I was woken early by the birds who enthused about the new day to quite some degree. I chatted to David and Marjorie who had kept me entertained last night in their campervan. It was soon time to be off and back onto the autopista. I had to knock back 535 kms today so I held Betty at 120kph and watched the clocks roll.

Spain appeared to have moved somewhere else, because the motorway, and indeed the landscape was sparsely populated. Occasional houses and towns but very little else, just that big sky glaring down at you. Things began to get a little monotonous, so I began to make comparisons. Roadworks were a favourite. In Spain, if someone has to work on a motorway carriageway, they put up some signs to say so, then some speed limit signs 80kph, then slat 25 tiny traffic cones out (yes I did count them),to filter traffic from the lane to be closed, and then put a cone out, within half a metre or so of the line to finish the job off. I thought it was great must have taken half an hour to do, it worked and didn’t require millions of pounds spending on a health and safety expert!

So we put putted on, the sun was out but I was never warm, just hovering at the stage where I would have to stop to put my jacket on but not quite so. Close to lunchtime we came to Seville where, all of a sudden lots of traffic happened, which I found hard to deal with, especially when some of it was horse and carts, beautifully decorated, and trotting along past the 18 wheelers quite happily!

Seville was hot, it appears that I had come down from the high plains and now it had to be in the mid 20s. I stopped at a service station for fuel and lunch. I'm not yet at the stage of eating wherever and whatever, so I settled for a packaged sandwich and ham crisps. It did the job, nothing else.

Back on the road which then turned into a toll road, where I was charged the same price as a car, and I became a dissatisfied customer. I was seeing cracks in the tarmac, signs that were faded and the wind was really picking up. I crossed the last item off my mental letter of complaint after I got onto a free road and the wind had picked up some more. I was heading directly into it and I was finding it hard to stay at 100kph. I was being knocked about a bit too!

Clearly this part of the world is windy. There are hundreds of wind turbines all doing a merry business. I was now down to 80 kph and being blown all over the place. The nature of the road mean the wind would hit from many a different direction. It was quite unnerving.

Horse drawn carriages in Seville

Finally, into Tarifa, the southernmost part of Spain. Through the haze I caught glimpses of Africa over the sea. Now, I felt like I was getting places! I found a campsite next to the beach, camped up under a canopy of trees and made food.

The end of the road for Europe

The Chris Scott guide book to Morocco states that getting into the State, can be for the first timer, like getting your nose stuck into the crack between Europe and Africa. Ha ha...? Well we will see what happens tomorrow!