Back to Spain!

So my last post left you on our final night in Morocco! It’s been a while!

Our ferry journey from Morocco was smooth, even if it was delayed. We were kept entertained by watching the huge lorries board any one of the four ramps onto the ferry, sometimes driving on, sometimes reversing uphill. It was like a huge Tetris puzzle.

We soon arrived into Spain, and headed back to the huge Carrefour at Algeciras as fast as Dwti’s big wheels would take us! We had certainly missed the huge array of fresh food in a massive clean supermarket. It was sensory overload as we walked in, especially as they have decorated for Christmas, and have all the associated goodies in store to add to all the temptations. I had to restrain Lyn from running straight to the beer and bacon aisles, and we took our time browsing and stocking up. It was heaven! We had parked in the car park we had stayed in just before our ferry to Morocco, but it was much busier now. It’s obviously a well used stop off for access to Carlos and the ferry to Morocco.

We had decided to head back down to my happy place the following day, and were soon on the awful bumpy roads back down to Tarifa. We parked up and relaxed. The sky was blue, and the sun was warm, and we could hear the waves crashing. What more could we ask for? Nothing at all; it was all glorious. What had intended being a 2 night stopover turned into 4 nights. We couldn’t tear ourselves away. The days just blended into early morning sunrise beach walks, bookended with sunset sundowners at the one beach bar that was still open, and another stroll on the beach. The days consisted of…. You’ve guessed it, beach walks and paddles. It was all sandy fresh air fun, with no litter in sight, and I was able to wander by myself, wear shorts or a bikini! Freedom!

I had never been into Tarifa town, (Lyn had taken his motorbike in on our last visit), so we walked down the beach to get there, wading through the river at low tide on the way. Tarifa town was lovely, with an old town with narrow alleyways. We stopped for coffee and a quick visit to the main church, the Iglesia de San Mateo, which is almost cathedral like. I was blown away by one of the side chapels, which had gorgeous pastel pinks and lilac colours. Unusual for a church, but exactly like the sunrise I had witnessed that morning! We finished off with a lovely brunch, and walked back; clocking up a respectable 9 miles! I really enjoyed Tarifa, although I guess it would be very different in the summer, looking at the number of surf shops etc.

I could have quite happily stayed in Tarifa (forever!) but we had to start reluctantly heading home. We stopped off again at our favourite Carrefour, and amazingly bumped into the lovely Nicole and her dog Sandy, and new friends Rob and Vicky in their trucks in the car park!

Our next stop was in La Linea, in the shadows of the Rock of Gibraltar. We had an excellent park up in the marina, surrounded by million dollar boats and even a view of HMS Prince of Wales that had docked in Gibraltar waters returning from active duty. Lyn was in his element, looking out of our windows at its grey towers. We had ventured into Gibraltar to meet our truck friend Darren, who is lives there. We first had to pass through passport control in Spain, getting stamped out, then literally walk across the runway, and back into British territory! It was surreal; the only time we have ever entered a country by walking across a runway! We didn’t get a chance to spend long in Gibraltar, just long enough to have food and drinks with Darren and his gorgeous dog Bella, and a good catch up, but we will definitely come back to explore Gibraltar further. We returned back to Spain by crossing the runway again. We had just stepped foot onto the runway when the sirens went off and security rushed into position. There was a BA flight taxiing to the runway due to depart. We were urged to cross the runway as fast as we could, and then stood to watch the plane take off.

From Gibraltar we headed up to the Gorafe Desert. Wow, what a place! Yet another one we will definitely return to as we haven’t even scratched the tiniest tip of its surface yet. We only had time to see a few burial chambers, an incredible view and the amazing dark night sky, where the Milky Way soared above us. It really is an other-wordly type of vista, and reminded us of Badlands National Park we had visited in South Dakota. The canyons have been carved by millions of years of erosion, and covers over 200 square kilometres of scenery that shifts colours with the sun. It is also one of the most arcehologically dense regions in Europe with over 200 documented dolmens, or Neolothic burial chambers.

We parked up on the end of a narrow ridge before it descended into the depths of the canyons. We walked out to the same viewpoint when we got there, again at sunset and again at sunrise the next morning. Whatever time of day we were there was quite simply breathtaking. Watching the light change the landscape was just so peaceful; it made me realise just how insignificant we are; this landscape has remained largely unchanged for millions of years before me, and will hopefully continue to remain the same for millions of years after me. Quite a sobering thought.

We reluctantly left the desert to start tracking north on our way home. We had decided to take a different route than what we had taken on the way south, mainly because I was desperate to visit the city of Valencia. On our way there we stopped at the city of Lorca for 2 nights to break our journey. We managed to find an ideal park up that cost us a whole euro a night, which included electricity in that price, so we got lots of washing and cooking done. We were a 10 minute walk from a large supermarket, so we walked there to stock up on fresh food. Little did we know that carrying the bags back would impact Lyn so much in the days to come!

We took a walk into Lorca to look around. We were just on the outskirts, so walked through layers of residential streets, then busy urban streets, before getting to the alleyways of the old town. The city is dominated by the vast Castle of Lorca; a medieval fortress that dominates the town from high up. We had to take a look, so walked the steep cobbledy maze of narrow streets to get up there, some of them was nearly vertical, then followed a 1.6km route around the castle, overlooking the vast plain that it dominates. When we got to the front of the castle we could see a sign for the Parador. The Parador is one of Spain’s most unique hotel collections. They are state owned historic hotels created to preserve important buildings, and are often housed in castles, palaces, monasteries etc. They are often UNESCO level restoration projects, in spectacular locations. This particular Parador was certainly in a spectacular location, literally built within the archeological remains of the hillside castle complex. There are visible ruins incorporated into the building, such as Alcazamba walls, a 13th century Islamic cistern and the remains of a Jewish quarter including a medieval synagogue discovered during construction. We sat outside on the terrace enjoying a drink under the blue sky, marvelling that we could sit outside in T shirts in late November. We thoroughly enjoyed our drink, but this meant that we didn’t make it to the castle itself until 4pm, just as it was closing, so we could only admire it from outside as we took the steep steps back down. I explored the local church and Lyn sat down for another drink and waited patiently.