Just over an hour from Dubai, Ras Al Khamiah offers a more laid-back – and affordable – alternative to its glamorous neighbour. Among the luxury hotels and fine dining, Tamara Davison discovers a wealth of cultural heritage sites and nature-centric experiences
The Assalama, the last ferry to ply the route, remains beached
Credit: Alamy
A new ferry route that connects continents? It sounds a grand idea, all broad horizons and open water, even before you get to the caveat that it would only be a continental connection in geo-political terms – linking Africa to a set of islands caught in its shadow.
Even then, it seems a vision wholly at odds with the unhappy path 2020 has followed, where the trend has been for travel restrictions, closed borders and cancelled flights. But if murmurs emanating from North Africa prove to be accurate, we could soon see boats ploughing a furrow across what is currently one of the world s least-served stretches of ocean – the narrow patch of the Atlantic which divides Morocco from the Canary Islands.