Nerja to Zafra

Monday 31st March we headed out of Nerja northwest to our first night on the new journey, to Ros & Mike's country home near Los Marines. The 360deg view from their terrace is stunning; Perriana, Mt Maroma, Laguna Viñuela, the Med, Sierra de Chimeneas, & in the foreground their next door neighbour Dolores, in her pinny, pruning her olive trees. After a very convivial evening with our generous hosts, we set of the next day well refuelled.
We wild-camped the next evening in the natural park of El Torcel, in a stone sheep pen with views of Malaga on the distant coast, overlooked by cliffs nested with vultures. Our only company was a shepherd who helpfully showed us the nearest fountain. He went home at dusk, his flock having fed on the carpet of wild crocuses. At dawn, the temperature in the tent was a bracing 4degC due to our height at 850 metres.
Antequerra at the base of a breathtaking whizz down from the mountains, has fantastic dolmens (megalithic funeral chambers) & many other fine old buildings.
As expected no flamingoes at Laguna de Fuente del Piedra due to low water levels.
Osuna & Ecija are 2 small towns stuffed with medieval buildings & storks nesting on the church bell towers. We saw hundreds of flamingoes on Laguna Calderon just north of Ecija.
There are vast estates of orange & olive groves on the way to Palma del Rio where unsurprisingly, there are enormous orange juice & olive oil processing plants. We cycled 67 miles today so celebrated with a night in a hotel & ate in a very friendly tapas bar.
By Friday we were passing though Natural Park Hornachuellos & on into the Sierra Norte, Imperial eagles frequently soaring overhead.
The wild flowers have been overwhelming - predominantly lavender / thrift, but loads more we couldn't identifiy. Cork oak plantations are everywhere, the cork stripped from the chocolate-brown trunks. In the shade of the trees now in the massive farms are herds of free-range black pigs, who invariably stampede noisily away as we pass. Surprisingly, no pong. Fortunately, the enormous ferocious-looking farm dogs also always run away in terror on our approach. Glimpses everywhere of deer, hoopoes & bee-eaters. Our thermometer confirms the weather forecast of shade temperatures the last few days of 30degC.
The last village in Andalucia, Guadalcanal, was like a Mexican cowboy film set - all ancient simple adobe houses, tiny bars & a big white church. Many of the men were wearing cowboy hats & riding well-turned out white horses. We think this must be something they do on Saturdays!
Into Extremedura. Wonderfully quiet, good condition country roads through heathland. Wild-camped amongst lavender far from civilisation.
Downhill all the way to Zafra, passing storks on unwieldy nests the size of sofas, precarious on the top of electricity pylons. Grey & white hen harriers glide low over vineyards & olive groves. At this historic centre we just had to book into the Parador Hotel - the local castle, a former ancestral home, the Alcazar de los Duques de Feria (built c1437), for 2 nights rest & sight-seeing, approximately 300 miles from Nerja.

As we are in the wilds, future blog postings may be a bit infrequent. The plan is to cycle north through Extremedura to Salamanca, then eastwards.