Life by the beach
Surfing and skating all day
For the first weekend down in Conil, Charlie had booked surf lessons with Take Surf School. Her last surf trip had been some time ago and it seemed the sensible thing to do before getting in the water on her own. The surf school is in El Palmar and the hostel in Conil offers a lift to get down there. A surf lesson is €25 and includes all equipment rental, you can even get a towel poncho. The surf school is right by the beach, you only have to cross the road.
Next to the school is a bar with tables and bean bags called Canibal Royal – you can choose where you feel most comfortable. There’s WIFI too – you can perfectly set up a workspace for the day.
The surf instructor, Victor, had asked Charlie whether she wanted to speak Spanish or English, and she decided to go for Spanish – she had to practice after all. The first surf lesson in Spanish was an interesting experience and Charlie has certainly learned some new vocabulary.
The first thing she did after the lesson was stretching and which better place to do that than the roof terrace of the surf school. You can certainly spend a day there, either working from the bar or chilling by the beach or in one of the bean bags. There are also plenty of shops and restaurants along the beach and a little market to get a new beach outfit.
Skating barefoot
On the first day, Charlie used the afternoon to check out the shops as she had forgotten her sunglasses. She slept for a while in one of the bean bags – hard work to get a tan – and later in the afternoon, she borrowed the surf skate to check out the town. She had asked Frankie, who works at the surf school, for a recommendation and was told to just go along the road – everybody does it here and she even went barefoot. What a feeling of freedom to skate along the road without shoes whilst listening to the breaking waves and the wind. The only thing that was a bit annoying was the face mask that you had to wear in Spain all the time to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Charlie had gotten herself a surf skate during lockdown with which she had practiced a lot over the past few months in London. After all, it is good to know what you’re doing when you skate on a road with cars!
Something for the lens
The surf shops and the market along the road had Charlie inspired to take some photos. For the second day of surfing, she took the camera with her down to the surf school and went for quite an extensive walk after the lesson. El Palmar isn’t a big town and you quickly feel as if you’re walking through the countryside. You see some horses and can hear the chickens. You could also buy some fresh eggs in the middle of nowhere. In between, Charlie had to check on Google Maps where she was and how she would get back to the beach. Looking at the map, it seems quite straightforward – in reality, not so much. What looked like a road was not more than a path in between fields and it was hard to tell whether that was a public road or a private driveway.
At some point, Charlie felt as if she was on private property, but Google Maps still showed an official road. It was strange. Charlie was checking if there was anybody to ask but without luck. Her curiosity though kept her going. She could see one of the main roads (it was even a paved one) behind a gate. That was it. She just had to pass through that gate which luckily hadn’t been locked. She was sure that she had been on private property, but she found her way back and could continue her picture journey.
She finished the day off with a beer at the bar in one of the bean bags. She could certainly get used to that lifestyle!
