Jesus, the Naked Hiker, the Sheep and the Ibex

After staying put in the municipality of Rincon with some gorgeous sunsets, beach bars, bike rides and cakes, we followed in lots of others tyre tracks, the heading back in land. Jigsaw had to say goodbye to Harry which involved a nose kiss then a hiss, she’s no fool!

We took ourselves off in the direction of Antequera, nestled in the triangle of Seville, Granada and Malaga. It packs a big punch and there’s lots to see. Within the old town itself are numerous churches, palaces and convents, of different eras, one church seemed to have Jesus embedded in the wall (see pic). Shame as it was due to celebrate its 400 years in 2020, maybe they’ll celebrate its 401 year existence, especially after it had been all tidied up! Like Bilbao, Antequera seems to favour the ornate metal windowed balcony as part of its architectural style and there’s plenty of walking, admiring the place or coffees and lunch spots. There’s an incredibly intact Art Deco cinema. You’ll see that they take C19 very seriously in terms of mask wearing…. Antequera also, as if that wasn’t enough, has the Alcazaba magic carpet, kidding, its a Moorish fortress. It sits prominently across from our wild camp spot.

The wider area has the famous Dolmens, ancient burial grounds, not where The Dig was filmed but similar . Also the nature reserve of Torcal de Antequera with its dramatic limestone rock formations. It’s easy to describe it as ‘other worldly’ but it was, towers of weathered stone and formations that looked like stacks of American pancakes. We wild camped up there two nights as there’s some great hiking. Both of us now have knees that feel like we knelt at every alter in town as there was so much boulder climbing. Good fun though as we were metres away from Ibex at times, who were a tad more agile over the rocks than us.

The views at the top were panoramic across the valley floor and the morning clouds below us, looked like a surreal glacier moving and flowing over the hills. We could see the Sierra Nevada in the far distance. Lots of photos, tried to pick just a few.

Jigsaw had a one on one with an Ibex and was pretty puzzled by the shaggy things with bells around their necks. The other puzzle that we chose to ignore was the naked hiker… yeah, enough said… liked filming himself… (no pics!)

We’ve now moved South West past fields of almond trees in blossom, so gorgeous compared to the high rise ‘costa del’s…’ and the industry of Algeciras and have arrived at a great spot, 5 miles west of Tarifa so the next update will be our exploits around here. We’ve a fab sea view, have installed the Marine Traffic app so we can ID all the ships going past Gibraltar (nerds indeed!) and have numerous bike trails to attempt! Keep safe and well everyone x

Jigsaw wanted to get dressed up for Harry but not like this!