We had been heading south for the warmer weather and Almeria was the first place we had arrived at that was close to warm at 18 degrees. We couldn't wait to get into the sea even if it was a little fresh. To the locals we must have looked mad who were all dressed in jumpers while we were running across the dirty grey sands of the Almerian beach in our swimmers and goofy grins across our faces in anticipation of our first taste of the Mediterranean. It took our breath away, literally, and Kayla was quick to exit the freezing waters. Thankfully I lost sensation shortly after and started to feel numbingly warm allowing me to lather up with soap and have my first good wash in a couple of days. The downside was that, unlike Tarragona, they had turned off the beach showers for winter leaving us with the only option of pulling out our 25litre water containers and drizzling it over each other to wash off the salt water. As it turns out this was colder than the sea water and made for a very quick rinse off...

Our initial impression of the people of Almeria after working the streets was that everyone appeared angry and we weren't overly motivated to stick around but we thought we'd give it a day to see if things change. That night we parked up for the night in a parking lot near another couple of camper vans. After washing the dishes and cleaning up for the night we were sitting talking when we noticed someone outside taking photos of our van. Upon approaching the man it turned out he was the occupant of one of the other vans and he started accusing us of emptying "black water" out of our van onto the concrete and was going to call the police. Until this stage I'd only ever heard of grey water and we advised that the only thing that had been drained was a sink of dish washing water (using biodegradable liquid) but he wouldn't hear it. After he left we decided to wait around in the event the police did arrive to clear up the situation but this never happened and so we decided to move on  in any event to keep the peace. We were now even closer to leaving Almeria and serisouly questioning our choice to leave Tarragona in the first place.

The next day we went for coffee with the intent of giving things until lunch time to improve. Thankfully the people we started to interact with started to change our views from the prior day. While sitting in the cafe listening to the loud and boisterous locals enjoying their breakfast we thought we'd try something from the menu, ordering a tostada (toasted bread) with the exotic sounding mantequilla. It was the nicest toasted bread and butter we had had in awhile... Our spirits uplifted and with another warm and sunny day ahead we decided to remain here for another day. We spent the morning wondering the streets a little further and then in the afternoon found a quiet place by the beach to while away the day, reading, crafting and lounging. The day ended with us enjoying dinner while watching the sunset with the van reversed onto the beach.

Even though we had enjoyed the previous day in Almeria there was nothing really attracting us to the place and so we decided to leave, heading west to Granada. The drive to Granada was one of the most remarkable we had experienced so far. Upon leaving Almeria we wound through the bare whitish mountains that met the Almerian coast until slowly the mountins became first covered in a light carpetting of green bushes, then alpine forested and finally transforming  into the snowy Sierra Nevada ranges. Along the way we were amazed at the never ending rows of wind turbines and the occasional solar farm that led the way to Granada, and a startk contrast to the industrial wasteland that had been the drive from Tarragona to Almeria.