As Forrest Gump Says “Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates…..”

…..never a truer word spoken! We had a pretty peaceful night’s sleep in our forest enclave and arose full of the joys of travel! Our destination for today was Almeria – via a Lidl in Vera since their new offers start today and we have spied an LED sensor light which is on our “gotta have” list – plus we need to stock up since tomorrow is Twelfth Night and yet another Public Holiday in Spain! With this in mind and with CoPilot duly programmed, off we set, appreciating the wondrous vistas of the Sierra Espuna that lay before us – here’s just a few and, believe me, the photos in no way do them justice …

As we left the A7 for our Lidl stop, I happened to cast an eye over the map and realised we were only a stone’s throw from Mojacar – a place I had never actually heard of, never mind craved to visit, until it featured in “A Place In The Sun” ( Harley’s favourite TV programme back home!). Never one to miss an opportunity, we did our Lidl shop and ventured down to Mojacar to eat our lunch parked up on the seafront. Lovely wee place – full of whitewashed, square houses – typical Andalusian style- with it’s “pueblo” clinging to the hillside above us. Very impressive!

We pondered as to whether we should chance our arm and stay here for the night – after all, there was nothing to state that we couldn’t i.e no “no autocaravanes” on their parking signs. We mulled this over during lunch but decided to press on to Almeria. The drive was spectacular – over the Cabo de Gata-the road clings to the mountainside in a quite precarious fashion but it’s thrilling until you look back and see just HOW precarious it all is!

So, we’ve had several “surprises” today – seeing places we hadn’t intended seeing but are very pleased that we did , driving on the most amazing road between Mojacar and Almeria and then to arrive in Almeria and be totally blown away by what we’ve seen of the city so far! Wow! A totally awesome day in all respects PLUS the sun has shone ALL DAY, we witnessed a spectacular sunset over The Med whilst strolling along the beach this evening AND, at 11.30pm, it’s still 13c outside, 20c inside and we have no need to flick the heating on! Life is good! We’re in a free car park, within a stone’s throw of the beach and a 30 minute walk from the city centre and it’s huge castle! We’re going to stay here tomorrow for further exploration and then head back to the hills on Saturday. I recently read Chris Stewarts’s “Driving Over Lemons” trilogy and am now desperate to experience Las Alpajurras!