The desert at Almeria

(first week in March 05) I drove up to find the desert near Almeria where the Spaghetti westerns were filmed along with some scenes from Lawrence of Arabia and one of the Indiana Jones movies too.

The weather was brilliant although a bit chilly later in the afternoon.

The easiest way is as you get almost to Almeria  follow the signs for Tabernas and then drive on through the small town and you will see the signs for Fort Bravo, Mini Hollywood etc. I gave these a miss and snook off road to have a look at an old ruin and then drove on and up to Tarrillas to get a better look at the snow on the mountains!. The road that goes even further up had been cleared by snow plough to the radar station, but past that the road impassible even in a 4x4!

As it was March it was not exactly desert but I definitely enjoyed the off road bit. A good sense of direction is needed as you can easily lose your sense of direction.

The strange cairn type stone constructions do have me baffled though, maybe they were for stranded travellers?

A long drive but worth it as I then drove down to Cabo de Gata

12 hours driving in all and  all the greenhouses are near Almeria that used to be called greenland is now all silver and at least 40km of them. But the scenery was stunning.