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What is the route like north from Malaga to Madrid?
Away by 0830 and stopping every hour or two to check we
still have a waste water pipe outlet tap still attached.
It took ten minutes this morning to clean the windows and
side mirrors – so much sand!
I almost shed a tear as we finally leave the lovely coastal
A7 road. We will miss it but are keen to head back next year.
Up the A44 we trundle. What an impressive road it is. We
climb higher and higher, crossing some very impressively engineered viaducts
and some giddying deep ravines and mountain gorges. The higher we climb, the
more the big plastic water bottles stored behind the passenger seat crackle
inwards. Altitude pressure changes. Our ears pop! Between the A7 and the top
most part of the A44, the temperature falls by 7C.
We pass high peaks blanketed in snow and cloud. Fire smoke
from distant bonfires on agricultural land rises vertically a few metres and
then is flattened outwards due to the high pressure above.
The geography is truly extraordinary. We travel over 80
kilometres where there is nothing more to see than rolling landscapes covered
by olive plantations. Long lines of olive trees and buff-coloured soils as far
as the eye can see and up here on the basin plateaus that is some distance to
the horizon!
Thousands of square kilometres of nothing but olive
agriculture. Punctuated by occasional glimpses of tall shiny metallic giant
vats and olive processing plants.
Extraordinary agriculture!
Up past Jaen we continue and so too do the olive
plantations! Thousands upon thousands of hectares. Dry, dusty, creamy cotton
coloured stony soils, transitioning to reddish sandstone colours as we progress
north. The view from space must be an
astonishing grid like, patchwork quilt.
At the Repsol petrol station, we get a pump attendant and a
windscreen wash as well. Service with a smile, for free.
We started this journey down on the coast living the area
around Almeria – extensive hectares of plastic greenhouses – tomatoes,
courgettes, lettuces. Orange groves in-between. We progress to olive
plantations, then olives and vines; finally, we cross huge plains of open
fields of cereals – stubble left in the ground from previous crops. It is
extraordinary agricultural production. And up here, at 1900m (6200’), it is all
the more astonishing!
It is difficult to describe the beauty of the landscape we
have travelled across today. If you cut out each colour block from a Dulux
Paint chart depicting ‘natural colours’ and then scattered them across a creamy
coloured carpet, you might get a representation of what the landscape is like.
Muted greens – sage, rosemary, thyme, lavender. Soils ranging in colour from
terracotta to orchid and calico off whites and creams. Patterns and textures –
plough patterns, strip fields, circular olive tree crowns, long black thin
lines of vines in rows. A genuine landscape patchwork quilt. Stunning,
absolutely stunning.
And then we hit Madrid. She announces her presence twenty
kilometres out – sudden large industrial estates of factories and warehouses.
The suburbs – high density packed apartments and then the M30!
Are we in a low emissions environmental zone? The struggle
to translate the overhead illuminated flashing signs? Surely the M30 isn’t
included? Nothing on the satnav or google maps to indicate otherwise? What do
the statements mean?
From two lanes to four and in places five! Huge traffic
volumes and insane crazy merging lanes from both the left and the right. Its
frankly terrifying to negotiate. Mile
after mile of urban sprawl and high traffic volumes and then just like that, it
stops. We are free! None the wiser as to whether we needed an emissions sticker
or whether we should expect a fine in the post when we get back!
That is not a journey we ever want to repeat – driving
around(?)/ through(?) Madrid!
An hour later we arrive at the low mountain town of Riaza.
Delightful.
A stunning little
town centre built around a circular central gravel meeting area in front of the
town hall. Around the gravel area a narrow-cobbled road and around that a
circular walkway underneath extended house first floors. Old, almost medieval
in look. Small shops, lots of restaurants. Lots of old, weathered wooden
support pillars. Delightful! Quint, quiet, idyllic.
The town’s motorhome site is a sloping car park just beyond
the lovely church with its square belfry and two bronze bells. It is a fair
degree slope and chocks will be needed. We go to the very bottom and manage to
find a very gradual sloping car park spot. Where three other vans have stopped!
Surrounded by distant snow-capped mountains, the air is
distinctly chilly! A cold faint breeze adds to the windchill effect. We go for
a stroll, call in at the little supermarket and stock up on chocolate, wine,
beer and bread!
We have driven/navigated four hundred miles today ....... 8
hrs driving with four breaks at services. The little miniature ponies alongside
us in the field, peer over the wire fence and look at us as if we are
bonkers! Which, clearly, we are!
In such a rural, high attitude setting, I am togging up for
some stargazing. Thermal trousers, two gilets and a duvet jacket!
I don’t last long. The car park lights are too bright. The
orange neon glow from the town lights casts an orange glow across space and out
towards Mars!
No wonder aliens don’t drop by! They can see us billions of
lights years out just from our light pollution!
Useful information:
Route: A45 – A4 – M50 – M30 – A1 – N110
Distance: 411 miles
Costs: 130 euros for fuel; campsite – free
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