This morning we leave the walled campsite and cross a busy road. We walk through the dunes and within about 50 meters we're already on the beach. Last night it unexpectedly rained heavily and the high waves and onshore wind caused a lot of water in the air. Looking back, we see Barbate and in the distance the cliffs where we walked yesterday, disappearing into the clouds. Ahead we see only beach, dunes and the ocean. When we've walked along the tide line for half an hour, we see cows looming on the beach through the hazy sky. From this distance they look just like large rocks. As we get closer, we see a large herd walking and lying on the beach. It is quite a bizarre scene. Behind the cows, the hills we've seen inland for the last few stages, come closer to the coast. They're beautiful green slopes, with peaks shrouded in mist. We keep following the coast for a while, before walk briefly into the village of Zahara de los Atunes for some shopping for lunch. We take a break overlooking the ocean on the other side of the village. Fortunately, we find a place to pitch the tent, as it was pretty wet when we packed it this morning. As a result, we take a long lunch break.
And time we have today: the stage is less than 20 kilometers. After the break, we walk a short distance along the beach and then need to climb quite a bit over one of the hills that reaches the water. We descended past some beautiful villas to a final small beach. From above, it was easy to see that the landscape is really different here. By now, the weather has completely opened up and it's clear that the rather flat landscape with occasional decent cliffs, has given way to a hillier landscape. These are foothills of the Betian Cordillera, a mountain range that crosses the Mediterranean Sea from northern Morocco and turns back here towards the east, into southern Spain. These include the Sierra Nevada, with peaks well above 3,000 meters. After crossing the beach, we catch a small glimpse of them. We walk past a lighthouse up one of the hills and then briefly turn inland to cut through a peninsula. We walk through a beautiful, green and mountainous landscape with lots of conifers, low palms and an array of flowers. What a gorgeous stretch! Once over the hill, we see the plain where the village lies, where we'll spend the night. A green valley surrounded by hills and a stunning oceanfront beach. With the Moroccan mountains on the other side, this view is beauty! The last few kilometers we walk in the sun, past green meadows with horses and cows.
In the village, almost everything is closed, but fortunately our little hostel is open. What a wonderful, second-to-last stage before Tarifa! One more day left at the ocean...