Following the Sun Diary: Mon 24 Jan

I spoke too soon about finding the sun; it has been absolutely freezing over the weekend. We had to dig out our sleeping bags again to get into, as well as the duvet, it has been so cold. Even during the day it was cold forcing us to put on the fan heater, and you thought it was all fun and enjoyment here.

Yesterday we did force ourselves to get out for a walk, so we dully wrapped up warm and set off after lunch. There was a bitter wind blowing forcing us to maintain a very brisk pace to kept the blood pumping. We took the dirt roads through the fields to near the village of Turre then continued over the hills into Los Gallardos. This took us through a luxury housing estate on the outskirts of town, where these big houses are all occupied by ex-pat Brits. The area is very British with a number of local newspapers even published in English. When we got back to the campsite it was just in time, it began to rain and continued lashing down through the night.

Before this bad weather arrived we had an excellent sunny day out in the Sierra Cabrera Mountains. These mountains are behind Los Gallardos and Turre, running down to the coast at Mojacar. The pueblo of Mojacar is built on the top end of the ridge and overlooks the Mediterranean. We took the motorhome out to get to our starting point, the little village called Cortijo Grande and there was a nice sized car park where I could leave the ‘van safely. The village was basically a number of fancy houses built around a golf course situated in a valley between the hills. We could see some paths going up the hillside on the far side of the golf course but were unable to figure out how to get there. I asked some workmen, who were English; they told us that if we followed the road it went up to the town of Cabrera and there we should find some mountain paths.

Moira at Cabrera

 We headed up the road; it was about 3 kays of climbing sometimes steep, to get to Cabrera. There were some beautiful views of the mountains on the way with large house littered over the hillside, some on the tops of ridges and on rocky points like fairy castles. When we reached Cabrera there was a castle, but not the ancient variety a modern building that had a ‘for sale’ sign. It had crenulated battlements and turrets; I’m not sure who would want to buy it. From the village there was a view point from where we could see a path winding its way further up the mountain above Cabrera. We managed to pick up this footpath where we met a woman walking her dog. She spotted Moira’s badge for the ‘Camino de Santiago’, she had also done the pilgrimage so we got reminiscing about it. Before we parted she told us to follow the path we were on, and said that it wound its way up the mountain eventually coming in a circle to meet the road from the village.

Sierra Cabrera

The village of Cabrera

The route gave us wonderful views of the mountain tops and in the other direction the flat plain stretching to Los Gallardos, Turre and Garrucha. It took us an hour on a wide track before reaching the road coming up from the village. We stopped at the side of the road where we had our lunch; it was a beautiful day and pleasant sitting in the warm sunshine. I had a flask of coffee and sandwiches in the day pack; it was a welcomed break after some stiff climbing. After lunch the walk was now on a tar road all the way back to Cabrera, I got some great photographs of the mountain peaks of the Sierra Cabrera and the big houses on the tops of rocky outcrops. We thought at one point we were going the wrong way as the road continued to drop considerable, we didn’t realise the extent that we had climbed, but at last we came into Cabrera. From the village we followed the same road down to Cortijo Grande; it took another hour to get back to the ‘van. It had been a marvellous walk, so we are planning to come back again for another route before we leave the area, if the weather improves.

We have another week here before we are planning to move to pastures new. The weather forecast that we got from the web doesn’t look very promising, saying that it will continue cold for the rest of the week. We can always hope that it is wrong and there is a heat wave.