Calnegre 1.10.11

The beach at Calnegre

We stayed at a spot in Calnegre which was about 600 metres from the beach, just a flat gravelled area amongst olive trees surrounded by almost desert like terrain (this area is the driest in Europe and you can see that) someone told Di that it hadn't rained in the area for two years (as Di said he was a bit odd though so who knows if it's true!). However they have tried to solve this issue in the area and all the area of Almeria (south from Cartegena down to Granada pretty much) by building huge (acres and acres of them) greenhouses which they grow all their vegetables in. In some areas (today it is nearly a week later and we are a couple of hunderd kms south of Calnegre now) we have just been through there is an ocean of plastic, the whole landscape is covered with plastic from the rocky outcrops to the sea. In fact up by the motorway there are cliffs which have the odd scrubby pine of some sort, and a spasmodically placed scrubby thing like a manuka/ti tree growing amongst red shingle, gravel, and golden rocks, and perched up there are green- houses!!!  I said to Di, it's a bit like trying to have dairy cattle in the MacKenzie country, humans fighting nature, I guess it must be economical however, or maybe there is just no choice??? Don't know. Ugly but fascinating.

Some of the greenhouses in the valley of Calnegre

More greenhouses and interesting Arib style buildings (ruins in the back-ground, prison block style mid-rear).



Ruin amongst the succulents



One that didn't get away (road kill).

I went for a couple of bike rides today, the first by myself, down to the beach to buy some bread from the local shop and up into the hills on the other side of the valley. Hot, dusty, beautiful in a very dry arid way. On my way I spotted this road-kill snake which i collected on my way back home again to show to Di and Hilary. Even though it was obviously not going to strike out and get me (a bit like Monty Python's parrot, which wouldn't go wooooph if you put 5000v through it) I still picked it up with trembling hand and jittery heart. Weird eh???? I don't like snakes!!!

Still more greenhouses

A paddock that isn't under plastic, nicely ploughed though.

The second bike ride of the day, Hilary and i rode down to the beach and looked for shells and stones, no shells but lots of very colourful stones with interesting markings and shadings. Then we went back to the campsite, or hilary did and i headed out of the valley towards the hills. I spotted and chatted to a Morroccan with his goat herd, he was wandering around the desert like a nomadic type, on this occasion taking his goats to feed on some tomatoes and maize that had been dumped in the paddock.

The herdsman who had a long chat in Spanish/Morrocan

Sunset from our campervan