Southern Spain

TRAVEL DIARY

The story is the continuation of the Portugal entry

Tuesday 09.08.88 Departure from Lagos. We drive along the Algarve coastal road, a little anonymous. At customs, at Vila Real, we queue for 2 hours and board a ferry for Spain. The Guadiana river is crossed on barges: they hold 15-20 cars and 2 or 3 campers each time. Ferry toll 600 Esc. At 1 pm we are in Spain at Ayamonte. It feels like being back in the civilised world, a leap of 50 years. We change escudos into pesetas, all spent on shopping at last in a supermarket before Huelva. We arrive in Seville at night; with great difficulty we find the municipal campsite, near the airport.

Wednesday 10.08.88

A day at the campsite in Seville. We take an air-conditioned bus that leaves from Carmona and goes to the centre of Seville. During the day it's 37 °C; the day before our arrival it was 45 °C, we were lucky. We finally buy the camera with film (no longer disposable); we visit the historic centre of Seville on foot, though unfortunately the Cathedral is closed during the day. We visit the Plaza de Espana and the gardens of Maria Luisa. The statue we wanted to see was under restoration, all wrapped up. We couldn't find the lace shops my parents had seen years earlier. Return to the campsite by bus. At the campsite beside us we have a bus belonging to some English people converted into a camper, and their preparations for dinner and breakfast are quite a show, made in military pots with the strangest ingredients.

Thursday 11.08.88

Departure from Seville; we cross the region where cattle and bulls are raised, then the salt-pan region. Visit to Vejer de la Frontera, where we have lunch. We buy some liqueurs. Where the road came close to the sea we took a detour to see what the beach was like: fabulous, the sea is green like the Greek one, the beach is made of sand dunes. We moved a few kilometres towards Tarifa, to a first-category campsite set among the pines. At the campsite there are lots of windsurfers; the swimming area in the sea is fenced off to protect bathers from the surfers.

Friday 12.08.88

A day at the Tarifa campsite. In the morning there are hares on the beach. My parents go to Tarifa by bicycle; they did 12 km of ups and downs. In the afternoon I go for a bike ride with my father towards the dunes we had seen the day before. The African coast is right there in front.

Saturday 13.08.88

Departure from Tarifa and arrival at San Luis de Sabinillas; we have thus left the Atlantic. We wanted to stop at Tarifa but then diverted because of the traffic and the difficulty of stopping. We couldn't stop at Algeciras either: the campsites are full. From Algeciras we wanted to visit Gibraltar but, because of logistical difficulties, we didn't manage it (see the Gibraltar entry); we have arrived in the Mediterranean. We find a campsite near the sea and relax between the beach and dips in the warm, clean water. In the evening I walk with my father to the Castle of the Duchess.

Sunday 14.08.88

In the morning there is fog on the beach and it is dangerous to go far from the shore at sea. By bicycle with my father I return to Puerto de la Duquesa and discover that the town is in fiesta; everyone is dressed in the local flamenco folk costumes. We return to the campsite to alert my mother and my sister and go back to the town.

Monday 15.08.88

We got up early to go to Estepona by bus; we did about 1 km and waited about an hour but the bus didn't come; probably on the 15th of August the service wasn't running. My mother and sister went back to the camper, my father and I went to Puerto de la Duquesa to buy a roll of film for the camera. A swim in the sea at the campsite.

Tuesday 16.08.88

Departure from the Sabinillas campsite early in the morning; we decided to go to Madrid. We pass the seafront of Estepona and Marbella, then Malaga, and then head inland towards Loja and Granada; heavy traffic to reach the Alhambra, with very long queues to visit it. We give up the visit, already done in previous years. Back in Granada we try to park to go and buy some lace, but we can't manage it. On the way out of Granada we fill up with diesel and discover an artificial lake. We cross La Mancha with the thermometer at 40 °C; we pass Jaen, Bailen, Ocana, and at Getafe near Madrid we look for the campsite marked on the map. Nobody can point it out to us. Then at last a boy from a shed tells us to go beyond the Cerro de los Angeles, and indeed there was the sign on the motorway.

Wednesday 17.08.88

Madrid by taxi: a visit to the calle de Toledo, Cibeles and the Retiro park. A classical Ramirez guitar bought for Sarah. Return to the noisy campsite, full of Madrilenians on holiday. My sister ends up playing the new guitar in the bathroom, where the temperature is a little lower; the heat is really unbearable.

Thursday 18.08.88

Departure from Madrid at 5.30 in the morning to make the most of a little freshness. Soon we reach Cuenca and give a lift to an elderly man who was hitchhiking; we headed for the enchanted city. Beautiful! We went up the green valley of the river Yunca, to the Ventana del Diablo, made up of arches in a rock over a river gorge. Having climbed to the enchanted city we walked the whole main path and took quite a few photos. After lunch we went down to Cuenca and parked near the river under big trees. We decide not to visit Las Torcas. We set off for Valencia. We have to tackle 2 passes at 1600 m and 1200 m, but since Cuenca is already at 1000 m they turned out to be negligible. The road among the pines up to Motilla is beautiful. The motorways from Madrid are toll-free. After the Contreras pass we make a short stop on the shore of an artificial alpine lake.

After Valencia there's the motorway up to Peniscola. Then we take the coastal road and stop at Vinaroz, in a campsite near the sea.

Friday 19.08.88

A day at the Vinaroz campsite. A swim at the beach; the sea is warm and clean.

Saturday 20.08.88

Departure from Vinaroz for the Costa Brava. Campsite at Tossa, near the town. In the afternoon we had a look around Tossa: the Castle, the centre with its narrow streets full of little shops. After dinner we went back to Tossa again.

Sunday 21.08.88

A day at Tossa. Unfortunately, though, it rains, so we go shopping. We set off for Playa de Aro. At Playa de Aro we swam in the sea: the water is beautiful.

Monday 22.08.88

We walked into town, about 2 km, to do some shopping, and then more beach life.

Tuesday 23.08.88

Departure from Playa de Aro at 9 o'clock, it's raining again. At customs they didn't even ask us for our documents. We take the motorway all the way to Orange. A short stop on the motorway for lunch. After Orange: Nyon, Gap. Dinner on Lake Serre-Poncon. We drive up the sandy Durance valley as far as Briancon; here, in a square in the town with many other campers, we stop to sleep.

Wednesday 24.08.88

Departure from Briancon, Montgenevre; at Cesana we load the camper's tanks and the jerrycans with mountain water. We didn't even see the customs. At Turin we took the motorway, we drop in to visit the grandmothers in Piedmont, and we arrive in Milan in the evening.

KILOMETRES COVERED DURING THE TRIP: 6 250 Km TOTAL DAYS OF TRAVEL: 27