Thursday 25th June

Boa Tarde
We had a great day exploring Gibraltar. Gibraltar is part of the British Colony so we felt like we were in Britain for the day – at least we could speak the language fluently. The Rock of Gibraltar which was many many years ago attached to Africa is definitely spectacular. We caught the cable car to the top of the rock and it was amazing standing there being part of the British Colony and seeing Spain in one direction and Africa in the other. To get into Gibraltar the road crosses over the airport runway – so if a plane was to come in the barrier arms go down – it felt funny driving over it.
From Gibraltar we stayed the night in Tarifa and we were only 15km from Africa so the next day we boarded the ferry and heading into Tangier. We are struggling to be able to describe Tangier – we went on a guided day tour, thank goodness! We started the tour with a bus ride around the town – it was like stepping back 50 years with donkeys laden down with heavy loads heading to market, terrible roads and even worse houses. Rae had a ride on a camel which she wasn’t too sure about –it was a little bit wobbly to say the least! We then walked around the Kasbah which is an enclosed city – this is where we were thankful of having a guide. We thought we were hassled in Bali – Tangier could be a very frightening place if you were lost – I am sure it would be easy to go missing here. We walked through the market and saw live chickens for sale – the only difference to our ones are these ones had been dyed (see photo). We had a Moroccan lunch before having to go back out to the Kasbah. Rae struggled once again (like Bali) seeing all the kids trying to sell a packet of chewing gum and telling her they hungry and please please some money – Ok so we now have a souvenir camel. In the cafes we saw only men and there were only men (in their Kaftans) and boys trying to sell things on the streets. We saw lots of women in their traditional dress in the markets and walking the streets. Tangier was definitely an experience! We were pleased to be back in Spain and the first thing we did was to have showers.
The following day we drove to Seville through the beautiful village of Arcos De La Fronteira where friends of ours had stayed for a week. We are often amazed at the different landscapes we see – this time while driving we saw fields and fields of sunflowers – very pretty! When the weather is 38degrees they should grow well!
We spent a day in Seville and once again did the hop on hop off bus tour. Seville is also a real mixture of old and new. The temperature was 39.5 here so after walking around the old part of the city we were ready to get back on the road.
On Tuesday 23rd we drove into Portugal so another new language, road signs, supermarket shopping etc is again for us to learn.
We spent the first two nights in Portugal in Lagos. Lagos is a real party town that is surrounded by 3 large walls and the beach. The camping ground was about 10 minute walk into the main village and also 10 minutes (in other direction) to the most beautiful little beach. The beach is postcard perfect – big rocks, clear blue sea and golden sand. We spent an afternoon at the beach before heading in to the town to experience the night life – great fun. From Lagos we went to Sagres which is the most southern point in Portugal, we saw some great views over the Atlantic Ocean from the Sagres Fortress.
We are now in Zambujeira do Mar on the Southeast coast and the weather is about 29 degrees.

Adeus