Elba Hotel Almeria

Unfortunately, its was time to return to reality. Back on the road. Although, waking up and having a cooked breakfast and a packed lunch made for your journey is enough to raise anyones spirits.

After leaving we quickly came to our first obstacle. Once again we only had a motor way as an option. But whats this? a service road that runs along side of it. Wow our luck has completely changed. No, its just the same as it always was because after cycling 5 miles down this ...

I had to wean myseft away from the area, and the next day just drove a bit up the coast, past more un(der)-developed beaches at Escullos and El Playazo, and ended up staying in Las Negras, another fishing village which is sleepy by the water-front but with massive construction going on behind it.

Returned to San Jose. Next day drove around to the town of Cabo de Gata, saw the salt-pans, went up the the "Cape", saw the incredible beach of Cabo de Gata, had great lunch there, then went around to the beach at Monsul. Eventually decided I HAD to leave!! 

... The terrain became more and more barren. This is the area where all the "spaghetti westerns" (Good Bad & Ugly, etc) were filmed in the 60's and 70's. Allegedly because it looks just like Arizona, but I wouldn't know because I've never been there. Reputedly, it's the driest part of Europe.  I headed off the motorway towards Tavernas, spotting a couple of "Wild West" towns along the way, and went to "Mini-Hollywood" which is basically a theme park. Having ...

... 20 bornes en rebroussant chemin vers cabo de gata....magnifiaue endroit, on arrive en 4x4 carrement sur la plage, on trouve une petite epicerie qu on a devalisem pates, saucisson, courgettes, lard au bord e l eau, etla, surprise, une bande de chats loubards nous barre la route et essqient de nous manger notre repas...il faisait un peu frais et beaucoup de vent SAMEDI 02 ...

ca c est la seule phrase entiere que je suis capable de sortir en espagnol. je l ai d ailleurs testee avec succes sur la route, en dejeunant au bord de la plage de Benidorm. Arrivee en fin d apres midi a Almeria, d ou mon ferry pour le maroc part jeudi matin. J ai finalement ...

... as I did, that you could buy tickets from the driver, and he didn't want to disturb his munching. Lazy sod. The information desk at Almeria bus station told me that the bus to San Jose was at 12.30, but they'd forgotten it was Saturday and so I had to wait around for a couple of hours. Leaving Almeria, the road becomes surrounded by acres and acres of polythene-covered hot-houses. The landscape appears to be one vast white sheet ...

Så var det dags för hemfärd. Nu valde vi att köra hela solkusten bort till Almeria - där min långfärdsseglande kusin Ove låg med sin båt i några år, innan de seglade hem den till svenska farvatten. Landskapet varierade - från bergigt som sjutton i Malagas närhet till inplastade odlingar som täcker allt markområde. Tyvärr blev våra ...

... haze, the golden glow of the sea marked the horizon. Following the western edge of the bowl below Alcazaba were the tracks of the two climbers who had set off before. We observed their route- what looked like a painful and exhausting tramp through deep snow. Instead we looked to the eastern ridge leading to the summit. In places the snow was broken by the underlying rocks. On the other side was steep cliff, providing excellent views into the next valley and out across the eastern ...

... lui donner le « papier vert » pour rentrer la voiture au Maroc. On ne nous donne pas le papier, il faudra le demander à terre. On continue à manger et on va faire tamponner les passeports. On va un peu dehors et avec Flo, nous avons une discussion avec un marocain qui est pas très ouvert, mais gentil. Et voilà, on est descendues et il reste environ deux heures avant l'arrivée à Nador. On y arrive à 23h30, heure locale. 109980km au compteur.