Spain #5 - El Gastor
Or what i’d like to call… In the middle of nowhere.
Go ahead and check out images from around El Gastor from this LINK.
Others’ lives matter
First things first, though. Scary to mention even, but… our car had been making a weird noise from time on the left right side for the past month already (A MONTH, FOR F*CK’S SAKE). At some speeds it was constant, at some turns it made some noise as well, but mostly it was fine (but when it wasn’t the sound was… worrysome the least) until we were driving to drop off Saskia to her swimming camp. After the visit to Sierra Nevada, the car had been doing that noise more often. And when driving to Torremolinos (to Saskia’s swimming camp), the noise went from “scary” to “come on man, do something about it already or your children are going to die”. So, Reet found a place we could bring the car to. We went there. Had a long discussion about who should do the talking, because no-one wanted to… I used google translate to explain our problem and they directed us to another place who actually had a mechanic.
After the drive there and another discussion about who should do the talking, the mechanic took a look and said that it’s probably the breaks. I asked about getting it changed and he made like a million calls and found a spare part and after 2 hours and 80 Euros, our car was okay again. Okay enough for my friend to drive the car home for us when we left Spain (so, for another ~3500 km’s or so), but hadn’t we changed the breaks’ something something, the mechanic said, something could have broken and we could have been in trouble. Lesson learnt: Reet must find the places to fix our car, sooner, rather than later.
The best place ever?
Back to the story… So. It has to be the best place. It just has to be. But why?
Well, we dropped off Saskia to her swimming training camp, where she could see her friends who she hadn’t seen for 2 months by now. That, for us, meant that we could get whatever for our accommodation and for cheaper, because we need one less room. Also we could go anywhere, because we didn’t have to consider Saskia’s need for shopping and socialising etc (not that we have done much socialising until now).
I got to choose, so we went to an area which was next to a nature reserve with the highest peak of 1060m close to home and 1654 an hour away. So, at least two hikes already planned (the 1060 for Me and Reet and Emmi and the 1654 for me alone).
The area we chose was a part of a collection of “white villages”, meaning, a village that had only/mostly white buildings at the side of a mountain.
BUT, turns out that the village itself was popular among tourists, so the rates there were too expensive for us. We instead rented a small studio “house” (a tiny building), that was still as expensive as the apartments that came before it (but smaller) and it was 15 minutes’ drive from the village El Gastor. We thought, why not, at least the mountains are close by and being only the 3 of us, why do we even need a big house.
So, to get to our accommodation, we needed to drive 2h from Saskia’s drop-off point. The drive was awesome, uphill and mountain views (and mountain roads). How can you tell the difference between a normal road and a mountain road? Well, our car’s speed “keeper/limiter” however you call it can’t handle those roads, and often turned itself off (even before the winding roads, on highways). Also, Reet, who’s sitting in the back next to Emmi, feels ill during the whole drive because of the winding roads.
Anyway, the last 15 minutes was on gravel road and there we were (funny how a month later, after being in costa rica for a month, the gravel road in Europe feels like a paved road). The apartment had a bed, a couch, a table with two chairs and a terrace overlooking the mountains. But also a few problems:
The accommodation had a description: perfect for families with small children, but no baby cot or highchair or even just a third chair for our baby.
Only 2 toilet paper rolls, so needed to buy more for our 10-night stay (that’s always annoying, because you’re always left with left over rolls in the end… waste of money).
Nowhere to place our stuff except for a small closet (so nowhere to place).
We even read that if you stay for longer than 7 nights, then there’s cleaning on every 7th day (but they never came to clean).
But most importantly. Previously it was easier to put Emmi to sleep in another room with no tv etc. Now we needed to sit quietly and in the dark until she fell asleep and with no baby cot, it takes longer, because she has the freedom to go wherever. We went from 2-bedroom apartments to a studio. How stupid can we be.
And even more importantly. The floors were cold. And at 600m high, the nights got chilly outside and the floors… even colder (it had air conditioning, though).
It also featured a fireplace, but no wood and we didn’t find a place to buy wood in the village (also, it felt awfully risky to have open fire without anything in front of the fire, so Emmi could just go and burn herself), so we didn’t use that.
Also, the washing machine came with no guide and was shared (though people, I guess, always come here for only a few days and never wash, so we had no problems with accessing it).
Oh, don’t forget about the swimming pool. It was 23 degrees outside on a lucky day and it wasn’t a heated pool, but we found ourselves by the pool more than we had found us near other pools (we had only been in one house with a pool before, in france), because… the views were awesome there, the eagles were an awesome sight and, didn’t mind the fresh feeling that you get when your balls shrink because of cold water.
We didn’t mind at first. We took walks to the village and drove to the village and a city with a proper store was only 40 minutes’ drive away, we even drove there twice. That even featured a hiking area, so a third hike was planned as well.
Note that a store ONLY 40 minutes away, is something that would never be acceptable in Estonia. We have a store 2 blocks away from us at home and it still feels too far away. 40 minutes away is also 1/3 way to the other side of Estonia and we just don’t do that in Estonia.
