It has been a long standing dream of mine to sail across the Straight of Gibraltar into Africa. While I cannot say the ferry is as exciting as a pirate boat, I can say it was equally rewarding to see the distant land of Morocco come into fruitition.
During this brief day trip I learned many things; that England owns this small section of the worlds largest trading port, that there are so many cave systems inside this massive rock, and that the Straight of Gibraltar was actually a land crossing at one point in time!
The morning started early with a 6am bus from Malaga to La Lina, which is a 2.5 hour bus to the border line. I have been navigating everywhere with offline maps that don’t always show up, and once again had to ask my way around once I landed. Luckily a lovely woman named Ellen overheard me asking this unhelpful couple, and we decided to pair up to find the border together. It didn’t take us long and we were both impressed with how simple and quick the crossing was. Not to mention interesting that you have to walk through an airplane runway.
Anyways we spent a good hour talking as we enter the city. I discover we have the same plans to get atop this large Rock and knew it was fate that we should meet. Ellen was also going through some recent life changes (happened in August as well!) and she has decided to give herself a year as well to sort things out. I swear it was like staring at an alternate version of myself in a future dimension. She was exactly 20years older than me and so many similarities. She is a well-known author from Oregon with so many great stories. Listening to her life was like peering into a familiar snow globe that reassured me I would still be searching for the same things should I have go down the same path.
The journey up the rock was very exciting. I’m so grateful Ellen talked me into renting e-bikes rather than hiking. I had a long day ahead of catching a bus to another city to another bus to a ferry, so time was not on my side. We had an intimate group of six and rode through the city, past all the taxis and people on foot. We covered around ten miles and got to see so many beautiful checkpoints, including many monkeys.
The clouds were slowly taking over the sky however you could still see the tip of Africa from across the sea, where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic. There was so much history behind this big rock, including an epic cave system dating all the way back to the Neanderthals. There was another cave specifically used in the Siege of Spain while England battling it out for this cute lil territory. I was not expecting this much of a history lesson on such a packed travel day.
We had lunch in the town square, where I got to devour my last fresh piece of seafood, and possibly last animal as I go more vegan in Africa. I eventually made it to the bus station where I would talk my way in Spanish onto a bus for free as a kind man named Diego let me board using his pass. My intention was to take a taxi but as we spoke more he kindly offered to pay for my trip since they did not accept credit cards for this bus. Sort of funny how I always imagined all the buses and ferries must come through this port to get to Morocco. Now I realize it must be a passive aggressive post war thing Spain must do to operate their boats out of their ports.
Once I got off the 45 minute bus in Algeciras, I had to walk over to the estacion martime to purchase a ferry ticket. Unfortunately this port didn’t go to the city port in Morocco and after a little prior research I knew I didn’t want to land at night in the further away port. So I bought to ticket out of the next town and used their free shuttle system to get to Tarifa, which was an hour and a half away.
The sun was setting as I entered the last Spanish town I would be in this trip, and I accepted that I would be entering the Moroccan town of Tangier in the dark. The ferry ride was only 1.5 hours and the time passed fairly quickly as I quickly stuff my face with more carbs. I would finally be in Africa soon, and it felt like the real trip would start.