Road Trip

As mentioned in our last entry, we decided to take a few days out and do abit of sightseeing.  We had been climbing so much that we were worn out and plus we had heard the weather forecast was due to rain this week.  We figured we may as well go and sightsee in the rain rather than spend it squatting in a wet tent twiddling our thumbs with nothing to do.

So we started off in Gandia which is where we have been based the last few weeks (approximately an hour south of Valencia).  Kris was flying back home to the USA the same day so by the time we faffed about having coffee, saying farewell to her, and doing one last internet blast it was after midday that we eventually set off.  We headed directly inland and followed the main highways towards Sevilla.  It is approximately 700 kms from the coast and since we left late we stopped overnight at a truck stop and slept in the back of our car (did we tell you how awesome our car is!).  Following morning we continued our drive and arrived in at Sevilla around midday.  We put the car in a carpark and followed our noses to the city centre by foot.   By this stage the rain had started and it was drizzling on and off.  First stop was the tourist information counter to get a map of the main sights.  We then basically spent the next 5 hours walking around and around, up the river, through the windy streets of the old quarters, up the more modern shopping strip, over to a big nature reserve (that was oddly closed, maybe the park was having siesta)  passing cathedrals and forts and bull fighting rings on our way.   We didn't stop walking once and by the time we dragged ourselves back to the car we were both very tired.  Even though it was raining, we really enjoyed ourselves and we loved Sevilla.  It is a quite a compact city which makes it nice and easy for a tourist just passing through like us.  It is pretty and tidy and well laid out, with little nooks and crannies to explore.

That evening we began to drive south towards Spain's Costa del Sol.  Once we hit the coast we diverted off the main highway and followed windy roads right on the waterline.  Again it was raining and getting dark but we were able to see quite alot and it is stunning down there.  Much more rugged than the Costa Blanca.  In parts it was still very Spanish, with not many English tourists around, yet in other towns it was like English home away from home resorts with Irish pubs and and English Breakfast signs everywhere.  We drove through all this, past huge windmill farms and over rolling hills with craggy rocks.  The beaches were quite rough and rugged too, as opposed to the calm side of the Costa Blanca.  We drove through Spain's most southern point and from there you could see Morocco, Africa which was only 14kms away.  If we were here longer we would have looked into getting a ferry across - maybe next time.  Approximately 9pm we were a few kms out of Gibraltar so pulled off the side of the road into a  national park and camped again in the back of our most excellent car.

In the morning we found our way to the Spanish town bordering Gibraltar.  We initially drove through the border into Gibraltar but after driving for over an hour through tiny one way streets and being no closer to finding a car spot we drove back over to Spain, parked there and walked over.  The border crossing was quite amusing, it was as relaxed as walking in Centennial Park.  We didn't even open our passports, just flashed them.  We did get pulled over the first time through as they thought we were smuggling ciggies back to sell.  Anyway you mosey through this "immigration dept" (you even walk straight past the bag xray machine which was not turned on and not manned).  On entering the Gibraltar side of the border, you walk up the road about 100metres and are immediately on a very wide strip of concrete with lights and boom gates.  Turns out that this is the airport runway.  The road and the pedestrian crossing cut straight across the middle of it.  It is a most peculiar feeling standing right in the middle where the planes land.  You feel like a naughty kid and half expect to be escorted off again.  It's also quite distressing to hear the sounds of the warning alarms go off to warn a plane is about to land when you are still halfway across!  Once in Gibraltar we found that the sights that we were most interested in were based at the top of the mountain.  The only way to get there if you didn't have your own car was by taxi, cablecar or walk.  Given the price fixing going on and against the advice of the tourist info counter, we decided to hike up.  It actually wasn't that bad, it was about 30mins walking up steps and gave us abit of a workout but was no different to us walking into some climbing areas.  

By this stage it was hammering down with rain so we seeked shelter by doing a WW2 tunnel tour.  On entering, we were greeted by Hans who is an expat German who had lived in Gibraltar for 12 yrs.  Hans took us on a guided tour of the tunnels and was a brilliant guide with an awful lot of knowledge and wicked sense of humour.  The tour was a very small section of the 32 miles worth of underground tunnels.  They were dug as a defense system to defend Gibraltar during the 2nd World War to protect oil ships coming from Africa through to England.  A large proportion of these tunnels are still in use today by the military.  The tunnel system in some parts is big enough for two semi trailers to pass by each other without having to pull over.  It has a few hospitals, a train line, 3 power plants, dams, fuel and food storage areas to last for 2 yrs during a war, accommodation for 6000 men.  They were able to dig the tunnel out without anyone knowing by dumping it at nighttime onto barges and then taking it round during the day to build this runway that we crossed earlier.  The tunnels were dug out by the military (not convicts) and was worked on for 24hours a day for three years.  They were doing it very quickly as they were expecting Hitler to come down and take this strategic plot to cut off oil supplies to England but this never eventuated.  Hitler decided to try his luck with Russia instead.  Hans showed us some storage areas, tunnel junctions and some accommodation blocks.  Women were also based in here as nurses and cooks but they were separated entirely from the men and never saw each other. 

After our tunnel tour we went into a little museum exhibit which depicted what life would have been like during the Great Siege (which was when and Spain and France tried to take over Gibraltar).  There was so many other museums and historical points of interest that we would have loved to see and we will go back another day to spend more time here.  When researching Gibraltar on the net for reviews the majority of people said it was a waste of time visiting as it was so tacky and touristy, but we found it was very interesting if you got away from the tourist shops and if you are interested in abit of history.

That evening we continued heading along the coast towards Malaga.  We found it interesting how much construction was going on in this part of Spain.  The whole coast is one continuous construction site for units.  In comparison coming back to the Costa Blanca region we realised how little it has been built out.  Apart from the main cities, in between is still fairly spaced out.  Once we got to Malaga we headed north to a famous rockclimbing area called El Chorro.  El Chorro is a tiny village (comprising a shop, and that's about it) nestled in the middle of a gorgeous valley surrounded by massive cliffs and a hydro dam.  By this stage the rain was unrelenting so rather than put our tents up and get wet and muddy we decided to stay at a refugio (like a hostel) until it cleared up.  We were there two days and then moved into the camping ground once the rain stopped.  The campground was very nice, surrounded by trees and was at the foot of the main climbing wall.  The climbing was good but we weren't really in the mood for climbing hard and long so we basically just pottered around on some easy routes and then blobbed around the campsite the rest of the time.  We ended up spending 6 days here in El Chorro and drove back to Finestrat late last night in time for our Spanish lesson today.

We had our Spanish lesson this morning and then this afternoon have driven back inland and south abit to another city called Murcia.  We are actually just out of Murcia in a national park, of course for climbing.  We have found a very pleasant little campground and will stay here the next few days if the climbing is good.  Apparently it is a 45-50min walk up hill to the cliffs but if they are as good as what the books say we will have no problems with doing this walk daily.