Day 50 – to Canillas de Albaida

Last night at Frigliana I had been on the edge of the Sierras of Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama Natural Park, and today I ventured into it. It’s mountains break up the horizon with a spectacular succession of peaks reaching more than 1,500 metres, and then a vertical drop that disappears many metres beneath the waters of the Mediterranean. Surrounding them are ravines, crags, ridges and steep slopes, but that hasn’t stopped the network of roads and tracks that link the lavish villas and fincas which have been built in incredible places. There has been quite a large destruction of the native shrubs and trees here though, for mining in the 19th century, and more recently for them to be replaced for grape and olive growing. Only in the last ten years has this been addressed, so there are quite a lot of the young Spanish pine trees.

The development to the area, only half an hour from the coast in most cases, had initially put me off, but there is no doubt, that for those who appreciate a warm and dry climate, this is a magnificent place to live. I prefer the changes our seasons bring though, but really enjoyed my time here.

We took a couple of hours wandering amongst the olive trees, but I intended this to be an easier day. It had been the start of the T20 Cricket World Cup yesterday, and I wanted to catch the 4 pm game, India versus Pakistan.

Above the village of Canillas de Albaida there is a new park-up for campervans and motorhomes. It is run by the community to fund their small sports field, which is new also. If there’s a tournament or match up there, the place is used for parking, otherwise it’s open for visitors, who are asked to pay 5 euros. For that there is water, and the toilets and club showers in the small pavilion. It works really well. I saw it work well in Tomintoul also, where the Bowling Club had a similar arrangement.