When I wake up this morning and look at my cell phone, I see that it's already half past seven. But I also see a harsh comment from a reader of our blog. - But more on that later, because I need a coffee first. - When we look out of the bus shortly afterwards, cup in hand, it's much more colorful than yesterday. Our two Austrian girls and previous neighbors are on their way to Morocco. - Two young, sporty, not too ugly girls, alone in a VW bus through Morocco? - I think that's a daring idea. I have all the more respect for the courage. - So let's keep our fingers crossed that everything goes well. - Sebastian's old Ford Transit from Germany has now been left behind. - He's sleeping in today - he deserves it, the boys spent a long time climbing yesterday.
Later, two of the boys also make their way towards the ferry. So once again it's time to say goodbye. - I always find it enriching to get to know and appreciate new people with new ideas and new hobbies. We find that we have much faster and more intensive contacts on the road. In my previous job, I had to deal with different people every day. - But here we learn to assess people even more quickly. - As always in life, there are such and such. - What we also learn on this tour is to say goodbye.
It's time for us to leave the mountain too. We want to make a detour to Tarifa today. As soon as we reach the valley, we see a long sandy beach to our right - are we mistaken, or are there campers there? - Without further ado, we decide to stop and explore the area as a possible pitch for the night. - There is indeed a camper and behind it a large bus, which has apparently also been converted into a motorhome. - Suddenly I see another old Mercedes bus behind it. The color combination looks familiar. And as it turns out, this is Pascal, whom we met a few weeks ago on the 70th day of our trip in Portugal, near Aljezur to be precise. Shortly afterwards, or rather nine days later, we met him again at Praia do Burgau, near Lagos. Coincidence? - But all good things come in threes, so we meet him for a third time today, 64 days after we first met and almost 500 kilometers further south. - So it's not just a question of saying goodbye, but also of welcoming him back.
We make an appointment for later and drive to Tarifa - first we have to explore a new supermarket. Otherwise our breakfast would be in bad shape. - On the way, we discover the first street art. No. 1 by Axel Void, who was born to a Haitian mother and a Spanish father, grew up in Spain and studied fine arts in Cádiz. He lived in Berlin until he moved to Miami in 2013. - No. 2 by Vincent Abadie Hafez - ZEPHA _ No. 3 Abdellatif Moustad.
We are totally impressed by his work. - A few minutes after our shopping trip, we sit on a wall on the beach and not only have a hearty breakfast, but also have a chance to talk about these pictures.
What is the most important destination in Tarifa? Of course, the Isla de Tarifa. From here, Africa seems close enough to touch. In fact, it is just 15 kilometers away. But the crucial thing is that this is where the border between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean runs.
We are now standing on the causeway to the island. To our right is Playa Tarifa with a view of the Atlantic and to our left is Playa Chica with a view of the Mediterranean. It's exciting to see that the real picture coincides with our imagination: on the Atlantic side, the waves are crashing onto the beach and the kiters are having fun. One kiter in particular, or should I say one kite team, attracts our special attention. Because the team includes a master and a dog. While the master kites up and down the beach, the big black dog runs up and down the shore at breakneck speed. - Surely both know what they have done in the evening. As the kiter drives onto the beach, the dog is already in the same position. - Now there is a stormy hug in the water. A well-rehearsed team. - On the opposite side, towards the Mediterranean, bathers are sitting in the sun. The sea seems much calmer, even the wind seems to have no effect here, as if there is not only a water divide, but also a weather divide. - The weatherman could certainly explain this better.
But we want to get back to Pascal. - Shortly afterwards, we park Hector directly behind the BIBO Beach House. It's much quieter here than on the adjacent Playa Valdevaqueros. - We sit in the sun behind the beach club and chat with Pascal for a while. - A very relaxed day. We definitely like it so much that we think about staying here tomorrow. But what do we know in the evening about where we'll be going tomorrow?
"Wonderful word: pass the time!
Holding them would be the problem.
Because, who is not afraid: where is a stay,
where a finally being in all this?..."
I wrote earlier that a reader of our blog wrote to us to say that she thought my comments on the yoghurt cup faction were "a real shame, especially that the big ones don't get away with it". - Certainly a good reason to think about it. In communication, there is a sender-receiver relationship. In this respect, it is not what the sender thinks and means to express, but how it is received by the receiver. So I seem to have expressed myself incorrectly. - So first of all, thank you very much for the nice text and the very sympathetic feedback.
