Cape Trafalgar, Cádiz & Jerez - Days 145 to 149

Cape Trafalgar

I finally got to see the sea, we hit the coast and turned right, away from the Costa del Sol, to the much more remote Costa de la Luz. It was beautiful but very very windy. The drive was a bit scary, gusts all over the place, a BA flight coming into land at Gibraltar was all over the place before aborting and going to Malaga, at least we know we weren’t making it up!  https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-47360240/strong-winds-shake-plane-and-cause-it-to-divert

Our drive into Cape Trafalgar was interrupted for a while by this group of cyclists. We saw the blue flashing lights of the police convoy in front first and just pulled of the road at a very convenient layby. We waved and some of them waved back. Nice day for it!

The bee covered in sand we rescued from the beach

The coast felt a bit grungy, not the coast us Brits go to, but the coast wind surfers, kite surfers, and beach hippies go to.... We decided this wasn’t the place to branch into wild camping, reading reports of loud music, condoms, and druggies demanding parking fees....

As such we went to a privately owned Aire. It was fine, but expensive for what it was, he was a nice guy, and if he ever gets the bar built, and his own roof put on it will be vastly improved, but hey, we were safe and secure. (Campsite location: 36°11'54.9"N 6°02'00.3"W) (Campsite amenities with photos: click on this link then on item 62 in list)

And there he is safely on a plant having cleaned himself up a lot in the journey

The strong wind through the Straits of Gib.

We went for a walk to the lighthouse of Cape Trafalgar. The beach was lovely, the sea wild, there was nothing to see, but would they commemorate being trounced in a sea battle? 

Brian here: I just couldn't have driven past Cape Trafalgar without calling in to see the site of Nelsons famous victory against the combined forces of the French and Spanish navies on 21st October 1805. The British had been blockading the French Navy for months to prevent an attempted invasion of the UK by Napoleon. A fleet of 33 ships (18 French, 15 Spanish) had slipped out of Cádiz on 19-20 October hoping to make it to the Mediterranean Sea to support the French Southern Italy campaign, but Nelsons 27 ships caught up with them. A battle ensued during which Nelson in his flagship 'Victory' ordered his fleet to approach in two columns and cut the opposing line in three to break their formation, signalling his famous message: 'England expects that every man will do his duty'. It was a very unconventional manoeuvre at the time and it worked brilliantly but Nelson was mortally wounded and died at 4:30pm, but in the sure knowledge he had won. By 5:00pm the French Admiral Villeneuve had been captured, his fleet had lost 19 or 20 ships, which were surrendered to the British and 14,000 men, half whom were prisoners of war. The British lost about 1,500 men but no ships and the battle stopped all plans of Napoleon to invade England. The British Navy were not to be seriously challenged again for nearly 100 years, giving them supremacy of the seas (and incidentally allowing world trade to flourish in the sure knowledge of safety of the seas provided by the British Royal Navy). Not bad for a days work, no wonder he's got a square in London with four lions to guard it! Unsurprisingly there was no mention of the battle at Cape Trafalgar, but we did see an awful lot of English people walking around taking photographs.   

The lighthouse at Cape Trafalgar

Scene of Nelsons victory just over 213 years ago

We did do bee rescue, poor thing was struggling to fly and had sand all over his wings. We got him on Brian’s shoe and must have carried him for 10 minutes till we could finally put him down out of the wind, on a flower... we did our best.

I finally had to resort to a ‘store cupboard’ meal. Not bad after this long on the road, obviously I’ve been using stuff and restocking, but this is the first time for tuna pasta bake. Tomorrow we will find a supermarket, we will.

Our walk to Cape Trafalgar (click on it, its interactive):

And so we did, but we also then arrived at Puerto de Santa Maria, the ‘gateway’ to Cádiz. (Aire

The Levante wind brought out lots of kite surfers at Cape Trafalgar

location: 36°35'54.9"N 6°13'17.0"W) (Aire amenities with photos: click here then on item 63 in list). Cádiz famous for fried fish, so that’s a meal out then, and what’s this? Just over the bridge? An Indian restaurant.... I’ve done my best, but it’s never quite the same, so first Indian restaurant since leaving home, hurrah! Cádiz is a tricky place for parking, again reviews talk about all night discos starting just as normal people are going to bed, and other disruptions, so the best option seemed to be a secure carpark, with official mobile home parking, but no services for €6 with the plus of a ferry ride into Cádiz costing €5.50 return. 

