Heels for dust: Black Mountains, White Plains

Sunday, 8 February 2015

Black Mountains, White Plains

We stayed last night at Puntas de Calnegre on the border of he Valencia and Murcia regions. This was as far south as we managed to get in the autumn. We love the remote aire by the beach and the miles of empty coastline; it's a very peaceful and generally a soulful kind of place,

Flowering succulent

Looking north towards Bolneovo

Spectacular clouds

Mooching motorhomes

Twilight over the Puntas de Calnegre

The hills around here are volcanic in origin, their rocks almost black. Although there are no active volcanoes, the area still is suffers seismic activity as the major quake in Lorca, a few years ago testifies. We cycled off to a local cove. It was deserted, so we spent half an hour or so happily fossicking amongst the rocky outcrops. Most of them were shales and slate, but there were small veins of marble running through them, mostly pearly white, but in places flecked with rose and amber tints. Gill found an old rusty tent peg. We were able to prise off dinner-plate sized 'slices' of the shales which were soft, almost crumbly. Under the surface we found red and yellow mineral deposits - iron, Gill guessed. We speculated how long ago it was since these volcanic rocks were laid down, long before the Mediterranean was formed we imagined.

Igneous outcrops at each end of the cove.

Examining the rocks...

bits of marble amongst the slate

Ferrous deposits.

We returned to Maisy for lunch and thought about what to do next. The current cold snap looks as if it will end towards the end of next week, a good time to visit Granada, as its position near the Sierra Nevada does make it a chilly spot at the best of times in winter. Gill phoned ahead to the camp site just south of here at Aguillas. It was full. There are certainly a lot more vans around now than in December.

We decided to head towards the camper-stops near Vera. Instead of following the AP7 toll motorway we opted to take a more minor road through the mountains - RM D24 - it was well surfaced and not too narrow, virtually empty, but for the occasional truck heading to the nearby plasticulture plantations to keep Europe well supplied with tomatoes. The landscape is spectacular around here - spiky black mountains and odd conical hills covered in low scrubby bushes. The arid scenery was relieved by occasional clumps of eucalyptus trees and what we suspected were almond and cherry trees just coming into blossom.

Volcanic mountains, early blossom.

Under the blue sky there was a hint of spring in the air. Since it is no more than a few days since we were excavating the car from a snow drift in the drive, signs of spring are indeed welcome.

We stopped briefly at a large Mercadona in Aguillas. In the end I think we were both pleased that the site had been full, the town looked a bit sprawling and unlovely. A few kms further south we passed from Murcia into Andalucia, prompting a bit of a cheer from the cab, Not only do you feel a long way south, but the landscape looks southern; gone the dark mountains of Murcia, we entered a gleaming white arid plain, occasionally punctuated by clumps of slender palm trees; it looked more North African than European.

The coastal plain near Vera - Europe's only true desert.

Our plan had been to stay at Vera Playa, but I took the wrong road and ended up at the town of Vera, a few kms inland. The aire here is in the grounds of a tennis club. Forget images of leafy Surrey, it's situated in a barren desert valley. The site itself is interesting, the management must have employed a landscape artist to design the terracing which is decorated with wild, organic shaped pink concrete structures and modernista inspired tiling. It clearly references Gaudi's work at Parc Guell in Barcelona - interesting idea - not your average, utilitarian camper-stop.