Day 2: Madrid - Tangier - Chefchaouen

Despite the full stomachs the night before, the Spanish breakfast of doughnuts and various flavoured dips is too tempting to resist.

At Tangier, our first worries are about the chaotic immigration procedures and uncontrollable taxi drivers fighting for our custom. Needless worries as it turns out. A short form to fill in which takes a few minutes, a short queue, an efficient, friendly passport check and we are through. Outside, a queue of taxis waits quietly for custom and nobody approaches us except for our pre-arranged driver. Morocco isn't quite what we had expected and the careful, slow driving of everyone on the roads is also a pleasant surprise.

Our driver stops to buy us delicious figs and the views of the Rif Mountains and shepherds looking after flocks by the roadside make the two hour journey pass quickly.

Marie and Vinoth of the Usha Guest House are waiting to greet us and take us to our rooms. Nothing luxurious and a little bit chilly and damp in the wintry weather but we have a heater and a hot water bottle. We will survive.

Iza and I take a quick stroll through the attractive, painted alleyways as far as the main square. Expecting hassle, we avoid making eye contact but no-one is interested in us. One man in the square asks if we want something 'good' but quickly disappears when we decline the offer. As darkness falls, we return to the hostel through deserted lanes, with the silhouettes of the mountains behind the town looming over the tops of the buildings.

Back at the hostel, we have our first experience of Moroccan portions - a huge joint of delicious, but impossible to finish, lamb and we go to bed reflecting on all the many travellers' warnings about Morocco, none of which seem to have any basis in reality.