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Almuñécar Spain 2022 - Week 1

Our First Week in Almuñécar

On Monday morning we went to the supermarket Mercadona to do a big shop and after that we met up with our friend Gordon Priestly who lives in the next village Salobreña. After a brief catch up Gordon took me into town to buy some firewood for the fireplace. The weather was not what we were expecting. Dull and cold to say the least and the fire in the evening was a great help.

We spent a quiet afternoon and I actually did a bit of painting with the Acrylic paints that I brought with me. Nothing worth displaying I might add.

Bright and Sunny on the day we arrived

The next morning we got up to a very big surprise. When we looked out of the window we just couldn’t believe our eyes. The whole sky was covered with a very strong orange hue. Everything around us was covered in a very fine red sand. The atmosphere was thick with the sand and everyone was advised to stay indoors. Cars, outdoor furniture, the floor, absolutely everything was just covered. This lasted all day so we just stayed indoors. During the night we got a bit of rain, which just made things worse.

What a difference a day can make. The Red Storm

We spent all of Wednesday washing down the house. Everything from the walls, furniture and the floors. It took several attempts at get it anywhere near clean. I had to clean the car in the afternoon and even this took simply ages.

By the end of the day it was great deal worse

Thursday was spent at Gordon’s house helping him with his clean up. As his house is far larger, this took even longer. Fortunately, he had someone help him with with cleaning the pool area. Weather wise things were improving and after another shop for firewood we managed to spend some time sun bathing?

As Friday morning was sunny I decided to go for a ride on my bike. Warm, very little wind and sunny so the conditions were ideal. I followed a couple of other riders for a few miles and when they stopped to go back. I carried on for a further 10 miles as I was still feeling good. Did a total of 40 miles.

An enjoyable rise along the coast

Ann did her morning exercises and then decided to walk into the centre of town as she needed to get a few things, only to discover that all the shops were closed as it was one of Spains national holidays. She came back exhausted after a 90 minute walk, empty handed and with very sore feet.

As the weather forecast for Saturday was sunny and warm, we decided to go for a drive in the hills above Nerja, driving through some very narrow, winding and hilly roads to take in the villages of Cómpeta, Árchez and Vélez-Málaga and then made our way to the Embalse de la Viñuela which is a large reservoir. The water level in the reservoir was really low, indicating just how dry a winter it has been in this area. We had a coffee in a very lovely large Spanish restaurant.

We continued our drive to one of our favourite places in the area, one that we had discovered a couple of years ago, Pizzeria Venezia, an Italian Restaurant in the seaside village of La Herradura. We had a couple of delicious Pizzas which we shared sitting outside in the sun watching the world go by. La Herradura is normally a very quiet little place but on this Saturday a fiesta was taking place so the area was very busy with horse and boat displays, marching bands and a lot of amusement and food stalls. We eventually made our way home after a busy but very enjoyable day.

Scenes from La Herradura