Tarifa – and all parts South

Certainly a village not to miss is Vejer de la Frontera.  Now, you ‘re probably thinking that we’ve seen FAR too many white pueblos  already this trip, but honestly, this is a beauty.  Mid week, it was quiet … the sky was that impossible deep blue that only the Mediterranean can achieve … every doorway enticed you into hidden patios with luxuriant potted plants and trickling water — each better than the one before (they are probably very competitive!).  Tiny shops with displays of goods on the walls outside — wonderfully smelling leather goods  … or intricately woven straw products.  That aroma immediately transported me back to childhood, with straw shopping bags or sombreros.  There was an old windmill on the hill . . . and the brightly coloured tiled fountain in the central plaza had frogs spouting arcs of water into the air.  The kids loved it.

The scenery between Vejer and Tarifa was rolling grasslands …  Cattle country.  Fields were a desiccated brown after the summer but the hills were covered with a green woolly fleece of cork oaks. Harvesting of cork is now highly regulated, and can only be done for a couple of months

each year — usually around June and July.  A highly skilled process of cutting through the outer bark without damaging the under layer – the sheets of cork are pulled off and stacked for up to 6 months to mature.  You could drive past these piles of apparently scrap wood and not realize this is a highly valuable commodity …  https://www.andalucia.com/environment/cork.htm

As our next apartment near Tarifa was somewhat rural, the owner (Gisella) offered to meet us at a restaurant on the main road and guide us in. And what a place — Right on the edge of a nature reserve!  An unmarked road, which technically was ‘paved’ but was so ancient and uneven the car rocked wildly from side to side – over tree roots and around rock walls.  In through some high wrought iron gates, the garden path wound its way through a veritable jungle of lush vegetation, palms and enormous cactus to a spotless villa . . . with a spacious flag-stoned patio overlooking

the Straits to the mountains of North Africa!  Originally from Germany, Gisella and her husband had lived in Tarifa the past 4 years, so we toured the house and property in a peculiar mix of German, Spanish and English … but it worked.

Tarifa is the windsurfing/kite-flying capital of Spain . . . the winds off the Atlantic make it the perfect location. Every second store along the main street  either sells, repairs or teaches these activities, and it seems the rest are yoga places … offering yoga on the beach … or even mountain yoga retreats.  But  there’s a lot more to Tarifa … the old fortress walls

and arched gateways into the city … the ubiquitous narrow cobbled lanes – now strung with Christmas lights.  And we were treated to the most glorious, firey sunset that went on and on and on — for the best part of an hour … deepening, changing … far out across the Atlantic, with trees and mountains as black silhouettes.

Making sandwiches the following day,  I could hear a cacophony of sound that appeared to be getting closer …

somewhere between steel drums being played badly and an array of pots and pans clanking together.  Goats … and a lot of them!  I rushed out, camera in hand, and sure enough along the lane in front – a flood of goats.   Filing in single line at first, then a veritable sea of brown and white .. all with clonking bells round their necks, or smaller ones jingling from their horns. Bringing up the rear a dog — and the goatherd riding a

mule — eating his lunch!  He waved his sandwich in greeting .. and carried on down the lane.  No wonder we had been warned to keep the gates closed.  There’d have been nothing left of the lush garden if that lot had got in!

Then, as we drove out and bumped and rocked down the road … Cows …

laying in front of our neighbours house … chewing the cud and enjoying the sunshine.

There’s a whole Roman city just down the road in among the sand dunes … and this time we weren’t disappointed. It was easy to see the excavations of marketplace, villas, bath houses, with their under floor heating, fish-salting tanks, amphitheater … and of course columns and statues.  I wonder if they had gift shops in those days? … get your crypt magnets – only 5 denarii!

Not a bad video of the area leading to Tarifa and the Roman ruins … You can skip over the museum bit and rejoin the video around the 6 minute mark.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUWXkfDEMO4

It’s positively therapeutic to sit on the patio, listening to the birds and the never-ending stream of ships glide by.  Tankers, freighters, tugs, cruise ships, container ships the size of small islands.  Mostly east to west – from Suez through the Straits of Gibraltar.  A naval ship was obviously on patrol between us and the Moroccan coast – cruising back and forth.  Looking for smugglers? pirates? migrants?