Barbate to Conil de La Frontera

19.01.2025 - 19.01.2025 15 °C

We were glad to put Barbate behind us, though it is actually a lovely place but our poor night coloured our view a wee bit. The ponies, Shirley and Fidel were still there in their stable in the morning so my worries were for naught. We packed up and headed down to the Paseo for a morning coffee. I was already feeling more cheerful and the sun was shining. Our green magic carpet awaited us and we would have a good beachside route all the way to our next destination, Cornil de La Frontera.

We rode through the little town of Caños de Meca north of Barbate. Lots of campsites here and I am sure it would be packed in the summer. In need of a caffeine fix we followed a sign down to the beach and found Las Dunas, an amazing atmospheric cafe with lots of people having Sunday brunch. They had a wood fire going inside and we happily sat at the bar. The building was really unusual construction, stone with a thatched roof and high tables outside made of twisted wood. A very trendy cool spot, just off the beach.

Fueled up, we tackled the climb up and over the Cabo Trafalgar. A good bike path made it almost easy. Again, the TransAndalus website does not mention this new bike path and directs cyclists onto the beach. Riding in sand unless hardpacked is tough with loaded bike. There are lots of hiking trails on the Cape but we did not go out to the lighthouse. Again, all beautiful gold sand beaches and not too much development. Mainly pine forest vegetation. And we were happy to see our amiga, the EuroVelo 8 sign again.

We finally encountered another cycle tourer - a young guy from France who had been touring for 3 months, was headed for Morocco who plans to cycle in the Atlas Mts. there and doesn’t know when his trip might end. He was equipped for camping so had a pretty loaded bike. He told us he was in Tunisa last year on his bike and really liked that. We just don’t see that many people in Spain touring on their bikes. No doubt there are more later in the year, but this time seems perfect to us.

By about 1 pm, we were cycling over the Rio Salado onto the beach paseo of Conil. We had been able to see it from quite far away as we were now on a flat plain and all the buildings are blindingly white, stacked up from the beach on a small hill.

We found our accommodation easily - Alsa Apartamentos. I had What’s Apped them to see if we could check in earlier. We had booked for 3 nights in order to wait out the rain forecast and for Jim to recover from his bug. We had our fingers crossed as it seemed an amazing deal for what appeared to be a large studio apartment in a new building - €50/night including breakfast! The Bookings.com reviews had all been good but would there be a bar nearby?

We were met by a young couple and their young son and were given an apartment on the first floor of the 4 story building, with 8 apartments in total. We were beyond thrilled - it looked brand new, there was lots of room for the bikes in the room, a huge bathroom and a washer/dryer available one floor down. The included breakfast was a tray of coffee pods, teas, butter, buns for toastada, little patés, water. We can work with that.

After settling in, we took a ramble around the neighbourhood, found an El Jamon supermarket just down the street, did a bit of a grocery shop and then headed out for a late lunch. Being Sunday afternoon, everywhere was busy but we found a perch outside and enjoyed people watching while waiting for our food. We spilt a salad, Jim had a tuna taco and I had a hot pot of gambas and pulpo - shrimp and octopus.