We planned to have a day out yesterday, with the choice of mountains or seaside; we opted to head towards Granada and the mountains. Gorafe and the nearby thermal springs had been mentioned on our forum and we remembered that we had stopped for coffee and lunch at the motorway service stations at Gor, so we decided to aim for that area. Loading the car with road map, cameras and of bottles of cold water in a cooler bag, we set off up towards Baza along the Almanzora valley.
We turned left at Baza and headed towards Granada along the autovia from Puerto Lumbreras. At the the exit signposted Gorafe stood a restaurant that looked promising for a menu del dia on our return that way.
The road was quite narrow, with little or no traffic, the little hotel or posada in Gorafe looked busy, with people sitting under sunshades enjoying coffees and beers, the waitress, jolly in her red waistcoat.
As we drove on towards the spa, unexpectedly the road suddenly twisted and we descended round hairpin bends into a deep ravine.
The terrain slowly opened up and we arrived at the Balneario de Alicún de las Torres, we parked next to the hotel “La Reina Isabel”, cameras in hand we explored on foot.
We could hear the sound of rushing water, it did seem as though the water was underground as we walked down the hill,
the water appeared, literally out of the ground and poured over rocks leaving colourful mineral deposits.
The trees we could see the swimming pool and people were enjoying the water and facilities provided. Lots of goldfinches, including families were evident in the trees.
We returned to the car and headed back towards Gorafe. We parked at the top of the canyon and looked back into the gorge, not only was the view spectacular but that there were prehistoric stone monuments (Dolmens) nearby, we hadn’t realised the significance of the signs “Parque Megalítico de Gorafe”, which is quite easy to translate. It was a very interesting and surprising day out.
We headed back to the restaurant near the motorway for a late lunch, then home.