Day 8: Antequera, Spain
Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Sat 13 Nov 2010 07:21
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Day 8: 12 November 2010. Hotel Lozano, Antequera, Spain.
N37 01.583 W004 32.307 Distance driven 210 km. Total distance 1886
km
We had a slow start today. I woke at 0330, the
effects of too much alcohol last night, got up at 0500 and started to
work. Rather unexpectedly, Jenny surfaced before 0600 and worked on
editing until 0930 when we left to drive to Grenada. Another brilliant day
with traces of frost on the ground - or was it juts a heavy dew? Whatever, it
was too cold for camping! We started late as we had to wait for the office to
open to pay our bill.
Having failed to send blogs last night I removed the
photos and sent them off without problems. I think, in future, I will not
include photos if I am sending by Sat Phone as, even using Mailasail's
PhotoRazor to downsize the photos, it is just too much for the sat
Phone.
We drove to Grenada, visited the Al Hambra site and
revelled in the beauty of the Islamic designs and craftsmanship. It is a
really magical place - I had visited before with Su in 1998, just before she
died, but it was a first for Jenny and she was blown away by it.
Leaving Grenada we got snared up in the Friday
afternoon traffic and pulled into a large service
station on the Seville road for a coffee, to find that they had free
Wi-Fi, so we made full use of the facility until nearly sunset. We
then had the problem of finding somewhere to stay before dark and pulled off
into Antequera where we found the Lozano hotel after trundling through the
narrow streets of the old town.
We are getting quite concerned about the political
situation in Western Sahara where rioting took place in Layounne on Tuesday and
there were nasty scenes on the Spanish TV of Moroccan security forces laying
into the locals. There are varying reports of up to 11 dead, including 8
Moroccan police. There are also reports that the area is closed to foreigners.
This could be a real problem for us as there isn't really a viable
alternative route across the Sahara as the Algerian/Mauritanian route has been
closed for some years. We'll continue into Morocco and watch how the
situation develops - it will be probably 3 weeks we need to transit
the area.
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