5. Pottering around Almeria

The next place we were keen to visit was the Cabo de Gata Natural Park in Almeria province - probably as far south as we planned to travel. Heading down there the weather forecast wasn’t great, so decided now was the time for a little rest from the van. Yet again, Sawdays came up trumps, and before we knew it we were checking in at the lovely Casona Granado in the beautiful Almerian village of El Pillar. Run by Clay (short for Clayton) and Rachel, who moved from the UK to Spain over 20 years ago, they have developed a small award winning boutique hotel with an award winning restaurant, Albar, with Clay being a professionally trained chef. Also extremely dog friendly, so absolutely perfect for us 🤣

Albar - a restaurant with rooms 

Casona Granado

We were definitely ready for some tasty food, and Clay didn’t disappoint. The central feature of the restaurant is a huge wood fired oven - a real feature. The first night we dined extremely well on oven baked mushrooms with melted Camembert, aubergine chips, and a huge piece of steak which we cooked at our table on an extremely hot stone. All very delicious, even though a little bit too much meat for my liking, but Ruby certainly benefited from what we couldn’t manage 🤣 The wine was delicious too - organic, and bottled specifically for the restaurant. And as is so often the case in Spain, a fraction of the cost we’d pay in the UK. We felt very spoiled 😃

Fabulous locally produced organic wine and a beautifully elegant bar

Pre dinner drinks 🍸 

Wood fired oven

Tasty baked mushrooms with Camembert 

Cooking the steak

Hoping for leftovers 🤞

The following day we set out to explore the surrounding region. First stop was Lucainena de Las Torres, billed as one of the most beautiful villages in Spain, very Moorish in style, with the added bonus of having a Via Verde greenway 🤣 Decided to give the bikes a miss though, and set off on a walk, starting on the Via Verde and weaving our way around the village with Rubes instead. All the buildings were pristinely whitewashed, with classic Mediterranean blue paint work, surrounded by mountains on one side and olive & almond groves on the other - beautiful. One of the historic features of the village is a series of 8 calcination furnaces, which date back to the town’s mining history. 

Setting out on the Via Verde to walk a circuit of the town

Looking down on Lucianena 

Whitewashed buildings and colourful plants pots along all the streets

Calcination Furnaces

Almeria is very deserty inland, and although not really my cup of tea, an interesting landscape nonetheless. Knowing that we weren’t far away from the Tabernas Desert, where many of the great “Spaghetti Westerns” have been filmed, we decided to have a look.  It’s all very US western style, with US diners and all the paraphernalia. Didn’t visit the film sets directly, but could see some as we drove by. Called at an American Diner for lunch - and although quite an interesting place (in a funny sort of way), the food was absolutely awful! We marvelled a bit at the immense desert landscapes (Dave more so than I 🤣), and then headed back to the small town or Sorbas, famous for ceramics. Seeing a large crowd of people, and hearing lots of laughter, we went to find out what was happening - a clay pot throwing competition - seeing who can throw a pot the furthest! No idea what this was all about, but certainly seemed fun, and the whole town participating 🤣 Dave wanted to join in, thought he could be a contender, but sadly all entrants were pre registered 🤣 

Lunch stop - not a great experience 😂

Hollywood film sets

Film sets

Film sets

Film sets

Awesome Tabernas Desert

Back at Casona Granado we were spoiled again - another delicious dinner and wine to go with 😃 It was lovely chatting with Clay and Rachel, hearing their stories of moving to and settling in Spain, and again reminded of some of the courageous decisions people sometimes make to up stick and move to another country - they bought the run down building and completely renovated and developed it themselves 😃

Pre dinner drinks 

Delicious spring rolls

After a lovely couple of days we left Casona Granado and headed 45 minutes south to the coast at Agua Amarga - within the Cabo de Gato Natural Park. The campervan park assured us that no reservations were necessary, but arriving at 10.45 we actually bagged the last available place - loads of unlucky vans waiting outside 😢 A really lovely camper park set back from the beach, with huge palms and tropical plants. One of the nice things about here is no high rise buildings - being in a protected Natural Park, so much more picturesque than some other parts of the Spanish costas. As out of season not a lot was open - quite a sleepy little village 😂

Agua Amarga

Lovely to be sitting out later into the evening 😃

Morning sunrise from the van

The weather really started to hot up now - managing 23 degrees ☀️ This area is great for walking and biking, so we embarked on both 😊 We did a fabulous bike ride through the almond groves and onto another Via Verde - quite challenging in parts, so felt very chuffed with myself 😂 The almond blossoms were amazing, and extremely sweet smelling 😊 Dave also did a few much more challenging rides. The beach was lovely, although it wasn’t quite warm enough to swim - but Rubes loved it nonetheless. 

Biking through the almond trees

Almond blossom and blue skies 😃

Agua Amarga beach

Ruby enjoying the beach

After a couple of days relaxing here we got the nod that a place had become available at one of the camper parks in Cartagena - somewhere we really wanted to visit, so were quick to take up this offer. But we had really liked this area, and felt that we had only scratched the surface - so I’m sure we will be back!

Hasta Luego 😊