We set off for a site at Conil de la Frontera, approximately half way between Gibraltar and Cadiz.
Our thinking was that both places could be visited by car. Mr Garmin had a brilliant idea, why not go through Cadiz on the way? Why? God knows, a detour to end all detours. It became very clear, but too late, having negotiated a long bridge over part of the bay, that Mr Garmin on this occasion was the boss! Had we taken the right fork at Puerto Real heading south we would have had a boring journey! There was no possibility of turning, we entered a 3Km long duel carriageway which had no central barrier, it was solid with traffic travelling at about 20Mph, it took us through the heart of the city. (I refer to this on our return visit on Valentine day) When we eventually got to the end of the road Mr Garmin calmly announced “please take the ferry”. The terminal was crawling with cops who wouldn’t appreciate my idea to do a “u” turn across 4 lanes of slow moving traffic. There were 4 Policeman stood in the middle of the road just before the terminal and as a result cars had slowed to a walking pace. It was now or never, we take the ferry or swing around the cops and go back. The cops stopped waving their arms directing traffic and their whistles fell silent as we completed our turn and wasted no time in our departure. As they were on foot I didn’t expect them to take chase but I was concerned they may have radioed ahead. They hadn’t. Phew. As Dell boy from Fools & Horses would say “he who dares wins”.
Upon reflection I think we may have missed the opportunity of seeing Cadiz which is a Historic city with much to offer. The continuing bad weather has put dampers on revisiting the city.
Our 2 Hr journey had become 4 hours, we arrived at the village at 2.30 Pm, 1 Hr later we found La Rosaleda camp site, It states in the book that as you approach the village the site is well signed. It wasn’t, in fact, no signs at all. The explanation, the authorities had removed them as they were deemed as advertising boards. The site is excellent as you can see, however, heavy rains has caused havoc with the pitches which were very soft, we were accompanied to 5 different pitches and 2 men placed boards down for me to drive onto. The boards just broke, in the end I was placed on a double pitch which turned out to be perfect. The staff even placed boards down, to prevent our feet from becoming dirty.
Water, drains, electric and a heated toilet & shower block next door, a Sauna and a large restaurant across the drive, and a Gymnasium together with a workout room, what more could ask for? Nothing. We ate at the restaurant as we were caput after a long day. 3 courses with drinks and coffee, 22 Euros! Very good.
Was it an Itch or was it a scratch?
Did I say “the site was perfect” well, after a beautiful first day it rained heavily all night, the next morning we awoke to a small lake (why did I sell the boat?).
We decide to have a day out in the hope that the mud bath would dry. So, off to Gibraltar, just what the doctor ordered.
We queued at the customs checkpoint for half an hour to present our passports and an hour to get back into Spain. I find this astonishing as you don’t have to present passports or queue at any other borders we have encountered, i.e. France into Spain,Belgium,Holland and Germany, also from Spain into Portugal. Could it be that the Spanish have an axe to grind regarding the ownership of Gibraltar?
The Rock is very impressive, a small strip of land forms the border to mainland Spain. On the Gibraltar side of the border is a military air strip which you have to drive over to enter the town.
The town itself looks a bit neglected, maybe the British feel that spending here is a lost cause? Who Knows? The highlight must be St Michael’s cave, hollowed out of the Rock over millions of years, water has created a magnificent cathedral of stalagmites and stalactites which are staggering in size.
Our camera battery was flat so I purchased a through-away camera from a gift shop, the resulting pictures are a bit disappointing but better than nothing.
A stalagmite has been cut in half to see the cross section which shows rings like a tree.
In another part of the Rock, tunnels dug out by the Military over the centuries, judged by themselves are incredible, with holes blasted through the rock face for gun emplacements looking over the entrance to the Mediterranean, and to think that men lived in them through a 2 year siege, These feats by man fall into insignificance compared with natures work on St Michael’s cave.
We can’t talk about Gibraltar without mentioning apes!
One of which is asking Mary for a date!
The views from the rock are quite impressive.
The drive to Gibraltar was through a range of hills that support hundreds of wind turbines that at times seem to be on top of you, and you felt the need to duck as you twist and turn avoiding these huge monsters that seem to line the road. We drove back a different root, not as good but suited Mary better as she doesn't like steep hills. We stopped for coffee and were intrigued by the paraphernalia which adorned the walls.
