1-24 March 2024, Dequesa near Manillva

We’ve been settled at Camping Bella Vista on the coast near the pretty marina at Dequesa for the last 3 weeks. Putting up our awning was a challenge as it’s been many months since the last time, but it was soon organized and adds any more square feet of space to spread ourselves about. We’ve been to this site a number of times and wanted some down-time in the sun with little running around, time to relax and refresh memories of this area. Plenty of walks along the coast, adding in some geocaching along the way, stopping off at the beach bars and at the marina provided us with exercise and refreshments. Jigsaws, embroidery and reading have all been enjoyed as well as a couple of days on the beach, but no swimming this time, the sea is just too cold.

We hired a car after nearly two weeks and drove up to Casares and spent a morning walking around the hilltop town, up to the remains of a castle and a church that was closed. We hoped to see the vultures flying but were disappointed, only seeing them later from far below when we returned to the car.

My daughter Jennifer flew out to spend her 40^th birthday in the sun with us. It was fun showing her around the area and she enjoyed an early morning run along the promenade.

We also took the car up the coast to Estepona to see the ‘old town’ area which has been revitalized with paved areas, benches, trees and flowers. The town was recently featured on the BBC by Monty Don as he took a look at Spanish gardens around the country. The old streets now have many floral displays on the walls, with different coloured pots for each street. The effect was beautiful and together with the smell of orange blossom in the warm sunshine gave us a wonderful atmosphere to walk around in. A traditional tapas lunch outside a small restaurant and a then walk up to see the pretty church rounded off our visit.

A birthday meal together with a friend of ours finished off the couple of days perfectly, as we looked out over the marina on a warm evening before walking back to the campsite.

After dropping Jen off at Gibraltar airport, we continued into the hills to visit a castle with lovely views over the rugged countryside and the town of Jimena de la Frontera below. As the day heated up, vultures circled overhead, riding on the thermals to gain height, they are such impressive birds with a huge wingspan.

On Chris’s birthday we went for another day out, up to the small town of Coín, north east of Marbella and set high up in the hills. The weather was dull and grey, but not cold, so it was nice to be visiting somewhere different. The Officina de Turismo provided us with a map for a walking tour around the town where we found various points of interest and a few more caches to add to our tally. A traditional meat platter served on a slate, with local bread, a proper beer for Chris and my zero alcohol version was our lunch followed by an ice-cream an hour later. 

The birthday boy chose a Belgian bar in Dequesa for the evening with mussels, chips and beers, all very good and very Belgian, highly recommended!

The weather hasn’t improved over the last few days, the sky is grey and the sea is very rough. According to Google, there is a storm of Force 7 and 8 off the coast around Cádiz which is why the sea is so turbulent.

The forecast isn’t good with rain next week, so there’s no point hanging around to get wet, that’s not why we came here. Everything is packed up and we are leaving here a week early, abandoning our plan to go west into Portugal, (shame), and heading east, chasing the sun again!

20 February 2024, Spain for the Winter

We set off from Portsmouth on 20th February via ferry for Santander, now taking 32 hours for fuel economy, instead of the previous journey of 24 hours. The crossing was rough and we spent most of the time in our cabin. A journey through France another time would be more preferable but that takes several days out of our allotted Schengen allowance. It was grey and dull when we arrived, not what we’d hoped for, but eventually things improved with beautiful scenery and we soon covered over 300 miles to the edge of Monfrague National Park for a one night stay.

Onward again to the small town of Villanueva de la Serena that we had seen on a TV program with James Martin cooking, tasting of Spanish tortilla and a small brewery. The restaurant got very busy and the food was delicious and we enjoyed several of the beers. The town looked beautiful all lit up at night reflecting on the wet paved streets.

Next stop Mérida, an historic town with a some nice architecture, several bridges over the Guadiana River and some ancient Roman remains. There was a large oval amphitheater completed around the 8BC and in it’s day would have seated 15,000 people.

On the same site a short distance away was a spectacular Roman theatre with a semi circular seating. It was built in the 15 to 16 BC and has been the subject of several restorations starting at the end of the first century. At one time it was slowly covered with earth and nearly buried, but in 1910 excavation began to restore it. It was used for a production in 1933 and a new stage built in 1960-1970. Both these sites were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1993. They are very impressive historical places to visit an well recommended with local restaurants close by for refreshments afterwards.

Moving south again we stayed at Jerez de la Frontera, a place we’ve not stayed at before and ideally placed for a nice walk into the city. We were lucky with the weather which was sunny and warm so we could sit out and relax for the afternoon. The city has a large cathedral that we admired from outside.

Also nearby was a great Alcazar or fortified palace, it’s so cheap to see these places, €3.60 for both of us. We went around the outside area first and climbed the steps to see the views over the walls. The courtyard was paved in an interesting pattern of stones and set off with archways over a covered walkway. Gardens with flowers, fruit and vegetables and fruit trees provided for the palace with water catchment and storage a priority. We visited the rooms inside that were on display, all empty but with high decorated ceilings and a display of containers from the pharmacy originally on site.

The city had an intimate and comfortable feel of a small town. We wondered around the streets enjoying the architecture, flowers, squares and a few beers as it was a warm day in spite of a few clouds.

Returning to Conil de la Frontera after several years, we had finally made it to the south coast and did a bit of geocaching along the way. We had a lovely lunch sitting beside the beach and chilling. Chris walked back down in the evening to taste a few beers in a small brewery. We knew it was there from our last visit and this time there were 8 different beers on offer much to Chris’ delight.

Our last stop on this part of our trip was at Tarifa, it must be the windiest place on the south coast. We followed an Adventure Lab, part of the Geocaching ‘online game’ that we enjoy. We followed the GPS coordinates to the 5 locations and learned a bit about each place before answering a question and going to the next one. The circuit took in a town gate in the Mudejar style, a nice covered market, some picture tiling and a tiny bar with a selection of cow bells on display among other odds and ends. Also a fort looking out over the Straights of Gibraltar with a tiled panel, later on another set of tiled panels showed us about wildlife in the area.

We did a regular cache too which was a very blustery walk across to the furthest point south on Continental Europe, a large fort with clear views of Africa. The sea was crested with white tops on the Atlantic side, and calm on the Mediterranean side of the promontory, beautiful turquoise sea and blue skies and a white lighthouse, so picturesque.

Next stop is near the marina at Puerto de la Duquesa where we will be staying for a month of sun, sea and relaxing, as opposed to gallivanting all over the place for a few days at a time. Never done it before and we’ll see how it goes.