Tarifa

October 7, 2022

Kite Surfing Capital of Europe

We woke up to howling wind. This wasn’t a surprise, we had looked at the weather last night. Still, it was really frustrating to me. The CN was doing a much better job at rolling with the punches than I was.

That is steady winds at 65 to 66 km an hour. I could never live here!

In the breakfast room there were a couple of English speaking cyclists who are here as part of a guided mountain biking tour that started in Malaga, with transfers between cities. They pointed out their guide and we were able to talk to him about the way forward. He was pretty clear. Take the bus. There is no significant break in this wind for a few days and the Eurovelo 8 route in this part of the world has sections that are not suitable for touring bikes. They are more like mountain bike trails. We have found it extremely difficult to get reliable information about the route online or from individuals who have ridden it.

The rest of the group has arrived. The guide, kneeling by the table, was having a serious discussion about the wind with them. Note the expressions.

Still, Tarifa is a lovely spot, there was a room for us in the hotel and we decided to stay put and figure things out. I certainly didn’t want to be on a narrow shoulder on a busy highway in this kind of wind. The EV 8 obviously isn’t a solution we could count on. We didn’t think we dare tackle it in these conditions. So here we are. Oh boy, I was frustrated. I had been looking forward to a beautiful beachside ride to Cadiz. I would even have been happy with riding the A340 if it weren’t blowing a gale. The views are fantastic.

I continued to struggle with attitude adjustment, as after Cadiz the plan is trains and buses back to the Alentejo and the ride back to Lisbon. The CN was very calming and reminded me we will get lots of biking in before the end of the trip. I gave myself a talking to and we walked to the bus station and figured out what we have to do tomorrow with the help of Google Translate.

Note this area attached to and behind the hotel. Surrounded by walls it is an ideal windbreak.

Then the CN announced he thought we should go for a bike ride just to see what the wind was like. It was an epic 9 kilometres. I was more than a little reluctant, and can’t say I really enjoyed it. Even the unflappable CN suggested we turn around after a short spin. The great thing about the bike ride though was running into touring cyclists, Shane and Lisa from Kelowna. They are putting in pretty impressive kilometres each day. We had a drink together while they waited for their ferry to Tangier.

The first touring cyclists we have seen since riding into Seville.

Phones out, Chief Navigators Keith and Shane exchange navigational tools and tips.

Off they go. We exchanged blog links and we look forward to following their adventures.

We had an early dinner in the old town, and came back to find the mountain bikers had returned. They had had an adventure with two of them coming off their bikes. We joined them for a beer and I tackled the guide again. He was clear. The bus is our best option.