From sprawl to shrink wrapped

East from Nerja we swapped from the N340 which hugs the narrow coastal strip onto the A7 autovia which snakes across the hills a few kilometres inland. The road is a spectacular feat of engineering; tall white viaducts leap across arid valleys, long tunnels burrow through precipitous mountains. You get a different angle on the landscape from up here, sometimes a bird's-eye view of the developed shoreline, occasionally a glimpse of the Sierra Nevada's gleaming snowy peaks inland. It is a great drive.

Somewhere between Nerja and Alumñecar the character of the coast changes, All along the Costa del Sol patches of plasticulture pop up among the sprawl of tourist development. Further east, all the way to Almeria and beyond, this pattern is reversed, hundreds, perhaps thousands of square kilometers of coastline is shrink-wrapped - an economic tour-de-force, impressive and dis-spiriting in equal measure. 

When we came this way previously three years ago we dubbed this stretch of coast 'Tomatoland'. However, just as there are breaks in the Costa del Sol's sprawl, there are patches of Tomatoland that are not yet entirely shrink-wrapped. The cliffs and remote coves from Cabo Sacratif to Punta Negra are so rocky and precipitous that large scale plasticulture is not on option. Consequently the small settlements like La Mamola, Los Yesos and Castell de Ferro retain something of the area's former unfrequented desert-like beauty.

We are holed-up for a few days in this latter place at Auto Caravanas Tropic. The aire is run by a French couple and most of the guests are fellow citizens of La Republique. It is all right and proper, lunch happens "en masse' at noon sharp following an aperitif; gleaming white ankle socks are 'de riguer' for participants in the afternoon boules match. Cheek kissing abounds. No matter how far the French travel they are never 'abroad', France comes with them.

When I said 'holed-up' at Tropic Autocaravanas I meant this literally; we are trapped. Two days of gusty winds means travel on the elevated sections of the A7 would be distinctly unpleasant in a high sided vehicle. We will stay put until the gales abate. Somewhat co-incidentally this is the second time this has happened to us here. In February 2015 we had to take shelter from stormy weather in the campsite at Mamola, 7km. along the coast. Maybe the fact we are so close to the 11,000' Sierra Nevada creates more active weather systems hereabouts; perhaps we have simply been unlucky. Who knows?

Anyway, we are parked about 20 metres from the beach, the winds have washed the dust from the atmosphere, the light is crystal clear - another laid-back day, a bit of reading, a bit of blogging, a lot of being buffeted.