Before leaving Granada Pakorn, Eyve and I decided to meet again in Sevillia within the next few days since we all had planed to go there too. In the meantime I set course for Malaga. I left Granada passing through the Sierra Nevada. The Sierra Nevada is actually a mountain national park in Spain. I assume that it was named long before the Sierra Nevada desert in the US and it is probably where the deserts name comes from.
The mountains are very tall and there is even a ski resort. It’s difficult to imagine that you can go skiing there in winter driving through the soaring 43 degrees heat in summer. I was told in winter it even snows down in Granada.

The view from the top was very nice.

I kept riding south towards Malaga passing a beautiful bright blue lake where I stopped for a little break to let my bikes engine cool after it had died once again. I wanted to stay at the lake for the night but I felt I hadn’t covered enough distance to already set up camp.

So I kept going and a while later I actually reached another lake just like it. There were official camp sites close to it which cost 20 Euros which I didn’t want to spend so I set up my tent in a little group of trees. Next to the beach (a no-no), next to the road (a no-no), and next to an official campsite (a no-no). It was free but it was not comfortable. It was on an incline. I didn’t sleep well because in my tent I inevitable rolled into the corner and slept being pushed into the tent wall without being able to move much.

Because of the wide angle of the GoPro camera lens it’s difficult to see how steep it actually is.

It’s more visible on my phone camera.

Turning the tent 90 degrees was actually even more uncomfortable.Turns out there is a good reason why beds are flat.

Since I didn’t even want to try to sleep and it was still relatively bright outside I decided it would be a nice idea to go for a swim in the lake in the middle of the night. The water was almost uncomfortably warm. Unfortunately the ground was also really muddy and not very deep. I kept getting stuck and it took me a good 10 minutes to get in far enough to actually swim.

(The GoPro Hero2 does not make amazing photos at night.)

When I got out instead of being clean I was covered knee deep in clay like mud. On top of that I had to walk back to my tent through some type of plants which have thousands of tiny seeds which make Velcro pale in comparison. I spent an hour tearing them from my legs, shorts and my towel. All in all I probably should have skipped the lake.

I packed my things the next day in the morning and reached Malaga a little after.

Malaga is not too big and there wasn’t a lot to see. I strolled through the city centre and visited yet another fortress on top of a hill. But it was by far not as impressive as the one from Granada and I was glad I had only payed three Euros entry unlike ~15Euro for the one in Granada which were worth it.

However a highlight for me was the Picasso Art Gallery. I had never seen a real Picasso painting before and I was and still am not hugely impressed with his work. I just can’t wrap my head around why his paintings are among the most expensive ones in the world. Picasso was born in Malaga so the included audio guide explained a lot about his life and motivation for his paintings. It’s now a little bit more clear to me why he painted the way he did in his later works but I still don’t think they are worth as much as they cost. He also made scultures out of garbage. No I can’t say I am a fan of his work.

More impressions from Malaga:

In the evening I decided to look for another hostel so I wouldn’t lose any time in the morning with packing my tent the following day since my goal was: Tangier, Morocco – Africa.