crossing from Spain to Northern Africa
Mediterranean Ferry Algeciras to Ceuta
planned for Friday 20th December - achieved Tuesday 24th....

Rallye mail

.....Ceuta - Timimoun (Northern Sahara) planned for 24th, 26th & 27th December

.... the Rallye Sud 'Road to Morocco'

Establishing reporting facilities in North Africa proved to be a more challenging job than anticipated due to the HQ team being blocked in the 'Royal Staines Shoppers World' multilevel car park by several regiments of Christmas shoppers.

Sadly this meant that the 'Off' was not transmitted and the Rally teams missed the ferry. (OOpps). Luckily there was enough space on the Santa Speciale Ferry arriving COD (crack of dawn) on Tuesday 24th December.

Tuesday: Ceuta -(coastal road) - Tangier (42km) - (coastal road)

Ceuta
We arrived at the port of Ceuta which is one of the last Spanish outposts in North Africa and crossed the border into ....

Morocco
Morocco was populated by the Berbers centuries ago. It is twice the size of the UK with half the population. It is a mixture of eastern and western cultures with many interesting sites to see. We followed the coastal road, leaving the Mediterranean for the Atlantic, to ...

Tangier
Tangier is a bustling cosmopolitan city that has retained some of the seamy atmosphere for which it became well known. Sadly there isn't time to stop and we continue on following the coastal road to ....

Rabat
Rabat has been the capital city of Morocco since the days of the French occupation. It is mixture of the old and the new, with many bars and cafeterias in the centre of the town.

Rabat (225km) [Elevenses]

Rabat (coastal road) - Casablanca (105km) [Lunch where Bogart was shot] Casablanca Casablanca is Morocco's largest city. It is a modern centre for industry and hardly recognisable as the place portrayed in the 1942 film.

The teams meet for a group photo before enjoying Christmas Eve drinks and camelerised delicacies in Marrakech (225km).

The stage was won by Philip Nierop. Philip's attachment to his helmet paying dividends by filtering the sand blown by the costal breeze and keeping his head shaded from the stronger sun than we have been used to. This win, the first in Africa, put Philip (team 10) at the top of the Rallye Sud Leaderboard.

Second was Roy (of the Rovers) Rogers who's Beachcomber was in its element although Roy now has a bootfull of driftwood, shells and whelks which have given him trouble with a limp.
Third Mick 'Hoots' Thompson who has been saving himself for the tough bits and is looking forward to the McAtlas Mountain range and indeed a spot of 'Hogmany'.