From Rabat to Granada

From Rabat to Tangier it was about a 5 hour trip with no changes of train, arriving about 1 pm. Then came the saga of getting a taxi from the train station to the port. Of course a tout approached me and said 50 dirhams to the port in a Grand Taxi but I told him I wanted a petit taxi so I joined all the locals out on the street corner in front of the station. No lines or order of any form here, but instead it is all for oneself. Some taxis that already have one passenger in stop to see if anyone else is going in the same direction. Eventually I got one on my own to the port and the driver gave me a guided tour of Tangier (in French) as we drove along - the Grand Socco is up there, the Kasbah there and that is the Hotel Continental . . . . . . And most surprising of all is that I understood most of what he was saying! On arrival at the port I gave him 20 dirhams, which was how much I wanted to pay and since he was busy negotiating with a couple of potential passengers he only looked when I put in in his hand and didn’t argue!

A simple task to get the ticket - I got a return one for 760 dirham as that got a 10% discount. Then through immigration to line up next to the ferry to get on. While waiting I meth this American guy, who had also got on the train in Rabat, and talked to him while on the ferry trip. He is a post graduate student who had been awarded a fellowship to come to Morocco for one month and study Arabic, while the weekends were spend sightseeing around Morocco - the desert, Fes, Marrakesh etc. leaving about 2.15, the ferry crossing was smooth with blue seas and blue skies but because of the one hour time change it arrived in Tarifa at almost 4. It is theoretically a 35 min crossing.

I spent the night in Tarifa staying at Hotel/Pension Focunda where I got a room for 30 euros walking in off the street, which was cheaper than normal price. My room had an attached bathroom but most in the hotel had shared facilities. It had a very central location. I couldn’t believe how touristy Tarifa now is, but it is probably 3 years since I last passed through there. Every third shop seems to be a kite surfing shop offering lessons and gear. Plus lots of cafes and other shops but the town has a nice relaxing feel about it and the old part is fun to explore.

Leaving Tarifa early next morning, I caught the 8 am public bus to Algeciras, then a 12 noon train from there to Granada. The bus trip from Tarifa only took about 30 min, past the wind turbines and even through the clouds for a short while. I had a wander around Algeciras as had plenty of time - the port there is huge!!

The train trip to Granada took 4.5 hours and can be divided into two halves: the first half to Ronda and the second half to Granada. Most of the first half involved winding through the mountains, through at least 10 tunnels, past flowing mountain streams bordered by baby pink and crimson flowering oleander, through villages with two storey white-washed houses with tiled roofs and stopping at small stations where there buildings were always white with mustard trim.

Every station was clearly signposted and sometimes we had to wait for another train, with names such as Gaucin, Cortes de la Frontera, Jimera de Libar and Benaojan. There was a couple of structures we travelled over that I would call a cross between a tunnel and a bridge - closed in on one side and the roof, the other side was semi-open with archhways looking out across the scenery. We past a few cork trees, where all the lower bark had been removed (to make cork) revealing a dark tan layer underneath unlike the rough grey bark above. There were also many gum trees, some with pale yellow flowers. A very scenic section of the trip.

Ronda I had visited previously, a lovely white village but the train takes about 30 minutes to wind up to the plateau on which Ronda is found. Leaving Ronda and almost all the way to Granada, the rolling hills were home to thousands of olive trees: olives in rows, olives in grids, single olive trees, clumps of three olive trees, recently planted olive trees - they just went on and on. Now I can see why the production of olive oill is such a big industry for Spain. Mind you in the stony, dry, sandy soil I am not sure they could grow anything else anyway!

After a very pleasant train trip, I finally arrived in Granada where the next saga was to find the hotel I had booked. That is an another story The train was very comfortable, air-conditioned, fast but no food or drink was available on the train. A highly recommended train trip and it cost just under 20 euros.