I’m sorry to
both Scotland
and Croydon. I like you both. But the following must be said.
Much of my
family is from Scotland
and I have toured and explored many beautiful, awe- inspiring places within it.
From mountains to lochs to sweeping sandy beaches and rocky headlands. It is
quite an incredible country when it comes to natural scenery.
Not so much
Croydon. Before I moved to Spain,
I lived in Croydon. It´s not quite Scotland. It’s more beautiful on
the inside. But I’ll come to that later.
Anyway, it
is with great pain that I have to say, with hand on heart, that the scenery we
found this week not 100km from home in southern Spain blows all of it away. All of
it. The lochs, the mountains, even the haggis and bagpipes. Even the strangely
fascinating No.1 Croydon tower. It blows
them all sky high, in much the same way putting a mobile phone into a microwave
and pressing “start” would do.
The startlingly
beautiful scenery I speak of can be found on the road between the Andaluz
villages of Grazalema and Zahara de la Sierra.
Travelling
from Jerez or Seville
you follow a twisty mountain road from the small town of El Bosque to Grazalema which, itself, is
incredibly beautiful. This first road is steep, narrow and, in places, the edge
drop away hundreds of feet. It takes you past the isolated mountain village of Benamahoma, itself worth a detour to
visit, and the views from the road are amazing, especially when you near the
top of the pass before descending into Grazalema.
But it is
here that many people stop, already blown away by the rolling hills, the deep
valleys, the acres of forest and the rocky mountain pinnacles they lay before
them at the “mirador” that stands just 2km from Grazalema itself.
However,
what so many people miss is the turn-off to Zahara, just one more kilometre
further down the road, just outside Grazalema. From here, there are 14km of road
taking you through the most invigorating, spectacular and stunning scenery. Ascending
the first part is breathtaking. Plunging cliffs, huge boulders, sloping trees,
grey, rocky outcrops, rich green grass and sweeping vistas greet you as you
look out to the right.
But that’s
not even the best of it. When you come to the pass at Puerto de las Palomas,
you find yourself at a point between two sweeping valleys. You can see for miles
and miles across the Sierra not just to the south east but to the north west as well. It
leaves you speechless (which is frankly unheard of for me). Go to any good
thesaurus, find the most positive adjectives you can about scenery and you
still won´t come close to describing the view from this point.
But – yes,
there’s another but – as if you thought you’d already stuffed yourself full of
sweets from the metaphorical sweetshop that is the view at this point, as you
descend the other side towards Zahara, you drive down an awe-inspiring, twisty,
turny, steep and precipitous mountain road, which reveals 2,000ft below you a
fluorescent turquoise lake, while towering rock pinnacles lie jagged and broken
a 1,000ft above you.
I’m out of
breath just describing it.
Now, it’s
fair to say that if we saw the same sight over and over again, we might become
a little blasé about it. For example, I worked in central London
for nearly a decade before coming to Spain
and every day I would see the famous Tower
Bridge and the Tower of London
on my way to and from work. Wonderful sights. Incredible to look at. But after
the twentieth time of looking at them as I crossed over the river in a double
decker bus, I just didn’t bother any more. You know what I mean?
I can
imagine Sherpas born and brought up within in the shadow of Mount Everest saying
to an awe-struck mountaineering tourist seeing it for the first time: “Oh yeah,
that thing. Done it already thanks.”
I bet even
Kublai Khan, on seeing Xanadu for the twentieth time, probably said: “I’ve seen
better if I’m honest. Don’t like the trees very much. They’re a bit too pointy.”
Now, for
me, this has become true with some parts of Scotland. Don’t get me wrong. It’s
an incredibly beautiful country – if you miss out most of Glasgow that is – but I can quite happily
drive past whole swathes of it and not feel the need to gaze out in wonderment.
And so, this
week, as we drove along this road through the sierra, I did worry for the
briefest of seconds that it might all get a bit humdrum the next few times we
drove that way, especially as we live not far away.
But then I
slapped myself hard in the face. Metaphorically, of course. Take your eyes off
the road for a few seconds and you’re liable to career off, through the
concrete bollards and plunge thousands of feet to a fiery grave, all the while
thinking to yourself what an incredibly beautiful place to have such a violent
death.
Frankly, there
is no way, no way, I could ever get bored of this sight.
I’m sorry Scotland. I
really am. I think you’re great (well, maybe not Glasgow so much). But it’s over. We’ve grown
apart these last few years, haven’t we? You’ve got your own friends now and
I’ve got mine. We don’t do things together like we used to. Look, it’s me, it’s
not you. Honestly. I’ve just moved on. I know it’ll be difficult at first. But
you’ll find someone new. I know you will.
And as for
Croydon. Well, it’s got a nice shopping street and some good pubs and a few
parks. But it doesn’t have much in the way of rocky pinnacles, mountain passes
and turquoise lakes. I like it. I do. But here I turn back to my original
analogy.
Imagine
Croydon’s sweeping vistas were a mobile phone and the views from the mountain
roads in the sierra were the world’s most massive microwave oven.
I´m quite
getting to like this country.