Spain - Day 6

Shirley's dentist appointment to get her stitches out was this morning, but the dentist didn't seem to be open. Google thought it should be, but nobody appeared to be there. We asked in the pharmacy opposite and they didn't think it opened on Saturdays. They phoned the number for us, and just got an answering machine with details of what to do in emergencies.

There was nothing for it but to give up and go back on Monday morning before we leave the city for our next destination.

We drove to the fishing village of La Azohia, and set off on a coast walk. It went up a road to a tower first, then round on a rocky path.

At one point the path became too loose and steep, so we retraced our steps a bit and walked up to a peak instead.

The walk was about 6km in total.

We went to the carnival in Águilas later. This is a town on the coast just over an hour's drive from Murcia. The car parking was already very busy when we got there about 5pm and we parked in a river bed, hoping there wouldn't be a flash flood!

We had a drink at a bar at the beach, then walked into town and bought some pastries to eat.

The carnival started at 6, but we were quite a way down the street from the start so it took a long time to reach us. As we waited there were lots of carts selling snacks going round.

It was quite spectacular and colourful, though maybe a few too many kiddies dancing groups.

Afterwards we drove back to Murcia, getting home about 10pm.

Spain - Day 5

On going down to the car in the morning we discovered it had a scrape on the front right wing. We reckoned it must have happened while it had been parked yesterday at Cartagena. It looked like it wasn't too deep, and might mostly polish out.

We drove east to the Sierra Espuña National Park, and parked the car in the little mountain village of El Berro. On the way we'd passed loads of almond tree plantations.

We started a circular walk along forest tracks. We decided to extend it by walking up a gorge, reaching a height of over 1000m at one point. We saw some wild goats or ibexes, but weren't quick enough to photograph them.

At the end of the 18km walk we had a drink at a bar in the village, then drove home.

Later we made an omelette for dinner.

Spain - Day 4

There was a street market a couple of blocks away so we went for a look this morning. It was quite small, a few fruit and veg stalls and some other stuff like clothing etc. We bought some vegetables.

We then drove to the city of Cartagena at the coast, parking near the port. We visited the Roman Theatre, which is reached by going through a tunnel under the streets.

We then walked round a bit, and went up to a hill with a ruined monastery and windmill on it.

Then we visited the castle at the highest point in the city, with good views. There is an old bullring that we could see.

In total we walked around 6km in the city.

We then left the city and drove up the coast to a car park at Calblanque, where we went for a walk. Along the beach for a bit, then round some salt flats which had some flamingos in the distance.

This was a 4km walk.

On returning to the car we drove to the very strange holiday resort of La Manga, which is a 20km long narrow strip of land between an inland sea and the Mediterranean. We stopped for a drink at one of the few places we could see open.

We went home via a stop at the supermarket. For dinner we had vegetables and pasta.

Spain - Day 3

Just to the south of Murcia city is the El Valle and Carrascoy Regional Park. It has many hiking routes and tracks. Diego our Airbnb host had recommended one in particular so we did this today.

We drove to the Fuensanta Sanctuary and parked. First we had a little wander round the buildings there. The views back over the city were good.

We then started our hike, heading for the peak called Cresta del Gallo. It was fairly easy going, on tracks mainly through pine forests with occasional good views across the park.

At the peak, at about 480m, there was a little scrambling to do to get to the end.

We stopped for lunch there in a sunny sheltered spot, and were joined by a baby mountain goat.

On the way back down we passed through a very large picnic area.

The walk was just over 13km.

Once back at the car we drove round to a visitor's centre. A helpful lady there directed us to a path to a different visitor's centre and museum, which we took but it turned out to be further away than we expected, a good half hour's walk.

It was worth it though as you can get onto the roof for great views over an archaeological dig site next to it, where a monastery used to be.

The museum had interesting exhibits related to the silk industry in the area.

This was a further 2km walk.

We then drove back to the apartment. We discovered we could get onto the roof, which had a great view back to the Cresta del Gallo that we'd climbed to earlier.

For dinner we had burgers with chips, fried onions, and sweetcorn.