This morning we set off for the final kilometers along the coast. We descend to the beach and follow it to the end. It's a Sunday morning with lovely weather so it is busy again. Lots of people with dogs, children playing and especially many surfers are on the beach and in the water. The waves are a lot lower today than yesterday, but even now it's easy to see why this stretch of coast is known as surfers' paradise. A small river flows into the sea here. This one is just too deep to wade through with our shoes on and the bridge is just a bit too far away. That means: shoes off and continue barefoot! It's lovely to walk through the water. We keep our shoes off and barefoot, through the fresh ocean water, we walk the last few kilometers of this stage. The last piece of land is fast approaching. And with it, the end of this first part of our new journey to Nice. At the end of the beach, we climb to a road that leads to Isla de Tarifa. This is the utter southernmost point you can get to, on foot. And just now, while standing here, we realise that with the end of the ocean, the Mediterranean Sea begins on the other side of this road! The water looks immediately calm, sleek and azure. This is how we recognise it from last year in Nice. Good memories and a good prospect!
Unfortunstely we can't enter Isla de Tarifa, it's closed off and can only be visited with a guide. But we have achieved our goal for now. And here, at the end of the beach, at the end of the ocean, at the end of the green hills and after almost 600 kilometers of hiking, our new journey northwards starts: with the sea behind us we'll hika all the way through the inlands of Spain towards the Pyrenees.
We are curious to see how it will be, but we will probably miss the ocean...