Andalucia Day 16 Vejer de la Frontera and Cabo Trafalgar

It's a windy night. There's a layer of sand on everything the next morning, on the tent, on everything in the 'living-room' part of the tent, on the car (yes, you read the same words yesterday too and that was exactly my sensation especially since we left Tarifa to avoid wind and sand) but not on the dishes left out to dry because unlike the previous night I'd been careful to put them away. Also the gusts of wind all night seemed to want to blow the tent away and us in it. It's a grumpy start to the morning.

We drive to Vejer de la Frontera, where nasty wind becomes pleasant breeze.

Vejer is a pueblo blanco, but quite big, a town more than a village, very cool, peaceful, narrow white streets,

a few tourists and the church is in Gothic-Mudéjar style that is a mixture of Gothic and Arabian, it was originally a mosque.

Vejer has a lot of restaurants but we choose Califa Express which is a sort of quick food (fast would be offensive because they pride themselves on healthy eating and quality ingredients) right on the main square Plaza de España which offers Moroccan and Middle Eastern specialities. This means we can try falafel, a sort of chickpea miniburger, hummus - once again made from chickpeas and olive oil and a sort of spread to put on the accompanying pitta bread. These are dishes I've followed recipes to make without really knowing if I was getting it right since I'd never eaten either in the original version! There's also babaganoush made from aubergines. We sit outside right in the main square.

We spend 14 euros including drinks and proceed to Pastelería Galván for coffee and a couple of cakes in the old-fashioned tearoom behind the store with a nice view of Vejer and to the sea.  After, we sit on a bench and read for a while before going to look at three windmills. One has been conserved as a sort of museum. It was used for making flour, from wheat but also chickpeas up until 1964.

After an early supper back at the campsite where the wind has dropped but there is an invasion of noisy Spanish families for the weekend, we go to Cape Trafalgar for the sunset, walking a kilometre along the beach from the north. Famous for the Battle of Trafalgar, it is a working lighthouse, as we discover to our surprise, looking back as we return along the beach to the car.

The natural light instead is fading, the sea dark molten silver and faint warm  orange hues on the horizon to follow the sunset.

Kilometres by car: 48

Kilometres on foot: 14