How many olive trees are there in Spain?

Well about 300 million apparently and we reckon we've seen most of them in the last few days! As we have driven across the south of Spain we have been absolutely amazed by the olive plantations and have asked ourselves how on Earth the 'farmers' manage such huge concerns. We have, of course, become aware that Spain is a huge country whose population is concentrated into a relatively few large cities with enormous areas of very low density of population. The weather is now properly hot (well into the thirties) though the locals still seem to be dressed in winter clothes!
We've covered a few hundred miles this week, having headed south to visit our friends Louise and Clarke in their new house near Pinoso, inland from Alicante. It was great to have one night in a proper bed and Ted enjoyed the company of their little pug, though his 'air humping' was a little embarrassing!
Thereafter we went down to the Mediterranean coast but were again unimpressed by how busy everything was so we moved back inland and up into Andalucia and the Sierra Nevada. We spent one night on the Sierra Maria campsite near the town of Maria and visited a classic 'white village' aptly named Velez Blanco, which boasts a marvellous hilltop castle, before moving along the A92 towards Granada then cutting north to the impressive town of  Ubeda where we enjoyed beer and tapas in the square.

We are now on a site near La Carolina as we head up towards Madrid on our route across to Salamanca and then into Portugal where we hope to be on the coast by the weekend (it's Tuesday 23rd today). Have, of course, been saddened by  the awful news of the terrorist attack in Manchester.