Spain Trip May 2025 - Part 14 Eastern Alpujarras and Moraira, Valencia

And so it was time to head north in the direction of home, though we had a long way still to go. At the other end of the Alpujarras range, it is much more arid than the relatively lush western end. We drove for ages past lots of pretty yellow shrubs, which I was itching to know what they were. It took a while before we could find anywhere to pull off the road to have a look.

In the photo below are two kinds of broom - the shrub that is flowering is Genista umbellata, and the taller green shrub is Retama sphaerocarpa, which I shared in an earlier post. Here I think it had finished flowering.

 Genista umbellata, below and on the bank.

Another yellow flowered shrub is this Anthyllis cytisoides, not a broom although at first glance it looks very similar. They are both part of the Fabaceae family though.

On the way home there is a place that we have stayed at twice called Javea, which has two campsites within walking distance of the town and beach, AND has a British supermarket 😀, plus several Indian restaurants (not surprisingly, it's full of British expats) but both campsites there were full. So we tried a small town nearby called Moraira where we were able to get into the campsite, which was walking distance from the town. And at the bottom of the hill from the site - there was an Indian restaurant!! You can guess where we ate that night.

We had a no drive day the next day as there were several days of driving home still to come. On this day we took it easy and walked into the town to explore in the afternoon. The campsite was up a suburban road with pretty gardens full of Mediterranean plants, which I enjoyed immensely! Below are three different kinds of Hibiscus.

Bougainvillea looking stunning! I would love to live somewhere frost free and full of plants like these.

View to the town and away from the town below.

I have never seen orange Bougainvillea before!

This small fortress is Castillo de Moraira, built in the 18th century as defence against pirate raids.

Near the Castillo was this strange sculpture!

The water in the marina was lovely and clear and there were three different kinds of fish swimming around.

This is our journey back from Orgiva, where we stayed close to Granada. After Moraira, we had a final night near to Tarragona before returning home.

The only pain was that the British supermarket at Javea was closed because it was a Sunday. Never mind we thought, as there was a small British mini-market in Moraira, and it was open Sunday mornings. However, the town parking is also the parking for the beach, and it was completely full! There was no chance of parking anywhere in a moho to get our shopping which was a shame.

And that is the end of our Spanish trip 2025! Apart from missing seeing Ronda, AGAIN, it was a brilliant trip with a lot of fabulous scenery, architecture and history, and interesting wildflowers, though sorely lacking in butterflies or even insects in general. I don't know what it is about Spain and the lack of insects as I have noticed this before, particularly in the south. 😕

STOP PRESS We just had several days of lovely weather!! It was even up to 18C yesterday and I went for a walk and saw my first butterfly. I've been pottering in the garden and tidying up my pots on the patio. It felt SOOOO good. Today is back to normal of course and rain due again tomorrow!