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Guadix: Going Underground
Posted by Squiffy on February 8th, 2008
I’m typing to you from a inside a cave. Our own personal cave with roaring log fire, thanks to Dave’s great boy scout skills. It’s great.
This morning we left Los Alcazares and drove south-west towards Granada, on day one of our Andalucian road trip. As is usual for Southern Spain, we had the road to ourselves and passed through some stunning scenery of blossom trees set against a back drop of arid mountains. In the early afternoon we arrived in Guadix, a fairly small town in which many residents live in caves carved out of the mountains. So when in Rome…..
We are staying in the local cave hotel, where we have our own self-catering cave for the night and it’s just bizzare. Although we’d been in a cave house on our previous Andalucia trip, we were still surprised to see a traditionally decorated cave with mod cons such as electricity and a TV. The highlight is definitely the log fire, which makes it cosy and comforting. Dave passed the true caveman test by building an excellent fire from kindling he collected from the great outdoors and which started 5 hours ago and is still going strong……
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Life in Los Alcazares
Posted by Squiffy on February 7th, 2008
This is entry is dedicated to our mums: just some pics so that they rest assured we are fine, eating well and enjoying the sun! Please admire my cakes and first attempt at a veggie lasagne and enjoy the view from Dave’s favourite beach bar. Cheers!
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Spain meets Switzerland
Posted by Squiffy on February 6th, 2008
This is just a quick note to say thanks to Ray, Pepa and Joe for a lovely evening at their place recently. Ray (my boss at the school) cooked us a fantastic vegetarian-stlye-christmas-dinner of homemade nut roast and vegetables from his garden. Yum.
Dave and I were very surprised to find that our hosts had a full size Swiss chalet in the garden of their Spainsh bungalow, which we absolutely loved (although we forgot to get photos). Along with 4 dogs and 8 cats Ray and Pepa are well set up in their two cosy homes :o)
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Plan: Sub-Saharan Africa overland
Posted by daveb on February 5th, 2008
After Morocco–and possibly another mini-trip elsewhere, still to be decided–it’s off to Tanzania, for us. Four months after arrival we’re flying from South Africa to the UAE for a family birthday celebration.
We’re still working on the route for our sub-Saharan Africa tour — and indeed want to leave it very loose, so that we can segway with opportunities as they arrive. Notwithstanding visas, our current thoughts are: Tanzania (including Zanzibar island), Malawi (big lake apparently), Zambia (waterfalls), Botswana (delta), Namibia (sand dunes) and South Africa (big, flat mountain).
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Plan: A month in Morocco
Posted by daveb on February 4th, 2008
Q: What do you call a camel with three humps?
A: Humphrey.
A few days ago, I promised to let you in on our recently made travel plans. Here’s the first one: A month backpacker tour of Morocco, starting mid-March. In addition to a selection of the big cities, we’re also planning to “go wild” with some desert camping and mountain trekking experiences; one if these will involve a camel and the other, snow.
Neither Squiffy nor I have been to Morocco before, so this is the first country on our tour so far in which we’ll both arrive totally fresh (and clueless) — very exciting.
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Travel plans brewing
Posted by daveb on January 29th, 2008
Here’s where it gets a bit more exciting folks — we appreciate that us sitting [more-or-less] on our bums in a Spanish apartment might not have made gripping reading for you over the last few months.
Actually, I’ve got to tell you that it’s not quite been all sitting on our fannies (for our American readers. Stop sniggering at the back there boy!) Rather, we’ve been putting quite a lot of effort into researching and debating various grand plans for our global crossing.
Rather than spam you all at once with our excitement, I’ll be drip-feeding you with nuggets of information over the next week or so — aren’t I mean? (As a matter of fact, does anyone care? And is anyone actually reading this blog any more;-)
For now though, suffice to say that my bank manager will likely be making contact with me imminently to discuss a rather large disbursement on my credit card, payable to various travel- and flight-booking outlets.
