Next morning, the bicycle workshop was very sorry, but it hadn't had time to do Ann's bike. So we decided on a short, flat trip to Salobrena, where we could stay 2 nights and explore further without our baggage.
To avoid the highway, we went first to the port of Motril, then along the track by the beach towards Salobrena, with a small detour inland to cross a river. Salobrena is a medieval town atop a rock, surmounted by a restored Moorish castle, and with houses tumbling down the two less steep sides of the rock. We booked into the friendly Hostal Mari Carmen halfway up, with a terrace looking out onto the sea to the right and (on a very fine day) Capiliera in the mountains to the left.
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| Lunch on the beach in Salobrena | Looking back into the hills from our terrace |
Because it is on a rock that cannot expand, Salobrena itself is almost completely unspoiled. Pictures in the museum show
that as recently as in the 1980s the plain around contained nothing but fields with orchards, sugar cane and vegetables.
Even today, the development is confined to apartments along the beach for about 2Km, and there are none of plastic sheets
that blight horticulture further East towards Almeria.
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| Salobrena from below | New developments seen from the castle |
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| Salobrena castle guarded by an ancient in traditional costume | Almunecar |
Next day we cycled to Almunecar, mainly on the main road for lack of an alternative as the hills fell straight into the sea.
This was not too bad, as the road had a hard shoulder allowing us to keep clear of the traffic. Almunecar itself is quite a
large resort, stretching some 6Km from Velilla to Cotobro, and quite nice as large resorts go. However, we were glad to get
back to Salobrena, which is clearly the jewel of this stretch of coast