Wot? No Gas?

Tuesday 27th October.

We set off yesterday from Elvas and after a stop for lunch at Zafra arrived late afternoon in Córdoba. This is a city that we had been looking forward to explore this trip and after parking up, initially in the wrong car park and being redirected by the attendant who then greeted us in the right car park 100m round the corner, we set off for the tourist information office. Suitably armed with maps and guides we started planning the next day's explorations while our dinner sizzled and simmered in the oven and on the hobs (bangers and mash with onion gravy Mmmmm). Then disaster struck! We ran out of gas!!! I've got 2 X 11kg refillable gas bottles and I knew we were on the last bottle which I thought would last us till we got to Bolnuevo where I would fill them both up. Lesson learnt. Quarter cooked sausages and spuds in the bin and we had salad for tea. No hot water either. Worse still, no cup of tea this morning!

This morning it was pouring with rain and not fit for sightseeing so we decided to find some LPG and move on, saving Córdoba for another day (it's not going anywhere). I consulted "My LPG EU" which said there was a Repsol fuel station a mile away that had gas so there we went through the rush hour traffic. Arrived at the coordinates - no petrol station. No signs of there ever having been a petrol station. Ok, let's head for Granada, there'll be a garage selling LPG on the way. Six petrol stations later, still no gas. Internet search showed a garage at Jaen which had some. A diversion but, hey ho off we go. An hour later and yes, we had LPG so set off again toward Granada and it's still pouring with rain. For several miles before and several miles after Jaen we passed nothing but olive trees. So many that we thought we were back in Greece. Phil had a look in the guide book and apparently ten per cent of the world's production of olive oil comes from the area. Harvesting has recently finished which would explain the number of tankers clogging up the roads.

South of Jaen we followed the A44, Autovia de Sierra Nevada. We climbed to over 1,000m but not much of a view of the peaks today through the persistent rain and then thick fog to the north of Granada. We have stopped now at a campsite at Beas de Granada 37.22540 -3.48765 where we stopped in early 2014 with Paul and Chris, prior to our trip to Morocco. Then it was bright and sunny and we had wonderful views of the snow capped peaks of the Sierra, now it is just cold and wet. But tomorrow we head for Bolnuevo where the forecast for the next few days is sunny with temperatures in the mid 20's.

I was hoping to fill this post with pics of Córdoba but I only took one photo yesterday.

Pat

 

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