Almost in Algeria

So it's been a fun weekend out on the town (the port with five bars) with Alberto and Annalisa. Walking home from a night out with my feet dipping in the sea was definitely an experience I want to relive some time soon - priceless!

Friday was spent in bed, as was Saturday and on Sunday, when I pulled myself out of bed at a very difficult 2.30pm, Alberto was in the living room waiting for me to wake up so we could go to Morocco as planned. Why on Earth he didn't understand that it was off the cards was beyond me but it turned out to be a beauty day!

Brain and his friend were already heading there so I had a prompt 6 minutes to get freshened up (really?!) and get downstairs where they were all waiting for me.
We all rode in Alberto's Discovery for a good hour or so. We passed long, long roads with red soil as high as buildings around us. It really felt like we were heading deep into the country. Every now and again we'd see a random person. We saw a boy on a donkey and we pulled over so I could take a picture but the boy ran away... The guys said it's probably because he'd stolen the donkey...!

We found a beautiful restaurant on a cliff overlooking the beautiful beaches of Morocco in booming sunshine in the province of Saidia, just a little more East than Oued Moulouya. Unfortunately my camera is playing up and decided not to work which I was pretty gutted about... But you can see where I was on a map - almost in Algeria!!!

(Argh - I've tried to insert an image through an URL, through a screen print, through sending myself the image - it won't work - Pod1ers - help?....) Just search Saidia/Oued Moulouya in Google Maps otherwise!

We headed back after a nice meal at a different restaurant (it was only fish and the waiter wasn't very attentive so we moved on from the other one) and hit the beach somewhere near Ras El Ma.
This was when the Discovery came into play. Switch into GI Joe mode (4 wheel?!), belt up and we were skidding across the beautiful sands of Morocco. (My stomach/head/whole life was feeling a bit more stable after having had something to eat to settle my jelly belly of alcohol!)

We took a few photos on the beach and I hope the guys don't mind that I'm showing everyone that reads my blog these photos of them... Alberto up front with Brain and his friend Maria del Mar at the back.

 

We headed back towards the border crossing through Ras El Ma's harbour, where all the fishermen were finishing up for the day. They had big fishing nets laid out across the ground, presumably emptying their day's work.

We headed up to the tall brick wall that looked down over the sea under a cute little lighthouse and saw some more fisherman and three pretty renowned islands amongst the Melillenses.

The Moroccans call the islands 'Les Iles Zaffarines' - in French, what with it being one of the official languages of Morocco. The left island isn't lived on and I think it's Moroccan, as is the right, but the middle one is Spanish (Chafarinas). It's used as a military camp (have I mentioned the massive military presence here?! There's a military camp on every corner - another thing that I have personally deemed unecessary!) and it just so happened that Alberto had some binoculars in his car so we got them out and had a look like proper tourists!

I clearly couldn't take a picture through the binoculars but if interested perhaps Google Earth it? Seeing corners of the world I didn't even know existed.

We headed further back down the windy, lonely roads with the sun screaming fire. We all agreed that the sun in Africa seems like a different one from that of Europe. It really roars and it feels like we're so much closer to it here... Random, I know!

Too much?! Hope you get the point!

Then we headed back to see our favourite monkey in Morocco - Zizo! Unfortunately he's not making another appearance in this blog today - he was boring. I swear the barmen had given him sedatives!

We had a coffee and headed back to the border which seemed to have been transferred into a different world. The boy that hassled Brain last time was nothing compared to this. There was a queue of cars (it was about 8pmish which is when Maria del Mar told me it gets busy) and the fact that it was Sunday seemed to make it worse. There was a big swarm of people individually dotting in between cars, knocking on our windows and talking in through the open bits. My crowd seemed to deal with it pretty well, with Brain chatting away in Arabic to leave us alone and warning them that Alberto is a Civil Guard. I couldn't do anything but look into the centre of the car so as not to look at them in the eye. (We get a fair few beggars around Melilla that approach you when you're in cafes and I've been told it's best to just ignore them. It seems so rude to be so ignorant but if you look at them, or even speak to them then they hassle you for a good fifteen minutes.) These beggars at the border were worrying though. They felt so close, but in a locked car they can't really do anything to us I suppose. They're not violent and don't go around kicking the cars or shouting, as they could. It's all quite sad, really.

Anyway, headed home and went to bed, incredibly glad that I had been dragged out from an evil hangover!