Away by 9.00 and Brendan and Rachel dropped us all off at the ferry terminal. They had another group starting the same trip that same night. Full-on seven weeks in a row, seven days in a row and no-one I think envious of the job they did. As I write this in my diary, they will already have been to Chefchaoun and have hiked in the Rif mountains all day today.
Only just manages to make it off the truck, into the port and onto the boat with all our extra bags. The group was saved by a man offered to load 19 backpacker's worth of bags, averaging 30-40 kg's each, plus all out additional bags, onto his manually-pulled trolley and lug it, in the 30C temp, the 300m or so to the port. This guy must have towed 300kg or more, wearing an ill-fitting suit, tie and shoes along with it! Talk about a hard-warker. I vow the whole way there to get rid of my beloved red nail polish and all other unnecessary accessories. (Seven years in tokyo can do that to a girl). Sorry Carolyn! I slippe d it back in when you weren't looking..
Peaceful boat trip back to Spain; all of us thinking only of hot showers and a bed for the night. Rachael passed around baby wipes and we realise that the 'tans' we thought we had gotten was really just dirt. Honestly we had turned a different colour! FActions united at different restaurants around the boat. All of secretly glad to be rid of the others I think.
Racheal and I fumbled our way around the port town of Algeciras, finally locating the correct bus stop and bought tickets to the port town of Tarifa, the next pick-up point for Bus-about.
We arrived around 5pm (lost two hours so Spanish time) and found were all out of luck finding a hostel.
Tarifa is a pleasant town on the very tip of the southern Spanish coast , famous as the windsurfing capital of the world and was completely packed out with windsurfers. Racheal and I persisted, trying about six or seven different places, and eventually found the last remaining room to be had in the town. A single room in which they put a mattress on the floor for us. No space to put our packs and a shared bathroom along the corridor. We secured it just seconds before a couple were turned away. But after a week of smelly camping and disgusting tents, this was five-star luxury!
Straight into HOT showers and out for a bite to eat before colapsing into bed at 10pm.
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