South of Spain, let’s be havin’ ya

8th December 2019 – 29th January 2020: Andalucía

After arriving at the south coast of Spain, we then spent six weeks travelling around Andalucía.  There are eight provinces in Andalucía. It covers most of the south coast of Spain, from Almería in the SE, westward through Granada, Málaga, Cádiz, Sevilla and Heulva which borders with Portugal.  Then inland there’s Córdoba and Jaén. We have mainly stayed close to the coast but have also spent time in the mountains. The population of Andalucía is over 8 million!

The name Andalucía comes from the Arabic Al-Andalus, as seen on coins from 716, produced by the newly formed Muslim government of Iberia. This regime remained in power for 700 years and its influence on architecture is still evident in the area.

La Herradura

Our initial destination was La Herradura, a small seaside town on the south coast of Spain, directly south of Granada. This was because we had read a lot about the worldschooling community which is based there, Worldschool Hub Andalucía. Our friend Ann had visited a few times already with her family and had raved about the community spirit, the meet-ups and the beach! If you’re interested in reading more, click here:

WorldSchool Hub Andalusia | A Worldschooling Wonderland (worldschoolhubandalucia.com)

Unfortunately, home education is illegal in Spain, and in quite a few other countries in Europe too. Hearing about the experiences of families from across Europe really was an eye-opener as to how fortunate we are in Ireland and the UK to have state acknowledgment/permission, if not outright support, for home education. So many families across Europe for whom home education is the best option opt to move lock stock and barrel to countries where home education is permitted; and some hit the road and fly under the radar, either living semi-permanently in a different country where they are less likely to be identified and fined or jailed, or they adopt a nomadic existence. 

In La Herradura, there are families who have relocated there permanently, there are people renting short term, people in vans, and also people stopping by for a couple of weeks. It was a great way for us to meet other families and for the children to make new friends on the road. We met up some lovely families in La Herradura and some really interesting people! We are still in contact with some of the families we met up with in La Herradura, and follow their travels across Europe on Facebook, Instagram etc. We hope to get together with some of them again further along on our trip.

We met up with an Irish family there, the Colfers from Hook Head, Co. Wexford. They had been on the road in their van for nearly two years by that point, with their children, Ellen and Alex. Ellen is Olwen’s age and Alex is a year younger. The Colfers are now back in Ireland and running fantastic classes in yoga, breathwork, guided tours of the Hook Head area, and are in the process of setting up a yoga retreat centre!

They have a blog and website called Livin’ off the Hook ❤ I’m linking here to their blogpost about roadschooling and how they came to home education. It’s a fascinating read. You’ll find many other blogposts there too about their travels across Europe:

Road-schooling – Hook Yoga Classes & Walking Tours (livinoffthehook.com)

And you’ll find other links to a wide range of worldschoolers who blog about their journeys in this post of ours here:

How we worldschool – Krystal Ship Adventures

Castell de Ferro

For our first few nights, we stayed at a motorhome stop in a small town named Castell de Ferro, about a 45km drive east from La Herradura. We had thought we would find a campsites in La Herradura to stay in but found that they were charging full campsite prices, over €30 per night, whereas a motorhome stop is more like €10 per night. So, we stayed at this lovely, quiet little spot for a couple of nights in order to get our bearings and figure out what we might do next.