Murcia and Valencia, Part 2

3rd-16th January, 2000

After a most enjoyable but very chilly trip back to England, we were looking forward to getting back to the sun and relative warmth.   Various of our friends and relatives were quite ill with colds and 'flu but, on our healthy diet, copious sunshine and vast amounts of Vitamin C, we were totally confident of escaping any illness.    We had a pleasant and uneventful flight from Luton and woke up on the 4th feeling great - apart from a slight cough.  By the end of the day, however, we were zapped by the 'flu and spent the next fortnight trying to stay warm and doing as little as possible.   By pure bad luck, we had chosen to over-winter during the coldest winter in living memory on the Costa Blanca.  We are reliably assured that usually at this time of year for most of the day shorts are in order and barbecued meals are the norm.

We, however, have had hard frost first thing on the car on several days.   If our butane gas is below quarter full it will not vaporise and David has the unenviable task of going out in the cold to change to the full bottle before we can fry our eggs and bacon.   A further consequence of the extreme cold is condensation in the caravan which gets into all the cupboards overnight and necessitates us airing it during the day.   The weather increases the costs considerably in extra heating gas and in the extra electricity which we have to pay for beyond the three units a day included in the price.  

For some reason, we seem to have omitted our map from the last few journal entries, so David has got busy with his paintbrush and, for anyone who doesn't know where Benidorm is, it is near the south-east corner of Spain, at the end of the white line.   We had previously followed the coast from Tarifa, at the southern-most tip, stopping at Torre del Mar and Murcia.   Because the motorway goes inland from Almeria to Alicante, we had missed a considerable section of the Mediterranean coast and we now plan to rectify this.

17th January, 2000

Fit or not, we decided we had to get out and back on with the programme of touring and set off to see some of the by-ways just inland from Benidorm.    We stopped briefly at Polop, shown below left, before going on to Guadalest, shown below centre and right, where the principal interest is an old Moorish castle perched high on the rocks.   Its position ensured that it never fell to military action but one is bound to wonder why anyone would have felt it necessary to take it as a very small force would be able to keep its occupants bottled up and out of any trouble.   

Little remains of the castle and Guadalest is most famous for the white belfry which is shown below left, with the snow covered Sierra d'Aitana behind it.  It however is surprising in that within its fortifications, invisible from outside, is a small community with many buildings - all dedicated to tourism of course.

As we travelled on to Alcoy, we could see that all around the area jagged peaks are fortified, as shown above centre, but most are also just ruins.     Alcoy itself, shown above right, was once a fortified town and its approach from Guadalest is via a somewhat dodgy bridge that spans a ravine, from the video was taken.   The iron railings that form the parapet are corroded and loose and peering over at the 100 ft drop was unnerving.   The bridge sections shake as each car goes over them and we were pleased to have got across safely.

We set off back along the scenic route, but at Torre de les Maçanes we ignored a crude yellow road-side sign with various words which we did not understand - including 'cerrado'.   Unconcerned we drove over the Sierra de la Grana, through Teix towards Relleu along a very twisty, and in places narrow, road.   After about twenty kilometres, the road quality dramatically improved and had clearly only just been widened and resurfaced.  

We were surprised, therefore, to find that, just outside Relleu, the road degenerated to little more than a track and eventually was closed by a barrier across it.  Undeterred, we weaved through the barrier along a rough winding section, round a sharp and narrow bend where we found the road really was 'cerrado'.    As it was a very long way back, we felt sure we could figure a way round but, as the picture on the left shows, they had pulled down half a mountain on to the road and not even a 4x4 was going to get through.   Reluctantly, we backed up and returned to Torre and thence via Alicante back to Benidorm.

18th January, 2000

We headed north along the coast road stopping first to look at new developments at Altea Dorada.   The smart new marina is shown below left, just along from which new flats are being built.   We investigated and found a three-bedroomed flat would set you back about £80,000.   We moved on to Calpe, which features a huge rock jutting out into the sea, shown below right.   We found a quiet piece of promenade where we ate our lunch.   The remote control on the video and a handy sea wall allowing us to take the picture below centre.

We left the main coast road and took to the narrow twisting road that runs along the headland, stopping at Moraira briefly.   Here we looked at the relatively modern castle that stands close to the sea and is shown below left.   We are not sure from when these date, but numerous almost identical ones are to be found all along the coast.

We continued, trying to stay as close to the sea as possible, which took us up and over the headland on a narrow and winding road.   From sea level we could see a row of circular towers which turned out to be the remains of windmills at the summit.    We dropped down into Jávea, which is shown above right and, from our vantage point, appeared to be a most pleasant resort.   We continued to Dénia and stopped briefly at the port with thoughts of escaping to Ibiza and a warm hotel room.   We went into the ferry terminal, but were a bit disappointed at the prices and the apparent lack of any 'special deals'.   By now the old 'post viral fatigue' was getting to us and we headed out to the motorway for a quick return to camp and, after a good night's sleep, had a quiet day in camp tidying up.

20th January, 2000

Despite a somewhat overcast day, we decided to set off south down the coast road to see the bits we had missed on our way up on the motorway.   We had an abortive attempt to get to the coast at Cap de Santa Pola, just south of Alicante, but found that the road only went as far as the lighthouse and there was no way to get to the coast road at sea level.   After the event, we could see from our map that the roads do not join.   We followed the main road down to La Mata, shown below left, where we had lunch.   As can be seen, the sea was agitated and the sky stormy.

We followed the coast road to Torrevieja and onwards towards the inland sea at Mar Menor, stopping again at Los Nietos, shown on the map above right and in the picture below left.  Despite being a sheltered inland sea, it was remarkably choppy.  

We went as far as La Manga, shown left, of which we had heard so much.  The poor weather, however, did not add to its charms and it had a decidedly 'out of season' appearance.

One of the places we had wanted to look in on was Cartagena, which we understand was Hannibal's capital city in Spain.

Our route took us through the mining area around La Union, which is littered with spoil heaps and disused mine winders, shown centre, right.  The port at Cartagena is shown far right.

The old part of Cartagena is surrounded by impressive walls, protecting a huge arsenal dating back to the middle of the eighteenth century, but we saw nothing of its earlier history.   A little disappointed, we decided to leave the heavily industrialised area and set off across the Sierra de la Muela to the more pleasant tourist area.  We stopped at Isla Plana and looked in vain for a hotel for the night, as we were well short of our objective of Almeria.   Once again, out of season this part of the coast seemed like a ghost town.   Eventually, we found a good hotel with a modest room rate at Puerto de Mazarrón.

Last updated:  18/03/01