It’s another beautiful sunny day. After a slow breakfast I decide to head further south. In the car park are just my van and the Spanish motorhome. I guess camping there is tolerated. The waves do not look good for surfing here.
I head towards Roche. I come off the main road, and head down a side road. I pass through what looks like a gate to a community. The barrier is up, and the guard makes no attempt to signal to me, or to stop me, so I drive through. I head down the road, following the signs for the playa. I come to a built up area and beach that does not look so different from where I have left. I decide to continue on towards El Palmar, which is a rated surf spot.
The landscape and communities become more rural as I head south. El Palmar is a small town, spread across the coastline. There are lots of signs explicitly banning motorhomes. One sign that I park next to even has a picture of a motorhome being towed away. There are lots of Spanish surfers here. They are parked up, looking at the sea. Several are prepping their boards, whilst others are surfing. The waves look as bad as the other waves I have seen so far in this area. The waves are jacking up, and breaking quickly. This confuses me, why are they surfing such poor waves? I don’t see anyone catch a nice wave, but I do see several surfers go over the falls in dramatic fashion. I decide to keep going south. I have almost explored this entire coast, and found no good free-camping area or wave that tempts me. I even think about heading back the Algarve or Peniche.
I head towards Barbate, the most favoured spot on this coast. I figure if I can watch the locals in their own domain I can assess things from there. As I continue south down the rural roads I see a massive lighthouse, and what looks like the roofs of many vehicles glistening in the sunshine. I figure it’s a building roof or similar. After a few hundred metres I pass a motorhome pulling out of a turning on that side of the road, and another parked at the side of the road, through the hedge I can see a nice surfable-looking wave. I stop, and head back. It does indeed look good. I look back towards the lighthouse and see what looks like surfers on the point by the lighthouse. I figure the point is out of my league. As I walk across the beach I notice a few camper vans, and then realise that the road towards the lighthouse is full of campervans. I jump back in the van and head back up the road.
As I drive down the lane I see the lighthouse, lots of campervans, motorhomes and cars parked on the side of the road. There is a beautiful bay here sheltered from the force of the direct waves. There are two sets of peaks, one bigger than the other. There are several people surfing, and many sunbathing. I look around, this looks perfect, but what’s the catch? There doesn’t seem to be one. These vehicles look like they are stopped overnight, and not moving on. There are a few barriers on the road, but it doesn’t look like they get shut. After a walk up the lane to assess a good place to park, I move the van further up, just behind a UK LDV Convoy. The Convoy looks like a great vehicle to do a conversion on, something to keep in mind for the future. Whilst parked a left-hand drive VW parks in front of me. It’s good to have fellow country-folk around.
I have lunch and settle down. I think I may stay here for quite some time. I check the map and guidebook and realise that this is Cabo Trafalgar, where Nelson fought his battle, and died.