I'll try again: Isn't it said that nothing is more constant than change? - In my youth, allotment gardens were considered really, really uncool. Anyone who had one was considered the epitome of bourgeoisie. So I was all the more shocked when, a few years ago, I received an invitation from a trendy architect couple to visit their allotment garden.
But what I found had little to do with the expected garden gnome cliché. Although some vegetables were still grown, but this was now organic and thus quite hip. No not Klaus Hipp. Whether this is hip, you should decide for yourself.
But what had become of the arbor? A large band of windows brought light into the hut. The walls shone white. Everything looked bright and friendly. Inside, there was now a Bullerjan Free Flow FF17, almost a design icon among fireplaces. For the case that one wanted to stay overnight also times in the winter, thus was provided. Directly in front of the window was a seventies chair. But so much for stuffy, it was a real Eames. And thus a lounge chair, which I consider not only comfortable, but above all very, very cool. The whole cottage was tastefully decorated, with accessories from various vacations of the architect couple. The wide world in an arbor. Even the sheepskin looked pretty cool here. - Instead of TV, there was a small bookshelf with exciting literature. - There was even a small house bar, including a humidor. - You could have moved right in here.
However, since it was summer, they stood outside around a small campfire. There were also two hammocks. But one thing had remained. People still drank beer from bottles. But what had become of the allotment gardeners? Maybe they were masterminds in one way or another after all? It did not remain with this one cool garden. In the environs of Berlin and Cologne, and certainly of Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich, you can now find many cool allotment gardeners. - What was considered stuffy yesterday is hip today.
Can this not also be transferred to the camper world? Of course, there is still the retired couple who first aligns the satellite dish, puts the garden gnome in front of the door and where either the TV or the vacuum cleaner is running. Who spend 4 months wintering on the same campsite. And if it makes them happy, then there you go. - I don't presume to judge, I'm just saying it wouldn't make me happy. But thank God we are not all the same, would be otherwise pretty dull or?
But apparently there are more and more people who dream of a free, an independent life. Who want their vehicle to be just as independent and self-sufficient. - But although the rising registration figures speak a clear language, manufacturers seem to either ignore the signs or deliberately listen away.
In the seventies, too, there were hippies who drove all the way to India in their homemade VW bus. And today there seems to be a new generation of hippies. - Here you go! - But is there only one, i.e. hippie, or the other, i.e. bourgeois? I don't want to believe that. I rather think that many fall back on a classic camper because there is no alternative or only a few alternatives.
And to break another lance, for the white goods, I must admit that I have now met quite a few pretty cool guys among their owners. But mostly these have not started with a white motorhome. Before there was a Bulli, a Lappländer or something else cool. But with increasing age or with the children became just also the demand for space and comfort greater. The heart still beats wild and free, but the alternatives are limited. - So it's not about you big guys, every now and then we would also like to have our own bathroom. - But one thing I knew strangely enough already as a young guy:
"Maybe one day I'll grow up, maybe I'll grow old and gray, but never, never will I grow up".
The poem "In my wild heart" by Rilke comes to mind.
"...See, the day slows down, contrary to
that room that takes him to evening:
Rising became standing, and standing becomes laying,
and the willingly lying blurs ..."
We have noticed ourselves how inflexible the market is. Either off the peg or expensive or do-it-yourself. But studies like Hymer's VisionVenture show that things can be different. For example, there will certainly be cool yogurt pots in the future. They just won't be white anymore. And finally, I love yogurt. Without it, my muesli only tastes half as good.
...mountains resting, glorified by stars; -
but time flickers in them, too.
Ah, in my wild heart sleeps
homeless the imperishable."
PS: A little recommendation for all those who still have a wild heart,
Rilke project, Schönherz & Fleer, Laith Al-Deen:
PS: Incidentally, today is "Italian Cuisine Day" - Italy eats more than just pasta and pizza - but what would we be on our tour without pasta? And although it now seems clear that the inventors of pasta were Chinese, I still don't believe it. Just because a 4,000-year-old pot of noodles was supposedly found in China? - We all know that the Chinese have no scruples when it comes to plagiarism, don't we? Surely this was a pirated copy! - And pizza, I mean really good pizza, like at Ristorante Toscanini in Cologne's Südstadt, that's what I really miss on this tour. - So one thing is for sure, one of our next tours will be to Italy, eating like at Nonna's.
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