INTO AFRICA!

We're here!
We've made it out of Europe and into Africa!
1900 miles from home and we're in the Moroccan cafè we expected in our second post.

But first, some backdating.

We love Spain. The country and the people really appealled to us. Girona, Valencia and Granada each struck a chord in different ways and as always with travelling, it's the people you meet and notice that stand out.
-In Girona we had to load the bike at the side of a narrow cobbled street. Not a single horn was beeped, no complaints were heard from passer-bys; people simply manouevred around us with smiles.

-We got a bit lost in Valencia and asked directions from a guy filling his 1993 FIAT Uno.
It turned out that Lucas spent three summers in Donegal and loved it. He offered to lead us directly to the hostel and following a Spanish-style chase through the old beautiful marble streets and alleyways, he dropped us at the door with a wave.

- We struck gold in Marbella.
After a 6 year break we met Mike's old old friend Kevin and his friends Jose Luis, Andrew, Anna and Maria.
Jose Luis and Maria, so kindly, gave us free reign of their apartment. Saturday surprised us with torrential rain and thunder and it gave us the perfect excuse to spend an extra day and night chilling out, being taxied around, chatting and filling up on delicious home-cooked meals!
A1 hospitality Kev!
The night was rounded off with some embarrasing karaoke renditions of David Bowie and Queen. :^/

So finally we decided to leave the familiarity of Europe.
At 3pm the ferry left Algerciras for the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
I'd love to say we watched Gibraltar rock disappear into the distance but the crossing was extremely rough so all we saw was the floor we were lying on.

Despite being prepared for an onslaught of hassle and hustlers, the Moroccan border crossing was pretty straightforward and 30 mintues saw us officially cleared to enter...AFRICA!

So we're here in Tetouan, about 50 kms south. The driving so far has been as easy with nothing crazier than would be experienced in west Limerick
We've eaten proper Moroccan kebab, had a stroll in the medina and are ready to face our first full day in a new continent.

We're back to speaking French, we're back to the Irish time zone and should have no problems since Linda discovered she can unplug her intercom lead when she needs to sing.

A bientot!

PS. We can't upload any photos as there's no USB connection here.
PPS. Thanks to everyone for the comments on the blog!