Homeward Bound – Portugal 26

The imposing Moorish Castle at Zuheros

We left Campo Mayor and swiftly ate up the handful of kilometers that took us to an unassuming bridge that forded a river and deposited us, in the blink of an eye, into the Extremadura Region of Spain. A palpable sense of sadness washed over the two of us, as we realized we’d said goodbye to Portugal, and with a giant effort of will we tried to feel good about being back in Spain. As we headed deeper in, Miki studied the map, and found what she considered to be an interesting area, topographically speaking.

Fly me to the Moon, and let me play among the stars....

“I think we should head for Zuheros” she said.  What a panacea for our reverse-homesickness it turned out to be! A wonderful surprise, a vertiginous village nestled high in the mountains crowned with an 8th century Moorish fort, and overlooked spectacularly from stratospheric cliffs by an imposing Christian cross.

The Christians erected this cross hundreds of meters above the Moorish Castle, in a spectacular case of religious oneupmanship.

We loved it immediately and spent the night in the dead centre of town. (Well, by the cemetery actually.) The village itself was impossible to access with the Boomobile, so we indulged in a great deal of walking and hiking over the next couple of days, even walking to the very top of the cliffs overlooking Zuheros. This wonderful place was exactly what we needed to put a spring back in our step upon returning home.

Miki discovers that the Rocky Road she was directed to was not in fact an Ice-cream flavour. Traffic management - Zuheros style.

Our final port of call was a campsite by a small lake near Granada, and then, finally, 7 weeks after leaving, we pulled up outside our apartment in Turre, awash with memories. Portugal, we salute you.

Kev Moore