I’m off on a mountain bike trip around the Cabo de Gata, a Natural Park in Spain’s Almeria province. The park is unique within Europe, being comprised of an arid, volcanic landscape, sea-cliffs, volcanic sierra’s and a coastal plain of extensive dunes, stony plateau, small lagoons and salt-pans.
Sometimes things do get decidedly rough. Fortunately this didn’t block our path, but was a little comedic nonetheless. Once past this the track really did get beyond a bicycle, and ignoring the waymarkers along what appeared to be good track we came to a point where the cliff had fallen and it was necessary to indulge in some proper portage…. Read more »
Pouring over the maps last night, it appeared that the track between Los Escallos (where we are camped) and San Jose would be fairly straightforward. We had walked the first couple of kms our first evening here. However it quickly deteriorated into some interesting rough stuff. Walking has been necessary, and even a little portage on some scrabbly slopes. But… Read more »
Pictured is the cove that we came down to once we reached the coast. We paused here, perched on a rock to eat the remainder of our picnic, watching the waves laping on the shore. Very pleasant indeed. On our return to the campsite we decided to stop in at the restaurant/bar for happy hour, and ended up staying for… Read more »
The view inland from the top of the rim (notice all the plastic greenhouses in the valley). It was quite a climb, having to pick our way through the vegetation and clambouring over rocks. After a little picnic lunch on the top, we went acroos another couple of linked hills looked at some abandoned houses perched on top, then walked… Read more »
Starting the walk along a dry river bed that takes us into to caldera. I’m expecting Clint Eastwood to appear any minute.
Here is today’s quest, the volcano of Rellana de Majada Redonda. Expecting about 10 miles and 450 metres of climb. Just need to figure out how to get from the caldera to the rim, as there appear to be no marked paths.
After several hours driving on the autovia, we are now in the most south-easterly corner of Spain, on a campsite amidst the nature park of the Cabo de Gata. It looks like this region used to be quite volcanic – and that means there are some hills to be explored! Tomorrow looks like it could be good for an assault… Read more »
If you want to know where your tomatoes come from, this is probably it. We are now in the Cabo de Gata park, but on the drive into Andalucia we started to pass the greenhouses they use in these parts to give them year round growing. Miles upon miles of plastic – not proper greenhouses, it looks more like a… Read more »
