Easter in Adra

The weather continued to be kindly as we sailed North up the Spanish Costas.

The next port we entered was the rather neglected and surprisingly empty half finished marina at Adra. Not well represented by the pilot, it is a little gem. Very Spanish, with a distinct lack of English abroad. In fact it is difficult to find anyone who speaks English.

It is an unassuming town with a history it is very proud of there are a few preserved remains of its past evident as you walk around the town. like many sea ports on the Spanish coast at some point in history it was fortified.

 As is usual the Church is the centre of social events and festivals and we decided to stay over for Easter.

 The disused lighthouse is conspicuous from seaward and later we would visit it as part of the cheapest tourist attraction ticket we have ever found!

We bought a ticket to the local museum which also entitled us to visit an old restored watermill .

Which had to be opened up and lights switched on for us, an interesting look at local history.

The local church is free to visit and we went to see the Easter floats which are parade around the town during Easter week.

As is usual these are large heavy and require a large amount of manpower to manoeuvre.

The parades always began and finished at the church proceeding down towards the Town Hall.

A lot of the floats were unusual in that the people carrying them were hidden beneath with only their feet showing, this required several men to steer the thing around the streets. If you are familiar with Terry Pratchetts Discworld books and recall "Luggage" you will get the idea!

Our bargain ticket also entitled us to visit the Civil war bomb shelters, again yhese were specially opened up and lit for our visit along with a guided tour by one of the ladies from Tourist information.

These were fascinating and augmented by a loud sound effects recording being played as we explored the complex of tunnels beneath the lighthouse, which actually acted as a ventilation shaft for the many people sheltering here during hostilities when the Condor legions were attacking from the air.

  A rather nice surprise was the arrival of Modus Vivendi direct from Gibraltar.

The virtually empty marina was a perfect place to practise Med mooring and Maureen was kind enough to give Lynne a haircut, leaving plenty of nest material in the pontoon for the birds....

We enjoyed the usual meal and drinks ashore to celebrate our brief reunion. Its so nice to meet up with old friends, one of the lovely things about the cruising life.

Marina del Este

The westerlies were kind to us and we had a great sail past the snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains. There was an increasing occurrence of plastic greenhouses. Larger than poly tunnels and the source of much of the U.K.s winter vegetables.

The sea was kind with an underlying groundswell, the mountainous scenery was splendid.

As was usual the wind increased during the afternoon and some whitecaps were in evidence as we approached the headland hiding our destination, the Marina del Este.

As we dropped sails in the bay and motored into the entrance we were glad to see an alongside reception berth. Still not totally happy with med mooring!

With just a little help from a marinéro we got Dark Tarn snugged into a berth. The marina is based around a holiday development and is quite pretty, it’s also very expensive. Unfortunately the facilities don’t match the price tag. The wi-fi however is first class.

The development itself is tasteful and reminds me a little of Port Marion in Wales. There are some interesting examples of topiary. I was particularly taken by the example below!

In the evening we explored the beach beyond the marina. It would have been nice to walk into town but that was away up and over the steep headland.

The development itself consists of accommodation, restaurants, cafes and one small supermarket for essentials. But in the evening sunshine it did look pretty....

The waters were crystal clear and we were very tempted to swim but decided to save it until tomorrow...

Things seemed to be getting ready for the season, the restaurant on the beach wasn’t open yet and the dive school was still getting equipment ready.

It would be a pleasant place to holiday, and we decided to stay another day just to relax.

The rest of the Costa del Sol, the marinas were in "low season" Marina del Este had invented a mid season which meant our two days stay would cost us the equivalent of 5days anywhere else ( we did get a complimentary bottle of wine though)

The following day we spent lounging on the small beach by the marina entrance and swimming, only for short periods as the water was still s bit chilly. We had met up with a couple of yachts we had seen before and were delighted to meet Frank and Chrissie on a Westerly. Franks scouse accent made us quite homesick!
The photo below shows the beach and Marina entrance including the reason to give the mole a good offing!

The Mediterranean was proving more interesting than I had given it credit for and the coastline I had been expecting to hurry past was slowing us down for a closer look. Why I am still surprised at this I really don't know.......

 I think it can probably be summed up by the phrase " stop and smell the coffee", take time out to appreciate and let a place permeate your skin.

La Linea de la Conception

I must apologise for my lack of posts, its largely down to being lazy and also being again in a Bordertown. Doubly important and relevant due to the Brexit fiasco. So we spent a month at anchor in the bay of La Linea before moving into the marina for the winter. After the "Bandit country " of Newry or even the Basque country of Getxo,  this tideline of countries seemed to be quirky and amusing. The dividing line is about a 10 minute walk and unusually the way into Gibraltar crosses over a live runway. The only truly flat bit of ground also hosts the local football pitch. The planes duly land and take off to left and right dictated to by the prevailing west and east winds, the Poniente and Levanter respectively. In the photo below the wind is easterly (photo from Gibraltar) so British Airways lands from left to right

Its difficult to avoid but Gibraltar is a unique place, not unique as in special and precious just different to any place you have ever been. It has apes, for about two minutes they seem cute, but in actual fact they are despicable thieving parasites. I took this fellas picture just before he "mugged" a passing woman with a plastic bag of shopping, tearing her bag open and then calmly eating the contents. Not so very different from the local shopkeepers who will quite happily mug you for your money on the assumption that you believe you are getting a "duty free" bargain. think again.....its true that booze and tobacco are stupidly cheap, as is diesel. but everything else is designed to separate the cruise ships inmates from their cash as quickly as possible. Lynne and I fell for a couple of scams (£5 for two cups of tea?) but we quickly got wise.

