Whiskey Jack Adventures: Ceuta, Spain

After his tip-over yesterday, Tom elected not to ride today. He is on some painkillers to control the chest bruise he sustained from the handlebar. Other than a bit sore he is doing OK.

Morning traffic chaos getting out of Rabat was pronounced. But as we left the hotel and entered the roundabout the local police stopped the traffic so we could all get fully around and on our way without being separated. It wasn’t long before we were on the “autobahn” (freeway). It almost made us feel like we were out of Morocco with good pavement and straight roads and a 120kph speed limit. We actually used the cruise control! After a quick hour and a half and three toll booths we stopped for coffee/mint tea.

It seems like we have now reached the end of places where children are approaching the bikes enthusiastically. Yesterday one young fellow just kept hanging around until Norma gave him a hacky sack and a pen. He went away smiling. We still have a bag full of stuff so will leave it with the guides for their next tour.

The tour would normally stop in the big city of Tanger but after a discussion last evening we all agreed we would rather not so we stopped in Assilah, a pretty seaside port for a visit to a lovely medina and lunch. We were treated to some very good seafood, shrimp, calamari, etc. and of course more olives! There is good surfing in the area so we saw a few motorhomes camped there.

The medina was so calm and civilized compared with the previous ones we has visited. No one badgering us to buy, just everyone happy to show us their wares. Having said that we were badgered by men at the harbour where we parked the bikes. “Very good coral necklace, my wife make, will bring you luck, she be mad if I don’t bring home the money!” The last part of the ride was along the ocean and eventually into the Rif Mountains. We had been warned it might be windy and it was. Everyone battled the wind but at least it was relatively short lived. This section was also complicated by a lot of road construction so it was hard to trust the pavement.

The next challenge was the border crossing back into the African Spanish enclave of Cueta. Patience was the key word. It took almost two hours to get through with four separate areas where they checked our passports and bike papers. Along the way getting to the border there are hundreds of people with their belongings waiting for a chance to get out of Morocco/Africa. The border guards do a thorough check of vehicles, apparently looking for hollowed out areas where someone can hide. We watched the car in front of us get taken apart. Too bad we couldn’t have videoed it but apparently that is a good way to lose your camera.

We now find ourselves with one more day on the tour, a return trip to Malaga through Spain after we catch the 9 am ferry to the Spanish mainland.