Mmmmmmm……Diq!
Must be up there with Penis-Cola!! Is it our subconscious choosing suggestive names…or just coincidence?
An early start this morning as we bade farewell to Corey when his taxi arrived at 6am!! Sad to see him go really….for he has been a great co-rider! But hopefully the journey has helped him forget his home-town blues! Actually I find it quite difficult not to forget all one’s worries! Except…..where are we staying tonight? Or where we might find a beer? Great feeling!
From Estepona, we followed the coast awhile…(Gibraltar ever-present in the distance!)
…until Google took us high into the hills…onto some really quite difficult tracks!
I sometimes wonder if we really need mountain bikes for our journeys…but today was a good example to confirm that yes we do…for no road bike could manage it!
I found it tricky in parts…and for the first time in a long time…I fell off! Thankfully with a soft landing in a bush….but less thankfully to discover the bush was a thistle bush. so I spent the next few hours pulling thorns out of everywhere!
At our first stop…Iain casually asked if I had his passport. When the answer was in the negative…a minor panic ensued…and bags were emptied increasingly frenetically.
I had a peak in his backpack and there it was. Maybe a Dad’s look is better than a boy’s look after all!
Once off the hill it was an easy run down to the port at Algeciras. Easy provided you are relaxed riding on a full-blown motorway!!
I had actually ridden this before…and it is permitted…for the motorway crosses two rivers…and the detour is around 25km to the next one! A bit unnerving though!
Only 20 minutes to wait for our (unbooked) ferry…..
…and then farewell to Europe….and to the UK(!!) and the anachronistic Gibraltar. What a weird rock…and all it stands for!
Only an hour across to Ceuta…and 15 minutes ride to the border….
We had a long wait…after being put in the motorbike line…of which there were lots!
An 30km easy ride along the coast….on a fantastic road…with bike lane the whole way! All good…except it remains cool…and it even started to spot with rain! Africa? Yeah right!!
So to Mmmmmm.Diq!
Where we purchased SIM cards…
…..extracted cash (NB the post office bank is the only bank for fee-less withdrawals in Morocco!)…& found our apartment. A bizarrely lovely apartment in a complex which is otherwise all but derelict!
And so to beers! Our lovely hostess pointed is to Crocodillos…one of two places here to serve beer….
…but you have to drink inside…with shutters closed…for you are not to be seen to be drinking! You can smoke inside too…so we have the odd feeling of drinking and smoking inside…whilst the non-drinkers and non-smokers sit outside! A fine place!
Those are some VERY severely trimmed palm trees!