Unspoilt corner of Spain inspires former Strangler

When I was 17, I had a friend at school who was studying Spanish and spent a summer in Granada. He wrote to me and invited me out there, so I got on a plane to Malaga, caught a bus to Granada and stayed there for a week. It was the first time I'd ever been abroad and I loved it.

Years later in the 1980s, when I was with The Stranglers and we were doing a lot of hectic touring, I used to jump on a plane and get out to Spain for a break as often as I could. I'd hire a car and just drive until I ended up where I ended up. I enjoy that kind of travelling because I think you find a lot of stuff that you wouldn't normally come across - especially in the south of Spain.

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It was on one of these driving trips that I stumbled across the town of Cadiz. I saw the port coming up and it didn't look very attractive, but I knew a bit about the history of Cadiz - the fact that the Spanish Armada came from there - so I pressed on. Once you've passed all the docks, it's like breaking through the mirror in Orpheus in the Underworld to another dimension. There's this ancient old town, about the size of Regent's Park, full of cobbled streets and with hardly any traffic. The town, which is one of the oldest in Europe, is actually an island linked by two causeways and it has hardly changed in 500 years.

You walk down these cobbled streets with very high old buildings and at the end of them, whichever way you go, you can see the sea. Even the locals agree that, after a few drinks, you can end up walking round in circles. It becomes like a maze, which adds to the magic of it.

It's very different to the rest of Spain and that is partly because of the Moorish influence. The Moors didn't really get up any further than Andalucia. In fact, Andalucia is the Moorish name for the area. The first time I saw Cadiz, I was struck by its history and I just felt transformed. Now, whenever I get there, I always breathe a sigh of relief, because it makes me feel at home and at ease. I've been going there for years and recently decided that I had to write a song about it because it fulfils such a strong role for me. I wanted to write something that didn't sound like a travelogue so I ended up thinking of Cadiz as a woman that I'd fallen in love with. Once I'd done that it all fitted together easily. It's on my last record, Beyond Elysian Fields.

"Walked down her streets and the cool shadows in which I lingered before bursting into light. Opened her door I was beckoned inside into a fairy tale I climbed up to her heights" (From "Cadiz")

Cadiz is on the Costa de la Luz, which is Spain's southwestern Atlantic coast, running from Ayamonte on the border of Portugal, past Huelva and the estuary of the Rio Guadalquivir, all the way down to Tarifa, the town right at the southern tip where Spain kisses Morocco. It's about 300 kilometres long.

It's very windy and a bit like Cornwall but much more picturesque. Andalucia is a vast area with mountains, beautiful forests, great beaches and rivers - everything you could possibly imagine is down there. It's almost big enough to be a separate country and the inhabitants seem to think it is sometimes.

Costa de la Luz means the coast of light and I mention it on the first track of Beyond Elysian Fields in a song called "Land of a Thousand Kisses". I find the area very uplifting. The light is very energising - you get it round all of southern Spain and Morocco. The light is especially magical at sundown.

"Take my hand if you're ready/ For a journey to the coast of light/ In the land of a thousand kisses/ If you're ready we could stay all night" (From "Land of a Thousand Kisses")

I often go there with my family and friends; I love sharing the place with people. I write, play and relax there and I'll go down again in a few months to write when the weather gets a bit nicer.

The locals are very friendly, helpful and accepting. They know it's not the most obvious part of Spain to visit so if you're prepared to go there, they look at you a bit differently. You're not the average tourist. I can speak a bit of Spanish. Over time, you pick up phrases and remember them. I know enough to do well eating and drinking.

The food is fantastic. The locals know that the most important thing is to have fresh ingredients. When you've got the wealth of good fish that they get from the Atlantic, they know that you don't have to do anything much to it. One of the most delicious seafood meals I've ever had was in the back of a bar-cum-restaurant in Vejer de la Frontera. I asked for the fresh fish that they had that day and it was perfectly grilled. I just had it with a bit of salad and a few chips and it was wonderful. These guys aren't trained chefs; they just know about cooking fish because it's part of their life.

Most of the time you eat good seafood but there's also Serrano ham which you can see hanging down from the ceiling in shops and bars. A gastronomic extravaganza for me is to have Serrano dried ham, a bowl of green olives and some fresh bread with a bottle of the local red wine. That's all I need. It's all about simplicity and I like that.

Vejer de la Frontera is one of the pueblos blancos (white towns) and a lovely place to visit. It's set on a hill next to the main coast road within hitting distance of some great beaches, but it's developing like crazy. It's twice as big as it was 10 years ago. It's becoming like a city and has already spread over on to the next hill. I think it's losing its charm.

From Vejer you can see the tops of the houses in Medina Sidonia - another white Moorish hill town - about 30 miles away. This is the town where the dukes who organised the Spanish Armada came from. It's had a lot of EU money pumped into it and the place has been reborn. I remember going there 20 years ago and it was very poor. Now it's taking off. They're opening museums and all sorts of things. What I particularly like about Spanish town planning is that they put their car parks underground. It's such a simple idea and it means that you don't have these horrible multi-storey car parks.

The Costa de la Luz used to be quite inaccessible. The only airports serving it were in Jerez, the old sherry town, to where you'd get the occasional flight, and Seville. The airlines using Seville weren't cut price so didn't attract many tourists. Now low-cost flights with companies such as Ryanair are available to Jerez, Seville and Granada.