Famously a notorious ape known as "Dracula" mugged a tourist on the Skywalk, an elevated glass bridge on the top of the rock throwing her money passports etc. Anything in other words inedible down the cliff, the passports were still visible weeks later. Another tourist complained to the local authorities that the response she received from the local police was less than satisfactory when she complained she had been sexually assaulted by an ape, the polices asked if she would like them to arrange an identity parade of the usual suspects, made me laugh anyway!

La Línea, literally "the Lines" indicating the border is a different kettle of fish from Gib. A slightly seedy run down but still vibrant town, famous for being the drug runners home turf. Not difficult to understand when unemployment in Gibraltar is about 2% whereas in La Línea it’s around 35%. It’s also to be fair not the most attractive town, however it does have its charms.

The anchorage is one, on a quiet evening as the sun sets it can be glorious.

There is also a legendary eatery that serves steaks cooked on a charcoal grill for very little money but be warned you will have to queue up for a place. We visited with some fellow Brits from other boats.I could tell you how to find it but I am not going to.........trust me it’s great!

One day we walked around to the east of Gibraltar, we discovered some small beach resorts we had been unaware of, they have a certain charm but suffer slightly from Gibs biggest problem which is available space, they are also a bit seedy and a bit down at heel..

Being on the east side they really only get sun in the morning and are gloomy in the evenings, Also a bit prone to rockfall, however you could always strike lucky with some holiday money and passports thrown from above by the Barbary ape mugging squad above...

At our lovely anchorage we avoided the hurricane forecast and merely got very high winds. The holding was good and apart from not going ashore for a week we were fine, however not all the boats in the anchorage fared as well and this wee fella fetched up on the beach, refloated a few days later she was back out in the bay snug at anchor.

At the beginning of November we moved into the marina at La Línea which would be our home for the winter months.

The marina is very well run however is quite expensive when the electricity bill is factored in for live aboard like ourselves. However you can see some amazing vessels including for us the Carrack Victoria, Ferdinand Magellan’s flagship and the first vessel to successfully circumnavigate the globe.

She looks quite spectacular at night.

It’s difficult to tell sometimes if the ceremonial and posturing side of Gibraltar is just for the tourists or just for Spain. We watched the "ceremony of the keys" involving keys to a non existent gate on a sea wall now a quarter of a mile from the sea. Lots of pomp and quite entertaining, but........

The yoemanry then march up "Main Street" whose main purpose is to separate cruise ship punters from their money.

We retired back to the marina to think about the Mediterranean and tried out our least used sail, the spinnaker, in the safety of our berth. We have been told there is either not enough or too much wind in the Med. so this is one of our low wind options.

We had a loook att the Christmas tableaux in the town hall in La Linea.

Then it was time to fly home for Christmas, luckily the airport being right next door this was really easy. It’s not exactly a busy airport.

We took off to the west and as we left the runway we got a good look at Dark Tarn in her berth at the marina.

the caves of Nerja

We took another bus and walked down through the town of Nerja in the drizzle and under overcast skys to discover the little train wasn’t running due to the rain. I was beginning to believe we were fated to never visit the caves of Nerja but it appeared that if we retraced our steps to the bus depot we could get a bus to the caves. So it was, and after a short couple of miles aboard a comfortable bus we duly joined the queues for tickets. It seemed the rain did not put off visitors. We lunched in the restaurant while we awaited our allotted time, the visits are strictly regulated.

We descended far easier than the original discovers of the cave in the 1950s, they descended through a hole known as "la Mina" The entrance we were using was dug in 1960, to allow tourists access to the cave system known as Nerja1, Nerja 2 is not open to the public and consists of upper galleries which contain amongst other things Neanderthal cave paintings.

The initial gallery is one that was used by early humans. This was opened out to allow access to the huge inner chamber of Nerja1

Some idea of scale, spot the people, by building ramps and staircases it’s possible to walk around the caverns with minimal disturbance.

This visit brought back fond memories of a friend of mine, Phil Jackson, ace caver and my sea kayaking partner for a few years. He also ontroduced Lynne to the underground realms.

I could almost hear his voice telling me of the flow stone and eons of time it would take to produce that formation, or the infitesimal air currents that produced that spiral stalagtite.

At the end of the day it’s a showcave and possibly the best I have seen, it’s very well presented and truly spectacular.

It is also a credit to those early explorers who risked all by wriggling in to a black expanse.

It has to be one of the best managed underground spaces.....

However my wife is a veteran of Easedale master cave and a 15 mile system straggling Lancashire and Yorkshire. If only it were possible to access that without a six hour trip in and if only it could be lit like this.......

This by the way is the biggest pillar underground in the world, and beautifully lit!

It is easy to see how early man could have drawn parallels between the earth as mother and a spiritual thing and this wondrous underground landscape. Apart from the practical problem of how did they see it?

But lucky us we can and it’s glorious.....

Nature is the greatest architect without a doubt.

Some of the formations are familiar some not so......

My favourites are the ones combining an organic form with a well known object, in this case drapes of curtains.

These caverns are stunning and should not be missed if you are ever in the area....................

There is something about these spaces that echo in some sort of primeval remnant in your memories. They are spiritual and familiar in some sort of collective history before we invented Gods and Politics.

I don’t think Lynne will mind me saying she is possibly more comfortable underground than at sea,

I think that may have to do with our collective memories, places of safety and spirituality maybe, Earth Air and Water. Those simple elements.

And when as a young race we felt safe enough to dream we created art. Surrounded by the earth we began like this.......

A truly amazing place...............

Don’t sail by if you get the chance to visit......