Algeciras 24th October

October 24^th

We stayed the night uninterrupted by anyone, but the rain woke us at various times throughout the night clattering on the roof. Otherwise all was very peaceful until about 7 a.m. when there was a gentle hum of work from the port.

By morning (it really isn’t getting properly light until nearly nine this far south and with the dark clouds that have dogged us since Jo left), the weather had completely packed in with strong wind and driving rain, and only 14 degrees, so Di and Hilary stayed in the truck doing warm creative things while I ventured out to try to find a power source to recharge camera and computer and to find some bread for lunch and a few other chores. It was the sort of weather that turns umbrellas inside out, and there was evidence of just that happening to a few which had been cast off around the city. All the tourist books and sites (internet) suggest that Algeciras has no claim to fame other than as a port and ferry terminal  for the boats to Africa, there are a few interesting buildings, a very pretty square with interesting tiling, and …….. well to be honest that is about it, the tourist books are correct.
I walked around the town (I think the population is 200,000) but apart from dozens of cafes, shoe shops, banks and places selling tickets for the ferries there wasn’t much else. I found a McDonalds (of course) and was hopeful of doing some time on the internet and recharging but it didn’t open until 1130 so instead I headed down the street a little and stopped at a café to have a coffee and recharge my batteries (both mine and the electric type) a little, but after about half an hour the power to my charger mysteriously went off, so I left there  and meandered back to the McDonalds as it was now 1130. I managed to spend about an hour there, with chargers plugged in sapping their electricity but the free Wifi wouldn’t connect due to a low signal, so instead I sat by an upstairs window facing Mecca I guess and the dongle worked intermittently, so I played for a while but it was so slow my patience ran out after about half an hour. I returned to the truck, via a supermarket where I picked up a loaf of bread for 39 cents, feet drenched and a bit chilly.

hard to tell but beautiful tiling

While we ate, the weather cleared a little, well the rain stopped anyway, so after lunch we all went for a little amble to stretch our legs and get some fresh air. We walked along the waterfront a little (more a wharf/port at this point) and discovered that this area of town was quite seedy and full of desperate looking, predominantly African people, trying to sell their wares which were mainly ferry  tickets to Tangiers or stalls of handbags or sunglasses (not much need for them today) me thinks.

The Square

Going past our window

Balls from the dig area around the old walls

We headed back to the truck, Hilary and I fed the fish in the harbour with stale bread while Di cooked dinner. We sat in our truck enjoying the evening with lights reflected on the water 50 feet away, and small fishing boats chugging past on their way out to sea, before settling in for our second night.