Thursday 26th May – 29th

We arrived mid afternoon at the Camping ground in Cordoba, it seems to be the only place to stay in town and although handy to the city we found it rather regimented. After booking in with the unfriendly and brusque woman at the office we made our way to the site she had and after setting up, Ewout spent some time working out why the headlight was not working. The German man next to us came over and was helpful, and in the end it was only a fuse, but we had run out of the type it was and he generously gave us one of his. We then walked to a local café/ bakery where we were told by a friendly dutch couple that they had free wifi. So while I checked our emails, uploaded a blog and checked a few things on the net, Ewout enjoyed a cold beer and I a small, strong black coffee.

The next day we caught the bus into Cordoba, for a small sum of €1.15 it was a convenient way to access the centre of town. We walked through the busy shopping streets heading for where we were told was the Mezquita the former great Mosque of Cordoba now a Catholic Cathedral. We sort of lost our bearings in the small windy narrow streets but happened to meet the aforementioned dutch couple who showed us where we were on the map and gave us directions to the tourist office to get a map of our own. We were told we only had 1 hour left until they closed the Cathedral for visitors so we headed there straight away and bought our ticket and went in. The original building was built by the Moors as a Mosque but it has been altered inside as a Catholic Cathedral so it is a unusual blend of Moorish architecture and Catholic glitz and very different from any Church we have seen elsewhere.

After the visit to the Mezquita we decided we should look for somewhere to have lunch, we walked past many cafés and small restaurants but weren’t sure what to have. While wandering we happened to walk past a hair dressing shop and as I had been feeling decidedly unkempt thought it a good opportunity to have a hair cut. It was very reasonably price at €14.50 for a wash, cut and blow dry and I felt in desperate need of a tidy up. So while I was having my hair done Ewout went off to a café for a drink. He found himself sitting next to another Australian, travelling around Spain on a pushbike, so he spent some time having a chat with him. When we met again after my do and his beer we then walked up the city centre to a small square and found a nice terrace café and had some lunch. After the bustle of the city in the morning it was surprisingly quiet in the shopping area, most of the shops were closed and so after eating our lunch we headed back to the campsite.

Saturday morning we headed off again to make our way to a campsite by the town of El Rocio, situated in a large national park south west of Seville.

This village has three unusual characteristics: its annual pilgrimage or Rosario that takes place at Pentecost; its position at the very edge of a large expanse of water where there are many species of water fowl together with marsh mares and cattle wading through the shallow water; its streets covered in sand (renewed nightly) making it seem like a wild west town and where the hoof prints of horses seem more in keeping than the tyre marks.

We were amazed how busy the roads where on the way to the park, being a Saturday and quite warm we decided it must be a good place to go for the people of Seville to go on the weekend. Still the road wasn’t too bad and we arrived to find plenty of room in the campground for us.

We arrived about lunch time and after a bit to eat, Ewout headed off to the pool for a swim and to read under the shade. I stayed by the camper, read for a while then checked out the wifi in the campground. All good there, so I checked our emails and worked out when we could skype with the family the next morning.

It was quite warm, so we decided we would wait to visit the town until it cooled down a bit in the late afternoon. We had heard that the roads were all sand, but decided to take our bikes anyway and found that indeed it was difficult to ride much around the street. We wandered around a bit until we found the lake and the large Church where it was obvious there had been much activity during the day and spent some time just having a look at the architecture and activity still happening.

By the time we got back it was after 7.30 pm, still quite warm and light so we decided to have a quick swim in the pool to cool off and then had our dinner.

Sunday 29th May.

We managed to Skype with our family in the morning, all chaos there as they were all at Jade & Luke’s for dinner. It was nice to see them all although it was hard to have much of a conversation, with children running around, baby Lily crying for her bottle and the link freezing on and off. Still good to see their faces and to be able to reassure them we are alright.

We are now off west towards the Portuguese border, planning to stay at a campsite near the town of Isla Cristina.