Day 65 – Algeciras

Up early this morning in preparation for the run up to the port. Serviced the van, breakfasted, showered and said our good byes all by 9am. Then it was the two hours drive to the boat and fill with fuel on the way. 30km from Tangier med we pulled into the motorway services to fill with diesel. Thought I would use my credit card…. No credit cards here we were told. I had to borrow some cash from Terry… fortunately he had more than enough and was hoping to change some dirhams back to euros. Arrived at the toll and we just about had enough. Left with around 40 dirhams (£3) to hang on to if we return next year.

Arrived at the port and went through the police check, customs etc with no real issue. The portable x-ray machine was not working. Got to the dock side at around midday and the boat was already there. We left the dock just after 1pm. Much better than we had expected.

Our next hurdle was getting through the Spanish authorities. No problem here either … just a cursory look at our passports. There was no recognition that we had the ‘boys’ and so we did not need to present the pet passports. Next stop was gas. Short drive up the motorway and filled with 23 litres of gas…. much less than I had expected. We have either been more frugal or the bottles didn’t fill completely. No matter the gas did survive the time we had been in Morocco.

Now it was time to go back to Lidl where it had started some seven or so weeks earlier. Shopping done we were now looking for a restaurant to enjoy a meal together. Nothing open so we settled for McDonalds. Not what we hoped but hey ho we did eat and chat together.

Our final evening together before we say good bye tomorrow until we see them again in just over a months time. Its going to be hard as we have been with Terry & Brenda since 2nd January but we know that we need to go east whilst they are likely to head into Portugal.

We will do it again I feel sure. We have thoroughly enjoyed their company and the whole experience has been a delight. Cant wait now until we start to plan next year…..

Tomorrow we have a full day of driving ahead of us as we try to get across to the Alicante area of Spain before pushing on over the following 2 days to France. We plan to leave at around 9am so an early start is required and early to bed is a must. Until tomorrow ….