M’Hamed and Rafiq

There was no rush this morning so we had a late breakfast around 9. Today there was cold coffee, yogurt and pain au chocolat.

We had a pleasant chat with the Aussie racist, Stephanie the US graphic designer, and Chris the travel writer before saying goodbye to Rafiq our lovely driver. He was driving back to Algiers in a oner, thinking it would be 13 hours. I hope he has plenty of the sweet pastries he likes to keep him going.

The airport was interesting. Bags were scanned on entering the building and again at security and once we’d had several passport and boarding card checks we went onto the tarmac to identify our hold luggage before it was put on the cart. Our seat numbers were irrelevant - the crew decided where we’d sit on the 60 seater plane for the 2 .5 hour flight to Algiers. Because it was a turbo prop our flight from London to Algiers was quicker.

We are in the same hotel in Algiers as before with a nice view to the Mediterranean. We met Janine the Aussie conservationist for a drink. She’d ordered white wine which was gopping so we had a gin and tonic, about £7. We met the others in the foyer to gather the money together for a tip for M’Hamed. The suggestion was €50 each so Mr C and I managed that with £, € and dinar. The Aussie racist was whinging because Janine had given $20 and Mr Knowall suggested we all give individually. In the end it all went on one envelope and Chris made an appropriate speech after dinner. (The food was a buffet - lots of raw veg for starters and dried up tuna and over-cooked broccoli for us for main).

Everyone is going their separate ways tomorrow. Janine to Brussels then Iceland, Stephanie to New York via Paris and Veronica goes with M’Hamed to Oran for 3 days. The rest of us go to Gatwick late in the evening.