En route from Montsant to Mojácar it begins to rain. This continues for the next full day, somewhat scuppering our plans for lounging on beaches and snorkelling. Instead we make use of the slightly cooler temperatures (still 13 / 14 degrees) to do a couple of 5km runs along the sea front – a great way to explore the area. We also take a visit to the hillside Mojácar town (we are staying in Mojácar Playa on the beach front). To be honest it’s a bit of a disappointment – mostly tacky gift shops rather than the arts and crafts we were expecting. Still, the town is pretty with low rise whitewashed buildings contrasting with brightly coloured geraniums and the like, and on our second night we head for a nice restaurant in the town to sample a tagine. We also make use of the rain to catch up on diary writing, photo uploading and video editing. The Parador here is a new build and confuses us a little as it neither meets the Parador objective of conserving a historic building, nor is it located in an under-visited area to stimulate tourism. Still, it’s a very nice place to wait out the rain.

On our final morning, the sun emerges and we take another wander around Mojácar town. It’s definitely improved with a little sunshine, but we have to move on – and boy are we glad we do, as we are treated to one of the best experiences of the trip so far. We head to Arrecife Las Sirenas in Cabo de Gata National Park, where we have read is good for snorkelling. It does not disappoint. From the lighthouse view point we head around the coast a short distance to find a deserted beach. We use this as our launch point and are almost immediately in the midst of shoals of silver-translucent fish. Heading round the rocky outcrop we see jellies, black and white stripy fish and some much larger silver fish which look like barracuda. We get some practice in with the GoPro and thoroughly enjoy having both the water and the beach to ourselves. We make a mental note that this is an area we’d like to return to and spend more time exploring the coastline with snorkels.

Flickr Album

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