Introduction to Semester 2013A

It’s been 5 longs years since I last did a “big move” which completely changed my life . Last one was in the summer of 2008, when I moved from a quiet Pennsylvania town in the USA to the huge, bustling city of Casablanca, Morocco. Back then I was just one year into my Global Parkbench Tour and I didn’t hesitate when offered a job opportunity in Morocco which would make it an exciting “Base Camp” from my global adventures. I also wanted to immerse myself in this country once again—this same country which helped me find myself back in the 90s, when I lived here for a couple of years on a shoestring budget.

My 2008 move was not so much on a journey to discover myself (although this is still a lifelong process)… this time I wanted to discover Morocco. And take my songs to every town and city all up and down the country. At first I thought I’d need to visit about 50-60 towns to accomplish that… but the more I explored, the more I found there is to explore, and now 5 years later, I’ve strummed my guitar in nearly 500 towns in every corner of the country.

Along the way I’ve encounter amazing life stories and new insights about the sub-cultures and hidden civilizations within this country . But I’ve also seen and heard that have troubled me. Quite frankly, after all this time, I can’t really say if I feel this country is headed in the right direction or the wrong one, with so many conflicting signals that I’ve gotten. It’s a weight of uncertainty which is heavy on the hearts of millions of Moroccans—a weight which I’ve started to carry as well.

Gradually I’ve been coming to the conclusion that I need to step away for a while, get some fresh air, and experience another part of the world. See the bigger picture. Also, after years of adding hundreds of towns, I long for the feeling that I’ve “finished” something… I want to be able to talk about my Morocco journey in the past tense, rather than the present perfect…. Get away from it for a while so I can start to miss it and long to come back…

And so it look like, yes, this will be my last semester exploring Morocco… for now… I’ve still got 6 months worth of unfinished exploring to do here—as well as a couple trips up across the Straits of Gibraltar… and then I will close my Morocco chapter (which is actually a full sized book) .

So here are the tales of my “goodbye adventures” in this beautiful country and region.

Post-visit Tarifa: A Hike Along the other Side of the Straits
Dec 23, 2012, Day 114
Day Total: 16 hrs, 33.3 kms

It’s that time of year again: my end of year vacation at work. This year it’ll be 20 days—plenty of time to head off and conquer a new, small country somewhere. But I’m not really feeling the lust for adding a new country to my belt right now… this semester is all about finishing some of the projects that I’ve started. And right across the Straits of Gibraltar there are a whole bunch of unfinished projects:

First of all, there are several regions in Andalucia that could be explored a bit more and turned into Superhikes… Sevilla… Campo de Gibraltar—not to mention one last province that needs to be revisited: Huelva. Then there’s Madrid and the regions of central Spain which I’ve just barely gotten started on… And then there’s Portugal . I got started in Portugal 5 years ago, visiting 10 towns and loving the country—and, other than a long layover visit in Lisbon, I haven’t been back since, even though it’s very close to Morocco. So now, as I’m thinking of moving away from this part of the world, it only makes sense that I go back to Portugal for a real visit.

But what is the focus going to be? Trying to visit as many provinces as I can—maybe even trying to “finish” Portugal? Thoroughly exploring a few provinces? Or what about just focusing on doing Superhikes—which seems to be my new passion these days? I looked over the map and I calculated that I could actually finish 5 Superhikes in 20 days, if I focused just on that.

Whatever it is I decide, this trip is probably going to set an important precedent for future travels. I finally decide that instead of trying to figure it all out ahead of time, I should just go and figure out what I want to do when I get there .

The Trail that Crosses Europe

Then a few days before my trip, I come across something that threatens to turn my concept of travel on its head. I was just doing some casual pre-research, looking for a good place to do a Superhike in Bulgaria (someday). Then something catches my eye: wikitravel mentions that the “E” trail across Europe passes through Bulgaria.

That’s odd. I never heard of a trail across Europe—I thought that that was an American thing—to have a hiking trail that runs all across the country. I do a quick search… and am stunned to find out that there’s not only a trail, but a network of trail that seem to run uninterrupted all the way from Portugal to Turkey! All of a sudden I feel a little embarrassed for claiming to have coined the term “Superhike”, calling it a hike of at least a 100 kilometers… looks like a REAL European Superhike is more like 10,000 kilometers!

I did a little more research and found the blog of a 50+ year old guy who did just that: hiked from Tarifa, Spain on the E4 trail all the way to Hungary… a distance of 8,000 kilometers in just 6 months (www .johnhayeswalks.com).

Uh… OK… so what exactly is it that I do that’s so impressive?.... Walk a 100 kilometers and then give myself a big pat on the back?!

No, I’m not going to let it get to me… this isn’t a competition after all… but I somehow suspect that this new information is going to alter my whole Global Parkbench Tour in someway—I just don’t know how. Of course, the first thought is that I’ve got to take advantage of that trail and hike across Europe with my guitar—which would be way more cool than following the Appalachian trail in the US—here you’d combine natural beauty with discovering culture and history. In the US, you’re just going to pass through a couple of generic redneck towns along the way…

But, a hike like that would require a huge amount of commitment—I would really need to be sure that that’s what I want to do… and the time spent on that trip would be precious time that I could spend exploring new countries in new parts of the world… Damn… I almost wished I hadn’t found out about that trail all the way across Europe…

Well, I’m certainly not doing a Hike Across Europe now… But I am, coincidentally, landing in Tarifa, the very town where the E4 trail begins… so… uh… maybe I’ll just take a few baby steps down the trail… you know… just to see what it feels like to be “hiking across Europe…”?

