20th
Jan 2015
Desolate scenery,
snow and mountains
Today was one of
those days when there really wasn’t a lot of interest to look at because the
scenery was so dry and desolate, but at the same time, that is the essence of
this part of Spain, so one has to see it to understand the country. We packed the car after 3 days at Jill’s,
with all laundry done, the fridge restocked, and the water tank filled, and
headed off down the road. We have had a wonderful if all too brief time in La
Nucia, and can’t thank Jill enough for running us around and showing us some of
the sights. It has been a really
enjoyable stay, and we have eaten some great food, drunk some good local wine,
and had some laughs. A perfect way to
spend the time.
For the first
part of the day we stuck to the smaller roads in order to avoid the tolls on
the autoroute. Once we were past
Alicante, the Toll Road finished, and we were able to get some kms under our
belt on a toll free dual carriageway virtually the whole way to Granada.
After stopping to
buy some fresh bread before we left La Nucia, we headed out under clear blue
skies. Still lots of bicycles on the
road – It is some special bike week and lots of the (semi ?) professional teams
were out on the road again. Some of them
are just in groups without a service car, and others had a full back up. You can tell the more professional groups
because they not only all wear the same uniform, but they also often all have
identically coloured and styled bikes.
They also travel at quite a speed – How their legs keep them moving so
fast I just don’t know – Mine just won’t turn at that speed !!
The high rise
apartments around Benidorm seem endless, and it isn’t really very pretty. The stress it must all put on local services
must be enormous. Then there is
Alicante, which isn’t much different when looking at it from the freeway – Lots
of tall apartment buildings – Even one with a hole through the middle ! Once we had got past Alicante we headed inland
towards Murcia, and from there down to past Lorca it is basically boring,
industrial, and just not very interesting at all. Lots of oranges being grown, and even a
couple of orange processing plants, But
we did climb – back up to over 1000 metres most of the time, and to a highest
point of 1380 metres later in the day.
At one stage we
kept passing a little old Citroen van that was stuffed full with boxes of
something, and had more on the roof.
Whatever was in the boxes must have been heavy because on every uphill
section he was barely doing 60 kmh, whereas on the flatter or downhill sections
he wound it up to 120 or more ! We must
have passed each other about 10 times before we eventually stopped for lunch
and some fuel in a little place called Chirvel. There is a funny sign out there
too with two motorcycles standing on their front wheels – Supposed to stop
people following too close, I guess, but quite a humorous sign, I thought !
We had passed a
couple of high peaks of about 2271 metres in the Sierra de Maria and the Sierra
de Baza, but soon we could see a really big one with a lot of snow on it up in
the Sierra Nevada as we approached Granada – Either La Valeta at 3392 m or
Mulhacen at 3479 m. And around Guadix
there were lots of eroded earth hills, many with caves dug into them and people
living in them. In some case there were
normal house facades on the outside or even chimneys sticking out of the rough
hills, so it was quite Coober Pedy like !
From Guadix we then climbed to our highest point of 1380 m as we climbed
over the Puerto de la Mora pass and dropped into Granada.
Granada is NOT a
pretty city – At least, not the way we came into it from the east. Lots of ugly tall apartment blocks, and road
after road with no buildings – just the roads waiting for more apartment blocks
to be built as needs be. We found a camp
site near the centre of the town by about 4 pm, and once checked in we headed
off to find the Alhambra Palace, which was our sole reason for stopping in
Granada. More about this tomorrow, but
when we arrived at about 4.45 pm we found that it takes about 3-4 hours to get
around it, and that it closes at 6 pm (unless you do a night tour). So haven’t found where it was in the city
(not easy with all the busy roads in the centre which you have to negotiate),
we headed back to the camp site with the intention being to pack up early in
the morning and be at the Alhambra by about 8 am, so we can get out before noon
and continue on our way down to Algiciras to catch our ferry to Morocco first
thing Friday morning.
Rest of the pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0400LaNuciaToGranada?authkey=Gv1sRgCKPqkOvwkvTnygE
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