By motorbike from Prague to Sahara – part 10
Last days in Europe
Along the coast to Malaga
I set out from Cartagena and take it easy along the coast towards Malaga. In places I get really beautiful views. Finally, the journey around the coast is in the spirit in which I had imagined it all along. Undulating turns take you up and down, on the horizon the endless blue of the ocean flowing smoothly through a misty haze into a cloudless sky.
Zobrazit příspěvek na InstagramuPříspěvek sdílený Ondrej Andy Huk (@huko),
I originally wanted to spend the night in Almeria, it is one of the bigger cities on the coast, but in the end it seemed like a waste of time and I made it my goal to reach Malaga for the day. That’s around 400 km in total. That’s the buttock limit. It’s just torture anymore. But I did not underestimate the situation and made frequent stops. He napped on the edge of a cliff on a concrete wall in the shade of conifers swaying in the breeze, which gave them a sparkling song and the perfect air of tranquility to my rest.
Some parts of the road resembled a post-apocalyptic landscape without any fauna, just parched earth from the excessive heat. Someone once told me that down here is the only place in Europe with tropical weather. Apparently there is no such thing officially, but the heat here is really severe. It’s May 1st, the time of love, and the temperatures will be pleasantly cool here, but here I throw off my jacket and helmet every chance I get so I don’t get roasted alive.
Beaches of Salobreña
A little beyond the town of Motril is the small town of Salobreña on the coast. A small beach with gray sand, divided at one point by a rocky peninsula. Behind it is a rocky beach and when I turn inland I see a medieval fortress on a high hill (click on the right arrow on the Instagram post below and you will see the fortress).
I roll up my jeans and enter the sea barefoot. The water is deadly icy, a shock goes through my body like a thousand razor blades, my pupils dilate and I recharge with energy for the next trip.
But only after lunch… and a nap.
Fritura mixta y una caña… fried creatures from the sea is exactly why I’m here, and a caña, or small beer, deserves the trip too. Even though, unlike us in Spain, they are allowed one small beer in their blood while driving, I prefer to take a nap on the beach so I don’t rush it.
Zobrazit příspěvek na InstagramuPříspěvek sdílený Ondrej Andy Huk (@huko),
A bit of nostalgia
A few years ago, this was the beach I went to almost every weekend, when I was still living in Granada, and this was the closest beach you could reach by bus. It was an hour’s drive from Granada to the beach. It was interesting that an hour’s journey from Granada in the opposite direction and one was in the snowy mountains. In one day, you could do both in complete peace, freeze on the slopes or freeze in the sea.
I continue along the coast and pass through places that I have known well for a long time. With the passage of time, these moments are much rarer, but unfortunately also faster. Accelerated flashbacks in real time. Glimpses of memories from a past life (the one in the past, no ezo 🙂 ). For example, here in this area (more precisely in Almuñécar) I went diving with an air bomb on my back for the first time and saw a live octopus in the sea for the first (and last) time.
Nerja
One of the other places I visit before the finish line in Malaga is one of my favorite places in the south of Spain.
Nerja. Here you will find the balcony of Europe overlooking the beach in the cliffs. If you don’t speak Spanish, you can easily communicate in English here. Many English tourists fell in love here so much that they moved here to retire. Gradually, a strong English community was formed here. You can recognize this on signs in shops, menus in restaurants are also in English, etc. But the most important thing here is the view, you never get tired of it and it’s hard to capture it in a photo.
Malaga
I arrive in Malaga, I prefer to push the motorbike through the city center to the hostel. Malaga has always been too polished a city for me to relate to. It is indeed the gateway to the Spanish region of Andalucia for us, as there is an airport, but that’s about it. Walking around town I always felt like I needed a Huggo Boss t-shirt to fit in.
Tomorrow I will get up and arrive at my final destination in Europe, the port city of Algeciras.