Our last chance for a surf today and although we already knew it would be too windy, we went down to the beaches of Tarifa just to be sure...
Again, it was another delightfully bright day, but the wind was way too strong.
But on the plus side, we got to explore around Tarifa and watch some inspirationally amazing kite surfers.
After watching a few windsurfers doing 360 degree flips on the windward side of the bay, we settled into a more sheltered beachside cafe, where we had prime viewing position for the kite surfers who were doing incredible tricks. One guy was in the air for a whopping twelve seconds, which must have felt like an eternity.
The town is the most southerly point of mainland Europe and the mountains of Morocco were clear to see on the other side of the Straits of Gibraltar.
The power of the waves and weather was evident all around. The council had an emergency team of workers on the street behind the cafe, shoveling sand off the road as it was accumulating fast and building small dunes across the one-way system. I found and smashed up surfboard on the rocks, while a diver with speargun emerged from the water.
Check out how high the kite surfers were jumping/being dragged up into the sky! Amazing!
In between the new town are remnants of an older era...
We left town after lunch, waved goodbye to Africa and the Straits and went up into the hills to go for a rock climb.
It was just as windy up at the cliffs and Clare had a bit of drama clinging on through a particularly ferocious gust. She was trying to clip a long extender that I had placed when I led the route, but when she got there she could not reach it as it was blowing out horizontally and out of reach. She had to tuck in and hang on until the gusts receded and the clip dropped back down with gravity.
The crag had a mixture of old and new bolts that were in a mixture of good and terrible conditions. Thankfully I didn't have to clip this old rusty one:
Or this new one which seemed to have worn through and been snapped off!
With enough windswept-ness for another day, we set back off home...
San Bartolo - Zona de Arriba - Cernicalos: (15m)
- Banana Split, 5b** (two bad bolds at the top)
- Parpujita, 4b**
- El Eterno asegurador, 4b**
No comments:
Post a Comment