Stephanie Jane: My Week in Review to the 14th January

This week has mostly been about the walking. We returned to the coastal town of Bolnuevo, very near to our Isla Plana campsite and also the site of our first Spanish trip some eight years ago now. We parked up by these eerie eroded rocks which are the iconic sight in Bolnuevo. Both of us thought they had eroded much more since our last visit. Our walk took us out from the end of town which has extended further into the countryside, but still isn't too drastically developed. We went off into the hills a little way before turning back seawards and eating our picnic lunch on a secluded pebble beach. We then popped into the Oasis Bar which used to be a ramshackle place at the very end of the seafront. It's now more hemmed in by villas and apartments and has seriously smartened up. We can both recommend their Baileys coffee with leche condensada (condensed milk). It's a drinkable dessert!

On another day, we wandered the streets of Mazarron. Whereas Bolnuevo and Puerto De Mazarron are all about the seaside and leisure, Mazarron itself is a working town with bizarre juxtapositions of expensive looking houses and business premises occupying the same streets as apparently derelict buildings or waste ground plots. It's like there has been a big influx of regeneration cash, but spent in a very haphazard way! We admired some of the older architecture, especially impressively huge wooden doors, before seating ourselves in the place which was the real purpose of our trip: Calle Delicias! After having sampled an Austrian coffee shop in Xabia, we treated ourselves to this Belgian teashop in Mazarron. I liked the Almond and Cinnamon Tea although Dave was underwhelmed by his Peach blend. He struck lucky with his cake though - the last slice of Galete Du Roi which is a special almond confection traditionally made in Belgium for Three Kings Day on the 6th of January. Delicious!

Friday was bright and sunny so we decided a hill walk was a good option. Suitably equipped with water and a picnic lunch, we expected to be out about two hours or so. The hike ended up being the best part of four hours! The PR-MU-6 is a recognised local circular route which starts only about a ten minute drive from Los Madriles campsite. It's an uphill slog for the first half an hour, but with spectacular views from the top. We also discovered shafts and tunnel entrances to long abandoned mines. The dark purple rock colours in the slag heaps were eye-catching in the sunshine. We didn't venture into any of the tunnels although there was nothing to stop us. Mining various minerals has been important to the economy of this area since pre-Roman times. I think this mine was probably for iron.

Initially the PR route was not obviously marked although there wasn't much opportunity to deviate from the obvious path anyway. Once past the main mine entrance, a reinforced path - possibly a donkey route to take out the ore? - wound its way around the hillsides until we were level with our start point and could just identify our car on the roadside way below. We spotted several more small mine tunnels, all beautifully carved out of the rock. The whole route is a loop and our turn back was marked with small cairns and, suddenly, a profusion of yellow and white stripe markers. We began to descend on a scree surface which was a little tricky, but nothing compared to the problem we encountered when our path unexpectedly petered out a while later! We hardly had any of the circuit left to walk, but what we did have was a hundred yards or so of steep scrub slope down to the road. What on earth?! Gaps between the scrub gave the impression of maybe a continuing path so we started to scramble down, although with hindsight it would have been far safer to turn around and walk all the way back around. As it was, we did both safely reach the bottom with no more than scratches and a small tear in my trousers after probably half an hour of tense scrambling and sliding. Phew! I'm a bit off hill walking again in the near future. If only we could do the ridge walks with their views, but without the corresponding up and down climbs and scrambles!