Sierra Nevada

Upon arriving to Granada we were shocked at what we saw. We had heard wonderful reports of the city and yet everywhere we looked there was rubbish. Bins were overflowing and extra rubbish was dumped along side. After visiting the tourist information and then continueing to walk the main streets it quickly became apparent that the state of the place couldn't be normal. A quick google search later and it turned out that we had arrived on the day the city cleaners had decided to go on strike. Thankfully the activities we had planned were further outside the city and so we headed to the outskirts of the Sierra Nevada national park.

The road leading to the site we wished to camp at had been reported as "not well kept". Unfortunately once we had started on it there was no way to turn around, being a thin dirt road winding up the side of a mountain range. Thankfully just as the days light gave way we arrived at a small car park overlooking the mountain we had planned on hiking up the next day. We prepared ourselves for staying the night and it turned into one of the best sleeps we had had in awhile. No street lights, cars or people. It was absolutely silent with the only light being a soft faint glow from the nearby Granada city.

Upon waking up late we were met with the pleasantly unexpected surprise of falling snow (contrary to the previous days weather reports). Although this was a nice surprise, as we had been wanting to see snow for most of the trip so far, we had unfortunately stopped using anti freeze since entering Spain and did not have a pair of snow chains. It appeared we would be remaining here until it cleared. This was the perfect excuse to hike up a mountain and test out the GPS. Over the course of the following two hours, ascending the mountain, we were witness to every type of weather there was, snow then sun, hail then rain, fog and for good measure, so more snow. The whole experience was amazing with views of Granada city and the Sierra Nevada ranges as a backdrop. As was become the norm with our hikes though, what was suppose to be a 4hr/12km hike ended up being a +5hr/15km after we followed mountain bikers (who had followed a longer but less steep track than was designated for this hike) and, in general, missed half the turns we were suppose to take. In the end the GPS turned out to be invaluable in assisting us in following a track that was concealed by snow. Although the going had been tough the experience was amazing and worth it in the end.

The following day we set off to visit the Alhambra, a 13th century Moorish citadel on the hills of Granada city. This is a truly remarkable place where every turn exposes you to artistically manicured gardens and reverently designed architecture. From the moss filled, mosaic designed paving to walls covered in finally carved inscriptions to Allah, the visit never ceased to amaze and all with the Sierra Nevadas as a backdrop. The evening was spent recuperating from the last couple of days hiking and touring, in anticipation for the skiing we were about to do. 

We were up early again, ready to catch the bus up to the snowy mountains, and on the way up were thankfully we had decided not to drive after the hundredth sharp turn on the steep road up. Upon arriving we hurried off to get geared up quickly discovering the reason everyone we had seen was walking funny was due to the ski boots on their feet. After getting fitted and now with the ability to walk funny ourselves we caught the ski lift up to the training area to meet our instructor. What followed was two hours of fun learning, even more so for Kayla as she watched me once again being unable to stop... Once the lesson was over we continued hitting the slopes, sometimes literally, until the bus arrived to leave, intent on skiing again.

 

Almeria

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.  

Tarragona

One of the first things we noticed about Tarragona was how clean it was. The people here seem to take cleanliness to a new level. First thing every day the beaches would be "swept" with a machine picking up unwanted items and making the beaches smooth and white. Street sweepers went past regularly and after a local market finished up the area was immediately swept and hosed down. On most streets were a line of recycling bins which continued underground into a much larger skip sized bins. The city streets were filled with little grocery stores selling the most welcoming fruit and veg at bargain prices, and everyone we passed seemed happy. One of the first people we spoke too was the tourist bureau lady who couldn't wait to tell us what to go and see.

Although we were eager to get out and see the sights more pressing tasks required attention. Shopping, clothes washing, showering and recharging the laptop. The last three being tasks we had previously taken for granted but were recently finding out to be not so easy living out of a van. Our first win for the day was finding out what the Spanish word for self service laundromat was (our previous searches using english having come up blank) which led us to a nice little laundry. As an added advantage this was situated across the road from a gym which we were told had showering facilities. After a nice little workout we both headed off to wash off only to find the showers were communal (in the respective male/female area)!!! We both had the fastest shower ever and although it was short lived we felt much better for it afterwards. Our final task for the day was to recharge our electronic devices, something that now required a constant cycling of each into the single car cigarette lighter which wasn't always viable if we weren't recharging the car batteries as often.  MacDonalds once again came to our rescue being the only place in the shopping centre we visited with an available power plug... I guess one day we should actually buy something from them... Our day ended parked next to one of Tarragona's wonderful beaches feeling refreshed and recharged.

We woke the following day to a beach sunrise which we could view from the backdoor of the van. I decided to walk down to the shore and get a few nice photos, leaving Kayla in the car for a few moments finishing her breakfast with the car started and warming up. A few minutes later Kayla tapped me on the shoulder and suggested we should head off for the day. This turned out to be very difficult because when Kayla had left the running car the doors had been locked and so outside we had to remain. We began to go through our options to get back in:

  • Jimmy a window... who were we fooling,
  • Calling AA roadside assistance... Policy and phone number were safely in the van... How organised were we!!,
  • Smash a window... After about the forth time the one piece of rock we could find on this pristine beach bounced of the window we noticed the "toughened glass" sticker written just below...

This left us with the only option of continuing to search for a way to contact AA. Our initial attempts had ended with a message in spanish which we think may have been Vodafone telling us this call wouldn't work or that it would be fine and sunny. We still haven't figured that out. Finally we found the special number to call from abroad and lodged a request. The only issue we had now was that the number registered with AA was the UK one which was also safely in the car. The one we had now we didn't know the number and for some reason (according to the first AA representative) wasn't showing at his end. Eitherway help was being sent out.

An hour later and with 5% battery left on our only form of communication help arrived and we were shortly on our way. To reward ourselves for our morning adventure we started exploring the Tarragonan city beginning with a bag of authentic Spanish Churros whilst wondering the main street admiring some of the many statues. This was followed by a visit to the Roman amphitheatre and the Tarragonan museum both being quite remarkable, and where we also learnt Tarragona use to be the capital of an area that would be most of modern day Spain. It was quickly starting to become clear that each town we visited was the capital of this country at some stage... according to the locals.

After spending another quiet night in Tarragona and then enjoying coffee on the beach we decided we would continue south to see what else Spain had to offer. Since arriving in UK/Europe we had been amazed at how proliferant wind turbines were as a means of power generation (we had been even more amazed at the number of places that used solar power... in Scotland...). The drive south revealed Spain to be utilising this form of power generation to an amazing level which was understandable due to how much the car was getting blown around.

The disappointing thing was often the state of many of the smaller towns we drove through on our way to Valencia which all looked in a state of disrepair/dispair. This quickly gave way to field after field of orange plantations which were unfortunately swimming in smoke due to each farm burning off old plantation material. This seemed like it would never relent until just as we were arriving at Valencia the air cleared.

Although we had looked forward to visiting Valencia, upon arrival we were more concerned about where we would shower and a quick search for what the city offered revealed little we were interested in. So as the sun was setting we decided to continue our journey on south to warmer weather in the hope of being able to utilise some of the wonderful beaches we were passing. Firstly we drove through Cullera which turned out to be a ghost town of resorts closed for the winter and finally arrived at Tavernes. As fate would have it the place we decided to park for the night, in the back streets of the town, was also where a local brass band had gone to practice and jam. We were luck enough to be entertained and ended another day having experiencing the unexpected once again.

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