South Of Cádiz

We were waiting for some spare parts to be delivered from Poland so we stayed for a few days at Zahora near Conil de la Frontera, south of Cádiz. We walked down to the beach and could just make out the coast of Africa on the horizon the other side of the Gibraltar Straits.

We found a camp site close to the village with shops and restaurants. It was an excellent site with spotless shower blocks smelling reassuringly of bleach. The ground was sandy beneath our feet and pine trees provided dappled shade when the sun was shining. I always kept a log of places we visited in the camper and I marked this site FOB (shorthand for Full Of Brits). Usually the British were a minority at European campsites but when a campsite was reckoned to be exceptional, word soon got around the travelling British expatriates. Some were there for the summer and were heading back to the UK for Christmas and others spent their summers in UK and came south for the winter sun. Some, like us, were just in transit.

We noted that restaurant opening times were 1pm to 4 pm and 8pm to midnight so, if we wanted to have an early supper, we had to make it a late lunch. We realised that these opening times were essential in the hot summer months but, by November, mornings and evenings were quite chilly and folk tended to go inside soon after sunset (currently 18.30 – and clocks were due to go back at the weekend).