clairedavieswriter

Spain end to end complete ✅.
Team Bernard have pedalled 1,196km from Bilbao in the north to Tarifa, Spain’s most southerly point.

And this time I had someone to celebrate with

This last leg was not a long ride, but we were made to work for our podium place.
The summit of Cape Trafalgar was cloaked in cloud as we set out. We were excited to be so close to our goal, but nervous of the task immediately ahead of us: the climb over the headland from Los Caños de Meca to Barbate.

But we were encouraged by this sign:

And this was even better: a brand new cycle path that kept us safely separate from traffic all the way to Barbate

That pesky EU, meddling in the health and well-being of its citizens (and visitors)…

The climb turned out to be every bit as hard as we’d feared – in fact it was the hardest we’d encountered in the entire trip – nice one, Barbate.

But soon we were sailing down the other side, and could look back with pride at our achievement while the sweat still poured from our faces

The modest seaside town of Barbate is famous for its sardines, and huge trawlers prowled just offshore, but the few people on the promenade were more interested in coffee and tostadas

Bernard and Colin took the opportunity to recreate their title photo

… before we were whisked out of town on another green carpet, thanks to the Spanish MOD, whose personnel were busy with a live firing exercise immediately to our left

Fortunately, there were more pleasant distractions, in the form of a corridor of wild flowers

And some hilariously graphic path side signs

But the best distraction was the view, as the horizon cleared and the coast of Morocco loomed on our right

Scenery-wise, it was a day of two halves. After the wildflower strewn dunes, we turned inland at the wonderfully named Zahara de Los Atunes, and saw nothing but wind farms and scrub till we reached Tarifa.

Unfortunately, we also saw no more cycle paths. There’s just no alternative than to ride on the main road. The traffic was much busier than this suggests, but at least the cars kept their distance and there was a generous hard shoulder

Fuelled by a desire not to linger as much as by our last Spanish roadside lunch (queso con tomate triturado):

We powered through the last 30k, and found ourselves at last at the old gates of Tarifa. The sign reads ‘Very noble, very loyal and heroic city of Tarifa, seized from the Moors in the reign of Sancho IV ‘the Brave’ on 21 September 1292.’

Freewheeling through the narrow streets of the old town, we rode onto a causeway, with the Atlantic on the right and the Mediterranean on the left. When we came to a stop at the end, we had reached the end of our Spanish journey.
(Technically, the Punto de Europa, the most southerly point in continental Europe, is a few metres further on, but access is restricted by the military).
This geographically significant spot is marked by a rusting sign, scratched with graffiti.

After that, an enormous pot of arroz marinero seemed appropriate.

Once I’ve digested that, I’ll jot down a few reflections on our trip. In the meantime, tomorrow, we’ll be using taxi, hire car, bike, ferry and train to get us and the lads to Faro by the evening. We have Tuesday off, before embarking on our Portugal end to end. We hope you’ll stay with us.