I don’t know . I’m not going to decide that until I get off the boat. Oh yeah, and this is the middle of winter remember…

Arrival in Tarifa

And so my adventure begins. I arrive by ferry from Morocco to Tarifa, and instead of hopping on the 30 minute free shuttle to Algeciras, I'm going to spend the entire day walking there. I soon find a little tourism office where a helpful lady gives me some hiking trail maps (it turns out that there are a BUNCH of long distance hiking trails all over Andalucia--not quite sure where to start!) She also tells me that the starting point for the E4 trails is a couple kilometers in the wrong direction--and it does a big loop to get to Algeciras... it would be pretty difficult for me to get there in one day... And I'm not equipped for camping out in the winter.

So, before the trip even begins, I abandon the idea of following the E4 trail across Europe... I'm just going to follow the highway instead ... it's still got a very nice view. Maybe I'll meet up with the E4 trail further down the road.

But just after I pass the walled city of Tarifa, I see a sign saying that there's another trail down by the coast. Is it a dead end... or could this be a trail that'll take me all the way to Algeciras? I decide to give it a shot.

I reach the coast, where I promptly lose the trail and find myself on a rocky beach at the base of a cliff. I decide to continue on, to see if I can reach the other side of the cliff and find the trail again. Along the way I encounter a group of squatters living in what looks like an abandoned World War II bunker. Desperate illegal immigrants who risked their lives to come seek a more comfortable life? Nope. German young folks who have come in search of a, should I say, much less comfortable life than they could enjoy at home...

I do manage to follow the coast at the base of the cliff and reconnect with the trail again . The trail then winds along the grassy fields with hill forested slopes to my left, and jagged coastline to my right, with the mixed waters of the Atlantic and Mediteranean... and the mountains of Morocco beyond. The view is beautiful and symbolic as well. This is where Europe and Africa almost meet... and where civilization have blended and clashed for the last 1,400 years.

Just an occasional farmhouse along the way, and some pretty fierce looking bulls grazing in the fields. Up ahead is a large stone tower with a plaque telling how this tower--along with many others--were set up to watch out for pirate ships which would try to land here looking for water or villages to plunder. Nowadays this is a lot of watching still going on in these parts, boats and planes patrolling for drug smugglers and people smugglers coming from Morocco.

After the tower, signs of civilization quickly fade--as does my trail. The houses are all abandoned, which seems a bit odd ... this is a relatively prosperous region--why would people abandon it? Did they just give on the rugged cow herding lifestyle in exchange for an easier life in the city?

All I have are random cow paths to go by--not easy going, as these tend to turn into muddy bogs.. or take me right through the middle of thick thorn patches. Apparently cows have a much higher pain threshhold than I do! I try to make my way down to the rocky coastline to see if the going is any easier down there. In the process, the strap on my guitar case rips off. Thankfully I had the foresight to bring needle and thread and take a break to do a little tailoring...

Up ahead there's a family group having a picnic and a dirt road that probably goes up to the highway high in the mountains above. I decide to gamble and try to continue blazing a trail along the coast. It seems like I've made the right choice, as I soon find another road that winds up the mountainside in the right direction . I follow it for about 45 minutes and...

A fence and a big sign that reads in Spanish, English and Arabic "Military Installation, beware: murder dogs" Aw sh--t... This is not what I wanted to see. I look at my options: 1. Go back down to the coast and keep trying to follow the coast. 2. Blaze a trail straight across the mountains. 3. Go WAY back to the road that should take me back up to the highway. 4. Take my chances with the "murder dogs"...

I opt for choice 2... but soon realize that with extremely thick brush and steep cliffs, this is going to be all but impossible. Hmmm... I'd really hate to retrace my steps all that way...

So I'm going for choice 1. It's getting late and I don't have a good feeling about this, but I'm going to give it a shot. I zigzag my way down the mountainside where I find another cowpath that follows the coast... But a sheer cliff up ahead gives me an ominous feeling of an impending dead end .

But no. There's a little sea inlet, and then... a hiking trail! Well, sort of. It clearly hasn't been maintained in a long time, but there's clearly a trail climbing up the cliffside. No turning back now. I've got to follow the coast to Algeciras, or perish in the undertaking.

This trail is visible on the ground--but at waist level and above, the bushes have all but swollowed up the passage... in places I almost have to crawl to get through... and carrying a backpack and guitar certainly doesn't make it easier!

And finally, when it seems the ordeal is never going to end, theres a clearing up ahead... a quiet little beach... and a real trail on the other side leading me to the outskirts of Algeciras. I've made it. I've blazed a trail (sort of) from The Tip of Europe to Algeciras.

It's still a couple hours of walking before I reach downtown . But it's all easygoing from now on. I arrive late at night, check into a 12 Euro hotel, and call it a day.

Later I calculate how far I hiked on Google Maps... 33 kilometers struggling through thick brush! Quite an accomplishment!