Costa de la Luz has over 200 kilometres of marvellous golden sandy beaches looking out to the Atlantic Ocean.
We are having a fantastic time cycling along them, although we are nowhere near seeing the whole 200k.
They are almost deserted at the moment, apart from a few dog walkers, surfers and cyclists.
Apparently there are more than 300 sunny days per year here as well, and we were lucky enough to be out in one in our teeshirts today.
We cycled to a very famous place today, although I had no idea until a couple of days ago that the location for the battle of Trafalgar was in southern Spain.
We had a nice cycle along very quiet roads to the turn off to Trafalgar lighthouse. There is then a little road that leads out onto a narrow spit of land, which suddenly disappeared under the sand. We had to push the bikes quite a way over sand dunes until the road reappeared again as it gained a few metres in height up to the lighthouse.
It is a beautiful area with lots of surfers trying to catch the rather large waves. We had a good look around and stared out to sea.
Being very ignorant of English history, I had heard of the battle of Trafalgar, but knew very little about it. If you are also vague on the details then this is a short outline.
On the 21st October 1805 a naval battle took place between the English navy and a combined force of the French and Spanish. The English were lead by Horatio Nelson and were heavily outnumbered by the opposition.
Nelson flew the famous flags that instructed that 'England expects every man should do his duty' and then attacked. It was a very brutal battle, Nelson was shot and died later that day, but won a great victory.
Over 3,000 French and Spanish sailors were killed, compared to 449 British dead, and thousands more were wounded on either side.
Then before the survivors had chance to return to their bases, a huge storm blew up and thousands more sailors were shipwrecked and drowned.
Nelson's body was preserved in a barrel of brandy and returned to England for a heroes funeral.
I said it was a brief outline!
Another dramatic beach walk today.
We went in the opposite direction to yesterday and found an interesting cliff top walk. There was a lot of erosion and Daz is looking quizzical in pic 2. It turns out that I was standing on a cliff edge where the underneath had been completely washed away.
I didn't know, he didn't tell me, but I survived!
It was a very nice viewpoint and we read on a noticeboard, that at the right time of the year, 10,000 European spoonbills pass by on their winter trip to Africa.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the right time, so that fact is completely irrelevant.
We carried on to the pretty town of Roche. It had a beautiful beach, and lots of fancy clifftop houses, and some of them were definitely a little too close to the edge.
We made it a round trip back to the campsite, 14k and almost 21,000 steps.
Massive storm overnight with rain hammering on the ceiling until about 5am.
We have moved about 30 miles down the coast and are near a little town called Conil de la Frontera.
The campsite was soaked and full of enormous puddles this morning, so we got out the walking boots, waterproof trousers and jackets and headed for the coast.
It reminded me of our trip around Scotland in August, except that Spain at the end of November is much warmer.
The sea was rough and sounded fantastic and we found a seafront bar that was open. We sat outside, enjoyed the view with a little glass of wine and watched a storm heading our way.
The lightning strikes on the sea, and the thunder was very dramatic, but it seemed to be passing us by.
We managed to reach the town while it was still dry, then we sheltered behind a closed cafe while the tail end of the storm hit.
Afterwards, we had a quick wander through the mainly closed and deserted tourist town, then headed back home in brilliant sunshine.
On second thoughts, it was nothing like Scotland at all.
Honestly, the beautiful port around the corner from our campsite is called Port Sherry.
We cycled around it yesterday at the end of our day trip. It would have been a standard harbour if it wasn't for all of the enormous artwork surrounding it. The best bit is the concrete walls, some with archways in them, that are painted with landscapes and sea scenes.
Today we went for a run around the port. We started quite slowly as I am not very fit and I moan a lot about various injuries. However, part way round the wind got up, the sky turned black and raindrops started falling.
I upped the pace, almost sprinting home as I had left the washing out and there is nothing worse than a steamed up van full of wet clothes, especially as they were all mine.
We got the bikes out today and cycled a very round about route to Sanlucar de Barrameda. Our planned route would have taken us through a Spanish Naval base, and we got as far as the barbed wire fences and military checkpoint before having to turn back.
We then followed a road and got to a warning sign saying that it was closed. We didn't want to even further retrace our steps, so we ignored it and ended up on a closed dual carriageway that was being resurfaced. It was nicely done, very smooth, and we managed to avoid the workmen. We finally crossed back onto the carriageway, and after 44k we arrived at our destination.
At first it was very disappointing, our leaflet said that we couldn't leave without savouring three things:-
Horse races on the beach - no sign of any today.
Wineries - we have possibly tasted too much wine and sherry recently, so we didn't go to a winery, but tried a glass with item 3.
Famous prawns - tick.
Actually, lunch was quite a revelation. I was completely stuck as everything on the menu was fishy, and the waiter spoke no English.
I am usually frightened of anything in it's shell, with legs, eyes, skin, bones or anything that resembles it's original shape. However, I had to be brave and ordered the menu of the day with Daz, but I did say 'no little fried fishes for me, por favor'.
Our first course of prawns, white fish and salad was fantastic. Second of prawns and noodles was also good. Third course, Darren got a plate of whole fried fishies, but mine was good and not scary at all.
The waiter excelled himself with the desert and gave us the choices in English - tart, pudding or lemon something or other that we couldn't quite follow.
Great meal in a brilliant location.
Picture 3 is supposed to be similar to the El Bulli exhibition from a few weeks ago, and puts you in my seat for lunch.
Ps, the other famous thing about S de B is that 'in 1519 the first voyage around the world set out from its shores, showing that the earth is round'. Not sure if I believe that one. (Not that the earth is round, but the other bit.)
