Almeria

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The landscape and temperatures changed dramatically as we drove from the Sierra Nevada towards Almeria. The steep rocky mountainsides of the Sierra Nevada had icicles hanging from them. The winding mountain road took us down through pine and eucalyptus trees to a more arid, silent, hotter landscape of rocky hills with a sparse covering of scrub where no animals or farms were to be seen.

Camping La Garrofa is on the Aquadulce road out of Almeria and sits on a little beach, filling the little valley where the river Garrofa used to come down to the sea.

We saw lots of fishing boats

some fantastic sunsets

and sunrises

This is a very friendly relaxed international campsite with good facilities but an ageing infrastructure (it was one of the first campsites in Spain!).

The old road crosses the campsite on a viaduct.

The new coast road crosses the valley immediately behind the campsite. Behind this is an old Roman road

and about 250m behind this is the motorway.

A web of old roads criss-crosses the mountains leading us to speculate about the history of the area.

We spent a week here in this sort of sci-fi landscape,

exploring the old roads, admiring the fearless construction feats of the 30-40m high motorway viaduct

and the apartment block hanging on the rocks,

enjoying the scent of thyme and lavender and viewing the goats.

We took the bus into Almeria where we enjoyed wandering round the Alcazabar and finding some very good cafes and tapas bars. Then it was time to find some real wild countryside so we headed for the Cabo de Gata Natural Park.