The car park/Aire at El Puerto de Santa Maria for our Cadiz visit

The bullring and bull fight sculpture at El Puerto de Santa Maria

Sadly due to the wind the ferry was replaced by a bus service so that was a bit disappointing, but we could still get in and out. We hoped to do a ‘free’ walking tour where you pay what you think it’s worth, sadly English was only being run at 13.00, not 10.30 and then only if enough people turned up. We’ll do our own then, we’ve got the map from the tourist office. We did keep bumping into the guy doing the Spanish tour, so we saw a lot of the places he would have taken us to, so fried fish won out ... we walked miles, well 17km to be precise and gave it a good go. We liked it, it had a nice feel, but I can’t say anything made a really huge impression. It was a good day food wise though, chocolate and churros at 10.30 when we didn’t get on a walking tour (we had been on the bus at 08.20 so had an early start) fried fish and a glass of wine for lunch and very rich ice cream for dinner....

They did have a small exhibition in El Puerto of Christopher Columbus' expedition to find the New World of the Americas and here is a copy of  Juan de la Cosas map of the known world first drawn in 1499. Look closely and the coasts of Europe and Africa are shown in red in the centre and right with the newly discovered coasts of America in green on the left 

A model of Columbus' ship. Only 18m long. Would you sail off the map in that?

A long drive, of half an hour, brought us to Jerez, home of sherry. We are staying at a motorhome/caravan storage place, which is not attractive, but has a lovely feel about it, the people are great, you are welcomed with a sherry from a huge barrel, though we put ours off, 10.30 just being too early! There is a shop where B has been buying things (things we need! - Brian) and a book exchange (campsite location: 36°42'49.0"N 6°06'35.6"W) (campsite amenities with photos: click here then on item 64 in list). 

In Cadiz, the new and old cathedrals in the background

It’s a flat 5km cycle into Jerez, which we did yesterday, decided we were going to get the bus today, but missed it, so cycled again. We thought town was going to be really busy, today being Andalucia day, so a local bank holiday. All shops are shut and we expected the tourist things to be shut too, actually no, the Alcazar was going to be free, so in conjunction with finding anchovies on the market for €3/kg and boquerones, or fried anchovies, being Brian’s favourite we decided to come back and do our jobs and have fish for tea (that chicken I bought on leaving Cape Trafalgar on Monday is still untouched in the fridge).

Spotted in a park in Cadiz

Back into Jerez today then, good look round the Alcazar, but that was it, it wasn’t as buzzing as we expected and we didn’t want to pay €16 each for a sherry tour, yes we are interested in the process, but neither of us actually like it, and over €10 we think about what trips we do! So, under that threshold was a Menu del Dia for 9 with a bottle of wine between us.... so that was the afternoon then! The chicken still uneaten, but I have taken the meat off the chicken portions and whizzed up the onions, garlic, ginger and chilli while we have electricity so tomorrow butter chicken will be put on to cook in the thermal cooker....

The old cathedral in Cadiz, it used to be a mosque before the reconquest

The old excavated Roman amphitheatre in Cadiz

We didn't fancy the last item on the menu!

Just over the city wall in Cadiz were these cat boxes and quite a few cats obviously looked after by someone

The fort of San Sebastian at Cadiz, stuck out in the sea and connected by a narrow causeway. Sadly the fort is closed for refurbishment but you can still walk out to it

I did but Jackie didn't fancy it. Here's the view from the end. The new cathedral is just in view towards the left and the two towers of the impressive 'Constitution' suspension bridge slightly right

Our walk round Cadiz (click on it, it's interactive):

Our parking in Jerez. Its down the side of an industrial unit on an industrial park, but somehow it's quite nice!

Our cycle to and walk round Jerez today. This is the Alcazar, a beautifully restored mosque that was used for centuries as a church

Inside the dome of the mosque, the mihrab in front

Up on the fortifications of the Alcazar

The restored Arabic baths in the Alcazar

Very nicely restored gardens in the Alcazar

The cathedral from the Alcazar in Jerez

The Tio Pepe motif on top of their sherry factory in Jerez

We walked up to and all around the Tio Pepe sherry factory before we found the way in  (Jerez is famous for having many sherry producers)

But then looking at the prices we decided not to bother. Neither of us like sherry very much, we'd read on TripAdvisor that the tour was very rushed and the basic €16 one is two types of sherry and a poor tapas. There was no way we were paying €19 or above per person for something we're not that keen on, so we went and had a good lunch and a bottle of wine in the sun in the Plaza instead!