Ölive oil and hörses in beautiful Ändalusia

It felt good to be back in Spain and after an overnight stay not too far from the border we were heading towards Barcelona. It was our plan to go into a Decathlon to shop a board bag for our surfboard, since it completely broke when we tried to open it the last time. I guess this is fine the boardbag was already pretty old and was on top of Rosi for the full trip so far and always exposed to the elements. When we entered the area of Barcelona the traffic got intense. I knew that there is a lot of traffic in Barcelona all the time, but this felt exceptionally…. When we left the highway we saw that all the traffic lights were turned off and a few poor police officers tried to organise traffic where possible. We found a parking spot and I tried to enter the Decathlon but everything was closed. Our cellphone connection was bad all the time but I did not think about it. But when I was standing in front of the closed shopping center in the middle of Barcelona I realised that no-one was looking at their phone, because there was no connection. It was the day of the big blackout in Spain and Portugal. After we realised that we continued too Castelladelfels to visit an old friend that I had worked with before. He owns a house close to the beach and Linda an me took this opportunity to relax a few days at his place.

When we left we did not know how far we would get, but somehow we had a pretty good run and made it until Lunar Cable park. This is a pretty famous wakeboard cable park in the south of Spain. I had heard about it many times but now we could make it. The park has a beautiful Mountain backdrop and is located in the spill over channel of a huge dam. Also you can easily camp there with a van and overlook the full cable park. The vibe around the cable and the people were very friendly and we stayed for two nights. Of course we got on the water as well, but since we are not used to wakeboarding we both got incredibly sore and I could hardly move my arms when we left.

On the way further south we stopped in a few of the pueblos blanks like Nìjar which were beautiful as long as they were located a little inland. Also we were surprised by the huge amouth of greenhouses. Especially in the most southern part there were greenhouses everywhere. The few times we drove to the coast were really disapppointing. The cities seemed shady and we did really not like it there. So we just continued. Another travel friend of me was currently in El palmar, which is already the Atlantic coast of Spain and since it was his birthday we drove another longer trip. Nick and me have been road tripping many times before. We have been in Portugal, France, Spain and even Brazil together and he even has a show where he talks about all his travel adventures. When we arrived in El Palmar, we could see him immediately. He was standing with his long blonde hair in the middle of a big crowd in front of a surf shop holding a beer in his hand…. just as I know him. We sat down at a beach bar and drank a beer together and ate some tasty spanish olives. It felt sooo good to be here and I had the feeling that this is what we were aiming for. Just the waves were missing at that moment. It felt good to talk and joke all the way until the sun set. We drank one beer after the other and than some more Gins…. In the end we ended up dancing in front of the bar. It was a beautiful evening, maybe a few drinks too much, but still a nice night.

A few days later Nick was heading towards Tarifa and Linda and me drove inland. There were still a few things we wanted to do, before we head over to Portugal.

One thing that was on my bucket list was the „caminito del rey“, which means more or less kings way. It used to be a maintenance route for workers of a dam over a century ago and got its name because when it was opened the former king of Spain walked it. It was on my list for many many years and used to be a very dangerous way through a steep canyon without any handrails. They fully renovated it about 10 years ago and now it is really save but still very spectacular. Linda and me were surprised about the sudden appearance of all the tourists but we luckily still got a ticket to hike through the canyon and could enjoy the spectacular scenery. At some places you could still see the remains of the old way and could only imagine how it must have felt to climb without any handrails the narrow pathways that were build into the wall. Although the place was full of tourists we were still happy that we had done it.

During the last 100 years the area had been extended with two other big dams and thanks to the heavy rainfall in march the reservoirs were almost full and the scenery around was colourful from all the flowers. Therefore it was also really nice to camp the nights around the lakes. One day we drove to Ronda to do an olive oil tasting and ended up more by accident at La Almazara from LA organic. The tour was interesting but not extraordinary, what is extraordinary is the building where the tasting takes place and where the oil is produced. It is at the same time a sculpture from Philipe Stark and resembles a bull in a huge cube. It is archtetially incredible from the inside and the outside. The tasting was also very interesting, because we both had never done an olive oil tasting before. It is incredible how different olive oils tastes if you try them pure. We ended up buying a small high quality oil that tastes incredibly good with bread.

Afterwards we drove one last time to the direction of the caminito del rey, because we had booked an activity that we originally wanted to have done already in Argentina, but somehow never did it: We went horse back riding. The place is called „Horse Riding el Chorro“ and it is run by an old british guy. The fact that he has over 1000 google rating and all of them are 5 stars convinced us. Marc is an incredible guy. He looks and talks like a cowboy and guided us through the beautiful terrain around his ranch. For me the 4 hour tour was a real adventure although we just walked slowly most of the time. Linda was a little underwhelmed, because it was too easy for her, but she enjoyed the scenery and Marcs crazy stories as well. The last few hundred meters the horses galloped back to the ranch in full speed and this was a adrenaline rush for me and a prefect end for the area. We came to the conclusion that Andalusia in Apain is a beautiful and worth to visit region as long as you stay in-land. Marx fully supported that conclusion.