Olive trees and Mountains

All the olive trees growing all over the hills! Spain is one of the worlds biggest producers of olives.

So we've begun our trip through Spain again. This time I am enjoying it a little more because the sun is out, it's warmer and everything looks a little bit nicer than before. (Not so many tumbled down industrial areas here.)
We've been using a gps type system through an app to help us get from town to town and because we are trying to avoid toll roads we tend to be taken on the craziest of routes.
On Sunday we were on one of these journeys to find a petrol station in a small town and the app wanted us to squeeze down a very narrow, one lane, car lined street. Josh said "Do you think we'll make it down there?" and I said, "...Mmm maybe, I guess so.." Not a wise choice. We scraped someones guttering sticking out at a funny angle and we also scraped someones white car. We did hear a noise but thought it was the guttering which looked fine but then as we were heading out the street we heard someone yelling, and sure enough there was an angry Spanish dude yelling at us. We figured out it was damage done to his car. Luckily it was only a bit of a rubbing mark and not a scratch but still..
The man ended up being very nice about it and the insurance will sort it out -but the whole ordeal was a bit frightening as Josh disappeared down the road with lots of people coming out of their houses to stare and then he vanished for about an hour into a house! After a while I went looking for him but heard laughing coming from both Josh and the man and so was reassured. They were busy trying to find common words and sorting out insurance details in halting communication.

This map app has also taken us to random places where we think we can park up and then it turns out that there isn't a designated parking spot there. Last night was the case. We'd driven for a while after visiting the city of Granada and thought there was a parking spot up in the hills behind the city. We meandered up there (we go super slow up hills - the poor old camper!) and followed the app to another random spot. So we found a wide area of parking on the the side of the road. We had a late night dinner (again) and just as we were dropping off to sleep someone pulled their car up. I thought we might get told off for camping there but then I heard that horrible noise that I really hate - the 'Calling of the Dinosaurs' - i.e -someone being violently sick on the side of the road. Yuck! The poor thing. But I was guiltily relieved that he wasn't there for us.. It's always a little nerve wracking parking where we're not sure we're allowed to be. So far so good though!

More olive trees. See how they scrape the soil free of any growth? Maybe this is to keep the ground as warm as possible by the sun?

Today we decided to stay around the town we parked alongside and to make the most of the walking tracks in the beautiful mountains at our doorstep. Josh headed out to the info center while we had breakfast to hear about the best route to take.
We chose a loop walk at the back of the hills where there are some fabulous rock climbing spots. The track took us by small farms growing olives, walnuts and figs, and then up through the canyons of the huge craggy mountain.

We found ourselves having more than just an average walk through the bush when we found the track took us down to the edge of a raging river and then across a waterfall and on a very narrow concrete path right up alongside a cliff wall. At first that was ok and fun and then we noticed the path disappearing under rock crevices that we needed to crawl or shuffle on our tummies to get through. One of our daughters didn't find this terribly fun at all! But it was quite a good adventure I thought.

The pathway around the river. 

There were people rock climbing on this section. That dog looked very concerned for his owner!

  We stopped for lunch once the path left the river and enjoyed feeding an army of large ants with some of our bread. They are so amazing to watch! Then we kept making our way up the mountain where the bush (which was largely made up of walnut and fig actually!) gave way to a gravelly scree slope and to my delight the main plants that fought for life there were rosemary and lavender of all things! This must be their natural habitat. And so many more fabulous wild flowers that I hadn't seen yet.
Later on up the track we met some friendly Australians and it was so great to be able to complete the journey with them - having a decent conversation with them about more than the weather! (Which is what it feels like I've been doing for too long now- not being able to communicate properly with people for a while.)

A gorgeous fennel type flower that grows in a beautiful ball shape. That's Esmae in the background walking up the track.

Fern with some pretty white wild flowers.