Arcos and travel day to Ronda

Travel day today from El Puerto to Ronda - a fairly simple task really except after a quick stop at the supermarket our friendly GPS Lady is "no speaky" anymore. We stop in a bus stop to try to get her talking but to no avail, so we persevere without spoken guidance. But some of these directions are very hard to follow on the the map without the voice overlay and we take the 4th exit instead of the 5th exit or something and have to correct ourselves by driving alongside the road we want - but for only 500m before we can merge so no real harm done this time but we need to stop and fix the talky which we do at the next servo.

On our journey today we stop in at Arcos de la Frontera which is one of the famous white villages. Bob hoofs it up to the Cathedral at the top of the town but I am not up to it today (which I am told later was the smart decision as it was steep and hard work in the heat). On the way out of town we manage to find the best Mirador (view spot) and get great shots of the town tumbling down the hill in all its white glory. And we then head off to the most famous town in the area - Ronda.

Guess where - Arcos

Laneway up to Cathedral in Arcos

Outside Cathedral in Arcos

Exterior of Cathedral in Arcos

Another view of exterior of Cathedral in Arcos

On top of Arcos

Another shot overlooking Arcos

Before we go, Bob wants to explain the joys of motorhome travel in a rental van - in that you basically have to put up with what you got!
In our case, a very overactive, nanny state ‘driving assistant’. It bings and bongs for every speed sign change, even advisory signs, lane keeping, keep both hands on the wheel, etc. With how the roads work here, you approach a merge on the road ahead and your speed signs go say 80, 70, 60, sometimes 50, and then back up 60, 70, 80 in the space of a few hundred metres, and this happens every time there is a merge, an intersection, or whatever. On the way up it’s a single pleasant bong, on the way down an annoying bing bing bing as you don’t immediately obey the speed warnings. ALL DAY LONG!

And after maximum 10 minutes of driving (and probably because of ignoring all the bings ) it bings ‘driver fatigue - stop and rest’. Multiple times on every drive on every day! It gives Bob the right "shites" and I keep hearing something that sounds like “shut the Fock up” from the drivers seat on a regular basis. Today while driving through the mountains it wears Bob down and he is fatigued for real, and we have to stop for a 5 min rest not far out from our destination in Ronda - but better safe than sorry! (Surely the van is not working properly but we ain’t paying to get it checked out, so we have to put up with it).

We check in to our quite pleasant campsite, Camping El Sur just outside of Ronda and relax for the evening. Still not feeling great and not hungry so Bob buys a pizza from the restaurant for his dinner (which is okay but not wonderful and fills a hole).

OK, tomorrow off to Ronda.

Adious