Tarifa – the windy gateway to Africa

The coast south of Cadiz is called Costa de la Luz (the coast of light) because of the beautiful sunsets you get on this coast. So naturally it’s full of many small beach towns to choose from.

I decided to hit two of these small beach towns on our way south to Tarifa; Playa de Palmas and Bolonia, which was recommended to me by several locals in different cities and rightfully so. The beach in Bolonia is very long, the same quite soft, with some ruins at the back and a sand dune to the right. It was one of the best beaches I’ve been to in Spain and not too crowded with people, of which most seemed spanish.

Tarifa was only about a 15 minute ride afterwards. It’s a small town that has been discovered and is now invaded by Kite surfers and shops catering to them. It’s the southernmost point of mainland Europe, which makes it a very windy town and the Kite Surfing beaches have on average what seemed like 300 Kiters on the water. Which is a crazy sight to see, especially as a beginner. Originally I had wanted to rent a Kite as well and practice some more, but they refused to let me just take a refresher lesson, saying that it was too windy for that, but apparently it wasn’t too windy to take a beginner course again!!! Of course I said no, since the prices there are now also just as expensive as everywhere else in the world (apparently it was quite a cheap place to rent equipment and take lessons until 2-3 years ago). Anyways, the town was small enough to cover in half a day and then get back out to the beaches and make it back in time to catch the sun set again. If you don’t kite surfing, all you can really do here is relax and it seemed like most people who came here to relax were either on their way to Morocco afterwards or coming back from there, since Tarifa has a Ferry Line to Tangiers. But that Ferry ride would have to wait for next time, as it was time to make my way back north.