DAY EIGHT
Kaprys was barking during the night, what automatically sharpened my senses. I was listening to any strange sounds. I was happy to hear none, so I went back to sleep.
The world looks different in daylight. We woke up surrounded by beautiful nature, small trees, quiet and calmness. I did some yoga, while Jurek took a dog for a walk. He discovered an animal skull, some bones scattered around and the bees nest. Interesting neighborhood. 😉
After breakfast, we hit the road and we are driving on and on, so I have some time to write a little about living in the car.
It is fun. I have everything that I need with me. Food, dishes, cosmetics, clothes, the bed, computer etc. The house on the wheels. We can stop wherever and still we have access to those things. We charge laptop and mobile phones by voltage converter during driving. I would say, that it is more comfortable here than in a passenger car. We sit high, so legs are at about 90 degrees angle and there is enough space to straighten them if needed. And suddenly I realize, that one suitcase of stuff is enough, while back at home I have hardly enough space for my clothes (and shoes) in the closet, not to mention the kitchen. In fact, we have kitchenette now. Life can be so simple and beautiful! 😀
Our house is quite economical. Engine 2.4 l without turbo, what is good because there are no many elements that can be broken. It is a bit slow up the hills but it is not a big deal for us. The counter shows over 380 thousand km, it is like encircle the Earth almost 10 times. The previous owner said, it consumes 7 l per 100 km. It was hard to believe considering the size of the engine. However, during our journey mostly through highways, it consumed 6.6 l per 100 km. The highest consumption was in Alps – 8.8/100. But it is understandable, cause there were hundreds of curves and steep climbs, which sometimes forced us to reduce to the second gear. But let’s go back to our trip.
Spain. It is so unbelievably beautiful that it is hard not to stare all the time. The landscape changes together with kilometers. Once there are widespread plains with single houses, the other time there’s a single huge mountain range on the horizon or high mountains. And they have many different hues. From the green forest hills and rocky hills to very high mountains. We were passing the region like from western movies, (and only horses were missing, although there was a bull – see gallery), and enormous orchards area. And of course the mountains. So so beautiful! Made of red rock, or yellow, brownish and gray the other time. We saw the desert area as well, with an enormously wide field with lots of stones, very few plants and dried riverbeds. Another landscape reminded me of the moon – gray, shiny slopes.
I’ve always wanted to visit Spain. I don’t know exactly why, but I guess, everybody has some places that he wants to see while others don’t interest him so much. First time I touched Spanish ground during my trip to Barcelona. And I fall in love with this city. Now I’m driving through the whole country and I am so amazed by the extraordinary natural landscape.
We are in Andalucia. It is time to look for a place for the night. Jurek finds a green area on the map not far from the city called Cúllar. We take a turn. The green area on the map is not necessarily the forest in real. Low trees won’t hide the car enough. We find the path to the right. We stop the car and walk to examine terrain. From the distance, it looks like an abandoned farm, but when we come closer we can see proofs of current building works like tools or new bricks. We decide to go back. We drive few hundreds meters to discover another path. We manage to hide the car behind the bushes. We are staying here.
From our place, there was a spectacular view. We were standing above the world. From the height of 1240 m. above sea level we looked at amazingly wide valley ended with mountains on the horizon. Kaprys admired the view together with us. Magical place. The only bad thing was that somebody made a small garbage dump. Thoughtlessness and rudeness.
In the evening we made use of our camp shower for the first time. We filled it with water on one of the parking before, on the other one we put it on the ground in the sun. The water wasn’t hot, but cold neither. Just perfect to take a shower in nature. 😀
DAY NINE
The previous night I noticed a falling star. Exceptional one, as it was falling for longer than usual leaving a tail behind. Tonight Jurek saw the star even more unusual. It divided in two!
We entered Granada to buy some bread, find ATM and the Internet. The city was huge with no parking space so we just drove around and finally bought some baguettes at a petrol station.
The next point of our trip – famous road number A – 395 in the Sierra Nevada (another Top Gear idea). We drove to 2500 m. above sea level, then walked to 2650 m. above sea level. The views were spectacular. Above the world, above the clouds, everything left in the bottom. The wind was incredibly strong, Kaprys barely held onto his thin four paws. We were only disappointed that it was impossible to drive the entire route, crossing the Sierra Nevada. Perhaps because of the wind and the crumbling stones.
Malaga. Our plan – find parking on the beach, similar to the one in Sanremo, buy bread for breakfast,
drink Spanish beer on the beach and stay for the night. Reality – walking paths and restaurants by the sea, streets and parking completely full. In the end, we stopped at the paid municipal underground parking and found the WiFi at Burger King. After today’s experience, we decided not to enter the big cities. We resign from Lisbon. We will visit them by plane in the future.
We left Malaga. Not far we found a big parking at the beach. Just everything was closed at this hour, so after a short walk, we went straight to bed.
Leave a Reply