Our trip to Andalucia.

[Sparkle]

For those that don't know, I live in Spain with my husband, Bruce... and well, we've just had 4 days in our van, travelling down the mediterreanean coast of Spain into Andalucia, to do a quick trolley dash around Gibraltar, to keep Dad stocked up in Woods Navy Rum amongst other things, and also Morrisons.

We kept the journey down a quick one – only being able to go 80km an hour is limiting slightly, but only in the sense that we get to see more, and the road ahead is always clear… with a huge queue of cars behind us!

 

We left our village and headed down the N332, for Alicante, then picked up the motorway past the peages, and stopped just past Murcia on the way down. We wildcamped for the night, then made the long journey down to Gib, dropping down to Malaga on the motorway just before reaching Antequera. We then followed the coastal Mijas Costa route of the motorway, non peage, until reaching La Linea and Gib. You’ll find that Gib isn’t signposted until the very last few km, as the Spanish don’t like the fact it still belongs to the UK.

 

Gib is NOT built for motorhomes… indeed all the parking in the centre is for vehicles of less than 1.2 tonnes. After perilously driving around we managed to find the only spot which we could park was Morrisons car park – once you get onto Gib then head for the port and you’ll find it. They do have a sign up about limited timed parking, but the barrier wasn’t in place, and was unmanned, so not applicable when we went. So we parked up, headed back up to the main street (5 min walk) and had some lunch and did a spot of shopping, before heading back to Morrisons to stock up on goodies. Leaving Gib always results in queues… and they tend to only stop two cars at a time, so we got out without being searched, but be warned they are looking for people exploiting the limits of cigarettes and booze out to Spain.

 

Just outside the Spanish boarder controls there was a large car park, unmanned and without barrier, on which we saw several Motorhomes parked up – so a good spot to either park or wild camp if you really felt the need to be so close to Gib. We then wiggled inland, on the A 377 road, up towards Ronda, and saw the beautiful side of Andalucia which most people just don't see, as they are stuck on the coast in resorts like Marbella, Malaga, Fuengirola... I'll say nothing more than they are not Spain. We stopped for the night just outside of Caseres on the road to Gaucin – a marvellous road with fabulous scenery. We then turned onto the A369 and made our way to Ronda, planning on stopping in a campsite just outside the town for the night, but as it turned out we changed our minds, spend a few hours in Ronda then continued on our journey, to Setenil de las Bodegas, and taking a northeasterly direction to El Chorro….. the road numbers vary to be honest… the map reads A367, the road said CA414…..but we headed around the reservoir and then down into the gorge where El Chorro is.

There is a campsite in El Chorro, but there is also wildcamping just further along right by the side of the reservoir, so we camped there, with about 5 other vans. It was very peaceful indeed….there was even a small hostal offering B&B for 10 euros – the cheapest I have ever seen.

 

The following morning we made our way to Alora, then headed north to Antequera, deciding to turn off the mian roads once more, dropping south of the Natural park of Torcal (we were due to stop and walk with the dog but it was pelting down with rain at the time we drove past!, so as pooch isn’t a wet weather one we decided to head onwards and eastwards.) We followed the A356, then turned onto the A402 up to Alhama de Granada (not really worth stopping for in our opinion), then found another reservoir of Bermejales. We nearly missed the turning off the road for this one, as signposting in Spain leaves a lot to be desired, even with a good map… sometimes they are signposted as Embalses, or Emb, and sometimes Pantano…but there were some good walking opportunities, and wild camp spots right on the lakeside. Very peaceful.. indeed we did spot a camper parked up there enjoying the sunshine.

 

We took the A338 right through Granada which was quite painless for us, and easily found the road leading out to the Las Lomas campsite without having to take the Ronda Sur around the city. We saw all kinds of weather during our trip, driving rain, huge winds, bright blue skies, and when we neared the Sierra Nevada near Granada the higher tips were covered with snow.

Weirdly the site has just been reviewed in this months MMM mag….which we only spotted after we had been….The site is situated quite high above Granada – being about a 10 minute drive into the city. The bus stop is situated right outside the campsite so its ideal for a quiet spot to retreat to after a hectic day exploring the city. The staff were very friendly, spoke excellent English. The site itself is fairly small, so I’m not sure how very large Motorhomes would cope with manoeuvring around it – infact we were advised to walk around to pick out our location first before going in with the motor home – and we picked out one which had the view right down the valley to the city lights – perfect for the sunset.

The facilities were very good – the shower rooms were heated with taps which aren’t the timer sort you need to keep your elbow on whilst rinsing your hair! There was a big radiator in the shower area, handy for warming my towel up on, and also there were driers in the toilet section. All in all for the 23 euros we paid we felt it was ok.

 

The next morning we decided to wiggle for a bit and followed the road up through Dudar and Quentar, which brought us out just about 15km west of Guadix. The road was fabulous, a bit wiggly, but with amazing scenery, and with the frost (being in the Sierra Nevada) with the sunshine as well it was spectacular).

 

Once we hit the motorway we then just bombed back up to Murcia (at our very fast speed of 80km pr hour!) and managed a short visit to Ikea (and Burger King for Bruce) before making the last peg of the journey home.

 

All in all I’d advise steer clear of the coast – Andalucía is a huge area, and well worth exploring, but the coats is far too built up for my liking. Inland you get a real feel for what it was like years ago – and I can understand why people settled there, its just a shame that they have commercialised it so much, and built so many apartment blocks. For me the valleys, gorges, bright green fields, dramatic views and the warmth of the people shone through.

[Geof Angi]

Great pic's Sparkle

 

Geof

[Geof Angi]

Your storey reminded me of when I used to drive trucks through Europe for a living in the late 70's early 80's, (whoops giving my age away).

I used to drive an old under powered Merc and was once asked the question about the accent to the Mont Blanc Tunnel which is a long drag and twisty on the last stages as some of you may know. Q) don't you get pi**ed off crawling up that hill at 20 mph, A) you can only go as fast as the vehicle in front and it just so happens that when I do the climb I am normally that vehicle.

 

Geof

[BGD]

Absolutely Geof -

 

In our Old-Dog of a MH we always have a clear open road ahead of us as we chug along through fantastic Spanish scenery at 80 to 85kmph.

 

:-D