Monday, March 30, 2009

Day 14 - Tarifa - February 26th

I woke up early next to a snoring Bruno! Toughed it out into the strong wind. The noisy, whipping, brutal wind. I zipped up my jacket and squinted my eyes. I was absolutely brutalized by the wind. I wound my way through an empty but zippingly noisy old town down to the port and East along a stretch of beach.

Luz had warned me that visibility wouldn't be its usual. She said all sorts of sand and dust was being blown across the Mediterranean towards the straight of Gibraltar. I didn't have any other weather to compare this sunrise to, so I thought it was still pretty cool!

Barely visible on the horizon across a stretch of 10 miles of teeming water were the looming hills of the African continent. My eyes screamed with delight. I was on the beach in the dark just before sunrise and watched as twinkling city lights blinked off and the mist shrouded mountains materialized in the morning. As miserable as it was sitting in the corner of an abandoned crumbling building desperately trying to shelter my eyes from the flying sand, watching the sunrise from Tarifa over the straight of Gibraltar on the mountains of Morocco stands out as one of the highlights of my trip.

From the beach I wandered the old town and sat down for a coffee and tomato toast with the local crowd. There was the group of middle aged "girls" chattering away Sex and the City style, the two young hip men with fitted shirts, dark tans, and close haircuts, a weathered old man with one arm, another with one leg, both hanging out together, a very large woman who was being berated by an equally large man in sweatpants, and the middle-aged once very beautiful waitress who busily took care of us all.

I turned West and headed up the opposite side of Tarifa, making my way back to Luz's house, watching the wind play patterns in the sand on the beach.

After a short repose at Luz's apartment I packed and caught my bus back to Cadiz, grabbed some chorizo bocadillos, changed buses, and was bound for Madrid.


Tarifa Sunrise


My shelter from the wind


Can you spot Africa?


Can you hear the wind?


Can you feel the spray? See Moroccan mountains?


Thanks for the protection!


Beautiful Tarifa coast


Tomato toast, mmm


Tarifa rooftops


Waiting for a bus, last image of those poor sunglasses. I hope some Spanish man is enjoying them very much.

Several hours and restless naps later at a rest stop I was treated to a great sunset, sweeping over the Spanish countryside. Large fields, hills, and mountains were bathed by the sinking sun. It was so wide and beautiful.

My bus pulled into Madrid at around 11pm and by midnight I was having a beer at my hostel with Americans, Spaniards, and Australians playing King's Cup. Some of the rules were a bit different, but the general idea, I was glad to find, is universal.


Spanish countryside sunset