Carmona

Hola

After yesterday’s successful repair job (and no need to wait for paint to dry and be polished), we decide to move straight on and go back north to Carmona.

But first a visit to the main attraction here in Conil de la Frontera (BTW it means on the border or frontier of the previous line between the Christian’s and the Muslim territory). The cliffs are quite interesting, in that there seems to be some erosion and/or collapsing into the sea in relatively recent times (say last 50 years) so we don’t get too close. And the wind - bloody hell I gain a completely new hairstyle.

On the way back down the hill, we spot a marine graveyard for old anchors - interesting.

We set off for the few hours drive, along the autovia so it’s all easy going( although windy here too and the can gets buffeted around a little bit). Bob has to put up with the Driver Fatigue alert on a regular basis (patience of a saint!). On the way, we see quite a few bit metal bull things (like a billboard) on the tops of hills along the way. Apparently it's an unofficial symbol of Spain.

We pull off the highway at the Carmona exit, and pretty much straight into the Municipal Autocaravanas free overnight stop (yep our 2nd one of the trip). It’s pretty basic, flat carpark, no shade yet although trees are growing, toilets 50m away - but yep it’s look fine.

Just like our last free stop (at Osuna), there is an ‘Orange’ weather alert here, but we brave the conditions and walk into Centro, and take our rain jackets just in case. We are here to visit our old friend Michael Portillo (nah only joking!), but he lives here for half of the year. Despite that, we don’t spot him anywhere!

We get into the old town, and the Tourist Info just inside the old main gate- BUT it’s closed with sign saying “Closed due to Orange Weather Alert” - really? We strike off into Centro about half a km slightly uphill - it’s a one way lane and there seems to be a lot of traffic - why is that? Of course everybody is heading home to bunker down for the major storm!

We reach Plaza de Asbastos, a traditional Castilian Market Square with 4 galleries (sides) with 28 stalls - but all except one is closed, and it is closing up once its 3 customers finish their coffee. They are taking this weather alert very seriously it seems.

Of course it does start to rain, so we retrace our steps back to the old main gate, shelter for a while, and have a relatively long conversation with a local construction worker on his way home on his bike (he is dropped off by a van and takes his bike out of the back). He speaks no English, we speak no Spanish but we think the gist is that he has come from Sevilla, and they had a storm and 50mm of rain there, and it’s heading our way!

So we quickly go over the road to the baby Giralda (smaller version of Sevilla Catedral Bell Tower), look at the attached very plain church building and wonder if it was also previously a Mosque (small, flat, plain and beside a previous Minaret - fair chance it’s a good guess).

Then we hoof it down the road, sheltering every few minutes in doorways when the heavier rain comes. We get back to the Van with wet feet but otherwise unscathed. Some more rain over the next half hour but then it’s done and there is blue sky. Bloody wimps we think, that wasn’t a storm! But interesting our only 2 free stops so far have both been in towns with orange weather alerts - how is that for good luck?

Dinner tonight is a lovely mushroom risotto (dehydrated) and cooked with some vino and boiling water, added chicken, and plenty of Parmesan - yummy.

Tomorrow we are heading for the town that is impossible to pronounce for English speakers - "Écija" (something like Eth - ee-ha), for an hour or two to look around. And then on to a campsite (a fair way) outside Cordoba. One thing we are finding here in Andalucia is that a lot of places don’t have campsites on the edge of town, they tend to be 20km away - which is fine if there is a regular bus service but that’s not always the case. This next one does have a bus that will take an hour to get into Cordoba, so depending on how often it goes by the camp, we might be driving into the edge of town ourselves.