Sunday, January 3, 2016

Crossing the Strait - Tarifa, Spain


Despite Africa not being in my itinerary when I began my WorldTour2015, I learned how the power of 'why not!?' and decided to make a day trip across the Straits.  I left my tent early on a foggy Friday morning from my camping spot at Torre de la Peña and headed east into the brightening sky to Tarifa to board the ferry.  After casually bicycling to the port and about ready to reclaim my boarding pass, the realization that I had left my passport behind came to frightening reality.  Heart racing, I pedaled those 8 kilometers in record time and tore through my tent door to find my essential travel document of the day waiting for another stamp on her pages!  Hightailing back to the port, I made the boarding in just the nick of time - Off to Africa!  As I settled into the space-age catamaran ferry to watch the sun break through the clouds to start the day as I started my surprise adventure.  As the ferry was piloted out of the ancient harbor and past the lighthouse on Punta de Tarifa which is the southernmost point of mainland Europe, I can now check that off the list!  Despite the weather not being all that cooperative with my desire to snap some shots, the ferry ride was fascinating in itself, but the mixture of cultures of the Mediterranean European and the North African, the elderly bearing the old ways but using playing on their iPhones down to the toddlers running about the ferry in their brightly colored clothes of Spain's casual summer wear or the touches of traditional Islamic apparel.  With all of that going on in the hour's time to cross, this was my bridge from one world to another.  

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