FRANCE, SPAIN - Part 2

FRANCE, SPAIN – Part 2 December 26, 2011

The campground we’re in near San Jose, Spain on the edge of the Mediterranean organizes various evenings of meals, events and games to encourage people to get together (and spend money of course). One had a packed house for the flamenco evening with Spanish singing, guitar and stomping spinning dancers. Booze flowed for many. They were kind enough to make vegetarian dishes for the two of us. On other nights, bingo…yes, bingo…is offered. And yes…Dawn goes. She even won a bright lime green ball cap with a bright red logo of the campground on it. What has she come to?

Temperatures are cooler than normal right now but still 18C and sunny, usually with winds (we’re on a cape in the Mediterranean). It gets up to 45C in summer which is why the houses are painted white to reflect the heat. Perfect for the numerous yucca plants in the area. The dry, the driest place in Europe, hot weather is one of the main reasons for all the greenhouses in the region. These greenhouses cover the largest surface area in the world for the cultivation of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Most of the workers are from North Africa.

We’ve mentioned the winds can be brisk here because we are at the tip of a peninsula. At one time many windmills just like the ones seen in Holland dot the landscape. Now most are gone or are skeletons of their former glory.

There are some ten nationalities in this campground which makes for lots of great spontaneous international conversations and, at times, lots of hand signals. Makes the place look like a mime convention. Our Dutch neighbours, Frans & Willimien, and their dog Smile, are awesome; lots of laughs with them. They are helping to educate us with differing culture…they gave us a download of hundreds of comic books of Asterix. Some day when we’re in an old-folks home they will come in handy. And there was the music exchange (about 3000 songs each way). Six of us in our row of campers (2 Dutch, 2 Belgians, 2 Canadians) got together for drinks at 5 pm in the driving lane of our row one day; we were asked to shut it down at 10 pm by a neighbour cause we were too loud…spoilsport! Maybe we should have invited them. Great cycling in the area with hilly, sometimes very steep roads up to 15% grade, little traffic and very considerate drivers. Dawn is trying to ride again but it hurts the shoulder she injured in Paris at the end of July and has no legs from lack of exercise since then. But she’s plugging away.

There’s a small town within 6 km called San Jose (pronounced “San HHHozay!!) with little shops, restaurants and a place to get English papers. Cabo de Gata is at the very southern tip of the peninsula and has a great view of the sea. A long sandy beach leads to a very steep road ending at a lighthouse…it’s on my list of roads to cycle. Lots of sea kayaking in the area; many kayakers are in the campground on weekends. We went to the sea-side town of Almeria about 45 minutes west of here to have bikes fixed (Dawn’s with problem disc brakes; Dan’s with a partially broken shifter cable). Almeria is very clean but has busy streets with bad and impatient drivers.

Some of the terrain just north of here is like the Badlands in North America only badder. You could film westerns here, and some have been. Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood have done movies such as The Magnificent Seven. Even parts of Cleopatra were filmed here. As a result of the productions leaving the western towns complete with saloons, train stations and jails behind, sharp entrepreneurs snapped them up and turned them into amusement parks. Some of the Spanish cowboys do shoot-em-up shows before lunch and run behind the stages to serve food to the hungry guests. Signage tells you where you are…sort of. The best is “Reserva India”…guess they forgot the last “n”. And below that is the sign for the aquarium; didn’t realize that was part of the cowboy image!

Just a few kilometers east of the cowboy amusement parks the terrain gets higher but less rugged. Thousands of acres are covered in olive groves. This leads to an area to the south with high rugged hills on a one-and-a-half lane road covering 25 kilometers (15 miles) using hundreds of wild switchbacks…perfect for a Tour de France mountain stage…with views all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. Absolutely stunning!! We lengthened the experience by having a lazy, wine-filled picnic along the way. Partway down is one of the largest solar panel installations we’ve seen. At the beginning of this magical road we came to a small village. Standing on the sidewalk were two people. As we approached in our van we waved. The old woman, confused as to what to do, slightly raised her hand, then decided against it, then raised it again before snapping it back realizing she did not know who these two strangers were!! Too dangerous, she felt.

As in most of Europe many towns have a weekly market selling all types of foods and clothing. They are always colourful, inexpensive and fun. Unique things are often found but rarely as unique as this honey labeled “Honey for Diabetics”…they are clever these Spanish bees!

Spain, being a very strong Christian country, observes Christmas religiously. Santa, better looking than ever, comes even to our campground. The Spanish are known for being very loud when talking and constantly try to talk “over each other”. Two men in the campground bathrooms got increasingly loud as they did just that and tried to talk “over the other noise”, the echo caused by the large echo-chamber of the bathroom. They couldn’t see it. HAPPY NEW YEAR to everybody!!