Leaving Morocco:

From Assilah it was only a quick run up to the border with Spain. We took the motorways to make good time and found that we had made too good time! We were there much earlier than planned so headed south again on the Mediterranean coast to fill up with cheap Moroccan diesel. While Spain has cheaper fuel than the UK, Morocco is about half the price of Spain. At about 75 eurocents a litre or about 90 Oz cents, it's a price we can only dream of at home.

With a full tank, we prepared to hit the border. Although Ray had told us the simple steps and which paperwork to present to get through, this IS still Africa and experience tells us that anything could happen.

But all went well and we headed for the ferry port expecting to get the first ferry across. Wrong! The scheduled 2pm ferry simply failed to materialise - no notice, no explanations, no nothin' - and so we were left kicking our heels for another hour and a half which put us in Spain much later than we would have liked.

But dolphins played in the bow wave of the ferry during the journey, so there were some compensations after all.