Funny, every time we change locations, we basically drive from one side to the other side of Estonia and sometimes also back and that’s fine with us. In Estonia, these kinds of long drives would be done only for my parents’ birthday (exaggerating a bit, but still).
Anyway, what do I mean by a proper store? Our village featured 3 small supermarkets. That, I guess when you know when to go, had some fresh meat. We didn’t know the proper times, so we found no fresh meat. Also, cow milk doesn’t seem too popular here, so good luck finding that in the small village. Also, Emmi’s using pants diapers, but the diapers in these stores only had the normal ones. If you don’t have any or even just one of those items, it’s not a proper store.
The village of El Gastor
The home village was nice. White buildings, all clean and pretty with flower pots everywhere for the tourists to enjoy. Multiple restaurants, 3 playgrounds for Emmi. A nice place to hang for a while.
We even went to a restaurant and spent 27 euros for a bad salmon fish, and I got myself a meal that I didn’t order (pig, instead of steak, but was at least a Euro cheaper). That’s what you get when no-one understands English.
Went to a bar and drank a few beers and wine.
And of course, used the playgrounds a lot.
The views, of course, were great as well, in and next to the village
And turns out that yeah, you hike to the 1060m height peak, but also hike around that peak, so another hike in our plans.
Would I recommend the village? Difficult to say.
We were not actually in the village thus don’t really know what was going on around some corners.
The weather also turned to the worse after 7 days and then it was quiet on the streets (though I bet that inside the white buildings, life was booming, we just weren’t there to find all those places).
But can I recommend the place for the hikes? Oh hell Yes! Well, if you only stayed for a few nights, for longer then maybe a village inside the nature reserve would have been better… why?
Hikes in the nature reserve
One hike that we found was an hour away. That was the 1654m one that I wanted to do on my own, because it was rated difficult.
Another hike was found by Reet, that featured a canyon.
Both hikes needed permission from the Nature reserve office. You could get the permission by phone, I understand, but note that when you don’t speak Spanish, then forget about it, at least that’s what the reviews said for the hike. We needed to go there to get the permission. The office was an hour drive away. So just to get the permissions, we would need to drive an hour, even if the hike itself was closer. We drove there. I asked for permissions and only got the permission for one hike (peak), because that one hike I guess was too difficult to be awfully popular, but the other one (canyon), that was easy, I was told to forget about that, because that’s always fully booked. Another thing to note is that some hikes are closed in the summer, but that wasn’t a problem for us, because it was already end of October.
Anyway, because Reet and Emmi were already in the car they came with me to the hike to the 1654m peak.
Now, as you probably know, we did a hike in the Sierra Nevada natural park where we ascended 800+ meters to get to the peak. The similar amount we needed to ascend on this hike as well. Try and see, we thought and went on with it.
The hike was very hard with our heavy bags (one featured Emmi and the other Emmi’s food, 3l of water and 2+kg of camera gear). Not technically difficult, just hard. And boring. When the Sierra Nevada’s hike had an ascent that went on for 5km’s, then this one did the same amount in 2,5 kilometres. With that we had the same view during the whole hike, just going up like a snake. The same view gets very boring very quickly when you’re tired.
But it being the highest peak in the nature reserve, our goal was the top with possibly a 360-degree view.
And we all almost made it to the top, but didn’t. The last 50 meters up, needed the hands to get dirty ( had to put them down and hold on to some rocks to not fall etc). This didn’t make the climb to the top too difficult, but we were afraid of coming down with Emmi in the bag. So Reet stayed behind. I hoped that she would at least go to the peak alone once I’m back, but she said that she didn’t care for the view that much, that the exercise was enough for her. She just doesn’t know what she missed.
The peak was awesome. 360-degree view with one side going almost straight down for a 1000 metres.
Now, I couldn’t enjoy the view for too long, because I got a panicky call from Reet who had tried to climb a little bit still when I had moved on already and then got stuck, too afraid to go up alone and go down alone. A big lesson was learnt that day. Never leave someone behind without checking that she can take off the bag and be with Emmi in a safe space (which would have been 50meters down from where I left her).
Was the view worth the climb, though? Definitely, if I had done it alone, but with Emmi and constant stops because we wanted her to feel good… and the extra weight of the food and water… definitely don’t recommend for families :D. Others do the hike in about 3 hours, we did it in 5+ hours. We were also the last ones to come down and that’s even more worrisome. What if something had happened, there would have been no-one who could have helped. Especially because Reet told me that she tried calling me 3 times and only once got good enough reception for the call to go through and that was up, where the service should be better. Also, I really really missed Reet, my muse at the top, it was lonely at the top. The views without Reet on the picture, are worth so much less. We did get down slowly and safely though (thinking that hiking sticks would be a nice addition on our hiking gear list)
Did we miss the Canyon hike, though? No, not really, we wouldn’t have had time to do that hike anyway, because the weather turned and also… Time for illness, but back to that later.
