Tarifa, Gibraltar & Bologna
- Tobias Heller
- 7. Juli 2017
- 6 Min. Lesezeit

Tarifa is the connector to North Africa, especially Morocco and the city of Tanger. It is located in the Costa de la Luz and is the southernmost point of geographic Europe with only several Islands such as Malta or Cyprus further down in the south. From Tarifa it is not far to the Rock of Gibraltar, which is under british territory and hosts the large and impressive rock formation that sticks out of the flat surface around and can already be spotted from afar at the Costa del Sol, for example from Marbella.
Beach & Nature
Tarifa - The hipster Paradise
After saying goodbye to my lovely british family in Marbella I am eager to start a new phase, experiencing new things and getting to know a completely different culture as my next step would be morocco. Leaving Europe lifts up my explorer mood but at the same time I keep several what-if scenarios in the back of my head. I am indeed looking forward to it, but of course I am as well preoccupied with some worries and if I can manage without problems. To go to morocco the best option for me appears to be to take the ferry from tanger, the most southern tip point in Europe, thereby making a stopover in Gibraltar and seeing my last two cities in Spain until my return flight from Marrakech to Madrid.
I arrive in Tarifa early in the afternoon with Mayo, who took me all the way from Marbella to here. Funnily I was very lucky here, as Mayo works for a local hotel in the city center, equips me with a map and some information as well as offers to issue the ferry ticket for me through his hotel due to the welcomed circumstance that he gets a discount for his clients. With my heavy bag once more back on my shoulders I enter into the center, and indeed it is an open minded, hipster place with young people and a fresh and vivid life style.

I explore the beach coastline, which is, except for several kitesurfers performing acrobatic flips and manoveurs, rather empty and deserted. To the left side of the center I find old ruins nestled at the bottom of the beachs short outstrech, completely abandoned and no one around to be found. Strange large rock formations are spread allover the beach, smooth long stripes of beige stone with gouges carved in deeply by centuries of abrasion through the sea water as well as patterned spots with small drilled in holes. This once more makes me marvel about nature's ability to create the weirdest and most outstanding shapes.

I spend the afternoon at the beach, observing the kitesurfers and their great tricks and movements, constantly accompanied by a strong and forceful wind that flings the sand around the ground in clouds. The beach is one of the nicest and cleanest I have seen so far in Spain and obtains large dunes that go up and down and it all seems to me like a pretaste for morocco's desert. Even though it is quite foggy today, I can spot the outlines of several mountains and hills of the country which will be my next goal. I then search for my couchsurfer Pedro, a spanish speaking local who moved to Tarifa just recently, who was busy during day with visiting family. He is very nice and friendly, sometimes I struggle with my spanish as I haven't had overly too much practice in Marbella while staying with Kelly's family.






Daytrip
Gibraltar - A short jump to Greatbritain
Due to his works the following day in La Linea de La Conception he offers to drop me off at the border to Gibraltar for a daytrip, which will offer a weird change into british territory. All the way to Gibraltar the large oversized rock pierces out like a colossal giant on the short piece of land that invades into the sea. It is slighlty surrounded by morning fogs and the yellowish gloom of the rising sun adds to an impressive scene as the massive rock seems to be shooting out directly of the sea, a monsterous creature frozen in it's movement out of the water's surface. When I head towards the rock and cross over from spanish to british territory, they do not pay me much attention. The guy at the office merely gives a brief glance into my passport from afar and looks away, yawning in a demonstration of boredom. I actually did not expect much of a difference to spain, though the style of the street indeed is so similar to the ones you may find in London for instance, that It makes me laugh somehow. Here I find the typical black litter bins, decorated with gold lettering and rim, the reknown red telephone booths that everyone conects with Greatbritain. The small pubs and bars, absolutely everything here has it's origin from british people and culture.

Before climbing up the main landscape attraction, the rock of Gibraltar, I walk through all of the center and keep on following a long street down to the tip of the tongue of land, which is only about a four kilometers walk starting from the border. An arabic mosque has been built here, as well as an old church and a lighthouse marks the end of Gibraltar. I find myself on an upraised level, with a cliff tumbling downwards and strong waves crashing against the stone walls with a thundering bang and a large spray of water that explodes like a firework cracker. I rest here for a few minutes before a bus crowded with asian tourists arrive and I flee to start climbing the rock.

The most comfortable way in order to reach the top may be to take the cable way that leads up all the way to a station from which the main view points can be visited, though I start to walk up a steep slope from the most southern tip of the rock. While climbing a nice view is offered over the bay which includes Algeciras and it's large port with connections to Morocco on the other side, La Linea to the right and below the harbor of Gibraltar. It does not take too long, once I am on the top where a large canon from past ages is placed on a platform, I encounter some of the rock's maybe not too loveliest inhabitants. The furry monkeys are climbing around, swinging downwards from trees, getting immersed into a wild game of hunting and catching each other, thereby not paying much attention to me. Though as cute as the small ones may seem, some tourists indeed underestimate the monkeys insidious and partially aggressive characters, which they display mainly when getting too close to them. A woman shrieks back in a hysteric laughter when one of the macacs shows his sharp array of pointed teeth in a wild and ugly grimace due to her careless behaviour. I try to avoid them as best as I can. The view from the top platforms gives a great sight over to the small peaks that jut out sharply from the rock's mass as well as to the harbor on the left and the small bays below the east side of Gibraltar, cut off by the oversized stone from the rest of Gibraltar.

Beach & Daytrip
Bolonia Beach - The Dunes
Together with Pedro and a friend of his, we go by car to another beach called Bolonia, not too far from Tarifa. There we take a walk along the nearly deserted beach, just a few people crossing our paths, some of them enjoying to be completely naked. Soon we encounter large rocks formations and strangely carved stones piercing out of the sand into the sea. We finally arrive our goal, the natural water basins which is once more proof to me which fantastic and at the same time bizarre structures nature can build without human influence. Long lines of brusque, rugged stones are the framing walls of the basins, marvellously straight and rectangularly shaped do they hold the incoming waves back. From here we take a stroll back right into the sunset, enjoying the last rays and the emptiness if the long sand strips.

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