Wednesday October 8, 2014

We were up at 7:00 today, it was still dark and we packed the tent away as it was getting light. We left the campsite at 9:15.

It was an awesome ride today. What was this bird thinking, is this really a good place to bring up your children?

Lovely rolling hills to Tarifa on a good road with a wide shoulder. We were really motoring and passed the campsites that were all on the outskirts of Tarifa.

We decided to cycle into Tarifa and have some lunch then decide whether to carry on to Algeciras. We were both feeling really good and knew that we might have to cycle up a few more hills, but decided to press on to Algeciras.

The few more hills turned out to be one very long hill we started at 11 metres above sea level and finished at 340 metres above sea level over an 8 km stretch of road. Ralf stopped to take photos, I just kept pedaling.

I am a little dot some where on this bridge while Ralf is way behind me, of course he caught up with me.

It was a good climb (6.8%), and we were rewarded at the top by a view of Morocco and Tangiers.

Ralf and I were trying to decide what the land mass was we were looking at when a German fella told us it was Morocco and Tangiers. He said you must be very strong to cycle up the hill.  Did you know about this hill before you started?  (questioning our sanity, Ralf thought).  I wasn’t feeling very strong at that point but soon regained my legs and of we went down the other side.

As we came down the other side we could see Gibraltar, our destination for tomorrow.

We arrived in Algeciras just before 2:00 and found the Tourist Info office quite easily. No campsites, and no campsites between here and La Linea. I had thought about carrying on to Gibraltar but the road from here to La Linea is a motorway. The direct route to Gibraltar is about 27 kms, we may have to do 49 kms up and over the hills.

Once again we are in a relatively cheap hotel after looking at several pensions that were grubby and smelly.

The map that the lady in the tourist office gave me indicates that Spain has an excellent transportation system. Yes, if you are a car, but not if you are on a bike. We spent some time reviewing our route for the next few days and hopefully we can find a not too busy road from here to Malaga, if they let us back into Spain from Gibraltar!