Tuesday 18/12/2018
https://goo.gl/maps/u7yQ3ak4yxs
37°08'35.1"N 1°49'35.1"W
After a peaceful night listening to the waves breaking on the shore we woke to a chilly morning. The sun rose over the sea, in the centre of Bokkie's windscreen and Toni popped out to get some stunning photos.
While we were eating breakfast a bird (looks like a egret) walked along the shoreline. As I was watching it, it suddenly fluffed itself up before returning to 'normal' mode; very funny.
We had psyched ourselves up to cycling up to Mojácar so set off once we were ready. The clue should have been in the description as a 'mountain top village' and the fact that we had seen it on the way in. However, a few days of flat cycling along the beach had lulled us into a false sense of security about our fitness, and the long uphill slog had us both gasping and wishing we had taken the bus! We had to stop a few times to avoid cardiac arrest but made it into the bottom 'suburbs' of the village and then walked the rest of the way up. Once at the top, the views were spectacular, photos don't really do it justice.
The village itself is a mix of 'modern' buildings around the lower areas and ancient buildings with narrow streets running between them. Parts are quite touristy but it really has a lovely feel to it and we just wandered around, taking it all in.
Mojácar has been populated for thousands of years by different cultures, and has strong Moorish influence. You can see the remnants of the ancient watchtowers on the hills around the village and it has a real air of history about it - it was apparently a hotly contested area between the early Christians and the Muslims, in spite of it's almost invincible location, high up on a mountain.
We had coffee on one of the terraces, definitely a restaurant with a stunning view.
On the way out we looked at the caves which, according to local legend, houses a sorcerer and the local beauty he tricked into marrying him (a convoluted story about him promising to rid the villagers of a plague if she was given to him.... and apparently he reneged on the healing deal, but she found the potion and gave it to the villagers, before disappearing with him in a puff of smoke!) but all we saw were a few grumpy pigeons, one of which refused to pose causing me to take about 100 snaps before capturing him.
We made our way to our bikes and whizzed back down the hill (mountain), much more fun that going up. We cycled along the beachfront for a few miles - to the famous Mojácar Playa (a favourite holiday spot for Brits), sat on the beach enjoying the sunshine and generally took it easy. Bokkie has more company on the beach tonight - we have 5 additional motor-homes around us - time to move again ;-).
Tomorrow we will make our way to our destination for Christmas.
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