Consuegra, Castilla la Mancha - SPAIN
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 Yet another sunny day graced us this morning and as I looked out upon the plains I couldn't imagine a better stage on which to set the story of Don Quixote. Indeed the territory is challenging and so full of stark monotony that would send any soul insane. Twelve restored windmills dominate the hillside by a ruined castle and it was here where Don Quixote found a new individualism. This potty knight believed the windmills to be his foes and often he would ride up to them and challenge their dominating composure, by running his lance into their white washed walls. I've never read the story so I'm unsure of its ending, but believe it definitely sums up the atmosphere of the dry and rural plains of Spain. We have often felt his insanity too. Although this feeling passed as we made our way into Cordoba and we waved goodbye to the rugged sameness that has graced our vision for the last two months. France, Spain and Portugal all possess differing culture and style but often as you enter from one to the next nothing changes. There is no stark barrier - one atmospheric village runs into another and often as I look back I find myself sometimes mixing the country's monuments up. Southern Spain is endowed with such a rich Arabic and Muslim culture and the centres of towns are no longer medieval or fortified but are called the Medinas, a sound that conjures up all the depth of middle eastern culture. Finally I feel we've found the summer we were looking for as we pass the flourishing palm trees by the roadside and look up at the stark reality of a sweltering blue sky. It's good to feel the culture shock again. Indeed we look forward to getting out of the bus and back-packing our way around Morocco. It was 5pm as we made our way into Cordoba's Municipal campground and it felt good to stop early for once. We were even graced by the friendliness of the campsite Siamese cat who enjoyed the warmth of our van, curled up around our feet. It was almost impossible to make him leave without getting hurt. I spent the rest of the evening catching up on the last 5 days of this diary and cooking a slap up stir fried meal (where the shopping for the ingredients almost proved impossible - we had to settle for just steak, capsicum and mushrooms fried in a soy and honey sauce). Even the cat tried to get back in at mid-night by somehow amazingly jumping up on our vertical windscreen and hanging off the wipers. It was 2am before I caught up with yesterdays diary entry and woke Dave up to offer him the usage of his computer. |