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3rd March 2017 Hiking - Walking: Playa De Los Genovesos Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: cloudy then sunny periods then howling gale! Max Speed: Distance Covered: Friday 3rd March – Hike **** Playa De Los Genovesos – cloudy then sunny periods then howling gale! Quiet night after yesterday evening’s drama when we were politely asked to leave the Parque National and ended up in Rodalquilar. It’s getting more like Morocco all the time, from our vantage point overlooking the town there was a whole section of derelict buildings:( Like they had given up on the old village and built a new one! For the first time in a week we woke to a cloudy morning, I still managed my exercises outside before breakfast. We were in desperate need of supplies so headed for the Lidl at Nijar which has only been open a couple of weeks. As soon as we left the Parque there were endless rows of plastic greenhouses, not very pleasing on the eye but great for tomato production. To be honest it looks a bit of a tip with the towns not much better but we soon spotted the spanky new Lidl but just before the turn off there was a garage with a jet wash big enough to get our van in and as our poor old van is absolutely filthy we drove in. It was 3 Euros well spent and great fun too. By the time, we got into Lidl carpark it didn’t look so great so while Mag did the shopping I cleaned the van with my magic Waterless Wash’n’Wax making it look like new again:) Restocked to continue our adventures we drove on down to San Jose. Scenery improved when we entered the Parque National de Cabo de Gata-Nijar again, although as usual the town wasn’t up to much. We found Playa De Los Genovesos along a dirt road, costing you 5 Euros in high season but free now:) This lead to Playas, walks and mountain biking trails There was the usual no overnight parking sign so we stopped at the first walking route notice board packed a quick picnic (just a baguette, a whole cheese, a big tomato and some little chocolate bars) and set off at 12.30 - sadly I didn’t take the gps as it turned out to be quite an adventure! The sun had come out but it was a bit nippy as the breeze had picked up so a hoody was required. First stop was a windmill on a little hill. Then it was the most fantastic track down to the curved bay of the Playa De Los Genovesos passing huge cactus, some of which have sprouted large tree like things out which are now dead and falling over. As usual the fields and surrounding hills are full of vibrant coloured wild flowers. We then walked through an avenue of small pines a rarity here as there are hardly no trees! The quiet playa stretched before us with coastal hills at each end. Reaching the end of the beach we found a path leading up the hill so started to climb. At the top, we looked down and there was a lovely sheltered beach and a little naturist family were having fun in the sunshine. We found a blue and white footpath marker leading over and down towards the sea. It was another rough rock scramble with the path only obvious by the dark rock been walked white by a steady stream of hikers over the years! The rocky path went on for ages up above the blue sea but as we rounded the corner we found the perfect dark sand beach surrounded by jagged rock. It was steep to get down the last bit but we found a super little spot in the rocks for our picnic and even had the place to ourselves for a while before we were joined by a couple more walkers. The kit was off and I was enjoying the sun but that didn’t last long as the clouds appeared so it was time to start the steep climb out. We thought you could see a big rock feature on a beach this way but the hills just went on and on so decided to head back. We had to find our way between the deadly cactus whose spiky leaves are best avoided! We were out three hours and it was getting on so it was time to look for an overnight spot and the wind was increasing. We looked in San Jose but the only place was a dirty town carpark full of campers so we left and drive to Cabo de Gata and this is when something horrible happened - a large black cat ran straight across the road and into a van coming the other way, as we passed the cat looked dead which was a blessing, poor thing:( Mag couldn’t look:( Cabo de Gata is supposed to be fantastic but we were not overly impressed as it is really flat and the wind was onshore here and blowing strongly so finding somewhere to park was going to be challenging! There were campers parked by Cabo lighthouse right on the front but we turned left and drove the 7 km. to Cabo de Gata rock at the end which is accessed by a windy up and down road and there were no overnight camping signs everywhere! A coach load of nice smelling tourists (it’s like an explosion in a perfume factory – even the men smell lovely) had just arrived and were rushing to the viewpoints cameras in hand. I got a few pics of the rocks but I thought the wind was going to blow the tripod over! We tried a potholed coast road to another watch tower but gave up as not allowed to park so headed back to the little town of La Fabriquilla where we had seen some campers parked. We found a nice spot tucked behind the big vans but we were near some noisy flag poles rattling so we moved again. The wedges were under before a squally shower of rain arrived, that will teach me to clean the van! Then things started to get wild, I walked down to the beach with the wind gauge and got a gust of 52 mph and with sand blowing off the beach and the van rocking and rolling I found a place in a back street sheltered by some houses so returned to the van and we moved again. After a couple of games of cards, I noticed the sun had come out again and was about to set so took the camera to look. The wind had eased a little but the sea was wild and the colours amazing so I returned to the van to drag Mag down to see. It was just stunning and Mag enjoyed it but you couldn’t get a pic of the sunset because as soon as you pointed the camera towards the sea it just got covered in spray:( Some of the big campers were leaving fed up with the battering but there was still one parked right by the sea a little further along the coast, not the best of ideas as now the wind has returned with a vengeance and is really blowing gale force and we have been joined by a two more small campers in search of shelter! Could be an interesting night, let’s hope it’s blown itself out by morning! Photo Gallery Here |
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