Where's Frankie?

The Perfect Storm

Friday 16th January

The ACSI site at Granada turned out to be €16 per night plus €3.50 for wifi. When we arrived the site owner made a big thing about the cost of each part of our stay making it add up to €22 per night but when we paid all the discounts were applied. One thing we have noticed is that all the campsites we have stayed on add extra for wifi whereas commercial aires (which are half the price of a proper site) include it in the charge.

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From the site at Granada we made out way to Alhama de Granada, a small village in the mountains famed for it’s hot springs. The aire itself was a sloping car park and you can see tyre marks on the surface. I thought at first it was the local louts doing donuts but on closer inspection it turns out to be lorry tyre tracks. 

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We were told to take the footpath and visit the hot water springs. There were steep roads up and down and Lucy was soon complaining that I had overworked her little legs, especially after yesterdays exertions at Alhambra. There is a spa where the hot springs are and we weren’t too fussed about paying for a bath so we tried to get down to the river on the sly. There were very deep chasms so it took a while to get down to the water.

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Long exposure on telephoto lens, I have nerves of steel!

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We managed to get down to the water and found this bridge which is Roman or Arabic, the experts disagree but we thought it was a lovely setting for lunch.

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My mum is asking for something easier to identify – even I know that this is an Iris (after Lucy told me).

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Did I say a few days ago that we haven’t seen many farm animals? 

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On our return back from the river we could see the main centre of Alhama de Granada which must have a bar – it had four or five and we had a lovely liquid after lunch with so much tapas we didn’t need an evening meal. We stayed on this aire for just one night. There was traffic noise during the day and evening but at night it was silent.

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Mother, get your Percy Thrower book out for this. Lots of berries, no leaves whatsoever, all growing on slender trees about 12 feet high.

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We’ve now got some of Lucy’s favourite photos. She has a problem in that we sit a long way back from the front screen. This is her view out of the front side window and every thing has flashed past the main side window.

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The Sierra Nevada.

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Just outside Tabernas is the recently restored Moorish castle where Fernando and Isabel were based for the siege of Almeria. 

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Tabernas is famous for it’s Troglodithic caves, we could see these from the motorway.

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And when we pulled off to follow the signs (which naturally stopped) this was all we could find.

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Death defying roads leading out of Alhama de Granada. Just before this we had been driving along arrow straight roads on a very flat plain. There were mountains all around and it was such a surprise to suddenly find that we are at a height of over 3000 feet and had to start descending quickly. 

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We ended up at an aire just outside Torre del Mar costing €4 per night, electric was #3 per night and we had free wifi and services. Cycling into Torre del Mar we found a fantastic cycle path along the front. The beach didn’t look too inviting, it was brown and mixed with stones, it was very clean, just didn’t look lie sunbathing material. 500 yards off the beach were 6 structures that looked like submarines but we think they are pontoons for diving off, this photo is massively enlarged and you can just make out Cormorants sitting along the edge.

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Heres our site. It wasn’t much to look at but had everything (except a washing machine) that we needed.

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Thursday night about 9pm it started raining, our first rain for a month and boy did it rain. The wind got up to hurricane force and it blew and rained full on until 7am when I eventually to got sleep. By 9.30am the sun was up and the sky was clear. That’s what made it a perfect storm, only happening when I wanted to be indoors.

We needed to get some washing done so after tow nights headed off to an aire with all the facilities however when we got to the map reference there was nothing there. We even had to do some off roading to get to the map reference and then some extreme turning around manoeuvres to turn round and get out. We’ve ended up in an aire by Alora. We’ve passed through Malaga to get here, glad we didn’t stop but I bet they had a washing machine there!

We are in a 3 van aire. Can’t see how you get van number three in here, it is a bit of a squeeze but they have a 7kg washing machine and it has done it’s work for today. 

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