/stir from siesta. Home for dinner, an episode of Black Adder & bed.
WED 15/2
start the day racing Wil up & down the street we parked on.
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| 1 of 2 huge churches in little Baza, apparently "everyone in Spain is a Catholic, even the Atheists" (not sure who said that, Unamuna???) |
Brekkie, homework & off for a coffee in town & few jobs (kitchen sink plug - las tarpon; and pencil sharpener - sacar punta). Only 1 hour to Granada - beautiful drive through mountains. Houses cut into hillsides , facades painted white; tall, whispy silver-grey trees in striking crops (for timber?); ubiquitous alluring snow peaks; undulous crops of peach trees in blossom & little villages all terracotta and white marked at their centre by ancient, tall, mosaic - lined spires. Pretty at last. Got horribly lost & frightening led up willowy one-way, steep streets as Tom ( AKA the tomtom) navigated us to non-existent campsites & into congested one-way lanes......SH@!!?@T). Re-assessed and headed out of town for more distant campsite to have dinch (lunch & dinner - resisted a bottle of wine each). Will bus into Granada tomorrow to explore.
Wil (worst part) slipping & falling playing soccer with Kel at Maria Eugenia campsite.
Kel (best taste) my dinner creation. I didn’t know it would be so yummy (fresh salad of broccoli, green beans, carrots,corn, pickles, egg, cheese & tuna on mushroom pasta)
Jen (man-made) the sierra. Snow at the side of the motorway! Woo-hoo. Might look into skiiing here ..
Jeff (best part) backing Eddie into the campsite because the day is over. The stress of navigating the impossibly narrow roads in a foreign country, where Tom gets things wrong, the guide books give incorrect information, streams of crazy motorcyclists weaves around your blindspots and the locals honk & shake fists at you.
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