A very serene water feature at the Hort del Elche.

This photo is for those of you trying to grow a yucca plant at home. Beat that! Yes it really is a yucca plant, grown outdoors and is very large probably about 9 feet high...

This fantastic palm tree, the main attraction at this palm park, is over 100 years old and has several other palm branches that sprouted from the base of the main trunk - they are not grafted in. The branches start about 2 metres up the original palm trunk. We are so accustomed to seeing only a single trunk, it was quite amazing to see a palm tree like this.

Another Kiwi conquering the world! Also at the palm garden at Elche.

At Elche there was a truly fabulous collection of cacti grown outdoors - any volunteers for weeding duty??

Some of the cacti are huge, you get some idea of the scale thanks to mystery tourist #1.

Bird-spotters please email me with the name of this zany-feathered duck! The species name, that is...

And turtles as well, including some very cute wee'uns!

Another view of the yuccas. It was a spiky place to be, you needed to be careful not to get poked by the leaves!

Another water feature of the Hort del Elche. We could hear some strange chirping noises from it but did not see what was making the noises despite a good look around. Maybe we don't want to know! Otherwise a great place to visit.

We visited the city of Murcia which is inland from La Azohia. The cathedral had fabulous stone carving including the 'chain' you can see on this photo about halfway up the tower.

This is a front view of Murcia cathedral...

Not far from the cathedral was this small park with stunning flowers. It seemed a nice city very laidback, but there were an inordinate amount of shoe shops.

Sierra Espuna, the highest peak in the park, reached by a narrow windy road. Some other views follow in the next few photos. Also that's the car we hired, a Peuguot 407.

A view of the valley and this also shows part of the road leading up to the viewpoint.