If the fir trees along today’s drive were swapped for eucalyptus I would have sworn we were in Australia. Red dirt, sparse tussocks of dry grass and an immense vibrant blue sky took me right back to drives through the outback. We are in the high plains of Andalusia and currently parked in the town of Cazorla in the National Park.
The last few days have been spent in orange and lemon groves, a car park in an industrial estate with up to 50 vans spending the winter there (not sure What the attraction was apart from free water), and a quick sojourn next to a menagerie of a van with a massive dog and a parrot on board.
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| German speaking parrot |
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| Hugo loving dog |
As we made our way here to Cazorla the red dirt plains turned to huge dammed valleys then grubby pink and clay-coloured mountains until finally we reached the vast olive groves of this area. At our lunch spot ‘Don Chema’ in town we were told the olive oil here is the best in Spain.
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| Olives as far as we can see |
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| A view from a window |
We decided to try the local food today so we found the aforementioned restaurant and ordered the menu del dia for 20 euros each. A selection of cured meats followed by partridge and sirloin for his fluffiness and pimientos and huevos for me. To say the owners of the restaurant were keen hunters is probably an understatement going by the photos of them showing off their dead prey adorning the walls, along with the odd deer skull and taxidermied head dotted around. It was all a bit weird but I suppose they are at least eating what they shoot.
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| Adornments of death |
It’s currently 23 degrees as we look out across the valley of olives. Tomorrow we head across to Ubeda, a World Heritage site. Looking forward to seeing what it’s about.
A Mañana.
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