Leaving the site at Ronda Sur was a mix of being sad to go, having loved the site and our brief adventure into Ronda old town, mixed with excitement at being on the road again to the Atlantic coast at Conil.
We decided to take the mountain road across the Sierra Grazalema to Arcos, a stunning drive through cork groves that reminded us of our times in Portugal.
The little town/village of Grazalema was the first of the places we had been recommended to look for by the site at Ronda, and as it hove into view, we paused to take a pic and spotted a fuel station further up the road.
Often, these isolated stations have inflated prices, but every now and again we’ve come across one that is a similar if not better price to those in nearby towns – and this was one of them! Lucky for us, as we needed to refuel.
As we pulled in, Mrs B spotted a novel spin on the forecourt foliage; an entire border given over to an allotment-style garden growing berenjenas – aubergines – and soon Mr B was yabbering away to the guy filling Evie (another great thing about Spain – loads of stations still put your fuel in for you!) about fried aubergine flowers (olive oil of course) and sliced aubergines in breadcrumbs.
Echoing his enthusiasm, the owner then presented Mrs B with a couple of lovely striped berenjenas – the lush and creamy ones – which is how we have ended up with a pic of a very friendly fuel attendant holding his aubergines outside Evie in the mountains! What a lovely, kind gesture – so typical of people we have come across on this trip!
As we descended the other side of the Sierra towards Arcos, spotting lots of raptors circling up high (we wanted them to be the large Griffon Vultures that frequent these parts but we couldn’t really tell), we got excited about a quick lunch stop and wander around what our Rough Guide had described as an ‘undiscovered Ronda’. Hmm, well, it may have looked picturesque from afar…
…but in spite of our best efforts we were unable to find anywhere to park Evie in Arcos de la Frontera, even getting lost in one of the more run-down and slightly threatening barrios as we searched and searched…
Beating a hasty retreat and relying on Google Maps to get us onto a road out of town, we ended up continuing towards Medina Sidonia, the next place we hoped to stop.
The drive from Arcos to Medina was less spectacular, but did have what we thought was an unusual amount of sheep’s wool blowing around and stuck on fences like we see in the UK. It was only as we started to drive past fields that were clearly growing this sheep’s wool, that Mrs B realised that it was in fact cotton! And as we found out subsequently, Andalucia is Europe’s second largest cotton grower after Greece, producing some 20% of Europe’s cotton.
Medina Sidonia also failed to deliver on an easy pull-in for lunch, so Mr B continued on what was now turning into a marathon driving session. And, as we realised that the coast and Conil were not that far away, we just continued on until we reached the coast, and stopped for lunch on the edge of the cliffs, near a big free camping area with fabulous views of the Atlantic waves – beautiful!
We came here as a base to get to Cádiz, but who knows, we may stay longer!
S&J
02.11.22
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