June finds Tippi and her chauffeur in Salobreña again and the weather is getting hotter by the day. It is nice to sleep with the doors open and watching the sea at sunrise though. You’ve gotta stop and smell the roses every once in a while, you know?
What’s been happening before we got to June so fast, I hear you ask? Well, Tippi has been enjoying herself to the n’th degree, that’s what.
We started off back at Bordenares with a plan to stop somewhere nice on the way back too. This is how Tippi got on.
We had a week to do as we wished and this was one of our favourites on the way down to Ìtrabo over two months ago, and as we’re looking to go back home the other way, through Portugal and up the west coast of France, we just had to visit here again before we left.
Tippi made a few new acquaintances too. I say that because they weren’t exactly friends in her book.
As with so many of the beaches here, there’s never any cover for a little bit of shade to help keep cool and we all had to take it when we could find it. That and jump into the sea as often as possible when it comes to Tippi. Drying herself in the dirt might come a close second as one of her favourite things to do. Or maybe they come as a package deal? I think package deal myself.
So few people could stay here and no bigger vans could even get here, so we all have the place relatively to ourselves. So much so that when the nights were too hot for Tippi, she was happy to sleep outside and I left the van door wide open all night. Insect repellent was however needed. At some point I woke and saw some creep watching the van from about 60m away. Tippi hadn’t spotted them or I’m sure my big brave girl would have chased them off, post-haste!
So, four days, two to two dozen swims a day, with the dirty sand drying off/rolling, and creepy night visitors later, we set off to find something new. The reason I went from here to Ìtrabo first time around is because of the plastic looking farms. This time we went around them to get a good look.
So we left our (or maybe just mine) favourite beach to drive through the more sparsely populated areas along the coast towards Cabo de Gata-Nijar. The places we went through were lovely and if we had all the time in the world, we would’ve stopped to camp every few kilometres, I’m sure.
I got my goggles and snorkel out for the first time here (in the last 2 pics) and as soon as I put my head in, I saw LOTS of fishy’s 🐠🐟🐠 Tippi didn’t dunk her head under to see them, if she did I’d be curious to see what she did 😂
The water was crystal clear and the fish ambled so close I could almost reach out and touch them. I had to play dead for them to come closer, but think they knew what’s up by the snorkeling breathing sounds emanating from the tubby floating in the water above them. Oh well, no fish for dinner then. These coastal spots were lovely and I could have stayed for ages at all of them.
As it was we ended up in a new favourite candidate spot.
What a beautiful place. And NO tourists, apart from a small group of motorbike riders stopping for a group picture I took for them on my second morning there, coming back from a lovely walk. The walks are a bit unfortunate that there are no walking routes around the lake apart from the roads that go away out of the way to circle the lake. Tippi’s too old for that long a walk in the already stifling 11am heat we got back in.
Another first for us, the hammock made it’s debut! Why have I not done more of this!?! Well, actually not many places we’ve camped at presented a good opportunity to set it up. This however, was perfect.
In the three and half days we stayed here, I think that maybe an average of 8 to 9 people passed by all day, and you could normally hear them coming a minute or two at least before they went past. Even some of the noisier cyclists! Very tranquil. Four of the visitors were probably the guy who comes by all the time to check that no-one has unlocked the lake access.
It was also just a short walk of four minutes down to the lakeside for swims for both of us. Someone was being her usual stereo-Tippi-cal self and insisted LOTS of stick throwing/fetching swims. The goggles were handy but sometimes I could hardly see my outstretched fingertips if the wind had churned the water even a bit. Tippi didn’t care about that. She just wanted to swim, my wee seal pup. 🦭
Good thing about her swimming fetish is the lovely gentle exercise she gets. Those weakening back legs are pumping away now that I’ve taught her to use them. Even so, she tends to overexert herself and seems to constantly battle the next day to use those weaker back legs. It’s become a struggle for me to get the balance of exercise right in the sort of place that has any water.
Everywhere has its pros and cons and this place had one con that was super annoying. Grass seeds! Holy effing cow! They got everywhere! But worth it! It probably took about 3 hours of picking to rid Tippi’s bed of the things after we left.
So, back to Ìtrabo for a quick dog training session with one of the locals (from Romania actually) and then back to the beach in Salobreña where this post started.
Just some recent pictures of the week.
