6 August 2006: The last day was not so boring, so today we feel very refreshed. For this we decided to change our plan to stay in Ronda and travel all the way to Algeciras port, which is located 300km away from Cordoba. We believe that by this way we will be early in the morning to Morocco so as to have all day in front of us to in so as to reach at the town of Fes.
So we depart traveling to Sevilla and the national road NIV. Having traveled less than 20km we turn for Lucena following the country road N331. The road is easy to drive on with easy turnings. Reaching at Lucena we drive on a new part or the road wider and without turnings. As we reach the southern part of the country we meet fewer floras. We keep driving at N331, having passed Lucena, towards Antequera and after 45km we meet the national road A92 where we drive on it for 3kms for Sevilla. We leave A92 and we take the country road 382 until the Campillos village and then we take the 357 road to Ronda –Alora. The flora is fewer here and the scene is dry and looks like a preview of Morocco. Few km later we find a lake and the node for Teda and Ronda. We follow the secondary country road 367 for few km. This road is narrow, with no lines to separate the two flows and in a very bad condition. However, after the first village that we met its condition change and we drive without problems.
Early in the noon we reach the beautiful and graphical town of Ronda. We happen to know its existence from a tourist guide where we saw a magnificent photo which pictured the town’s main sight, a very high stone-made bridge. We park our motorcycles and we go to the main information kiosk of the town for information and a map. We took our information about the city’s sights and a map and we start our wandering. The town of Ronda is known for its two sights, the high stone-made bridge which connects 2 parts of the town and its arena. We start our wandering from the bridge and the alleys around it. We stopped for a drink since it is too hot. After a long time wandering we went where we parked our motorcycles and where also arena is located. Until now we did not had the change to see bullfighting so we decide to see the interior of the arena. We buy a ticket for 5euros/person and we visit the stables of the horses, of the bulls and of the bullfighters. We visit also the museum which has information about the history of bullfighting- which goes back to ancient Crete-, photographic material and costumes and accessory of the bullfighters. Really interesting!
Late afternoon we leave Ronda traveling towards Algeciras port on the country road 369. The route passes through mountains with panoramic view! The road condition is good, but we face a problem with benzene. We did not full our motorcycles in Ronda so we were about to run out of fuel. Likely for us, we found a gas station at the Gaucin village. We took the change to stop also for a coffee to a cafe with panoramic view. From there and on, the road becomes narrow with more turnings until we reach E15 which leads to Algeciras port.
Driving on E15 and being far 10kms from the port we meet the first Arabic signs. As we enter the town we follow the signs to port where we reach in no time. There we find many tourist offices which sell tickets for Tangier and Ceuta and they are open although the time has passed. We took our tickets for Algeciras - Ceuta for 95euros/person and machine with open return. The ships depart every hour and the travel lasts 30-40min. Ceuta is a Spanish city although it is located in the African continent. After we had our tickets we start looking for a room and we find one after a lot of searching in the area at the Hostal Residencia Algeciras (Plaza General Marti Barroso, 4) for 40euros. The hostel belongs to a Moroccan person and the area looks like shady, but it is only 5min from the port. The positive things about the motel are that it is clean and you can park your motorcycle opposite the motel’s reception which is open all night.
In general the town and the port area give me a miserly impression. The most of the town’s citizens are Moroccans emigrants. The town does not have an important sight to see since it is only the passage from Spain to Morocco and nothing more. We unpack our luggage, while the owner’s children look to us with wonder and admiration. His little daughter pulls her father hand to put her on the machine and we make her the favour. We leave our stuff in the room and go out for a walk to the port to find an internet cafe to make a booking for a room in Fes town at Morocco in order to be sure that we will have a room tomorrow. After that and while we are in a pedestrians way parallel to the coastal road we find a bar with tapas. There were many people inside and took us 30min to find a table. However, the bar was great and it is the only remarkable thing that I saw in the town.
Our main subject of discussion is the tomorrow’s day. What are we going to meet? This waiting and my impatience for the unknown makes my residence boring in this town…