Middle-aged flash packers

Last night we took a late evening stroll around San Jose. It looked very pretty all lit up. After the long Sunday lunch that the Spanish   enjoy so much, many of the restaurants had shut up shop but a few remained open along the sea front.

After a good night’s sleep, we decided to head off to the cafe nearest us for churros and chocolate caliente. Our mouths salivating and tummies rumbling we arrived only to find the cafe closed due to “personal circumstances “. 

Never mind, (hope they’re ok) we hot footed it to the local bakery where we served by San Jose’s oldest resident with 2 empanadas, a loaf of bread and chocolate croissants. Who needs churros?

Good job we were fortified as S had planned a hike up El Friale, the highest point of Cabo de Gata. (493m)

Not too high but all the information we’d found said there was no marked path to the top, it was a follow your nose job. I’m not keen on those as although S’s nose is quite good, it has been known for us to wander around for quite some time trying to get our bearings.

The route to the bottom of the peak was very easy with a brand new cycle/walking path having been provided alongside the main road to Almeria. It wasn’t long before we got onto the gravel path that then narrowed into the usual rock and rubble track that are common around here.

The scenery around the Cabo de Gata is very Wild West with its arid, desert land. It’s incredible that anything grows here and why on Earth it was decided that fruit and vegetables that require tons of water should be grown on its outskirts defeats me. Reminds me of the cotton grown in Uzbekistan where the Aral Sea has been almost drained to meet the watery demands of cotton.

However, this part of Spain has its own ecosystem and spiny cacti plus other weird and wonderful plants not dependent on water survive here. 

It turns out that the blogs we read about no known paths up El Fraile were out of date. Kind hikers have marked a path with numerous  cairns so that it was relatively easy for us to find our way to the summit. I’m wondering if we have covid to thank for this and that  frustrated travellers, discovering the beauty of their local area, decided to blaze a trail to the formerly neglected El Fraile.

The views are spectacular from the top, we were even able to see the snow-capped Sierra Nevada.

S had planned a circular route which would have met up with the coastal path but we couldn’t see a clear route down and as it was very rocky we decided to call it a day and return the way we came. As we always find, descending is harder than ascending and there were a few slip and slides before we unpacked the walking poles and got a bit more help down the gravelly slopes.

On return to our abode, I decided I needed to cool down and paddle in the sea. We are blessed that the beach is only a ten minute walk from our accommodation and so we grabbed our towels and water and very quickly our feet were immersed in the extremely cold sea. It really is very cold but I regretted not taking my swimbees as I could definitely have gone for a swim, probably with steam arising from me.

S had a catnap and then it was on to the nearest bar for 2 cold beers and a bottle of sprite. We were turfed out at 5pm (strange hours kept around here) so we bought a bottle of wine at the Spar and headed home for an evening of relaxation and a home cooked meal of spaghetti bolognaise.

Tomorrow is our last day here – time flies when you are enjoying yourself.