From the cork groves to the Atlantic
After a good night's sleep in Gibraltar, I set out north-westwards the next morning, driving through the national park and nature reserve of Los Alcornocales. It reminded me a lot of some long stretches of road in South Africa or Zimbabwe, and thus brought back memories from more than twenty years ago.
Alcornocales actually means cork oak forests, because the area is full of cork oaks (Spanish albornoque) - trees of which the bark is used to make cork goods. There were also lots of rolling hills, little lakes, and at one point I could even see Jimena's castle on a hilltop far in the distance. I was heading to a couple more Frontera towns but, before that, my first stop was going to be in a town that doesn't have frontera in its name, but was nonetheless an important fortress in centuries past: the hillside town of Medina-Sidonia. Medina, as you probably know, is the Arabic word for city. So the name means City of Sidon - quite probably named after Sidon in the Middle East/Lebanon. It's an interesting thing in Spain that when the so called Catholic Kings fought wars to win back their land from the Moors, they didn't rename all the towns, as has happened in other parts of the world, but basically kept the old names, or made them slightly more Spanish sounding. Many city names begin with Al, which is the Arabic word for "the." The town I live in, for example: Alhaurin means garden of God. You can discern the Spanish word for garden: jardin. And the Arabic word for God: Allah.
It was fun to walk around the old town of Medina Sidonia with its white buildings, its views of the surrounding territory and its remaining stone arches from the original fortifications. No castle this time, as it was completely in ruins and you could only see the archeological remains. However, I got brave and decided to climb up the bell tower of the old church... not to be done out of my exercise workout of the day :-)
Next, my journey took me towards the Atlantic coast. I was heading for the town of Chiclana de la Frontera, where the Iro River empties into the sea. I discovered, though, that Chiclana and the nearby Conil de la Frontera had not retained the olde worlde charm of the hillside frontier towns, but had reinvented themselves as thriving coastal resort towns with luxury hotel complexes, beachside apartments and the like. A totally different kind of beauty, but not one with a sense of history behind it.... except for the fact that the coastline of the Bay of Cádiz/Costa de la Luz is dotted with old fortification towers, as is the Costa del Sol. There are some 63 coastal towers in Málaga and Cádiz provinces alone, as well as many more, all the way up the Spanish coastline. Built after Spain was won back from the Moors, these coastal watchtowers were the first line of defence against pirates and attackers from North Africa.
Further down the coast from the well known resort towns, there are still many of Cádiz's playas vírgenes (literally "virgin beaches") - beautiful stretches of golden sand, untouched by the trappings of tourism. I stopped at one, just outside Barbate. You can park your car very close to the beach, walk across the dunes and arrive at a stretch of beach that is occupied by only twenty people and half a dozen dogs. It reminded me of childhood holidays in Northern Ireland or Scotland. As I live near the Mediterranean, it seemed fitting that I should take advantage of this first "wild swimming" opportunity in the Atlantic. I was even joined by a friendly dog who wanted me to throw his ball for him.
After passing some beautiful stretches of unspoiled coastline, it was time to turn slightly inland and drive just a little bit through the Straits Natural Park. Here again, I was reminded of nature reserves in the Cape Town area, so it seemed fitting when I was approaching the town of Tarifa that I could see the mountains of Africa, less than ten miles away, across the water. From Tarifa, it's not very far back up the coastline to Gibraltar. My second day of adventures had included a lot of driving, but some stunning scenery along the way.
Read on below for the last day of adventures in my three day break.
