From castle to polytunnels

Thurs 30^th

Another lovely sunny morning so we went for a walk around Velez Rubio. The town was uninspiring until we found the main square and the very impressive church. It had a relatively small frontage but went back a long way. The interior was different  to anything we had seen so far in Spain as it was painted white with blue and pale green details. It looked very elegant and not at all OTT like the many gold encrusted ones we had seen so far. The main altar was unique as it was carved from wood.

beautiful wooden organ

very elegant interior

In the afternoon we drove up the mountain to the nature park in Sierra Maria de Velez. After a quick walk around the botanical garden (better to visit in Spring) we headed back down to Velez Blanco which has a very prominent castle dominating the skyline above it. It is free to visit so in we went. 

Velez Blanco

What a construction – massive thick walls with huge arches connecting the entrance bridge to the main part. It has a very chequered history, the very ornate interior is missing as it was sold in 1904 to the Metropolitan museum in New York where it has been reconstructed. The castle was left to crumble until it was renovated from 2000 onwards. They are now working with the museum to digitally copy the original to reproduce it using modern CAD / CAM techniques at huge cost!
The treason door was interesting in that the newly added steps up had no guardrail - no steps for the unfortunates who would have simply been thrown out of it!

lovely arches

arrow holes

newly retsored

village below

steps up to original treason door!

Friday 31^st

After a second quiet night on the aire in Velez Rubio we awoke to another hot and sunny day. I cycled up past Velez Blanco and nearly up to Maria at 1400m before turning round and enjoying the fast downhill. Bit disappointed with my max speed of only 44.3 mph………….  must try harder.

After a lazy lunch sitting in the sun we decided to move south to the coast. Calnegre had 3 aires in the guide and looked a good choice. Boy, were we wrong about that. When we approached the area off the mountain road we could see a sea of plastic – polytunnels. Ok , so we are in an area that is intensively used for for growing much of the tomatoes, lettuce and greens we now expect to be available at anytime of the year. What we were not prepared for was what an ugly industry it is when you get closer. We had seen lots of litter previously but what we encountered here took it to a new level. Piles of black plastic sheeting mixed in with piles of discarded soil, wind blown scraps of plastic everywhere and of course loads of bottle and cans etc by the roadsides!

sea of plastic

refreshing

where's all the tomatoes?

The first aire looked like a new age traveller / pikey camp, so we kept going, second one appeared closed so onto the third one. Very large area by the beach with clearly marked out slots. The owner was most welcoming and friendly so we settled in for the night. We chatted to several of the others on the aire who had been there for several days already, they liked it and of course it was warm and sunny. Before we had tea we went for a walk along the beach. First impressions were of even more rubbish on the beach, but it was a bit cleaner in front of the few scruffy bars in the nearby small village. The sea looked clean and of course the familiar sound of waves rolling in was present, so socks off and in for a paddle.  

looks good from the aire

We couldn’t help but wonder why people came here to stay for long periods as it was so dirty and there was nothing to do but sit around? Mmmmmm we decided to give it a second chance tomorrow.

Sat 1^st Nov

It was warm overnight and we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise  as we woke up. Breakfast outside in the morning sun was a great way to bring in the month of November. Bikes out we set off to cycle along the coast. The first bit of road was good then we started weaving our way through a maze of polytunnels. The bigger more professional growers kept their areas very tidy and organized, the others were very messy with lots of junk and rubbish scattered haphazardly around their areas. There was yet more black plastic scraps by the road. Not good.  We saw a gaggle of vans in an area by the wreck of a house right on the beach so of course we went to have a look. There were about 16 vans wild camping in a very rough untidy area. Most were German with a few Dutch. We spoke to a Dutch couple that planned to stay for 4 weeks before moving further south. They said that in December this place would be full with up to 50 vans!  Why?  Absolutely just not for us, it had no appeal whatsoever. 

wild camping spot

beach very dirty

Tina was becoming very disillusioned with the area so we decided to move first thing the next day. We only decided not to move immediately as we wanted to stay and take part in the picnic lunch the aire owner was organizing for all the people staying.

Later we enjoyed empanada, tortilla and local wine with our fellow motorhomers. For desert we had what looked like lardy cake but topped with pork scratching!  Tasted rather nice. Then to finish a drink of muscadet. Very sociable. Due to drinking at lunchtime the rest of the late afternoon was spent relaxing. … zzzzzzzzzzzz

lunch!

As you can gather we did not warm to the area at all and for us it had no lasting appeal. We are in Spain to explore and this particular small area is not one we would choose to revisit.