Hello Afrika... no 🙃🙄

After an almost sleepless night in the port of Algeciras, we start looking for our gate at half past five in the morning. We see countless vehicles with their roofs packed full of goods that they want to transport to Africa. There are already a lot of Africans around us and we only hear Arabic.

We stand at the gate between cars and mobile homes for an hour and a half. There are countless huge trucks next to us. When the ferry arrives and unloads countless vehicles, loading begins. Truck after truck is backed onto the ferry. This gets fuller and fuller and eventually there will be no more room! We compete in amazement with the others waiting as the ferry leaves. And without us! Perplexity is spreading and no information can be found anywhere. When the next ferry docks an hour later, the same thing actually happens again. Everyone's nerves are starting to fray and disgruntled shouts and honking can be heard from all corners. But at some point it will happen. We are allowed to drive off...and are guided past the ferry! To the next gate where we are 'allowed' to stand at the back of the line again. Slight disbelief spreads.

But at some point, 4 hours and a few nerve cells poorer, we too are allowed to go on a ferry. Joy spreads...but not for long! The dogs have to stay in the car, which isn't a problem because the crossing only takes an hour. Once on the ferry, we have to fill out customs documents and the drama begins. We have all the documents for the dogs together but when the customs officer sees my passport, he basically sees red. A dog (not ours) bit into the middle empty leaves 5 years ago and plucked a piece out. So far this hasn't been a problem, and Spanish customs weren't interested either. But the Moroccan police were beside themselves. Entry denied and ban on leaving the ferry! So we watched in Tangier, almost fainting, as everyone left the ferry except us. We stand on the railing in disbelief and watch, rather speechless, as all the holidaymakers happily drive into Morocco. We then waited another hour and a half until the ferry was loaded again and we headed back to mainland Spain. It was now 2 p.m. and our dogs had been alone in the truck for 8 hours. When we got our passports back on the way back, we were all pretty nervous. First go to the beach in Algeciras, let the dogs out and take a deep breath. Then just do not! Spain here we are again.