Tarifa and the Costa de la Luz

Keen for a bit of down time, we arrived on the coast just outside of Tarifa, together with the sun ☀️ - where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea at the Straits of Gibraltar. Fascinating to see the different shades of blue and the crashing waves of the Atlantic versus the calmness of the Mediterranean 😃


The winds are often strong here, so very popular for windsurfing and kite surfing. Again, fascinating to see the number of people parked up here, settled in for the winter - mainly Swiss, Germans and Dutch, obviously not needing to count 90 days! 😟 Took this opportunity to catch up on a few chores (mainly washing), explore a bit, and generally taking it easy.

The beaches are beautiful and stretch for miles - but water just a little too cold for swimming. Rubes loved the sand, but too frightened of the surf 🤣 



Ruby's ideal holiday!

Campsite was right on the beach, with lovely bar for sundowners, looking over to Africa and watching the amazing sunsets.

Beach bar at the campsite



The African sun 😂


Cycled into Tarifa one day - the old town quite interesting, being the southern most town in mainland Europe, and only 12km across the water from Morocco 🇲🇦 Day trips to Tangier are advertised everywhere. Once a really important trading port, it now seems to survive on tourism, mainly as a laid back windsurfing destination. A nice enough old town, but not a lot to really keep us there 😃

Tarifa old town


Tarifa old town


Apart from a climb up the mountain behind the campsite to see the interesting Buddha cave, and a wiz out on the bike for a bit more exploring by Dave, daily walks along the beach with Rubes, there’s not an awful lot more to report from our time here - just lovely to spend a bit of time in the sunshine and feel the warmth, and watch the evening sunsets 😃

The Buddha Cave

Costa de La Luz




Leaving Tarifa we headed a bit further west along the Costa de la Luz to Bolonia beach - famous for its enormous stretch of golden sand and it’s amazingly huge sand dune. Great to be able to park here on the edge of the beach for the night 👍


Bolonia is also famous for Baelo Claudia, an archeological ruin of an an ancient Roman town, perhaps one of the most intact we’ve ever seen! Once an important trading city with North Africa, through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar - the main industry being Tuma fishing and salting. Amazing to be able to wander round these ruins, see the main temple, the important aqueduct, thermal baths and amphitheater, and at no visitor charge for entry - seems quite incredible!


Temple at Baelo Claudia


Ampitheatre at Baelo Claudia


Aqueduct at Baelo Claudia


Further along the coast near Huelva we called in to see Las Carabelas, the reconstructed ships of Christopher Columbus on his 1492 European discovery of The Americas voyage - the port from which he set sail. Fascinating to see just how small the boats were, and how open to all the elements. 


Las Carabelas

Las Carabelas

Spent the night close by, a beautiful sunset again, as well as Palm trees full of ripe dates - a reminder of our closeness to Africa 😃


Camped here for the night 😀



Overall a lovely few days on the coast, relaxing and soaking up a bit of sun - a much needed rest after our busy time in Sevilla, and much more preferred by Rubes 😃









Comments

  1. Anonymous26 December 2022 at 07:39

    Feliz Navidad to the three of you. Love the pictures under the African sun ☀️ Fiona Andy Ailsa Bella xxxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jane27 December 2022 at 00:38

      And a merry Christmas to you all too 🎄🎄🎄

      Delete
    2. Erica Bradley3 January 2023 at 09:28

      Beautiful 😍 never thought about the contrasting oceans!

      Delete
    3. Jane3 January 2023 at 12:09

      No, and it was quite striking 🤣

      Delete

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