Tarifa

All the days start to merge into one......

The next day the wind had picked up to 40+ knots. We were cautious about going out so watched the Best riders down for the launch of the 08 kites. A few of them were doing some good stuff, nice powered kite loops with the odd handle-pass thrown in. We sat it out again and then cycled into town to find some wifi. It was more than a bit of a struggle against the Llevante on the way in but had a nice jet effect on the way back.

The following day the Llevante had dropped off a bit, so after wandering up the dunes and watching a Peter Lynn rider getting dragged the length of the bay once their 8 metre venom bow-tied, we went to get our kit. The wind was ok and we both had a good session. After a break Steve persuaded me to go back out again even though the wind seemed to be dropping. I did say that if I ended up swimming back in I’d blame him entirely. After one tack the wind dropped to next to nothing and kites started falling out the sky all over the place. I almost made it back in kitelooping but unfortunately the way was blocked by the lines of other kites so I ended up swimming.

Next morning there was no wind again so we cycled into town to look at the shops and get more supplies. After lunch the wind picked up, still Llevante but not too bad. We both had a really good session and there were no walks back up wind.

Friday was windy early and we made our way down to the beach that was full of kites and had another good day on the water, starting rotations.

Saturday 13 October 2007: woke up to find the wind had really kicked in and shock!! there were some clouds in the sky. We went down to the beach and I had a go on the water but the wind was gusty and pretty horrible. We gave up before lunch as we were planning on heading into town to watch the England v France match. Sarah suggested we walk to town rather than getting a taxi. I had thought this might be an option but did not want to suggest it to Sarah as if it went wrong I would be in the doghouse.

After a shower and a quick sleep we set off for town at about 4:50pm. It should be about 4-5 miles as the crow flies down the beach. The wind had unfortunately picked up so that we were walking into about 30-40+mph of wind. Progress wasn’t slowed much but the pain of the sand whipping your legs was a bit excessive.

About 2 miles in we reached our first rocky obstacles. We climbed over them to find that the route might get difficult around a campsite so we decided to head for the road. The “path” to the road was overgrown with gorse and other nasty stuff that added a good few minutes and yelps to our journey. Once we were on the road progress was swift, we turned off onto Los Lances (northern end) to find that Tarifa town looked closer and manageable, so we set off on the last 3+ miles of beach.

Except for the odd random thorny leaf it was good going. We watched a couple of guys launching kites in the lagoon that forms from the Rio Jara, the ankle depth water looked inviting. We hadn’t considered the difficulties that the lagoon could represent to our journey. 2 hours into our “walk” we reached the point at which the lagoon met the sea. I made a futile stab at crossing but as Sarah mentioned there was a worryingly dark channel and I wasn’t dressed for a swim. Sarah entered the water but the combination of windswept lagoon water and swell meeting meant that Sarah’s glad rags were getting wet, therefore alternative routing was required. This presented a problem, we could see that dark channels were blocking our route in all forward directions. Our only option was to go back, I was not happy. We crossed the lagoon to the Rio Jara campsite, I knew from earlier forays that Rio Jara was 3km from the town, the point at which we gave up crossing the channel the beach was 1.5km from the town... disheartening.

We started walking down the edge of the road, at about 3 hours and 6 miles into our journey we reached the edge of Tarifa town. We made a dash for the Plus supermarket to buy mini cookies and a drink.. unfortunately every surfer bum in Tarifa also picked this time to go to Plus.. Half an hour later we were off down the road filling up with much needed sugar (I knew at this point it was another mile to the Tarifa medina walls). We reached the old town and at this point I enquired with Sarah as to the way to the “Irish” bar that had the rugby on.. “It’s down here, I think, it might have been Irish, or it might just have had a guiness sign”.. I controlled a silent rage as I lead Sarah round the old town following the route of an earlier cycle journey ignoring the pleas of “ I thought you would remember when I mentioned the bar”...

Luckily we found the bar, the match did indeed start at 2100 so we had an hour to kill. We found a bar with beer, cocktails and pizza. 2 beers a mojito and half a pizza later I was feeling much happier. We went to the “Irish” bar and watched the tense match. The French at the bar disappeared quickly after the match. We got talking to 2 Navy pilots about kiting and Gibralter and a few too many drinks later we decided to get a taxi. I knew where the taxi rank was so I steered Sarah straight to it. The journey was quicker than the walk and cost 11 euro... 11 euro at 2am!!! A 3.5 hr and 6+ mile walk when we could have got a taxi.. I was pissing myself all the way back to the van...

Sunday 14 October 2007 Day 38: Hungover did nothing of note.

