Arrival in Tangier

After spending a cold night in an olive grove in countryside north of Seville, we got up in the dark. Malvena, unable to function without a caffeine fix, prepared a caffetiere of coffee. I was the only one brave/stupid enough to endure a shower courtesy of warm water poured out of a plastic bottle on to one,s body parts. Once back on the road, the wind got up to gale force so much so that when we reached Tarifa the ferry to Tangier had been cancelled owing to the rough seas necessitating that we go to Algeciras where the ferries are bigger. Chaos ensued. Some had been cancelled and a huge number of cars and lorries were forced on to the 4pm sailing. Drivers faced bottleneck after bottleneck with horns blaring and arguments flaring. It took 3 hours to board and once on we had to queue for an hour to have our immigration cards stamped. The ferry left at 1930 and we arrived in the dark. By the time we had sorted the car insurance it was nearly 10 o'clock, and since the wind was still howling we sought shelter at a hotel in Tangier township. The following day we drove to Rabat where we needed too apply for visas for Mauritania and Mail. Again, we arrived at night, couldn't find a campsite and again booked into a cheap but very nice hotel where the beer and wine was a welcome respite from the days exertions. We're following closely any news of dangers lurking in Mauritania and Mali. We've agreed to make informed decision based on intelligence from people we met who have been travelling through the area of our intended route. While our natural inclinations are to push on, we don,t intend being foolhardy. Discussions with people at the Malian embassy today were very positive and we will travel through Western Sahara collecting information on the way. We'll make a final decision, therefore, on the viability of this trip at the Mauritanisn border. In the meantime, we've decided that if the for runs out and things get really bad, we will eat Ben since he has more meat on him than the three of us put together.