In a Land of Light

The Cabo de Gata has a light so unique it has attracted a large number of artists to live and work here. It's a light made up of dazzling sun and a glittering sea that can be such a vivid blue it shocks you with its intensity.

There are dunes made up of tiny broken fossils, black volcanic hills with voluptuous curves and sharper volcanic cones; vast volcanic craters full of wildflowers that bloom in spite of the poor soil, nourished by the heavy dews at night and the glorious sunshine by day. 

After days of radiant sunshine, dark clouds hide the hills or an eerie sea mist blows in, as if the land were being invaded by wraiths.  But, although the wind can be cold here in winter, the sun is never gone for long and the extraordinary light makes the most ordinary objects seem beautiful. The light changes at different times of day, my favourite time is just before sunset when the light becomes softer and turns everything a golden honey colour.

 The way people live here varies as much as the light.  The fishermen and the artists both struggle to make a living, heavily relying on the brief tourist season.

The shepherds and goatherds both live in a way that hasn't changed for hundreds of years, wandering the hillsides and the dunes with their dogs and their herds, just like the shepherd portrayed in the Christmas Belen in Almeria, leading his sheep beneath the walls of the Alcazabar.

 The Alcazabar still dominates the city, it's the largest Arabic fort in Andalucia.  Here are photos of Almeria taken from the Alcazabar, looking towards the port where ferries sail to and from North Africa, just as the Moors did when Andalucia was an important part of the Moorish Empire:

As with almost anywhere you go on the Cabo, there are a multitude of cats wandering the Alcazabar.  This one adopted us, determined to sit on us and pin us down!