Volcanoes, Gold, Gemstones and Ecology
April 6th – Wednesday – €30
This land had been shaped by volcanoes; this was obvious to us as we strolled through the achingly beautiful landscape of the Cabo de Gata regional park.
We were lucky to have David Monge of Geogata.com with us as our specialist guide, a geologist who lives and works in the park, to explain the finer details to us all. Our bus took our intrepid group of 30 as far as the historic restored windmill before we set off to explore Playa de Genoveses where we learnt about chumba farming for cochineal and the reason the beach got its name, the Genoese fleet were anchored off here ready to attack Almeria city. We then bussed on to Playa de Monsul, regularly voted as one of the best beaches in Europe and famous for the seagull scene in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”.
Our day finished with lunch at Hostal Alba in Los Albaricoques, a small whitewashed pueblo famous for being the location of many Spaghetti Westerns including “A Fistful of Dollars” and its sequel “For a Few Dollars More”. After lunch we were able to stroll down Calle Clint Eastwood or re-enact the gunfight in the famous circle before heading home after a perfect day.
