Our Olvera Area Activities

The weather here has been very nice. Mostly sunny with scattered clouds and temperatures in the high 20s. The photo below was taken from the stairs to the upper roof patio of our rented house. It is such a lovely place to relax and enjoy the scenery. We often spent time relaxing and reading on the upper patio while listening to Radio Paradise on the Bluetooth speaker.

We are really enjoying our relaxing visit to Olvera. We have developed quite a few friends and acquaintances here over the years 

Last week we hiked up the hill that is visible in the photo above, centre top. There is an extensive trail system on the mountain. Both circular and one way routes.  We hiked up for about 90 minutes and then returned on the same trail. This hill is also well known  for paragliding.

These are two photos taken on the trail. If not for the haze, one could see Olvera in the top photo. The trail was rocky and some sections of loose gravel made is quite slippery, but overall it was a moderate uphill trail with do dangerous exposure.  

I tried to include a video of  a group (flock?) of Griffin Vultures circling over us as we approached the top of the hill.  They looked like they were waiting for us to expire so they could have us for lunch.  For whatever reason my iPad was unable to process the video for display.  

We have been cycling every few days.  This photo was taken a a bridge along the Via Verde de las Sierras. The mountain in the background is called Zaframagón. It is a protected area for the Griffin Vulture colony.  

This route took along CA-9101 though La Muela and Dow to the vía verde at estación Coripe.  Then we followed the via verde back to Olvera. Just over 50k in total. 

One or our favourite destinations is the town of Setenil.  It is located only 16k from Olvera. It is quite scenic and there are some nice cafes there.  

We normally bike into town via this arched tunnel. We can lock our bikes to a lamp post on the sidewalk and the walk down the stairs and lanes to the centre of the village.  This town is quite famous because of it’s cave dwellings. Some of which are inhabited to this day. 

A small cafe spreading out into the narrow street. 

I mentioned in an earlier posting that we had rented a motor scooter for a couple of weeks. We made good use of. It was very enjoyable to ride and quite practical for this environment.  It took a few days to become comfortable with it and appreciate it’s assets.  

We mostly stuck to the secondary paved roads which are only just wide enough for two cars to pass each other. They are winding and hilly and often have blind corners.  They are fun to ride on a moto but one has to make sure that one leaves sufficient space for an approaching vehicle in the curves.  

I took this photo after I returned the scooter. The one on the right of the photo is the one we had.  This motorcycle shop (el Motorista) was huge. It was located in an area populated by several motorcycle dealers, not far from the race track in Jerez, used for MotoGP races.

Occasionally we rode on the main two lane highways.  The speed limit is 90 kph on these roads and the 125cc scooter was not capable of maintaining this speed.  Downhill, yes. Uphill, no.  It was comfortable cruising in the 80 to 85 kph zone.  As long as the road was not too busy I was comfortable with this.

I found the scooter more manoeuvrable at slow speed compared to a regular motorcycle. Partly due to the low centre of gravity and partly due to the lack of a tank between you legs.  Also the lack of a clutch and an auto transmission, similar to a snowmobile, simplifies the slower riding. The lack of a high tank at a higher speed seems to make the scooter feel less directionally secure, compared to a motorcycle where knee pressure helps. However, this scooter felt very stable a higher cruising speeds.  

I was concerned about cornering and lean angle.  It turned out to not be anything to worry about.  The bike handled very well in the corners.

The big asset of the scooter over a motorcycle is the cavernous storage compartment under the seat. About  50 litres of secure storage space.  With a rear top bag  (and the 350cc motor) this scooter would make a great Europe touring machine. 

Urban Building Art is common in Spain.  This is the side of a comercial building in the north part of Ronda.  Ronda is a popular destination town.  It is located about an hour inland from the Mediterranean coast and about  45k south of Olvera.  We went there twice on the scooter to have lunch and to do some shopping. 

This cute little fellow was on our neighbours door yesterday morning. 

Back in Olvera

 We have been in Olvera for a week now.  It is nice to be here. We rented the same house that we have rented since 2017. It feels like home.   (It is for sale again, so this might be the last time we rent it.)

As I was writing the last paragraph, I was thinking to myself,  “home”…  How do you define that? Where exactly is  our “home” located?  Sure, Fernie house is our principal residence, but except for the period of time when covid travel restrictions were in place, I don’t think that we have spent more than 6 weeks “residing” in any single location, during the last 10 years or more. Having two residences in BC for 14 years certainly contributed to this situation. 

We are thinking that soon we should minimize the travel and settle in one location for a longer time period     But the fact is is that we really enjoy the change of scene and culture.  We are both particularly attracted to life in Spain and Portugal.  Albeit, not enough to immigrate, but enough to continue to return as much as possible.

