Tuesday 12 August 2008

Elusive Gibraltar


The Cabo de Gata, just east of Almeria is part of a vast natural park with beautiful beaches strung between the arid cliffs and capes. The waters were crystal clear and, so far, we haven’t seen a single jellyfish since the Mar Menor. We spent a couple of days just chilling out, reading and swimming and then planned to continue south. Unfortunately the wind was not cooperating and we ended up retracing our track a little up the coast where we found a sheltered anchorage at Playa de Genoveses, all part of the national park absolutely stunning. It’s fantastic to see a long, sandy beach with no development, ringed by striking rock formations. At night, with no light pollution there were millions of stars to see and incredible phosphorescence in the water for midnight swims.

The last few days we have been trying to make our way to Gibraltar, only 150 miles but very elusive! We have continuously encountered either no wind or headwinds which have reduced us to doing 20/30 mile motoring stints each day and finding somewhere to anchor at night.
We thought that the coastline here (east of Malaga) would be pretty awful but it lined by the majestic Sierra Almjara descending to a series of lovely sandy coves where it is not unusual to find people camping overnight. The rocks are lush with greenery and in our last anchorage fresh water was coursing down the hillside which was cultivated with trees hanging heavily with a myriad of avocados and fields of ripening green peppers. The towns have avoided the concrete towers and, although dense, are conglomerations of white low-rise buildings and pleasing on the eye.

So, now we have to try to get some more fuel to ensure that we can make it safely into Gibraltar which entails stopping at Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, not a stop we are looking forward to!!!

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