The beach, at last!

Today was our beach day. Here's CleanSteve on the edge of the Atlantic at Atlanterra. The breakers were certainly breaking!

We set off for the coast, intending to go first to an inland place called Vejer de la Frontera, which looks similar to Arcos de la Frontera from a distance, then down to Meca de Canos. (Sorry, I've lost the tilde from my keyboard.) We didn't love the look of the beach when we got there. So we drove through a beautiful pine forest, then crawled along the coast through Barbate, where we saw some recently arrived 'boat people', whole families, being detained by the police. A sad reminder that not everyone who comes to Spain is on holiday.


From there we continued to Zahara de los Atunes (nowhere to park, it was Saturday...)to Atlanterra, a narrow strip at the end of Zahara, with plenty of facilities, parking, AND a long beach. After a coffee for the driver, we hit the beach. It was crowded with Sevillanos and other Spanish holidaymakers, but heavenly. Sun and surf.

We had grilled sardines for lunch in the cafe we'd visited earlier, and hit the beach again for an hour or so before setting off again. The hottest part of the day here, incidentally, is about 4.30 pm.

We had an easier journey back to Arcos, no longer hugging the coast. (Incidentally, we did pop along to the very end of the road, to the truly beautiful-looking beach at Camarinal, surrounded by the villas of Spain's top people, but it was a long walk down, and CleanSteve didn't fancy it).

The road back took us through vast rolling straw-coloured fields populated by wind turbines and cows, or bullfighting bulls, which must be reared away from human contact, back to the fertile Andalusian plains around Arcos.

We didn't want to eat out, so we bought a picnic in Arcos and ate it back in our spacious room, along with the excellent Extremaduran red wine we'd been meaning to open. No corkscrew required, but at least we have now bought a bottle opener for the beer!

We are going to sleep well tonight...