Enough of that….. here are photos of our neighborhood in Olvera. The house is located at the top of a high hill in the old village.  The streets are too narrow for cars, bikes and scooters can enter   

This is an old comunal water supply at the entrance to the area. 
It is still functional. 

View from patio 

The doorway on the far right is the entrance to the house.  In the upper part of the photo is one of the access lanes. 

Coming down the lane to the house 

The house is on the corner of the street. One of the rooftop patios is visible. 

We have been busy since we arrived.  The first couple of days we spent getting organized. We had some stuff stored at a friends place and our bikes were in storage in a shed in a small farm located on the edge of town.  Everything had stored well.  

The bikes were a little dusty but cleaned up.  No problem with the batteries. Both had a good charge.  We have done three good bike rides since we arrived.  The first was a short out and back trip on the vía verde (bike path on abandoned rail line). The other two were circular routes.  The first of these was  about 47k and todays ride was about 44k. 

The area we are in is very hilly.  One is generally riding downhill or uphill.  There are few level areas.  Below is a screen shot from my phone of today’s ride.  Note the “elevation gain” in the bottom right corner of the screen shot.  Even on a e-bike, 4147 metres (13,606 ft) of climbing is quite a bit of work.   We ride the bikes more like a normal bike than an e-bike. We only use a minimum of assist so as to keep moving. We are generally in the lowest gear on the steeper climbs.  We both had more than 60% of the battery power remaining when we finished the ride.  The batteries had more power left than we did! It was a pretty tough ride in hot conditions.

A couple of days ago we took a bus into the city of Jerez.  Jerez is located about 100k west of Olvera. We went there to pickup a scooter that we have rented for two weeks.  It is only a 125cc scooter but it is physically larger than a most scooters. (This model is available with a 350cc motor). It is one of the newer “X” type scooters introduced by Honda a few years ago. (Not available in North America). It is cross between a scooter and a motorcycle.  Larger wheels, better suspension, antilock disc brakes and on/off road tires. It has excellent passenger seating and the 125cc version is cable of cruising at speeds up to 90 kph. It will be perfect for short trips around this area and will give us more flexibility.  It is really fun to ride and inexpensive to rent.  

Below are a few photos taken during our bike rides.    The top photo was taken on a local access road coming into the village of la Muela.  Later on we came around a bend, the road ahead was full of goats being bearded back from their grazing area.  Dad was driving the car and his young sone was out helping to keep the stragglers moving.  We stopped on the side of the road so as not to impede their progress. 

View from near the house. Remains of old village wall to the right. 

Almost sunset shot from the rooftop patio 

Santa Luzia, Faro,

Last Thursday we took the Algarve train from Lagos to Tavira. Roughly two and a half hours travelling time. 

We have rented a condo in the small fishing village of Santa Luzia. Santa Luzia is located about 3k west of Tavira. It is an easy walk or bike ride between the two. Our accommodation is very well appointed.  Everything you need for a long or short stay.  It also includes the use of two bicycles as well as beach chairs, mats etc.  There is also an underground garage and a pool.  

We have been making good use of the bikes. There is a bike path that runs all the way into the centre of Tavira.  There are a couple of small grocery stores in Santa Luzia but there is a better selection in the larger supermarkets in Tavira?  It is a similar situation with restaurants. There is more selection in Tavira.

These are the bikes that came with the apartment rental. There were some tools so that we could make the necessary adjustments. The bikes worked very well for us. They are parked in front of the condo. Ours was second floor centre in this photo. 

The beaches are located on an island.  There are 3 organized beaches with cafes, beach chairs and life guards. Each of these beaches are located about 30 mins apart when walking on the beach.  Between these beaches, there is lots of space to avoid others.  As is common with this type of  semi isolated beaches in Europe, clothing is optional.

Access to the beach is via ferry from Tavira and Santa Luzia.  However 1.5 kilometre from the edge of Santa Luzia, one can walk to the beach of take a small train, pictured above. The ride is about 1.5k. 

The above photo was taken from the Santa Luzia beach ferry as we passed some of the fishing boats at dock. 

The waking path to the train station and path to the beach.

In Tavira for the evening. This photo was taken from the Roman bridge. There are many nice restaurants in Tavira. Our favourite restaurant and bar is located on the right bank, in this photo.  It is called Terraze.

Below is a photo of  the statue of Pope Marcelino Franco. Located in a small park Jardim da Alagoa, in Tavira.  The park is surrounded with restaurants.  

Above are are a couple of photos from the more historical part of Tavira 

Friends from Fernie met up with us for a few days  Ruth and Dan had been touring the UK and took some time off to visit Portugal and Spain. We are together in Seville but heading on our own way tomorrow.