22km – Entering Africa

Mmmmm, coffee. Anyone see a pattern in our mornings??There wasn’t so much cycling today, but lots of running around before we boarded the ferry for Africa. Not, of course, before a morning coffee and a tasty tortilla sandwich in one of Malaga’s cafes. Next it was off to a downtown bicycle shop, where we played a game of charades with the owner, trying to explain that we wanted to buy two spare chains for our bikes. At first he thought there was something wrong with our chains, and tried to repair them, but after quite a bit of pantomime and broken Spanish we finally got our message across. We aren’t sure if it is overkill taking spare chains with us but they don’t weigh much and if we are in the middle of nowhere when a chain breaks it would save a fair bit of walking! A last minute stop at an internet cafe and then it was off to the boat, where everything ran smoothly. We boarded along with the cars and had a pleasant, if long, journey across the Mediterranean. The ferry was extremely quiet and we wondered how they made any money on this route. Coming off the boat, we instantly felt that we were on a different continent, even if we are still in Spain. The streets were livlier late at night, and many people shouted greetings to us as we cycled past. We easily found the centre of Meillia,just a few minutes from the port, although hotels seemed scarce. We drove in circles for some time without seeing a single place offering rooms, before finally stumbling on two 3-star hotels across from one another.

Comments

  1. andrew
    21st January 2007 at 6:51 pm #

    Ferry: The ferry to Meillia goes every day, with a fast catamaran on Mondays. You can walk up and buy a ticket at any time, even on the day you want to travel. It cost us 33 euros each as foot passengers, with no extra cost for the bikes. Despite notes on the ferry company’s website saying you have to bag bikes, turn the handlebars and remove the pedals, no one was concerned with this when we boarded. We were able to ride our bikes onto the boat before securing them.

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