Algiers botanical gardens

I had a bad night of pain so we had a late breakfast and chilled out till 11.30 when Karim came to pick up us, Know-All, Transmit only and Chris (who turns out to have won Travel Writer of 2024) for a wander in the Botanic Gardens. He hung about for an hour then I saw him speaking to reception who were phoning. I asked if we were waiting for someone else and he said Janine. I said I understood she wasn’t coming as we were going straight to the airport after the visit and she doesn’t leave till tomorrow. I’m glad we had the extra hour in the hotel as meandering round the garden was pretty painful.

Karim said he’d been unable to book anywhere for lunch owing to Eid so we could have a buffet in the hotel for 6,000 dinar each. (£35). None of us fancied that as we’d had it the previous night and it was basic. (Meals were part of the Wild Frontiers package till today). So we set off in a minibus to the gardens which were 32 acres, started in 19th century by the French and consisting mainly of avenues of different trees - yucca, bamboo etc, with a few statues.

We noticed a cafe was open so we had a tuna panini. 350 dinar each, about £2. In fact you could say it was a fish and chips butty as there were chips with the minimal tuna and mayo. Then we walked to what was called the French style garden. It had some water features surrounded by bedding plants. Every now and then we stopped for a seat as it was quite humid, though only 28. We could see on the hill the huge monument we visited last week along with the museum to the revolution.

Eventually we were led out to the bus and got to the airport. Karim refused a tip. We queued at bag drop off, passport control where we filled in exit cards while in the queue, and at security. Our gate was near a demented piano playing automatically.

The plane arrived in Algiers on time but the boarding process was very slow owing to the multitude of passport and boarding pass checks so we left about 40 minutes late, arriving at Gatwick at 11pm and eventually got checked it at Premier Inn at 10 to 12.

What a brilliant time we have had