October 23d. Update

Since my last update we have spent most of our time in and around Olvera.  At last posting the weather seemed to be changing as cloud cover moved in from the west. After looking at the forecast we decided to head to the coast for a couple of days. So on Friday the 13th, we booked a hotel on Tarifa and hit the road.

There are a several route options to get from Olvera to Tarifa. We decide to take a route that took us though Gaucin, the village we stayed in last year. We stopped for coffee and  chatted with local, whom we had met last year.  This route follows nice winding two lanes highways though the mountains until it meets the main highway near Algeciras.  From there to the turn off to Tarifa is not quite as much fun...  busy traffic, confusing signs, exits and traffic circles.

Tarifa is located on a point of land that protrudes south into the Mediterranean. It is most southern tip of mainland Spain. Tarifa is well know by the wind and kite surfing community.  There is a constant wind blowing. We came back to Tarifa on this trip for two reasons... one was for the weather, which was forecast to be better than in Olvera and to eat at a restaurant called Bar El Francés.  Unfortunately, the weather was not quite as nice as forecast but the food at El Frances did not disappoint.  It is the best restaurant food we have had in Spain or Portugal.

Bar el Frances is small bar with a large outdoor patio.  The bar comfortably accommodates about 15 standing patrons but but there are usually 25 people inside, shoulder to shoulder.  We arrived at the bar at about 2 pm and we were informed that we were number 10 on the waiting list for a table.  No problem we went for stroll around the old town for 45 minutes. When we arrived back, I shouldered my way into the bar and ordered some drinks, brought them outside and we stood on the sidewalk enjoying the refreshments, chatting with the other patiently waiting customers.  

The view from our hotel room. The mountains you can see are the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

Nicely decorated cannon on  a lookout in Tarifa

The next day we followed the Mediterranean coast back to San Pedro de Alcantara and took highway A-397 to Ronda and then to Olvera.  The A-397 is well known as one of the best motorcycling roads in Andalucia.  It was busy on the Saturday we returned to Olvera but we are planning to had back to the coast on this coming Thursday.

On our way along the coast we stopped for a few hours in Estepona. All along this coast is very touristy. There are many condos and apartment buildings but the older parts of the villages are quite nice. The beaches are long and wide and there are nice long promenades on which to walk or bicycle.

When we arrived back in Olvera the partly cloudy weather persisted though the weekend and the high daytime temperature had declined to the low 20s.   Nice weather to be outside. We are continuing to walk or bicycle every day.

On Monday we rented bicycles to ride the via verde from Olvera to Puerto Serrano and return. A total distance of 73 kilometres.  As I have mentioned before, the ride is downhill to Puerto Serrano and uphill on the return.  Our previous experience indicated that the return trip took twice and long and the uphills seemed much steeper than they looked. The afternoon sun and wind didn't make it any easier.  This time Linda opted to rent and E-bike. I stuck with a basic mountain bike.

We stopped at the intermediate point (Corripe) for coffee, then continued  on the Puerto Serrano. After a bite to eat in the station restaurant we started to prepare for the return ride.  Just as we were about to leave, a family arrived  on the via verde. We had seen and chatted briefly with them in Corripe.  They were a from the Netherlands.  We told them that we were riding back to Olvera and asked them if they were planning to do the same. They laughed and said "No. We are taking a taxi back."  The man had rented an E-bike,  and asked me if I wanted to use it for the return trip.  We discussed it for a moment or two and we decided that he would take my mountain baike in the Taxi and I would ride the E-bike back.

In retrospect I was very lucky. Even with the E-bike, the ride back was good exercise. One thing that I really like about E-bikes it that they don't provide power unless you do.  You can select different levels of assist but you can also control the amount of effort that you want to exert. In other words you can get as much of a workout as you want... or not?  Also when 2 people are riding together you can maintain the same pace. One simply uses more or less assistance and you both get a good workout. We spent roughly 5 hours riding the 70+ K.

Another view of the local area taken from the via verde.

 
It was a good thing that we got our ride in on Monday.  Stormy weather arrived. We had 2 days of thunder showers and continuous rain. We went out and bought an umbrella and kept up our exercise routine.  I make this sounds much more athletic that it really is.  We walked to the grocery store a few times do get some more wine.  By Friday we were back to blue skies!

Friday evening we received an unexpected email from a couple who live in Fernie. They had heard, through the grape vine, that we were in Olvera and arranged their bicycle trip  to stop in Olvera for  2 nights. Jason and Louise explained in the email how they knew we were here and asked if we wanted to get together for coffee. We met Saturday morning for coffee and spent the day together hiking around town and taking a trail to one of the adjacent villages for lunch.  When we returned to Olvera we took them to our local for a couple of sunset drinks.

We don't remember meeting Jason and Louise before but we are certainly glad that they contacted us.  It was great to get to know them. We had a wonderful day. Looking forward to seeing them on ski hill this winter.

We managed to catch up with this snail as he was racing across the path.

Sunset in Olvera from Bar El Tapir Despistado

 Tomorrow we are planning to go to walk El Caminito del Rey with some friends.  I should have some interesting photos for the next report.