Day 29 - Antequera

 Quick up and out this morning as the forecast is not good and gets worse as the day goes on.

We drive to the Torcal NP. Last time we stopped here was in 1998 on a hot sunny day when pregnancy stopped much hiking. Today the rain has done the same job! The road to the visitor centre is 4km long and by the time we’ve done half we are so deep in cloud that we can only just see the car in front despite it being at a just about safe stopping distance. We were glad it was early enough that oncoming traffic was unlikely as the combination of narrow road and poor visibility really didn’t need reversing backwards adding to it too! In honesty if there had been a way to turn back we probably would have but up was the only option so we plodded on.

In the visitor centre car park the visibility hadnt improved and it was now raining and around 9 degrees. The information in the centre was all in Spanish only so after a short while testing our translation skills we realised the rain was not going to stop and we needed to get on with it. 

On the recommendation of the visitor centre staff we took the yellow/green route. Usually we would have taken the longer of these two options, but at the half way point , bedraggled and cold we took the shorter loop. Much of the path had become a stream taking the rainwater down hill and we did a lot of walking in waterfalls. That said , the stones looked magnificent and whilst we may not have had any wide ranging views we did enjoy what we could see. Last time we came we could see our as far as the coast , this time it was 20ft! 

By the time we got back to the visitor centre we were soaked through. I was wearing a vest top, base layer, hoody and down jacket and my underwear was wet! We hung our coats on chairs in the cafe whilst we had warm drinks and dried a little and left embarrassing puddles of water on chairs and floor when we left! 

Change of coat then a quick out and back on the path to the famous ‘El Torcal’ formation but was hard to see in the mist. 

The journey down from the visitor centre was a little easier now we had a feel for the road but relieved to get back to full width roads without passing one of the coaches still taking tourists up to the top.

We had planned to stay at Antequera for a second night but realised that seeing the interior of the alcazabar tomorrow would mean more rain and there was time to visit our other planned stop this afternoon. We told Google maps where we wanted to go and it chose a very ‘interesting’ route via the old town streets of Antequera. Not a choice we’d have made ourselves and wouldn't have been achieved in a larger vehicle. We were thankful that it was siesta time and roads were relatively quiet. 

Having negotiated roads we really shouldn’t have driven down we found ourselves at the opposite of the town. We’d approached from the south yesterday on a minor road  and only seen the old town, but this side was a very different proposition, with industrial units, out of town stores and a major road network. Unrecognisable from our experience yesterday, like it is a completely different place.

However our destination was easy to spot an immaculate new visitor centre adjacent to some wildflower covered small hills. We knew that the Menga Dolman was one of the largest burial chambers ever discovered but our previous experiences didn’t prepare us for the enormity of this one.

 

The visitor centre was a very new and beautiful building and it’s contents were presented beautifully. It houses the findings of all the major megalithic sites in Andalusia so lots to see. Once again a government owned museum that is obviously expensive to build and maintain but completely free to enter. 

After leaving the centre there’s a path circling the two burial mounds on the site which winds you round to the smaller of the two first, still bigger than those we’d seen before then the enormous ‘menga’ with huge stone pillar supporting gigantic single stones forming the roof. The dolman is unusual in lining up not with a celestial body but with the mountain shaped like a human profile that’s Been omnipresent since we arrived. Very special place even in the rain… loved it! Walking back down we saw our first hoopoe of the holiday too … happy days!

Getting lateish by the time we left and with the alcazar seeming  less appealing in increased rain tomorrow we decide to head towards Cordoba for tomorrow breaking the journey by overnighting at a brand new aire at Lucena. Just off the motorway and next to the bullring it gives us a chance to start sorting our wet clothes and get a bit warmer. 

Hopefully all will get sorted properly in a couple of days when the rain stops , until then we have two full carrier bags of clothes that feel like they’ve been in a bucket off water!

Miles so far: 1582

Steps today : 11,963 very wet and slippy ones!

Overnight: Municipal Aire at Lucena,  free (Water and waste services available)