The trip was well worth the effort, for Mary in particular, as she has always wanted to visit Gibraltar. One tip if you go, don't eat at the restaurant on the Rock unless you have £’s with you, they gave us only 66 pence for 1 Euro. Tell all your friends, as the management here don’t deserve to succeed, the price of a bowl soup was £3, dear enough, but if you pay in Euros it costs £4.54. (I hate being ripped off)
The next day it rained all day, our site became impossible as the sludge just oozed through the mating, What a shame, as otherwise the site is perfect. After the site management saw our predicament they were most obliging, they placed us on the tarmac for the rest of our stay, This after pulling us out of the swamp.
This guy watched as we extricated ourselves from the mud, I thought it was just a passing interest, however it transpired that he had evil designs on my planks .
He is bigger than me, but he released his grip on my plank as I threatened to let his tyres down and kick his dog!
So pleased we had moved, it’s 12th February and today it rained all day, water was running down the road like a river and by the end of the day the site we vacated was 3” deep in water. We found the door mat that went missing, it was a 100yds down the road. We have been here a week now and have suffered our fair share of rain, I have just received the forecast and it seems we have yet another week of rain to come. It’s no use moving as the weather is just as bad going towards Malaga. Whatever the weather I am determined to exercise the little red car tomorrow, there is a children's fancy dress festival in Conil at 4pm so we thought we would check out the town first.
We didn’t stay to see who won the fancy dress competition as there were hundreds of kids queuing around the block to enter the stage.
How does he judge the winner?
And my favourite.
It’s not a good forecast for tomorrow but we are going back to Cadiz, after all It will be Valentine day!
Valentines day.
47 Km to Cadiz, then just under an hour to find somewhere to park, not that we minded as we were able to familiarise ourselves with the city sights and know where we wanted to be on foot. The old city is very small and is situated just beyond the Port through the remains of the old city gate. When Mr Garmin brought us here two weeks ago, we turned around at the port, so we had no idea of what to expect. The picture shows the old entrance to Cadiz which is about all that's left of the oldest city in the Europe. Founded in1100 BC it was a important trading area until the British sacked the city, tearing it to the ground in the 18th century. What lovely outgoing tender people we were, and still are today?? Perhaps they were developing a secret cannon like we had?
We found place to park, the only place left in the entire city I suspect, an invalid place next to a cafe, perfect. Across the road was this church and a civic building and 1/4 mile of gardens between the sea and the road which we walked down towards the city square.
I've never seen so many cars parked and yet there were few people about.
Things changed dramatically however as we approached the centre.
It seems that children and adults alike just dress up for the occasion as the festival starts the season leading up to Lent. As you walk around you come across groups of singers and musicians who find a small space to group together and start to entertain the crowds, they too are dressed up which create a atmosphere that's bubbling. Some chant amusing ditties and have the crowds laughing, us too, but I don’t no why?
Other groups were on trailers, pulled slowly around the streets by tractors, The tractors stopped here and there which cued the singers to start. Their singing was very professional, I think they represented different choirs from the area as they were in fine voice.
We spent the afternoon wandering around, drinking coffee, eating sticky nuts and all sorts of bits and bobs offered by the many stalls, but in the main enjoying the many different costumes the public were wearing, all especially for us! Irrespective of the carnival, kids, juveniles, teenagers, adults including grannies, all were hell bent on having a great time. And so did we.
The weather, although forecasted rain was in fact dry, a little cool but very comfortable for this sort of day out. The main parade of floats was to start at 6pm and lasted about an hour. All of Spain attended, or it seemed that way, We were not sure where the parade took place so we asked a policeman, (No,It wasn’t one of the four we met on our last visit) He stuck his hand in the air showing 5 digits, he then pointed to buses across the road, he then held up the traffic to allow us to cross. We took the number 5 bus to ?. There were so many people clambering on the driver couldn’t be bothered to charge, we got off and followed the rest of the passengers and after a short walk we were there. (see reference from 1st paragraph of this blog) The road was lined with 3 rows of seats each side, all occupied. Should have come earlier!
The biggest cheers, surprisingly, came as the float “a tribute to Michael Jackson” came past with moon walkers performing to his best known music.
After the parade we followed the crowd and were bundled on a bus which dropped us off where we started. We found the car, no problem, then our troubles started. We found our way slowly, as expected, to the city boundary and then sat there for an hour and a half without moving, such was the amount of traffic. Why do the continentals think blowing horns eases traffic frustrations? Perhaps it does as we suddenly we started to move. A further half hour of stop start and we were on the motorway, and back to Conil. It was just 10pm when we pulled into the camp site and we were starving so we visited the site restaurant and enjoyed a steak, a perfect valentine day.
