Bikes, booze and bohemians

We finally left Almerimar on Monday, with slightly heavy hearts, but good memories to treasure.  Having eventually spent just over a week there, it was our longest stopover by far.  We’d have been happy to stay for longer, but had decided we needed to move on soon before the restlessness kicked in.  We were also on a mission (well, Pete was...).  After he discovered that his bike is starting to fall apart, he worked out that it would make far more sense to replace the bike than upgrade his exisiting bike and during his internet search, had seen a bargain in a shop in Malaga.  Conscious that it wouldn’t stick around forever and having already spent extensive hours looking for THE perfect bike, he convinced me that it was enough of a bargain to warrant an excessively long drive to go and get it.  Although to be honest, even if I’d objected, I couldn’t have done much anyway as I’m not the driver!

We said our goodbyes to Jo and Mark, and to Izzie and Callum (our neighbours in Almeria); Emma and Paul having already bid their farewells to us and Almeria the day before, and we were on our way.  We had taken down the details of another couple of bike shops along the way to save us having to drive all the way to Malaga, but only managed to actually find one of them.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the bike in question so our Malaga mission ensued.  We stopped for lunch and a Powell leg stretch at Salobreña by the beach.  They clearly didn’t want motorhomes there as there was a high concentration of the usual no autocaravana signs everywhere (possibly put there following a request from the local campsite across the road...), but there were also couple of well established motorhomes there when we arrived and we were only stopping for an hour.

We arrived at Malaga just after 4pm and after locating the bike shop, were lucky to find a car park just around the corner which was big enough for Dora.  After giving Powell another leg stretch, we made our way to the shop.  Two hours and TWO bikes later, we were lighter in pocket but happy about it.  Pete convinced me that after 7 years, my bike probably needed to be replaced too...

Having failed to find a campsite in Malaga (we were relying on our sat nav as we didn’t have internet access and our camperstop books weren’t a lot of use), we headed north to a free overnight stop in Archidona, at 720 metres, it was comparatively bloody freezing as we’d spent the last week in average temperatures of 16-18 degrees.  It also turned out to be right next to the local leisure centre and we arrived, we assume, just as an exercise class was starting...to say the music was loud, would be an understatement; we had our own little party while I made supper!  Thankfully they closed at 11pm and we snuggled up on the ‘downstairs’ bed in order to save gas and keep the puppy warm.  Those of you who don’t know us will not understand just what a big wuss of a dog our boy is.  In his defence, he is actually from Andalucia originally so he’s used to much warmer weather than we’re used to.  You’d think he’d have acclimatized by now, having spent over a year in northern Germany, but he hasn’t.

Sleeping downstairs!

All was quiet (ish) bar the occasional car driving past, until just after midnight, at which point the local dogs started their choir practice and continued rehearsals until the early hours.  Feeling slightly worse for wear the next day after an interrupted nights’ sleep, despite the 48 hour maximum allowable stay, we decided to move on in the morning and head further north to try and find some mountain biking routes to test out our early Christmas presents.

We checked our camperstop books and opted for Doña Mencia in the Sierra Subbeticas.  Being a range of large hills and small mountains, we figured we might get lucky and find somewhere to road test the bikes – and we were right.  The official (and free) stopover turned out to be right on the Via Verde de la Sierra Subbeticas.  After a quick bite to eat, we offloaded the bikes and wrapped up now that the temperature was in singles figures.  We unfortunately couldn’t do the whole route as it is over 100km and just a little too long for Powell.  It was also pretty late in the day by the time we were ready to go, so we only managed a 10km stretch of the route before turning around and heading back (they don’t have circular routes unfortunately); any more than that and we’d have had puppy tantrums I think.  Nevertheless, it gave us a chance to get our wheels dirty and bed in the brakes before going down any proper hills; that and the views, made it more than worthwhile.  It also more than made up for Powell’s bored day in the van on Monday.

Smiley on the via verde

Beautiful views

Snoozing after his almost half marathon

We had intended to stay overnight at the spot, but although it’s really handy for the via verde, it’s also pretty noisy as it’s right next to one of the national road routes (imagine sleeping next to a major a road in the UK and you’ll not be far off).  I also had a feeling that I wouldn’t settle if we stayed, so I consulted our bible and we headed to Priego de Cordoba to another official and free aire.  We’re both glad we did as it was much quieter than the previous location, being unusually situated at the back of a municipal park and right next to the local fire brigade.  We’re pretty sure that the firemen on night shift were must have been bored as they were playing really dodgy music over the tannoy system, which could be heard through the whole park.  I don’t think they realised there was anyone parked up as Pete took Powell for his last walk and once they’d clocked him, the music went off pretty quickly and thankfully stayed that way!  In daylight the aire itself wasn’t the prettiest place, but I’ve certainly seen worse backdrops, but being the itchy footed people we are, we moved on again the next day (Wednesday) after making the most of the free servicing facilities.

The aire at Priego de Cordoba

We are now in Orgiva in the Alpujarras and arrived here yesterday.  It had been on my radar since leaving Almerimar so we figured we might be missing a trick if we didn’t go and see it.  Anyone who’s tracking our progress will see that we’ve basically ended up doing a big loop, it’s not the first (although it is the biggest so far) and it probably won’t be the last.  We’ve succumbed to staying in a campsite (which I’m secretly enjoying, despite the comparatively high price) as we had a lot of stuff to sort out.  The journey here was broken up by a failed trip to MacDonald’s followed by a successful visit to Lidl.  Pete decided we’d not had a Macdonald’s since we left Germany and though it would be a great idea to try and get there at 1410 on a Wednesday in Granada; needless to say, our mission failed due to the ridiculously high volume of traffic and the fact the you can’t get Dora through a drive through...but we consoled ourselves with a visit to Lidl instead.  On our arrival here, we spent the first few hours emptying Dora and giving her a good spruce up, before catching up on our laundry, basically all the fun bits of motorhoming.  Oh, and we put up the Christmas decorations too...

Feeling festive

Our spot at Orgiva

After not meeting anyone for ages then meeting a few people in Almerimar, we met another couple here who invited us round for drinks last night.  We left Chrissie and Angus’s Hymer at 0130 this morning; having completely lost track of time; sure sign of a good night.  We were all a bit delicate this morning but as we didn’t absolutely hammer it, we did see the light of day.  We had a morning of more admin, before taking a ride into town this afternoon to see what was around.  I’m not sure what I expected, but I was highly disappointed.  I have to say, the town of Orgiva was quite a letdown and we didn’t stick around for long before deciding to ride out into the countryside instead.  Sorry Orgiva, I’m sure you’re lovely in your own way, but you just didn’t float our boats.  My lasting memory will be that of an old guy puking in a bush in the middle of the afternoon (I have never heard a sound quite like it before and there was nothing obscuring the view) and people sleeping on the street after having indulged in one too many beers / joints / both.  Maybe I’m just not bohemian or stoned enough to appreciate what Orgiva town has to offer...although it’s perfectly clear why people visit the area as the scenery is stunning, so we’ll continue to appreciate that and be sure to avoid Orgiva unless we need any supplies.

Tomorrow we’re making a day of it and thinking maybe we’ll ride out to Lanjaron, a lovely little place that we drove through on the way here; it’s only around 10km away, but it’s uphill all the way...