Explore europe in a campervan

We arrived in Tarifa late in the evening, having spent some of the day shopping in the markets in Quarteira and a stop off at Ikea in Seville. There was really no need to rush straight down to Tarifa so thought we’d try one of the places we had marked on the sat nav as a wild-camping spot on the Costa de la Luz. Unfortunately when we arrived at the marked spot in Sancti Petri La Barrosa it was well and truly closed to motorhomes. There was a chain across the entrance to the rough ground and a sign showing a motorhome being towed saying ‘in all the area’. We got the message but I’d still be interested to see if they really do have the means to tow away a motorhome – especially some of the monsters we’ve seen! So it was on to Tarifa where we were pretty confident we would still have a choice of places to sleep.

The following day we checked in to the campsite, Rio Jara, at lunchtime so we could have several hours of internet and do our laundry. This done and with plenty of research, it was into Tarifa to hunt down a bargain kite that would get Simon on the water. Unfortunately, as is often our luck, the shop with a good selection of second hand kites was closed for the day. As it happened the wind was crazy so we wouldn’t have been flying anyway. We retreated to our favourite beach, Valdevaqueros, where it was too windy even to sunbathe on the beach (without having your skin thoroughly sand-blasted). There were several wind-surfers out and a few kite-surfers – on kites of just 6 or 8 metres mostly which indicates how strong the wind was.

As we sat in the shelter of the van we became aware of more helicopter noise than usual. When we got up to look we realized a disaster was unfolding behind us. On the hills of up to 400 metres height, behind the shore and the main road, there was a fire raging in the trees and scrub. There were 3 helicopters, with what looked like large buckets hanging from them, flying low to collect water from the sea, and then dumping it on the flames. With the wind howling they were really up against it and appeared to be having little impact. A couple of small planes were doing the same, but seemed to scoop sea water up directly into the body of the plane – incredibly skillful flying. When we returned to the town to sleep the fire had reached the other side of the hill and appeared to be in amongst the wind turbines. The wind continued to howl all night, but in the morning the fire seemed to be under control. The helicopters carried on dousing all day. The affected area is large, but the fire doesn’t appear to have reached any houses, despite the difficult access for fire-fighters. An amazing job in the conditions.

Finally, after some more setbacks (shops closed again and chosen boards being sold already), we got the kite and board set-up that Simon needs. An 11 metre F-One Tribal kite and Naish kite board. The wind was more reasonable the following morning so we were in business. After sensibly taking time to read the manual and understand the kite and it’s safety systems we set up on the busy beach. I had a quick lesson in handling and helping to launch the kite. It’s a ‘leading-edge-inflatable’ (LEI) kite developed specifically for kite-surfing and doesn’t have air pockets like our land-kites or the Flysurfer. It doesn’t really have power until it’s attached to the lines and in the air, so can be moved – even carried – around as necessary, without fear of taking off. The difference was amazing. Simon was on his feet and surfing straight away. My job is to be available on the beach just in case he should need help with kite or board when he comes in. Although, after a few runs, this isn’t really necessary as the kite behaves really well so Simon has confidence handling it on the beach. Beginners all around were crashing their kites or dumping them in the water, but Simon’s was solidly in the air for the whole afternoon. By the end of the day, after ‘one more go’, ‘one more go’ we were both tired and a little sun-burned, but we’d had a very successful day.

We’ll be back in Tarifa again soon – it’s starting to feel like coming home – but for now we’re near Marbella where our friends, Sarah and Dave, are arriving today for a week in an apartment. We stopped off at Gibraltar to fill up on cheap diesel (it has gone up 8 pence in the last month – not as big an increase as the UK), tea bags and other British food items from Morrisons. Then we spent the night wild-camping near the beach in Estepona. There were no fish caught for our dinner so it’s a good job we had bought a pizza!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 10:56 pm and is filed under Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.