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Writer's pictureAnna Cooper

What a load of Bull, a truly spanish evening and a broken mallet

Our trip through Spain was deliberately speedy. Because of our car troubles in France we are running about 9 days behind schedule and if we are to prevent further delay, we needed to get to Morocco as quickly as possible. That said, we both love rural Spain and wanted to spend a few days camping, so we headed to the Ronda region in the South West.



Having spent our 1st night at Hotel Europa in the north, the next day was a long 7 hour journey to the middle of Spain which presented a series of incredible landscapes occasionally spotted with a 14m high black Bull sign. Apparently there are 92 across mainland Spain and all can be seen from the motorway network. We must have seen 20 of them on our trip, along with 3 matador signs of a similar size.



Our 2nd night in Spain saw us at a traditional roadside hotel and restaurant near the historic and picturesque Cordoba, Hotel La Lancha. The hotel itself was fine, and the room was plain, but functional, though the bed was on its last legs and so we moved the mattress on to the floor and slept there rather than a) have an embarrassing disaster or b) try to explain our concerns to the receptionist in broken spanish. That mattress was so comfy tho.


The restaurant was open air and was clearly hugely popular with locals that seemed to arrive with their entire extended families to fill a huge open space with children playing and families enjoying food and socialising into the late evening. It was a windy evening, but the wind was warm and the atmosphere was great. We had the best meal there - Gaz tucked into an enormous plate of calamari and looked like he'd gone to heaven. The staff were all amazing and the service we received was great. We would 100% recommend this hidden gem to anyone in the area.


Hotel and restaurant La Lancha

Carretera de Madrid-Cadiz,

km 393,

Córdoba,

14610,

Spain



Happy Campers

The 3rd leg of our journey through Spain brought us to Ronda, where we camped at Camping El Sur, a lovely campsite about 1.5km south of Ronda town. The site is typical of the continent, with limited grass, but well defined pitches surrounded by mature trees and shrubs. From the moment we arrived, I knew we would like it there. We were greeted by a lovely lady on reception who wanted us to help her improve her pronunciation of English words, and gave us loads of great information and advice. She was awesome. We saw her every day, and every day she remembered our names and wanted to chat. It's those little things that make all the difference and because of her, our experience at the site was made so much better.


Gaz did a great job of getting the pegs into the hard Spanish ground. He worked like a demon in the heat, and managed to break our mallet before asking reception who lent us something more solid and some short sturdy pegs that went into the ground more easily. Watch the vid.




Apart from Gaz being attacked by a nest of giant army ants, we had a great time on the site. We spent the first day swimming and relaxing by the pool, catching rays and the first night drinking cold beers and cooking around our camping stove. lush. After Gaz had had a few beers and a couple of glasses of red, he disappeared for a wander in the dimpsy dark and returned having 'borrowed' a cable and adapter that would help us connect to the electric hookup. It had been laying on the edge of a pitch that wasn't

being used, and whilst I did feel bad, I was pleased that we could plug everything in and charge it all up. What a monkey he is, but I'm an accomplice I guess! There is a vid below - it's almost completely blacked out by the darkness, but you can get the gist!




The next day we visited Ronda, and specifically the Bull Ring and the New Bridge - not so new now as its been standing since 1785, but the previous bridge only stood for a handful of years before collapsing into the gorge below and killing 50 people, so this new one is doing pretty well. The town is beautiful and we would both recommend it as a place to visit for a day or two.



Just down the road is a place called Smurf Village as well - called this since 2011 when Sony approached the village and paid for all the houses to be painted blue as support for the promotion of The Smurfs 3D. And since that time, the residents have kept the village blue. Bizarre but true. https://www.andalucia.com/province/malaga/juzcar/home.htm

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