The hike to the peak close to home
That hike was like meant for us only. Well, almost.
Now, we lived on a hill. ~650 meters from sea level. So, we had to climb 400 meters to the top. Didn’t need to get our hands dirty and it was just the right amount of ascent. What did the hike feature?
Sheep on the way to the top.
A large plain on the top for Emmi to walk around (though a lot of rocs sticking out so we still had to hold here so that when she fell she didn’t fall on a sharp rock).
Eagles, who lived on the side of the hill were flying very close to us, as if we were food for them.
The hike also featured another peak that we didn’t climb to. some google reviews said that “we are still searching for the way to the top” and we figured out just what that meant. It meant that you’d just walk on random rocks to the top and we don’t just do that. Did we miss that, though? No.
Also, the view, though not 1000m straight down, it was 400 metres almost straight down and mountains in the background, so adequate (give me a view that features mountains in the background any day).
Definitely a must go and see and experience. And didn’t require permission either as it was just next to the nature reserve, not in it.
A walk with just Emmi and me
When it’s time for Emmi’s nap time, we are faced with two options. Either put her to sleep at home or on the way somewhere (we plan our drives for that time, or we go walking with the best lightweight stroller we have ever had to put her to sleep – we have only had one lightweight stroller). We usually pick fresh air, as she falls asleep quicker this way and seems to sleep longer.
Now, the 1060m peak required us to drive to El Gastor first for 15 minutes, but I found another “walking” path that didn’t require any driving (but of course didn’t feature a peak either), so perfect for a walk with Emmi.
Was it meant for the stroller? No, definitely not, because I had to pick the stroller up in a few places, but still doable.
There’s nothing much to say about that walk, but I just wanted to point out, that if you just fancy a walk that
has some mediocre ascents and descents
and want some mediocre views
and a lot of sheep and goats for your child to enjoy interacting with on the way
then that’s the best walking path to take from our accommodation or from El Gastor. If I’d only remember the name of the path. Oh well..
Ronda
Then there was Ronda.
A small city (population 33k)? on the side of a cliff.
It featured an awesome bridge
It also features the oldest? Bull fighting arena.
It had proper grocery stores
And there was a hike. On that hike you could walk over the bridge, you could see the bridge from the side and also walk down the cliff and come back up from the other side of the village. We went on that hike.
Got to around ¼ of the hike and decided that because the reviews said that the other side was difficult and also Boring, we just went back up. Especially because it had already taken us 2 hours to get to the ¼ because of constantly stopping for photos and the hike was supposed to take 2 hours in total and we really don’t like driving in the dark and wanted to take more photos from the other side of the bridge as well. Point is: it takes a long time if you have a view that’s as awesome as Ronda’s bridge was. Even Reet said, that she was pleasantly surprised about the view (because of zero research she had done on Ronda before).
Now, because of zero research on Reet’s side and my fish memory, we didn’t see the bull fighting arena, that was closed by the time we arrived back to the city from our hike. Sad. The grocery stores were still open, though and other shops where we got our new hats, so not everything was lost.
Caminito del Rey…. that one place we couldn’t go to
One hike that we really really would have wanted to do though, that would have made everything else feel like nothing and irrelevant, was Caminito del Rey. But again, because of lack of research (zero) at least a month before, we couldn’t do that, because you needed to buy the ticket to that before from the internet and they had no tickets left for our time in the area. That’s something we might try to do sometime in the future (would be something we would come back to Spain… just for that hike).
About the children
All that talk about the hikes makes me want to talk about something else. There’s more to life than just hikes. There are also children. Don’t know if you know it, but we have two children with us and one goal set by us for the children, was for them to be more social: Saskia to speak better English, and Emmi to, more freely, play with strangers’ kids.
The problem with that is. We are not social. And All our accommodations have been either apartments or houses and not in a resort where you’d see the same people for a week and develop a relationship with them. As a matter of fact we have never seen a person twice in a row and we haven’t had a longer talk (more than 15 minutes) with anyone during the trip. That’s not how you get to be more social. So, Saskia is basically screwed, it’s not like she goes to another 11-year-old saying: let’s play. Not just that, not many people speak English here, so there’s also that.
But Emmi still has hope. There are playgrounds. It would help if her parents would go to the others’ parents and ask for a playdate, but they won’t because they’re selfish and scared little people. Still, there are playgrounds, and every day a new child to play with potentially.
Problem with new children every day to play with is: some scream, some push, some try to hug just a tiny bit too hard. So instead of just going to any child, Emmi is learning that children can be mean and scary. There’s still hope, I saw a German boy scream when Emmi went closer than 3m. Emmi doesn’t do that. At least, not yet.
Enough. Next stop would be Madrid. I will not talk about Madrid too much, because. It’s a big city, so there’s nothing to talk about it and as it was just a transition place from Europe to the other side of the world and both Reet and I was ill, there’s nothing we did there either. Maybe I’ll do a Summary of Europe (and 2,5 months) instead?
