15 – magnificent encounter and peace after the storm

Discovering Tlemcen, Algeria

We went to Tlemcen by train, yes! leaving from that amazing train station. Tlemcen’s train station wasn’t as spectacular but we discovered soon that the city was!

Looking for the centre, the tourist information and the grande mosque, a nice and helpful man called Asbate approached us to help. The next day, at the time we had arranged to visit the mosque. And guess what: he was there again to make sure everything was fine!… Finally it wasn’t possible to visit the mosque. Instead, Asbate, being very eager to make our stay comfortable and unforgettable, took us around all day to see some wonderful historical buildings and places and invited us for lunch and to his house. What a rich experience. We also had the privilege to pick up his children from school 😊.

We gave him a break for a couple of hours when we went up the hill in a cable car for a beautiful view and joined him again afterwards. In the meantime, he had organized a car and he and a friend of his took us to the Tlemcen national park with a waterfall as well as caves up a mountain. Thanks to Asbate, Oliver even saw the grande mosque during the praying at the end of the day. As you see, the two days in Tlemcen were packed with sightseeing and we were quite tired on our way back to the boat!

Back in Oran…

… we had a shopping day, a boat day in the rain and a long taxi drive to see the coast with hotel complexes and basically stunning beaches. But waste is, as it was in Tunisia as well, a huge, unsettled problem… and it destroys a lot of the beautiful sceneries. Due to the rain and wind situation, we left Oran only a few days later.

Gentil departure

Our next stop was the Habibas Islands, uninhabited but densely scattered with seagulls. A few fishermen gave us a warm welcome and despite the only 16°C water temperature we had a snorkelling session! Having been in Oran for quite a long time, we loved the peace when anchored in a lonely bay.

We were going to exit the country (meaning dealing with the paperwork, passport stamps,…) in the last official port of entry near the Moroccan border, called Beni Saf, but went into another fishing harbour first to spend the night protected from the wind and swell. Luckily, because we were able to do the paperwork in an uncomplicated, rather quick way there and they informed us that we wouldn’t have been able to enter Beni Saf, as the entrance was silted up! As quite often in north African countries.

Our sail to the Spanish exclave Melilla was extremely relaxing: nice, steady, but not too strong, mainly back winds took us all the way across the large bay between Cabo Falcon and Cabo Tres Forcas, in 20 hours.