Today was the final crossing into Africa & the start of the main part of the journey for me.
I woke early, which was annoying as the ferry was not until 2pm, but the view across to Gibralter was nice as the sun came up.
I'd had quite a rough night for some reason and was shall we say ' a little tender' in the morning. So the midday ferry gave me some useful time to recuperate. Then packed & ready, we headed over to the port and checked in at 12:15 so as not to be late for our 14:00 ferry. I should have learned not to do this from previous trips - this kind of behaviour only pays off in the uk!
Once in the terminal area we found there were no facilities and so we had to sit in the queue with our bikes counting down time. We found a little shade, but this was reducing as the sun moved across, and we just hoped things would start moving before it completely disppeared.
There were a few false starts when someone came to check our documents, but it was not until after 15:00 that we started to board. The boarding process, however, did provide some entertainment as each of the many large lorries that provided the bulk of the cargo had to reverse onto the boat - quite skilled these drivers were.
About 2 hours late we finally could look back on Gibralter fading into the distance.....
.... and look forward to the approaching coast .....of AFRICA!
Getting off was quite straight forward, as long as you kept an eye on where the lorries were going. The bicycle you can see on the right was the in,y other two wheeled traveller, a frenchman called Max who had cycled here from bordeaux ... respect!
Immigration formalities were a lot smoother than many I have experienced. They had an immigration officer on the ferry, which meant we spent most of the journey in a queue waiting to have our passports stamped, but saved another wait after landing.
Once on land there was a police check (which I missed as tye guy was as,eep in his cabin when I rode past and so had to go back for later!) a customs check and bike permit issuance (which was the longest process as usual) and then a further final check before leaving the port.
And then we were out cruising smoothly along the Moroccan roads in brilliant sunshine.
Having decided to use the coastal road instead of the toll road worked out fine, if a little slow, and allowed us to acclimtise to the local driving style, which was'nt too bad at first.
The we hit the outskirts of Tangiers and things got a bit more technical!
With the sudden increase in traffic density, tight roads, diversions & random missing bits of road, driver behaviour became more erratic and slightly agrresive. I was ready for this and not too concerned but H took a little while to adjust to the new 'rules of the road'.
We finally arrived at our hotel just as the sun was going down, so a long day but not so long a distance - that is the nature of border crossings.
The hotel proved to be a good find, nice comfortable rooms, lovely moroccan meal amd in a quiet backstreet location within easy walking distance from the medina of Assilah - all for less than £50 per night.
Rest day tomorrow & chance to look around.
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