Monday 14th December
Ayamonte – El Rompido (again)
We were pleased to get out of our hotel for breakfast, as we needed to warm up. We found an excellent bakery so settled down to tuck in but this was rather spoilt by the painter going up and down his ladder immediately outside the automatic doors, and the waitress going out for a ciggy and a chat, thus making them open and shut every couple of minutes. The Spanish smoking ban comes in on Jan 1st which is a relief for us. I think they smoke as much as the French.
We are returning towards Huelva by the inland route. We have realized that our idea of filling in time up to Christmas week by exploring Portugal was a little ambitious as we have hardly covered an inch of the map heading that way. We love this area so have been more than happy to explore it. At the side of the via verdes the scenery is a good mix of Strawberries, mostly ready for the Christmas market, grown under glass , Seville oranges and other citrus fruits. Alec is determined to eat a Seville orange as they can be plucked from the trees on the road side so I am waiting for his reaction when he does! The route was a bit rough and between agricultural areas there are quite a few shanty towns springing up, so we peddled quite fast past these. A lot of itinerant workers have arrived to pick fruit to find that there are no jobs so are living in boxes and under tarpaulin unable to return home. The rubbish is amazing everywhere, and I don’t think the locals have ever picked up a plastic bag or bottle. Around the fruit farms there are year’s worth of abandoned poly tunnels blowing about. It is a shame as it is beautiful countryside. For once we had managed to pre-book our hotel rather successfully, finding a fantastic 5 star golf hotel doing very cheap deals. We are now happily settled in to an apartment with every mod con surrounded by the marshes and a very nice looking golf course. (I could live like this!) I have had to remember how to cook in a chalet girl sized kitchen with only 2 rings and a microwave.
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