Magriet had business to see to in the morning, while I packed my suitcase and got ready, and then we took the road to Málaga. We turn left. Two blocks down we look at each other and laugh. Do we want to drive through the White Sea of plastic yet again????? NOOOO! U-turn is critically urgent. We have to turn to Almeria to reach the freeway easily.
Once on the A7/E15 to Motril Magriet drops off to sleep, because she has been very brave and over enthusiastic to make this trip to Salobreña. She is in fact too sick with flu to travel, but we are underway now. It is a busy freeway, but easy driving for the first half. Then the road takes to the coast with curves and bends that necessitate quite slow driving. And for the last small bit there is a piece of the A15 finished – a modern marvel of a road! The Spanish highways are mindblowing, maybe because I had no idea how advanced they are in road engineering! NO PROBLEM to make a tunnel through a mountain for one-way traffic! Viaducts one a penny.
Spanish roads and railways are among the best in the world
At last we come round a bend and see beautiful Salobreña: a high steep hill with a fort on top and houses all the way down.
Salobreña with moorish fort
Today there is an urban sprawl all the way to the sea. Magriet knows we are looking for Pensión Mari-Carmen, but has no other info. She relies on her instinct to find the place, but this place is pure one-way streets winding to hell and gone, and we are helpless. I get out and go and ask directions in another Hostal. I get a super map in the process, but the directions take it for granted I am on foot! Now we go forwards and backwards to find a place that is literally round the corner! At last a parking place at the village marketplace, and we schlepp our luggage up this steep hill to Pension Mari-Carmen. You see, it is a one-way coming down, and we have NO IDEA, not even with the map, how to approach it by car… Magriet has good reason to be proud of herself when we reach the pension and Mari-Carmen stands in the doorway!
Mari-Carmen
Magriet’s friend Retha in Cape Town who spends a lot of time here, has organised with Mari-Carmen that we will come for a night in May but M-C is not aware of the date yet. So her other guest house at the bottom of the hill is full tonight, but not to worry, she has two lovely rooms in this pension for us, and we are here now.
We each get a double room with shower. Magriet JUST makes it to the bed, flops down and falls asleep. After a while I check on her, and she says she is not going to leave her bed today, I should go and do the tourist thing in Salobreña. Poor Magriet!
I go down and I’m accosted by Mari-Carmen’s father who tries diligently to bring to my attention that I must remove my car from its current location, because tomorrow is market day, and the stalls need that space. If I leave my car there, the police will come and get me. In the end he offers to go with me and direct me. So we descend the hill, and he tells me to reverse 50 m in a narrow one-way lane with cars parked along the one side. OH BOY, I think! But I do as I’m told, and after 2 trial runs I succeed to park in front of a motor bike repair centre at the bottom of our road. Phew!!!
Now I go walkies, look around in the ‘flats’ neighbourhood (because it is built on flat ground, and it consists of apartment blocks). It looks like municipal housing in that they all look exactly the same, but the streets dividing them in a grid of parallel streets are all pedestrian zones (for children to play in) and lined on both sides by tall palms.
Flats quarter
After buying a few things in a large supermarket for supper, because I won’t be going to a restaurant alone tonight, I return home and spend some time with email and blog….
Here are some impressions of Salobreña. They might be typical of Salobreña, of Andalucía or of España…
Beautiful house exterior
Very decorative street signs
Steep streets
Super excellent cured meats
Giant ripe sweet loquats
Awesome vistas
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