Just before Africa - Tarifa - January 11, 2020

SUN, SUN, SUN...wonderful! Not this five-letter rain word...just SUN! We can hardly believe it, but it hasn't rained for three weeks! Finally, a summer vacation in the depths of winter. We stayed in Rota for almost three weeks, on an almost empty campsite with lots of good weather right by the sea. Although we only wanted to stay for two days...!!! After enjoying the Christmas holidays in shorts, we also slid into the new year in shorts, although we had to make an effort to stay awake until midnight...Jörni yawned about 40 times and when it finally was twelve o'clock, we could finally brush our teeth and go to bed! By the way, there was hardly any fireworks here...it's forbidden in Spain...clever, the Spaniards!

We start the new year just like the old one, every morning we go to the beach with the dog, then we have a coffee and a nice breakfast in the sun and see what else the day brings. In the evening, there's a fantastic sunset by the sea! We collect so many shells that we don't even know where to put them...! Then we go for a bike ride again, explore the area, and shop in between, wonderful!

We meet Peter and Sibylle from Esslingen, who have to stay here until March...poor things...! If we could, we would also winter here. We chat nicely with each other and enjoy a delicious sherry from the local bodega. We exchange interesting travel tips because they come from the direction of the Mediterranean and are heading towards Portugal and France, while we are heading in the opposite direction towards home (have to). By the way, the two of them know Canale and the beautiful Lake Tenno...the world is so small and we arrange to have a fine meal in Calvola sometime.

Other campers come and go, like Klaus from near Koblenz, who keeps us busy with wild police stories every day. We test out the retired life and agree that we quite like it. We are already being asked if we will come back next year...yes...if we win the lottery, then we will be back.

We already miss some of the long-standing winter campers and their dogs...we still hear it in our ears: Finnnniiiiiiiiiii....come on already...that's the fourteen-year-old Dachshund who follows behind more than leads the way...with Manfred, who collects the best shells for us...! Oh yes, Rota was beautiful!

But as Klaus said so nicely: You have to be able to let go too!...he's right! So we let go and continue on our way towards Africa! On the way, we encounter lots of flamingos standing foolishly on one leg in the water...and why?...because they can...!

We reach Tarifa, the southernmost city in Europe, around 2 p.m. Peter and Sibylle gave us the tip to take number 114 at the Rio Jara campsite, where you can enjoy the sunset with a view of the sea. We ask at the reception and it turns out that the spot has just become available...what a coincidence...! The place is really nice, but we are surrounded by refrigerator campers, which is not so nice, especially when you come from a place where there was really not much going on...oh well...we'll get through it! In the afternoon, we set off on foot to the town, which is about 4 km away. There are countless kite surfers in the water at the beach, as Tarifa is considered the Mecca of kite surfers, there is always a good wind here. Tarifa itself is quite nice, we stroll through the old town and suddenly it starts to drizzle...huh???...but it's just a light summer rain and it disappears again after a short time, very good! In the twilight, we make our way back, cook something delicious in front of the bus, and go to bed early!

In the morning, the sparrows kick us out of bed, it feels like all the sparrows in Spain are sitting in the tree on our pitch, what a commotion! So out of the sack, shower, and make coffee. We sit in front of the bus and the sun keeps rising higher, in the distance we see Africa...crazy...from here it's only 15 km away...maybe I could swim over...oh no, can't do it, don't have my passport...oh well, too bad! We fry in the sun, it feels even hotter here than up in Rota. We read a bit before heading to the kilometers-long sandy beach in the early afternoon. This campsite also has its own access to the sea, very good!

So once again turquoise-colored water, shorts, and a spectacular sunset, which we watch from the campsite, because it's windy and chilly by the sea!

In the orange twilight, we cook something delicious and watch the many lights on the continent across!

Good night, Africa!