Today we left our Villafranca de Córdoba campsite to head for a Sierra Nevada site near Granada. Unusually, the little town had a supermarket that was open seven days a week so, having paid for the campsite, we called in to top up our supplies. There was even a gravel parking area for us to leave Frodo in.
Our journey was almost 200 kms. We began with a very short stretch of autovia before heading across country, which proved to be absolutely fascinating. After about 10kms we began passing olive plantations. These were olive plantations the like of which I’ve never seen before. The countryside was rolling but with serious hills. On both sides of the road, the hills as far as the eye could see were covered in olive trees and nothing else. Shooting it from a moving vehicle doesn’t do it justice but you may get the idea.
We were heading for a town called Jaén, about 70 kms further on and the scenery had not changed; we were still surrounded by olive trees as far as the eye could see. What I cannot comprehend is how on earth this crop could be harvested. We’re talking rolling hills like those of the Beaujolais in France, covered in millions of olive trees instead of vines.
At Jaén we completed our cross-country jaunt and joined another autovia. Once we left the conurbation behind us the olive trees continued unabated. This was utterly incredible, we had eventually been driving past at least 120kms of solid olive trees covering the land from horizon to horizon. With the hills, though, the horizon wasn’t as far as usual hut it was still a massive operation that I just couldn’t quite comprehend.
As we approached Granada we turned off onto more rural roads and began climbing up into the Sierra Nevada. We were on mountain roads and, being a Sunday, the road was full of cyclists which needed some careful negotiating.
Finally, without killing any maniac cyclists climbing ridiculous hills, we arrived at our campsite, Güéjar Sierra [try saying that after a vodka or two]. We’d booked one of the “posh” pitches – posh because they are a massive, by Spanish standards, 90m2.
Other than being next to a very yappy small dog nearby, Frodo is very comfortable at 1100m altitude. The sky is clear blue and we are reasonably well equipped. I even managed to raid some brilliant fresh rosemary from a bush at our Villafranca de Córdoba site for yet another paella.
You cannot have too many paellas.
Recent Comments