Different Worlds in Almeria

We’re here: N36.82637 W2.51641

The weather: sunny right up until the point I waddle into the Mediterranean, then cloudy.

Today’s been a day of contrasts. From mountain village to sprawling industry and from land to the underwater realm of the sea.

While we were parked overnight on the mountain road above Yegen, I woke up during the wee small hours to hear, well, nothing. I listened harder. Nothing, no birds, cars, rivers, people, music, sirens, nowt. Magical.

When we got up around 8:30, I opened the van door to be greeted by a fantastic vista. Obviously the same one we had last night, but this one sun drenched with mists sat in the valley below us. I grabbed my Uke and strangled out a few chords in a vain hope of artistic inspiration which never came.

Our view from the van. We love freecamping.

Our view from the van. We love freecamping.

A short while later the horn honking started. A van of some shape and size would arrive on the road behind us and go road-rage crazy on the horn for a few minutes before descending into the village continuing the honking. A little while later another van or lorry.

Mystery solved as we walked down to the church to come across a big pants stall, followed by various others. Market day. Cool. Next thing we know we’re €20 lighter and we have huge bags of sugared almonds, mixed dried nuts and churros (straight Spanish donuts) in tow. I’m reading a book recommended by our friend Chris called Flinch. It says we should be proud of our mistakes; we need more scars in life to show we have lead a full life. Those churros were a tiny little scar after we accidentally bought €5 worth instead of 5 pieces. We got a HUGE bag and are now pig sick of the stuff.

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We left the village and headed down progressively straighter and faster roads through the hills. As we rounded a corner looking down on the several-mile-wide plain between hills and the Med, my Brain went into go slow. Huh? The whole plain was flooded by the sea? Miles upon miles of it. Ah, wait, nope. It’s the plastic greenhouses we’ve heard of, only on a far more vast scale than we had imagined. They must be employing half of Morocco to tend these crops. Where the water comes from is a mystery as up in the Alpajurras, it’s a scarce and well managed commodity, with tiny channels carrying it whither and hither.

Arriving at our campsite, in a tiny cleft carved by a now dry river, we find the receptionist is a Scot! One in a bad mood it seems as he doesn’t let on he speaks English at first, even though Ju has asked him. He’s loudly and slowly speaking in Spanish to Ju as walk in, as though talking to a half wit. Needled, I wander past saying what a pleasant man he is, in English, then leave reception for poor old Ju to deal with him. He started speaking English soon afterwards and did indeed turn out to be a nice man, must have been having a bad day.

Once we’d parked up, Ju swapped the bedding as I whipped off the bent part of the air suspension in the hope it was the source of our clonk. I doubt it was but we’ll find out tomorrow.

As my half naked oil and dirt coveredness is under the van I hear a friendly Brit voice. Tony enquires as to the nature of our problem before regaling us with tales of his old Hymer blowing up in numerous different ways. We’re hoping Dave doesn’t get similar ideas and are glad for something a simple as a clonk to be ailing him.

It had also slowly dawned on me when we arrived that the sea about 50m from Dave was the Med. Hey, the Med’s warmer than the Atlantic! Out comes my snorkeling gear and in I go. The surface of the sea does an excellent job at hiding the fantastic miracle of adjacent worlds. As soon as my masked noggin enters the water, previously hidden fish, anemones and sea cucumbers are revealed. The initial shock of the cool water faded and I got a good fish-chasing session in before having to get into the roasting campsite showers for half an hour.

Ju’s been in touch with some family friends further up the coast and a date’s arranged for a catch up. Should be fantastic to hear about their life here and see their home and land. They may also be able to recommend a garage?

Happy days!

Jay

5 replies
  1. Bob & Val Thompson says:

    Hi, did you eat it all? and how much did it cost you, is spain cheap?, still enjoying your blogs, hope you sort your clunk, we got a squeek in the front of our Pilote, it drives me mad.

    Val

    Reply
    • Julie says:

      Hi Val. Yes, we certainly did, although Charlie got some chicken! It’s working out cheap for us as we are finding we can usually find somewhere to stay for free. Saves us between €16 and €25 a day. We tend to eat out or at last have a drink if we stay for free, so some money goes to the locals and it’s a win win. The clonk is getting worse and we think we have maybe 10,000 miles to go (we’re not sure) so it’s gotta be fixed. Cheers! Jay

      Reply
  2. fred chase says:

    hi j and j,
    have been reading your site with great intrest. really entertaining to say the least. you tell it as it is, negative on just the glam side of motorhoming. we are retired and live in south-west france and have just bought an adria with the plan to start “wandering” with our two cats. we were at garroffa in jan 2007 back in our caravanning days. remember the scottish guy, mally, and his dog and he tried the “donta speaka da ingliish” bit with us as well. as we had heard him, by way of the open office door, talking on the ‘phone we were wise to his silly game and gave it back to him by whistling “flower of scotland” at him. made it our reason d’etre to get on his good side which worked until….england trashed scotland in the six nations…..when he had a serious sense of humour by-pass. remember the ex-pat crew at garoffa and a huge german who had a huge wife, huge white van conversion ad dranj huge vodka and cokes. happy days with a brilliant chinese up the road in aquadulce and bacon and bangers on sale just down the road in roquetas del mar.

    Reply

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