They're opening up the whole place to UK citizens, so there's a lot more tourism. That's not necessarily a bad thing as long as the tourists respect the way of life there and don't expect it to change to suit them. The whole of the Costa del Sol - just to the east - changed to accommodate the influx of foreigners, but that hopefully won't happen on the Costa de la Luz. Three-quarters of the Atlantic coastline down to Tarifa has just been designated a national park, which means that you cannot build higher than one storey. The Spanish have seen and learnt from what went wrong before. You've got to take part if you go to this region of Spain. Part of the magic of the place is that it's uncompromising: you have to fit in with it.

Cadiz doesn't get that many tourists so there are very few hotels. The nearest airport is at Jerez. Malaga is two hours away. In the past I've even flown in to Faro (in Portugal) and driven the four hours round because it's quite a nice, easy drive. And, of course, the roads aren't as clogged up as they are here. In fact, as you leave Faro on the new motorway heading for Huelva and the Spanish border, there's a sign that has a horse and cart with a red line through it.

It's hard to be too worried about overdevelopment when you see something like that, but one thing I don't like is the number of golf courses that have sprung up. They're bad for the environment because they have to pump so much weedkiller in to keep the greens looking nice that, when it rains, it leeches out into the surrounding land. I'm not a golfer.

Cadiz is special because it's only so big and it can't get any bigger. There will always be that causeway. It's bordered on one side by the Atlantic and on the other by this big lagoon. Byron said Cadiz was the most beautiful city he'd ever seen. And the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, who wrote Nights in Gardens of Spain, came from Cadiz.

I feel a great affinity for the Spanish. I like their way of life. I like the way they bring up their children. You don't see them dropping sweet-wrappers on the ground when they come out of shops. But what is so fascinating about Andalucia is this constant shadow of the Moors that I sense everywhere. It's deeply ingrained into the way of life.

I haven't bought a place on the Costa de la Luz because I like the fact that when I go down there it's because I want to go, not because I feel obliged to. I don't always go to Cadiz. I'll go to Seville or stay by the coast depending on my mood. There's a nomadic side to me, which is one reason why being in a band has always appealed. You jump in a van, drive off and you don't always know quite where you're going to end up.

Hugh Cornwell's Song by Song tour starts at Telfords Warehouse, Chester, on 3 April. For details go to www.hughcornwell.com. 'Beyond Elysian Fields' is available on Track Records. Hugh's autobiography, 'A Multitude of Sins', is published by HarperCollins, price £8.99.

Hugh Cornwell's top restaurant

The Achuri (00 34 956 253 613) in Cadiz. It sounds like a Japanese restaurant but it serves Andalucian specialities. They do a squid baked in its black ink, which is to die for. It's the tenderest you've ever had. The restaurant isnothing fancy but it has a great ambience. It's only open about four times a week and only in the evenings. They are very serious about what they serve and appreciate it when you go in there. It's always full of Spaniards.

Hugh Cornwell's top beach

El Palmar This is one of the top surfing spots in Europe, accommodating and friendly. There are hardly any rocks, and in surfing speak, it has a beach break, which means that there is a sand bar that the waves are built up on rather than a barrier of rocks. It's lovely, golden, beautiful sand. I'm not really a surfer but I've just started boogie-boarding, which is great fun. It's also a fabulous place to just sit and look at the waves.

Sun, sea and sights: An insider's guide

Flying visit

These wetlands are an essential staging post for birds migrating to and from Africa. But the marsh is protected and visitors can only enter with a guide (00 34 959 43 04 32), though there's plenty for twitchers to see at its edges.

All a board...

Kitesurfing, windsurfing or even just plain old surfing, over the past 20 years this coast has become a favourite European haunt for boarding aficionados. Top beaches include Playa Los Lances and Playa de Valdevaqueros.

Those saucy Romans

The ruins on the beach at Bolonia were once the centre of production of the Romans' favourite fish sauce - garum - the tomato ketchup of its day. Only open during the summer months, EU citizens get in free by showing their passport.

Next stop, America

How different our geography lessons would have been but for thelittle monastery at La Rabida (00 34 956 935 0411). The monks here helped Christopher Columbus to persuade the Spanish royal family to finance his voyage.

The Wild West starts here

El Rocio looks like the set of a cowboy movie. In fact, the sandy-street-and-hitching-post look was exported from here to the United States by Spanish pioneers. At Whitsun a million pilgrims descend on the tiny village to commemorate a local miracle.

A gallop by the waves

The beach may not seem the obvious place for a day at the races. But this is the setting for Andalucia's annual international equine competition (www.carrerassanlucar.com), based on an informal race between fishermen keen to get their catch to market.

Party on

Held around Shrove Tuesday, Cadiz Carnival (www.carnavalde cadiz.com) stops for no one - even when Franco banned it the rebel port partied on. The costumes are said to be based on the Venice carnival: the city was an important trading partner in the 16th century.

A taste of the Med

Tuna is a local speciality, best eaten in the restaurants near the shores where it's landed. It's caught using the ancient art of the almadraba: a complex system of nets scoops up the fish as they pass on the way to and from the Med.

Kate Simon