Soto to Tarifa

Friday 20th November 21, 2009
Sotogrande to Tarifa
After a good week of R and R (the U.K for me, and Alec working hard at improving his golf swing in Sotogrande) we have now picked up the thread again. It is rather daunting; in France we were very focused about getting from North to South but Spain is a different challenge altogether as that doesn’t seem possible.
The mountain ranges look most imposing from the air, and from the ground they are even more daunting. We are realizing that great swathes of land are totally out of reach. However we are breaking ourselves in gently with the flattest part of the South West. (We hope)
We set off with the bikes loaded in to the back of a car and drove past Gibraltar and Algeciras en route for Tarifa. Africa was looking so close it felt as if you could reach out and touch it. It had been a little damp in Soto but after passing Gibraltar the sky cleared and it is 22 degs and sunny. Bliss. We drove into Tarifa which is one of the most popular surfing centers in the world. Not surprising as the beach stretches for miles with Atlantic rollers arriving all the way from America. It was full of young surfers and quite a few who had probably arrived in the 80s and never got around to going home. The streets are narrow, stray cats, dogs and free range children everywhere and it has a strong Moorish feel. We checked in to a tiny hotel in a back alley (after being spoilt rotten for a week a bit of penance was due!) which was spick and span, and then familiarized ourselves with the town, via a bar a good restaurant and another bar. Initially we were a rather under-awed (almost depressed) by the town when compared to the organized cleanliness of France. It seems quite African in the approach to rubbish and plastic bags but after a couple of hours we were used to it. The Spaniards are so vibrant, curvaceous (yes wow) and fun to watch so we had a happy evening doing exactly that.