21st Sept - Another calamity :-(

The next morning we found we were in th midst of a car rally. Nick reckons that the front runners were world class cars - they were certainly loud! And we had a birds eye view of them winding down the mountain road below us. There seemed to be every conceivable competition going on. We met runners and cyclists all in racing gear. Then, unfortunately, there was another rally event going the same way as us! It was a bit unnerving when the Casa Coche became a moving chicane! One tried to overtake us and then had to slam his brakes on at the last minute, burning rubber like crazy, as a car was approaching from the other direction!
Then we had another calamity :-( We had seen very few motor homes in Spain, but we had a much to close enounter with one on this day. It was very large, going way too fast and came whipping around a bend towards us and completely destroyed our wing mirror! Poor Cassie! We had to drive several miles with me holding a part of it attached by wire until Nick could find somewhere safe to stop and perform some emergency surgery in the form of duct tape. Luckily a small mirror had remained intact, so the driver reckons he can still drive safely.

We decided at this point that we have had enough of mountain roads and headed for Cadiz. Cadiz was beautiful. Immaculate, clean and classy. We drove right into the centre, through the old quarter and then back along the coast without stopping. Not from choice, we couldn't find anywhere to park!! All the car parks were underground without enough clearance for us and the roadside parking was all too narrow! And it was so HOT! It must have been 40* with stifling humidity. Eventually we squeezed into a space, just slightly obstructing the road, stripped off and threw ourselves into the sea. Although this was the atlantic, it was a lot calmer than the med and lovely and clean and fresh. The golden sands stretched the entire length of the city which is one very long peninsular. After we had cooled off we headed to a campsite at El Puerte de Santa Maria which was the other side of the bay of Cadiz, but we definitely want to return to Cadiz, without Cassie and the dogs! We stayed in a National park of sand dunes. We decided to stay two nights here to recover from our harrowing journey. Another town to explore, another beach to swim at, and pine forested dunes for the dogs to play in. There were even some feral cats for them to taunt!