A dry half day drive.

[OnlyMark]

A couple of hours away from me is one of the driest places in Spain, if not Europe. I think the second driest. It's around and to the north of a place called Gorafe in Andalucía.
As it was a hot day I thought a drive through there would be in order.
There are two motorways heading roughly east/west, one from Jaen towards the east(ish) and one from Granada also heading east(ish). Jaen is to the north of Granada by 100km or so and a main motorway connects the two - so there are three sides of a rough square. The eastern side of it doesn't exist apart from minor, often single track, roads interspersed with remote villages.

Initially the road was good with larger villages (my car looking all lonely and forlorn, panting away in the heat) -






I started rising above the olive tree line -








In the distance to the south you can see all the way to the Sierra Nevada mountains -




Mainly just rough scrub and normal trees appearing as I headed upwards and south passing another small place -




Then it became mostly devoid of reasonable vegetation -






The road had deteriorated and wound it's way into a valley -




Still very dry -




Getting lower and back to where olive trees are viable -




Reaching the borderline, scrub increases and so do some attractive rock formations -










Eventually stopped in one of the villages and found a shady cafe for a bocadilla de queso (cheese roll) and a Fanta Limon Zero -






Not far north from the road heading east out of Granada are a large number of megalithic graves. At least a hundred or more spread through the area. I wasn't in the mood (and it was about 43 degrees anyway) to walk far around looking at them so I stopped off at a small patch of a few -










There were a couple of signboards with small writing and lots of information. I decided that after half an hour in the sun I'd just take a photo and use google later -




If you want to see some quite spectacular dolmens then head for a place called Antequera.
From there I joined the Granada road and headed that way but then cut the corner off to head home. Called at Lidl on the way because they do some good aged mature cheddar then went in the pool.

[sophie]

The landscape looks quite similar (to my eyes) to parts of Nevada. Thanks!

[auntieannie]

thank you for the pictures, Mark!

[OnlyMark]

You're welcome.

[Netsuke]

Thank you for posting the photos, the two refreshing pics under the grapery were good to see after all the dryness.

[Voy]

What DO those people in those villages DO? Olive oil?

[OnlyMark]

That's a good question. They are quite remote villages with not easy access to a large town or city. Harvesting olives is a once a year thing and so you get paid just once a year. Nowadays it is quite common for the younger generation, who can find a job, to leave the village and work elsewhere. We've wondered about what the residents do and not come up with anything that doesn't require a quite long commute. Most of the populations are quite old in comparison to somewhere closer to "civilisation".
In 2014 or so the unemployment rate overall in Spain was 27%. It is lower now but still one of the highest rates in the EU. If that is an average there are some places with a rate of less than 10% or lower. That means there are places with probably 35 or 40%. This area of Spain (where my house is) is actually one of the poorest in the country so I'd suspect these villages have very few workers in them.
The unemployment rate in Granada province, which this is mostly in, as of the end of last year is the second worse in the country at 26%.

[slowcoach]

Pictures of sierras and badlands are very welcome.

It seems silly perhaps, but I was expecting windmills, not for tilting at but for electricity; similarly some solar arrays.

Aug 6, 2023 19:50:22 GMT 2 Voy said:

What DO those people in those villages DO? Olive oil?

I dunno, I've never been there but to fathom such puzzles, I suspect you would need to enter into a very different way of thinking about things.

The area around us, would be considered impoverished, so there are subsidies for improving facilities, roads, the environment, which provide sporadic employment I pass many a sign telling me how much central, regional government or the E.U. has coughed up for my benefit. Sometimes for things we could easily have managed without. Also there are pensions, we have a large proportion of aged ones, we included. Passed a certain age, breathing is enough to bring money into the community.

Along with subsidies goes subsistence.

Here if you have, a few dozen olive trees, same for hives, a small vineyard, a chainsaw, 100 ewes, perhaps some goats, chickens, a donkey, a well, and a vegetable garden of an acre or more, you are OK

It is wetter here, so the bushes, trees and the blades of grass are a lot closer together. So a lot less far to ramble.

[Netsuke]

As far as what Do the people Do there, I have no idea but the idea of a bit of the odd smugglers jobs going around was in my mind. Then it hit right between the eyes - they’re a bit far from the sea for that aren’t they? Which brings me back to tending their olives, watering their tomatoes and playing bocce!