Through the Tabernas Desert to Águilas - January 16th

Surprisingly, the night was absolutely bearable and we didn't freeze. The sun greets us and we have breakfast with a view of the mountains. Then it's time to pack up again and off we go. We're back in vagabond mode! On to the A-92 towards Tabernas. Here, not only is there fantastic olive oil, but also a desert-like landscape. This time, there are endless almond trees along the way, instead of olive trees, but unfortunately they're not really blooming yet. The Tabernas Desert is truly an interesting landscape and reminds us a little of the Wild West. We reach the Castillo de Tabernas olive mill (of course, we drive 20 meters too far, thanks anyway for the tip, Peter...) and we do some serious shopping, there's not much space left in the bus...! There are plenty of olive trees here again, the olive mill has over 100,000 of them!!!

We are considering whether to drive down to the coast to Almeria again, or cross over to the east coast and make some progress...! We decide to make some progress, there are only just under two weeks left and on the way up, we still want to see a bit.

We decide on Aguilas and here we really have to realize what everyone has predicted for us coming from the Mediterranean...everything is overcrowded and full of winter campers! Terrible!!! Since we don't feel like checking out one place after another, we ask at the first one if we can stay somewhere for the night. We can park our bus in front of a bungalow that is currently uninhabited, which is also okay...we still have more space here than the others with their big refrigerators on their mini parcels. It's so crowded, you can't imagine it if you haven't really seen it...we have now and we also believe all the rumors about paved places on the Mediterranean coast...unbelievable. Here, the retirees really sell homemade seashell necklaces at their plots (a bit of extra income...)...honestly, anyone who spends the winter here for two to three months must be crazy...you could just buy a ten-ticket for the tanning salon at home and stay there...!

The coast is also not beautiful, one large hotel complex follows the next. Luckily, we stayed in Rota for so long, otherwise we would have been really annoyed here. Jörni just went out with the dog and says it's quite nice in the dark, with the lights over the city...well, at least. So tomorrow morning we will get up early and make some progress and tackle Valencia, it's supposed to be better from there! Let's see...!