Cabo de Gata
A short road trip around the Cabo de Gata region of Southern Spain. Flight to Almeria - not so cheap these days, and a stay in a four star hotel on the outskirts of Almeria - which was cheap. Picked up the hire car in pristine condition from the airport, and dodged through the risky Almerian traffic to get to the hotel. Then a ’short walk’ - which expanded into a 40 min walk from the hotel down to the town centre. The town had nice bits (very small bits), and some rather unsanitary bits - like the park which had a human crapping region, next some very beautiful flowers. Perhaps the hobos thought the flowers would mask the smell. The town centre was fairly unappealing in general, though it had some life around the restaurant/bar district, and down by the port where we witnessed an entertaining street argument between two Arabic gentlemen - at one point coming into the cafe where we were sat.
It was our first taste of the Spanish heat, and the heat generally throughout the trip was well hot 35+. It was necessary to dodge between shade patches, and when not available we wilted, then eventually lost the will to live. Walking into Almeria we dodged from side to side of the roads looking for the coolest part.
The second day we headed out into the desert in the trusty Ford Fiesta with large 6L water bottle and two baguettes in the boot for emergencies. We aimed to go to Tabernas first, inland in the heart of the desert, but our map was appallingly bad, and we headed off to the East when we should have gone west. After a while we realised this, and stopped at a petrol station to get a decent map. We were now 30 miles to the East of where we should have been so looked for an alternative route. Susan saw a little windy road heading up from Nijar through the mountains across to the Tabernas road. Nijar was a beautiful little inland village, with very narrow streets, that had me cursing each time we met a car. Avoiding heading up the cul de sac to Huebro, we went up into the mountains. The road was quiet and the scenery amazing in its arid desert qualities. This part of Spain has the only desert on the Europe continent, and while nowhere near as dry as African deserts, it can reach 50+ degrees and would be quite a place to get stranded. The road wound round bend after bend going up, with drops to the side that kept me looking at the road and Susan taking the odd picture. A couple of stops on the road were possible, by a solar panel farm miles from anywhere and a few other desolate places. Lucainena de las Torres looked a nice desert village but we were unable to stop as we were being harassed by a Spanish man weaving across the road on a relic scooter. On to Tabernas, we pulled off at Texas Hollywood, a film location for Spaghetti Westerns such as the Good, the Bad and the Ugly and many more right through to recent Westerns. The track to the set was rough and this and the line of battered ancient cars fringing the car park put us in a receptive mood. We wandered through the village - split into three themes - my preference being for the Mexican village, though most of the action was in the American part. A ’spectacular’ shootout took place - with four cowboys staging a gunfight in the street. It was funny, it was hammy, and it was entertaining. Cowboys galloped into town on horses, with carts pulling coffins, and falling out of windows from the second story headfirst onto bales of hay when they were shot. A small child cried nearby thinking the men were really shooting each other, and in the end the fattest, most ‘baddy’ like character triumphed.
After several hours we headed to the coastal village of Mojacar where we were stay for 3 nights. Again another rough track to drive up, but the villa was beautiful and had a small but good pool which we headed straight for after a long day in the desert. The villa was about two miles from the town, so we headed in for supplies for the next few days.
On day three, we drove down the coast through the somewhat overdeveloped Mojacar beach resort, round some brill cliff roads with amazing views over the coast. The coast was blighted however by ‘illegal’ hotels which had been built in the national park where there should have been none. Not only were they illegal but they were huge and hideous - the worst being near Carboneras on the edge of the park, like a huge half finished white ziggurat clinging to the cliff, extending up many floors.
Carboneras was notable for its giant cement factory and working vessels in the port. It was excluded from the national park area.
Our last stop was Agua Amarga, which was one of the nicest resorts we found, but was incredibly hot when we were there, so the beach was out of the question. We hid in a small central cafe were most of the town life was hanging out. We then did a loop inland, heading towards the mountains near La Cueva del Pajaro, which was a pretty nice area.
Day four we stayed local, and went up into Mojacar hilltop village. Mojacar is split into the beach resort which was overdeveloped and tacky (though not to UK standards), and the hill village. This was very cool with a nice breeze and we found a restaurant for a long meal with brilliant views over the inland area stretching to the Sierra de Badar mountains.
Our last day, we drove via the main road and some smaller roads to Las Negras, then looking for somewhere to eat, round to the Cabo de Gata region, via Rodalquilar and Los Escullos on the coast. Los Escullos was very barren but beautiful with huge potholes on the track to the beach. We took some shots, then realised there were some nudists - which I didn’t see in Spain before.
Along Cabo de Gata we looked for a place to eat - found a very Spanish fish restaurant for families where I had some pork chops (the only p
erson in the restaurant) and chips and embarrassed myself trying to order a beer with my 10 word Spanish vocabulary. The Cabo de Gata coastal area is a wildlife sanctuary and has beautiful birds resting on the salt flats including flamingos. The beach is very long and can cope with many hundreds of visitors from the Almeria region without being overloaded. The water was crystal clear around our feet, and the desire to spend more time swimming was very strong.
We drove to the end of the peninsular to a light house with a view over some jagged cliffs with small outboard boats and swimmers playing around the rocks. The road round the cliffs was single track with severe bends and precipices, which was kind of interesting. Time was pressing now for the flight and we stopped briefly for a dip Retamar, not a particularly good resort near Almeria, but it was worth it for a last swim. The car was well filthy now, covered in desert dust … and I wait to see if we will be charged ‘extra cleaning’ by the rental company.
