Malaga to Cabo de Gata, Andalusia, Spain. 25th October 2018.

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Castillo San Miguel (detail), Amuñécar..

This was founded in the first century BC, during the Roman era, and enlarged during the Moorish period.  There is a variety of stonework and brickwork visible here from different periods.  Some of it may date from Roman times.

We are travelling west along the south coast of Spain, from Málaga to Cabo de Gato, about 200 kilometres.  Here and in many succeeding images, we are at Amuñéca, about 40 or 50 kilometres west of Málaga.

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Torre de Vilella, now in the suburbs.

This is a watchtower from the 16th to 17th centuries, built on the remains of an ancient tower and in an area that was once included a Phoenician graveyard.

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Views of San Cristobal Beach looking north from Peñón del Santo, a small peninsula at Amuñécar.

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This is a tourist area with I imagine expensive hotels.

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Each to their own, but personally, the idea of travelling to stay in an expensive hotel with excessive creature comforts and then merely self-incinerate on a beach has never had any attraction for me.

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Interesting patterns.

Personally I prefer wild deserted beaches, such as I showed some posts ago at Yorke Peninsula.  Harder to find in Europe no doubt.  The beaches of the Hebrides though (north-west of Scotland).

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Amuñéca Beach.

We are still on the Peñón del Santo, at Mirador de Amuñéca, and this is looking east rather than west.

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Castillo San Miguel, Amuñécar.

A wider view that may have been taken from the same viewpoint as the earlier image.

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The rocks at the end of the peninsula.

As with preceding images, this was taken from the Peñón del Santo.  While this is a peninsula, Peñón means rock.  At the end of it are these two rocks, the Peñón de Enmedio and the Peñón de Fuera.  Together the three are the Peñónes de San Cristóbal.  Each 15th August, there is a night time procession here in honour of the town’s patron saint, the Virgen de la Antigua, ending in a dramatic fireworks display.

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Peñón de Salobreña and Playa Salobreña (the peninsula and the beach).

We are now a kilometre or so past Amuñécar.

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Castillo de Salobreña.

Probably taken from the same viewpoint as the previous image, this is a 10th century castillo extended in the 16th century.  From the front at least, a formidable bastion..

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View from the balcony of our room at Cabo de Gata, near sunset.

We have reached the town of Cabo de Gato, where we were to stay for the night.

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The town of Cabo de Gato at night.

I had read about a tapas bar that also had live music.  Unfortunately, neither tapas nor music was on offer.  However, I was entranced by the deserted town, which at times seemed like a background for the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, far more compelling to me than Amuñéca.

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Even better without the cars….

Come to think of it, I think I really need to go back and get those previous two images without the cars.  Just knock on all the doors and persuade all the people I find to get up and move their cars so I can take a couple of photographs.  Just hope they speak English and I don’t get assaulted.  Perhaps take my laptop and use text translate.  I need to make this post on Sunday so if I leave tomorrow I should be able to do that from Cabo de Gato or Malaga.

So that’s leave on Friday and fly 27 hours with two stops. In Cabo de Gata on a Saturday night, the tapas bar might be open with live music.  Then return on Sunday flying 34 hours with three stops.  Should get back Tuesday morning.  Cost about $A4,500 including car rental and a night’s accommodation for two.  Worth it for a couple of improved images.  Hmmm.  Let’s see….

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So here you are.  Cost practically nothing as it turned out.  Didn’t get assaulted or receive any impolite comments.  Looks much better without the cars and managed to recapture exactly the same lighting and compositions….

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Wandering further on…

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The street name is Pozo de Cabo de Gato and pozo refers to a well.

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There were some people walking around.  I waited for them to leave.

The sculpture represents the helms of sailing ships, including those on voyages of discovery.

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Views from the balcony of our room at Cabo de Gata, early in the morning.

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South of the town there is a nature reserve, Las Salinas de Cabo de Gata and a couple of hides.  There may be flamingos, herons, storks and cranes.  I went there early in the morning, before breakfast but did not see anything.  Wrong season perhaps.

Capo de Gata means Cape of the (female) cat.  It has a history that goes beck to Phœnician, Roman and Moorish times.  The Greeks built a temple to Aphrodite there and it was consequently known to the Romans as Venus Promontory.  The current name dates to about the 14th century.  You might think it is or was the home of a wildcat, perhaps the rare Iberian Lynx or the European wildcat, but not so.  The mediæval name was Capo de Agatas, in other words, Agate Cape, agate being a semi-precious stone.  The current name is just a corruption of that.

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Torre de San Miguel.

This 18th century watchtower was abandoned when we went past, the Guardia Civil having left in the 1990s.  It is now being restored.  There will be a visitor’s centre on the ground floor and a mirador (viewing deck) at the top..

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Cabo de Gato, the actual cape, against the sun.

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Cabo de Gato Lighthouse.

(No cats in sight).

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