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Plan: Southern Spain roadtrip
Posted by daveb on January 29th, 2008
At the end of this month, we’re renting a car to undertake a ten day roadtrip around the Andalucia region of this fine country. We’ll start off with a night in the Troglodyte Cave Hotel in Guardix, near to the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountain range. A short drive away we’ll find the beautiful city of Granada, which hosts Spain’s most visited tourist site, the Alhambra Palace and Generalife gardens. The mountains form the backdrop to the city, so it should be a great opportunity to get some scenic piccies.
A couple of a hundred kilometres west will put us into the town of Arcos de la Frontera and a Cortijo country ranch for a relaxing day. Next the coast, in the form of Cadiz in which the world’s third biggest street carnival (after Rio de Janeiro and somewhere else) will be in full swing. Bless the lady at the youth hostel who suggested that, as a thirty-something, I might like to book myself into a hotel instead as the youths of today can make a bit of a racket under the influence of alcohol… (I took her advice!)
Then begins the north-easterly loop back to our east coast apartment, but not without stopping for a few days in Seville, which will likely be the pinnacle of our mini-trip — everyone that we’ve spoken to raves about this place.
Nearly home, but not without a stopover in Cordoba, with it’s mesquita. Finally a fairly long drive (400km in the cheapest, most underpowered hire-car we could get) right through, or maybe I should say over, the Sierra del Segura mountain range, before get back to our apartment in Los Alcazares to make a brew.
I’ve updated our planned route map, if you’d like to see.
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Shooting stars burn-up on atmospheric entry
Posted by daveb on January 29th, 2008
I can’t believe it. Not only did the Hollywood Casting Zone not employ Squiffy and I to play as Iraqi militia in next year’s blockbuster movie (working title: The Green Zone), but they couldn’t even see what a fine military transport Yoko might make with a camouflage paint job. She very upset.
Unbelievable. Seems as though the blond fella from The Pasty Shack cafe on English street got the gig instead. As the militia that is, not the vehicle. Can’t hold a grudge against him though, he does indeed make a fine sausage roll.
:-)
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Relaxed Cat
Posted by Squiffy on January 28th, 2008
Catamarans are generally perceived as the F1 of boats, so when John, a local sailor, invited me out on his Stealth F-16 Cat, I was excited about the prospect of zipping across the Mar Menor, on a trapeze with the wind in my hair. However, as on most occasions when I make the effort to go sailing, on the day we chose to go out the wind started off light and dropped to nothing, leaving us bobbing up and down in the middle of the lagoon. Despite the lack of speed, I had fun and it turned out to be a very relaxing morning on the water, under a bright January sunshine, and I only got my feet wet. I can’t ask for much more than that.
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When the cat’s away…
Posted by daveb on January 25th, 2008
…the mice will play. And I am a mouse.
Squiffy recently went back to the UK for a couple of days, leaving me to make my own fun in Los Alcazares.
I spent the evening in the bar at Hotel 525 as, for the price of a coffee and three cervacas, I can use their wireless Internet connection on my laptop (Oh! How I miss broadband Internet at home!)Â I’m planning a mini-roadtrip around the Andalucia region of Spain to take in the highly-rated cities of Granada, Cadiz, Seville and Cordoba, hopefully staying in a cave hotel near the Sierra Nevada mountain region and a rural Cortijo ranch as well. With a rumbling beer-belly and following a food recommendation by Angie, the excellent server at the hotel, I found myself on a mini-trek up the road to the Urban Oasis (read: English Street #2) and to the Bar Restaurant “Bir Bey” for a kebap (don’t tell Squiffy).
Thanks to Oktay, kebapmeister-extraordinare, I got a whole lot more that I bargained for. The chicken doner was superb and the house plied my free beer and even a shot of Baileys as a parting gift. In an otherwise out-of-season tourist town, this place was packed — and I can see why!
If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve just discovered that kebaps are about the fattiest fast food one can buy, I’d be back for another and another and another. (Since writing this entry, I’ve had three more…)
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