May 20th: Bol Nuevo

Boll Nuevo is a small seaside town near Mazarron, after which the tarmac road is replaced by a dirt road that continues along the coast. Bol Nuevo itself has a fine sandy beach and a campsite right on the beach. The pitches are, however, small and contain an obstacle course of trees.

The track follows round some picturesque bays, see photo, where the red rocks look particularly striking. With so many little inlets and coves along this coastline, it offers good cover for illegal immigration. The local press often reports the police or customs picking up their usually much overloaded boats, which must have travelled over 100 miles from the North African coast. There are, however, quite a number of North Africans, mainly Moroccans, legitimately working in Spain, in the tomato greenhouses, for example.

Other furtive characters can more frequently be spotted in these little bays: the nudists. They are allowed to use a designated strip of coast (get it – “strip” !!) along from Bol Nuevo, and are all males, sometimes to be seen striking a pose in a high visibility position. The walking group tends not to stop for lunch breaks at these locations as it puts you off your sausage sandwiches.

May 15th: A Surreal Experience!

The photo above is of a dead palm tree and a small thriving one, taken on one of our walks. Nothing much out of the ordinary. Now using the same photo and applying a photo-shop programme, you get:

May 12th: The Mines Part 2

Going on an organised walk this time, we saw some more obscure areas in these long-established mines. The photo below shows an original Roman mine-working and, although not visible on the picture, a close examination revealed the chisel marks made by those ancient miners. Working conditions must have been abysmal, but then that description would apply to mining of any era.

This could almost be one of those soda lakes in Africa. As it is, it’s an evil chemical residue left from the mining operations. Anyone who falls in instantly dissolves.

May 9th The Hill in the Back Yard

This is the hill directly behind the campsite. It doesn’t look much as hills go, but it’s become the campsite initiation test and you can expect to be frequently challenged with, “Have you been up the hill yet”. We hadn’t, so decided it was time to join the club.

Well, let me tell you, it’s steeper than it looks, and it took one hour and ten minutes of puffing and panting. That’s the view of the campsite from the top, and the bay beyond. The white surfaces that look like concrete are in fact plastic tomato greenhouses and are visible over large areas from any elevated point in this part of Spain. We don’t know what happens to the produce because we haven’t seen any plastic tomatoes on sale locally.

This photo is also from the top of the hill and is looking down on the nearest village, Isla Plana. The island you can see is the “Isla” part of the name. It contains a good variety of shops including a quirky department store cum Aladdin’s Cave called Pepelino’s. Here you can buy anything from a tube of beads to a large anchor.
At the top we noticed many swallowtail butterflies. The picture shows the only one that stayed still long enough to get snapped.

May 2nd: Caballos del Vino, Caravaca

Moroccan Arabs and Berbers, known as the Moors, invaded Spain in 711 and over the next few hundred years conquered almost the entire country. They were, by and large, sophisticated and tolerant rulers. However, they were Muslim and this was the age of the crusades so there were constant campaigns against them, and they were gradually driven out by the Christians. The last Moorish kingdom, Granada, fell in 1492.

In these latter days, Caravaca was on the border of the kingdom of Granada, so was subject to frequent changes of occupation by Moors or Christian depending on the fortunes of war. On one particular occasion, under siege by the Moors, the town had nearly run out of water. Calling for volunteers to run the enemy lines and seek water from the countryside, numerous horsemen came forth. As they had received the blessing of the Blessed Virgin Mary, all succeeded in getting through the siege, but were unsuccessful in obtaining water. However, would you believe, there was plentiful wine to be had and all the horses returned, fully laden with wine having crossed the encircling enemy unscathed.

The festivities of May 2nd each year commemorate this indisputably miraculous event with a parade of wonderfully decorated horses, the wine horses, the caballos del vino of the title. After the parade, the horses are raced individually up to the castle with 4 accompanying runners who hold on to straps attached to the horse’s saddle. There are around 30 horses and each horse is timed so a winner can be finally proclaimed after much cheering, jeering and wine consumption (remember, caballos del VINO!).

The parade also features the Sultan and Sultana with units of Moorish troops, and then the equivalent Christian forces together with the Spanish King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabella, who made that final conquest of Granada. Later on, in the evening, a mock battle between the two forces is staged. Our bus left before this re-enactment took place, but you will note that many of the crusaders are clutching cans of San Miguel beer and we believe that the use of these as missiles must have been what had swung the battle in favour of the Christians all those years ago because the Muslims, being non-drinkers, only had plastic cups.

April 31st: Wild Flowers

Spain has received more rain than usual this winter so all growth is flourishing, cultivated and wild. On our walks we’ve noticed how green the countryside is and how fresh and vibrant the flowers look. Here are a few photos that hopefully illustrate this.

Sea Heather

Monks Cowl

Meadow

April 30th Atalaya Fort

Cartagena, being an important port and naval base since Carthaginian times (hence name), is ringed by protective forts. Atalaya is one of these forts and dates from the 1750’s. Although in a dilapidated state and was clearly abandoned many years ago, it is not a ruin and you can determine the layout of rooms and areas but not the usage as there are no explanatory plaques. The picture is of one of the galleries.

The photo below shows the reason for the fort’s existence – its’ commanding view of the city and harbour. We spotted several submarines in the naval area that occupies the nearest part of the port.