Algeciras and Malaga, Andalucia, Spain Week 99-100 26th February - 5th March 2013
                       
What a difference a few km of water makes.
 
But the storks are the same.
 
We've headed north into Andalucia.

Away from the coastal tourist strip that includes Malaga.

It looks like more limestone.

 
Los Alcornocales.

A north south series of mountains.

We wonder if its part of the same formation as the Rif Mountains.

 
Through an arboretum.

70 or more varieties of eucalypts. Remnants of research from the beginning of the 20th century. Looking for the trees that grow well in the climate.

 
Pine forest further up. We stopped for the night.
 
With a short walk up a fire break.
 
We think there's a road through there somewhere.

We are headed through Antequera towards Granada and Alhambra.

  
We headed deeper into the mountains.
 
Still limestone.
 
And agriculture in the valleys.
 
Occasional white painted houses.
 
Then Antequerra.

Interesting looking but narrow.

 
And narrower.

We figured that the combination of gps and following the tour bus should be ok.

 
After crossing the town we found the Menga Dolmen on the outskirts.
 
A bit bigger inside than we have become used to.

The dolmen may be up to 5000 years old.

At the far end (the railings are just visible) is a 1m diameter hole that's been drilled about 30m down.

We think there's been a bit of archeology and rebuilding.

 
Nearby is the Viera Dolmen. A single narrow chamber.
 
The hill on the left is the Menga Dolmen.

Unusually it seems to be aligned with the distant hill to the right.

 
The entrance.
 
Leaving Antequerra we saw something we haven't seen since China.

All the pillars are in place. Then along comes the bridge building machine.

 
We headed through the mountains towards Granada.
 
But alas.

Nearly only three wheels on the wagon.

Three broken wheel studs.

Looks like the first one broke quite a while ago.

Fortunately realised there was a problem before the wheel fell off. Kicking myself for not seeing it earlier.

 
Not safe to drive. We could either get the parts to us, or......

The Spanish equivalent of RACQ came to our rescue with a reciprocal agreement. We have phone numbers for automobile clubs in all countries.

 
With holiday the next day and a weekend in the way it took 6 days to repair at Mitsubishi in Malaga.

It got easier when part numbers were available from Australia and parts were found off the shelf in Madrid.

Humourous bit is that "part" in Spanish translates to "asparagus". At times we weren't too sure what was happening.

 
We stayed the first few days in a city centre hotel.

The last day we managed a night in the dealer's compound.

This is (we think) the town hall in Malaga.

 
Much more interesting than our simple impression of a package holiday resort.

History goes back to the Pheonecians.

 
There's a cathedral in there. Surrounded by narrow streets.
 
Friday is cruise ship day.
 
Looking east from the Alcazaba (fortress).

We also walked further up the hill to the Castillo de Gibralfaro.

 
We'd escaped from the snow in the hills just in time.
 
The many sided bull ring.
 
The town is really a maze.

We persevered with the tourist map and eventually became familiar.

We could even find the same restaurant twice. A Chinese one as we found the Spanish restaurant food not good value for our money.

 
We heard a couple of muffled bangs while looking at the fortress.

We never did find out what the problem was but there were plenty of police around.

 
Our hostel. The Pension Avenida.

Cheap and clean.

 
We were opposite the main mall.
 
Plenty of opportunity to keep fit with all sorts of machinery.

Well used.

We preferred to walk.

 
Sunday morning entertainment.

Live music and dancing in one of the gardens.

They were tired.

 
A familiar shape.

It took us a while to trace the noise.

Eventually we were on our way again.

Happy to be independent.

 
We headed towards Granada.

Thought we might find a campsite somewhere near the pass.

 
But surprise.

The road didn't go down again, we were in a valley full of villages and farms.

 
Eventually we found a campsite at the next pass, the Puerto Navazo.
 
Alhambra, Granada and Surrounds, Spain Week 100 March 6th 2013
 
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