Monday 15 October 2007 Day 39: Went down to the beach and I went out a couple of times. The wind was horribly gusty. Sarah tried but got lofted on the beach and decided to give it a miss. We went down again later at 6ish for a walk and the wind was perfect and the sun was out. Sarah couldn’t decide if she wanted to go out. We walked to the massive dune at the end of the beach and back, and then Sarah decided to go out. We got down to the beach and the wind had died, Sarah was kicking herself.

Tuesday 16th October 2007 Day 40: Went down to the beach early as wind was looking good. Got down there about 10:30 and didn’t leave until after five stopping only briefly for lunch (4pm!). Both knackered but pleased the wind had been ok. Changed sheets for first time since leaving Salisbury...they had been starting to stick to us. Had meal out in the evening, large amount of pork, fat and salt, think we may have seen a lunar eclipse on the way back as the moon was orangey / red. Had meat sweats all night.

Wednesday 17th October 2007 Day 41: Took it a bit easier today as both were aching from the day before and Ste had a bad ankle. Did our washing in the morning. Campsite cat seems to have adopted us, funny animal but deffo for sure has fleas. It seems to spend its days wandering aimlessly around, hiding in long grass, jumping in long grass and occasionally mounting trees. It also seems to have strange affection for our van tyres and has been spotted sharpening claws on them and also licking them. Wind seemed to die once we got down to the beach after lunch so sunbathed for a while. Luckily picked-up again and had a good late afternoon session. Had fun playing the sea battle travel game Amy had bought us in the evening, Sarah sunk all Ste’s ships...woohoo! definitely better than travel kerplunk.

Thursday 18th October 2007 Day 42: Cycled into town to look for footpads for my board, didn’t find any so went back to the campsite. We decided to head down to the beach for the afternoon and the wind kicked in nicely with few gusts for a change. It was a great session until Sarah lost her board. She had gone for a rotation, got more height than expected and come down backwards, the kite ditched and by the time it re-launched she had no idea where the board was. I went past and saw the board, deciding to pick it up on the next run, unfortunately when I got back I couldn’t see it anywhere. We waited on the beach but it didn’t wash in. We even walked the length of the beach at night but no luck, it’s probably on its way to the America.

Friday 19th October 2007 Day 43: Stormy rainy day. After walking the beach one more time we drove into town to look for new board for Sarah. 7 hours later she bought one from the first shop we had gone to before lunch.

Saturday 20th October 2007 Day 44: Weather started off stormy and Steve’s ankle was still hurting. After a couple of hours the clouds cleared but the wind was still really strong so we decided to have a day of rest reading and mincing in the sun. At tea-time we went for a short bike ride to the top of the dunes where you can see the length of the Las Dunas / Valdequeros beach it was a pretty awesome site with all the weekend kitesurfers and windsurfers out. We got a taxi into town later that night to watch England lose against South Africa.

Sunday 21st October 2007 Day 45: The wind was still strong but Steve decided to give it a go and got on well with the 11m depowered, Sarah got bored.

Monday 22nd October 2007 Day 46: Another sunny day...got up earlyish (8:30) and cycled to top of dunes. Waited for the Poniente to kick in. Wind picked up around lunchtime and we both headed out. Sarah tried out the 666 and decided it was as good if not better than the Underground, 123 definitely seems to be the best size. Both practiced toeside carves, rotations and grabs on the water.

Tuesday 23rd October 2007 Day 47: Another day of Poniente promised we got up slowly then went down the beach to wait for the wind, the day had been pretty cloudy and it felt a lot colder with the Westerly wind coming in off the Atlantic. Steve tried a couple of times to get going but it wasn’t really enough. We headed to Los Lances to see if it was any better down there and have a landboarding session if there wasn’t enough. Steve immediately regretted leaving his wetsuit back at the campsite as there quality wind and the water was packed with kites. I set-up the 13m venom and headed out in the waves. After a failed start, when I seemed to get in the way of all the good kiters, I made it past the shorebreak. The waves were good fun and I had a decent session messing around in them as Steve did some filming of the locals (including Gisela Pulido) practicing their handlepasses. Worried that Steve was getting bored and starting to get cold I headed back in for a landboarding session. The wind was spot on for the 13m on land and we both enjoyed trying out some new moves in our first land session since Leucate. Steve was landing 540 transitions to toe-side and I got my first 540 from toe-side. We also got some got ok filming although I think our camera work needs practice and we would benefit from a tripod. After the session we headed to the supermarket to pick up some beers and then got takeaway pizzas for the first time on the trip.

Wednesday 24th October 2007 Day 48: With another day of Poniente predicted we woke up aching from the session the day before but hungry for some more. Unfortunately heavy rain kicked in at about 11am. It rained most of the day.. We found internet..