View from the cockpit …

Today we went to Elche,45 miles south of here. it is described as the heart of the shoe industry, not only for Spain, but for the whole of Europe. Wall to wall outlets we were promised, as well as factories, in which you could see the shoes being made. Going out with a shoe retailer’s daughter, it was only fitting we went there, and Blanche was out to spend.

Well, the mega sized TNT depot probably gave it away, they make the shoes in Elche (allegedly) but put the whole production run on lorries, and send it out, without leaving any trace of a bargain or offcut. Actually, if truth be told there were a couple of warehouses, where a part of the front was kitted out as a shop front, and a young Spanish girl was installed – “just in case of visitors”. They were not set up coachloads certainly.

So, it was off to explore the town. It is a UNESCO site, and to date none of the UNESCO sites we have visited have disappointed. This was certainly not a disappointment, a surprise maybe !

Elche is an old Moorish town, and the legacy of the moors is that the left their beloved date palms in Elche when they (were ) vacated. Hundreds, no thousands, if not millions of date palms, some having weird contortions, and deserving of a name, and individual GPS co-ordinates. There are several types of date palm, and we saw them all.

It’s sometimes difficult to think were in Spain, in winter. The weather is OK, not scorchio, the places are not busy, and it’s all in a foreign language, ( I don’t count French as foreign !) Elche was foreign, but a little confusing, all those palm trees, and not a single guy in Arabic gear, and NOT A CAMEL IN SITE, very disorientating.

So, a wander round the date palm groves, a nice lunch of Tapas, and beer, and a surprise calamari main course we didn’t remember ordering. Elche is a university town , 30% of its inhabitants are under 30, and the vibrancy shines through, even at 2 in the afternoon, I can only imagine 2 in the morning.

Following our mixed day we headed caravan- wards , the scenic route through the industrial scale salt flats and farms – is that the right collective ? Highlight for me was the flamingos, which frequent the salt flats, we saw some of these pink birds on sticks, and some in flight. Not since lake Nyvasha have I seen so many wild flamingos.

Anyway, home happy – shoeless, but educated in palm trees, another UNESCO site and a bird species ticked off.

And this  coming Sunday is Palm Sunday