EUROPE'S MOST SW POINT, SW PORTUGAL AND W ANDALUCIA

I took off to the aire at the Barragem de Povoa e Meadas for a couple of days to carry on exploring the numerous tracks and trails that criss cross the area before returning to the campsite for a morning burning all the winter debris of gardening and tree pruning. There were a few campers staying and the final olive picking made for a busy scene. However after an excellent lunch for eight or so of us I headed away as my destination lay two or three hours to the south.

The sat nav took me along rural tracks as the sun set  to bring me out at the largest body of water in Portugal - the Barragem D'Alqueva - where I spent a quiet night in what seemed a very remote place with no light pollution giving a vast starry sky. Passing through huge areas of newly planted olive trees I called in at Moura, Serpa and Beja - all provided castles and historic town centres with the last remnants of Christmas displays being taken down and after a couple of hours I was on the coast above Vila Nova de Milfontes above a stunning beach which started beneath a headland from whose lofty heights a number of locals were fishing in the pounding surf.

I walked down to Vila Nova along the coast path the following day, returning via an inland track through the dunes - the coastal scenery was superb and a small bar in town provided a good lunch in the warm sun.
Following the coast south I stopped for the night at a viewpoint west of Odeceixe with more amazing views - the two bays had a number of surfer vans parked up so I much preferred the quieter cliff top - an old T25 van stopped which looked like it had done some miles and a German lad also stayed the night.

Moving south again via the coastal tracks W of Carapteira that I had last followed a decade ago I revisited Cabo de Soa Vicente - the most SW point in Europe but decided not to linger and took the motorway east to bypass the busy, largely developed and certainly spoilt Algarve. Whilst toll cameras topped numerous gantries there was no toll booth so I presume ANPR is used and thus a bill at home some time might be expected. However I made very good time, crossed in to Spain by lunchtime and by mid afternoon was parked up in Gibraleon at an aire that provided fresh and waste water facilities and was close to the start of two cycle routes. 
I stayed three nights with the first trail reached by following rural tracks courtesy of the GPS before picking up the railway line north to Valverde del Camino for a lunch break and then back along quiet side roads to mix it up a bit. The second route deteriorated after only ten miles or so but again my 1;25000 mapping enabled me to take quiet roads down towards Huelva, cross the wide estuary and return to Gibraleon where I met a French family of four spending two years exploring Europe in a caravan. There was a lot of new development on the outskirts of Huelva - many looking like a Disney resort and of course many being unfinished or abandoned as the economy has faltered in recent years.

After passing through Seville without incident I pulled up at the old railway station in Puerto Serrano at the start of a 25 mile vias verde. After a comfortable night clear skies dawned with quite a frost on the ground so I wrapped up well and set off along the track heading towards Olvera. The Via Verde de La Sierra was a real cracker with tunnels, viaducts, gentle gradients and stunning views - the tunnels were illuminated where necessary apart from one - the longest of course - and my phone torch provided just enough of a glow to safely pass through the 500m curve. Memories of a head on with a cyclist in northern Spain were stirred but today there were very few people on the route and all was well. The old station at Olverra was in full sun - some sections of the route had been icy in the shade of the mountains that lie on the northern edge of the Grazalema National Park - so I stopped for lunch - mixed salad, chicken kebabs and a cold beer or two as the return journey lay largely down hill. A side trip to see one of the largest oak trees in Portugal also gave me an idea of somewhere to stay in future as it lay in a beautiful valley with a small chapel near Coripe.

Heading south again in to the Grazalema NP I stopped in Algonodales and then Zahara with its superb castle offering a splendid panorama over the reservoir. The back road over to  Ubrique was sinuous and from the top of the pass I took a walk to another great vantage point over Zahara and watched a dozen or so vultures cruise lazily on the warm updraft.
Ubrique's aire was a large mostly empty car park and after chatting to a guy from Grantham who sold up in September and is having a year away walked in to the town which is a centre for leather craftsmen. Unfortunately the next morning was market day and at 07.00 the local police were hammering on the doors asking us to move on - thus before dawn I was up in the hills of the Alcornocales National Park enjoying breakfast as the sun rose.
Another back road took me through cork oaks, olive trees, quiet farms and limestone scenery before dropping in to El Colmenar and eventually out to Casares where above the village another aire provided a base for the night. I walked in to the village and up to the castle for superb views down to the coast and the Rock of Gibraltar - eagles soared overhead as they nest locally and two via ferrata dispappeared over one of the viewpoint walls.

So today I am on the border at Linea de Concepcion with two weeks laundry drying in the sun and Mandy expected down from Manchester in a couple of hours. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable couple of weeks with plenty of variety, cloudless skies (only just changing today) so a flavour is captured in the following photos here and the occasional locations here.
The photos have been a combination of phone and Go Pro stills but I shall be glad to have a proper camera back having foolishly dropped mine a couple of weeks ago.

We cross to Morocco on Friday at which point I will endeavour to send the Spot location daily