Tarifa to Tangier, Breakfast in Europe, lunch in Africa

Visiting another country is wonderful, but visiting another continent is on another level, it's wonderful squared. To have breakfast in southern Europe and lunch in north Africa is not that difficult, as I'll show you, but it sounds impressive.

I made this journey in May this year, driving from Granada down to Malaga and along the coast, past Marbella and Gibralter to Tarifa. I set off around 2pm and after a couple of stops arrived at Tarifa at 7pm.
Driving into Tarifa you could be forgiven for thinking "this doesn't look right". The fact is, Tarifa is hidden by modern concrete apartments, which is a pity because the old walled town itself is a little jewel.

So my first piece of advice to you, is do not judge the town on first impressions. Find the ancient gateway to the old town and you enter a totally different place.
I booked into a small pension which cost 40 euros for a double en-suite room, then went for a stroll around the town.

I could be happy living in Tarifa. For a start there are old pubs, like there used to be in Britain. The pubs have a good atmosphere, they're very friendly and full of travellers from all over the world.

Then there's the food! Tarifa has exceptional restaurants with truly international menu's. The best meal I've had in Spain was in a restaurant in Tarifa, you can't go wrong.
There are quite a few other attractions to Tarifa, a very good little art gallery and that beach, but for me it's an early night as I have to catch a ferry to Tangier in the morning.
Join me on Monday for lunch in Morocco

La Alpujarra - The world's oldest hippy community

Roadside directions to Orgiva

I started my day wondering what to write on my blog, then I went to Orgiva and it became obvious.

Just south of Granada, Spain, and little to the left is an area called the Alpujarras. Bordered on 3 sides by the Sierra De Lugar to the south, the Sierra La Contraviesa to the west, and if that isn't enough mountains, to the north of the Alpujarras is the daddy of them all, the Sierra Nevada. Do you get the picture? It's a long valley surrounded by high mountains. Until fairly recently the area was very isolated.

The valley contains 80 or so white villages dotted around the mountains, connected by a twisting little road. Because of the altitude and dry air, the villages produce some of the finest ham in Spain. It's also famed for pure mineral water, chestnuts and fragrant honey.

The first person to write about this area in English was Gerald Brenan in his book South From Granada (Penguin Modern Classics). From 1919, Mr Brenan spent 7 years living in the village of Yegan in the Alpujarras. He had served as an officer during the first world war and wanted to spend a few years reading his collection of books.

His story is of village life, its colorful characters, their lives and love affairs, the customs and folk-lore. He writes of another age and of a very foreign place.

South from Granada was published in 1957 and became a classic of travel writing and a route map for those looking to find their dreams, the hippies.

The trickle of hippies started arriving in the Alpujarras from all over the world at the end of the 1950's and to this day Orgiva, the only market town in the area, is the centre of the hippy world - for all age groups! There is plenty of space on community land for life in teepees and yurts to flourish.

Hippy in Orgiva

Cheap flights and the house hunter

For several years in Europe we have enjoyed cheap flights. Ryanair still advertise flights starting at 'one penny', and although taxes and add-ons make the penny flight a fantasy, it's still very affordable to fly to most cities in Europe.

As you can imagine the cheap flights proved popular and the airlines expanded their fleets. New destinations and routes, some exotic, were introduced and Europe was opened up to everyone.

The cheap flights created a new type of tourist looking for a low cost second home on the coast, for weekends and holidays. Builders, developers and agents (realtors), saw an opening and new housing developments started shooting up from Portugal to Turkey and everywhere in between. Some of these coastal developments have grown and spread into large towns, completely engulfing the little fishing villages that they were once part of.

However, there is an appealing alternative, the inland village. You still get the builders and agents but the houses tend to be restored rather than new. It seems to work well.

The house below is just such a village house. Aquired for weekends and holidays, it's a two bedroom casa that has been lovingly restored. Hope you like it.

Convenience shopping in the villages of Spain

Saleres, Andalucia

The village above is typical of small villages all over southern Europe. 40 years ago it had a population of about 700 people. 20 years ago that population had shrunk to 400 and today the population stands at about 250, and shrinking.

The reasons, as far as I can see, is that young people want (amongst other things), careers and move to cities. The villages are populated by older people, there are very few young families.

There are advantages and disadvantages to a shrinking population. For someone like me who was born and lived in large cities, empty villages are great. However, one of the disadvantages of a small population is that it can't support things that most people consider essential for normal living.

My village, not far from Saleres, has a population of about 350 people and seems to maintain this level. It has 2 small shops, 1 bank, 1 bakery, 2 bars/restaurants. There's a small community and health centre and a very big church.

It seems that 300 people is the required minimum for a shop to break even in a village.

Saleres, with its smaller population of 250 doesn't have any shops. It used to have a very small bar until a few years ago, but now there are no community facilities except for another big church.

The majority of people in these villages don't have cars, so how do they buy food?

Thankfully, we have a thriving delivery service. I lay in bed last night thinking of the vans that service our villages each day. It was a bit like counting sheep and I dropped off dreaming of buying eggs.

Fish delivery by motorbike

Fish delivery by van

The baker

Egg delivery

A list of deliveries to the villages

• A general grocery van visits the village once a week
• The knife grinder appears about every 3 months
• A man who repairs cane chairs turns up every year (I missed him last year)
• All the villages have a market one day a week. These sell clothes, cutlery, cups, glasses, crockery etc.
• 4 bakers deliver bread and cakes each day, except Sunday
• 2 fishmongers deliver fresh fish every day, except Sunday and Monday
• Fruit and vegetables delivered 3 times a week
• Cheese and cooked meats once a week
• Home produced wine is delivered on Sunday
• Beer is delivered in a crate to your door once a week
• Eggs are delivered once a week.

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