Earlier on in our travels, our water tank sending unit had stopped working which meant we had no way of knowing how much water remained in our 450 litre tank, installed under some seating. We used a hose pipe to fill the tank and the filling process could take up to an hour depending on the rate of flow. Without a functioning gauge, we had to judge by ear whether the water had reached the top of the tank. If we got it wrong we would have a flooded seating area. Tony ordered a new sending unit from the UK for delivery to Matilde at La Campiña in Santaella. Unfortunately the parcel hadn’t arrived by the time we left.
A week or so later, on the day before Matilde was due to take a group of 22 camper vans on a guided tour of Morocco, she left a message saying that our parcel had arrived and she would leave it in Reception at Camping Paloma in Tarifa where the group were staying the night before they took the ferry to Morocco.
A few days later we turned up at the camp site in Tarifa and claimed our parcel. After a couple of hours work – and with a little huffing and puffing – Mr Fixit managed to replace the sending unit. We were relieved to see the gauge was now working properly.
Camping Paloma was due to close for the season in a couple of weeks – the site restaurant was already closed as was the swimming pool. Fortunately we had spotted a restaurant ten minutes down the road. We had some lovely late lunches sitting on their shady terrace watching the distant windmills, their great white blades dancing on the skyline.
Tarifa was, we were told, the surfing capital of Europe (obviously not been to West Wittering, huh?). We caught glimpses of the surfing community as we drove the coast road from Tarifa to Algeciras. The route was lined with surfers’ hostels, tents, ancient caravans and camper vans. The trees hid the beach but we caught the occasional glimpse of athletic bodies, wet suits stripped to the waist, hair tied back – or in dreadlocks. The wind was blowing and they were having fun.
