With the weather looking fair, we decided to stay in the area for a few more days.
We set out on the short drive up the coast to Chipiona on Sunday 9 February, intending to stay a couple of nights in the municipal carpark. Our Gaffer friends had all made a similar decision: we bumped into Pete, Sarah, John & Clare riding back along the beach from Sanlúcar de Barrameda and parked up alongside Sue and Howard who were already in the municipal parking area!
We went for a stroll around this fascinating small town and were interested to find out about los Coralles. These ‘fish pens’ built out into the sea along the coast between Rota and Chipiona are thought to date back to Roman times. The pens are built with sandstone and compacted shells allowing sea urchins, oysters, barnacles, shrimps and crabs to be trapped as the tide goes out. These are still harvested today using traditional tools. The 19th century Faro de Chipiona is still in use and the tallest in Spain, being the landfall light for Seville. Then there’s the impressive sandstone Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de la O standing proudly in it’s Gothic style right on the beach, built in 1909. The last marvel we found, lurking on the beach was a pair of huge crabs.
Today we managed to find a bike shop in Chipiona and bought brake cleaner for the bikes, but decided to set out for a ride up to Sanlúcar de Barrameda and fix them properly tomorrow. The Via Verde is pretty flat all the way so, apart from the squealing everything was fine . . . At Sanlúcar de Barrameda we treated ourselves to an excellent Arroz con langostinos at Casa Juan with a table overlooking the ferry crossing to Doñana Natural Park. Sadly, it will be raining tomorrow, as this looks like an interesting trip to do – maybe another time!
