You have to arrive in Tangier by sea. Standing on deck, picking out the whitewashed walls of its ancient medina, the hilltop kasbah and beach-fronted corniche, is a thrilling finale to the most exotic short sea crossing there is.

I’m used to ferry journeys ending in the low-slung ports of northern France. This is something else.

The evening sky flames tangerine (the mini oranges first came to Europe from here), the city lights flicker across the smoky hills, and I breathe in the warm, scented air of North Africa.

Every day, dozens of fast ferries rush from Spain to Tangier in just over half an hour, creating a tangle of white wakes across the Strait of Gibraltar. They have little or no deck space, though, so I’d recommend you ditch the speedy upstarts and take a stately old ferry instead - such as EuroFerrys’s Atlantica.

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It’s an 8,000-ton tub that steams from Algeciras to Tangier in a delicious two and a half hours.

The port of Algeciras makes Gibraltar look glamorous. It’s a new city, built for Spain’s southern sea freight and unlovingly planted with a container port, an oversized passenger terminal and garishly coloured blocks of flats. But it is an easy 30-minute bus ride from Gib’s low-cost flights, and minutes after buying my ferry ticket, I was through the port’s vast marble halls and glass-tubed jetties and aboard the Atlantica.

The decor was a tad Travelodge but there were plenty of seats, a bar and a patisserie.

Soon enough, with a chilled Moroccan beer in hand, I was sitting on deck, watching the rock of Gibraltar slide by.

This thorn in Spain’s side is mirrored almost exactly by Spain’s own niggle point with Morocco, an enclave due south of Gib called Ceuta. Their rock is only half as high as ours, but, between them, the two crags constitute the Pillars of Hercules, left by the mythical muscleman when he cleaved a channel between the Med and the Atlantic en route to his next task.

Nearby, Europe and Africa pinch the strait to just eight miles across, creating a bottleneck that keeps the Med tideless.

Out in the centre of the strait, the Atlantica made a cumbrous right turn and joined a busy shipping lane, where she was bullied into steaming west by a Korean container vessel and a metal-grey warship, both slicing their way more swiftly towards the Atlantic.

Off to the south, Morocco’s Rif Mountains rose semi-sheer out of the strait, to almost 3,000ft, haloed by black clouds around the peaks.

On deck, behind the big, black funnel, I sat on a bench then lay down to doze in the milky sun of winter, until a sonorous blast from the ship’s horn woke me . . .

I rush forward. Tangier is taking shape on the horizon. After a couple of attempts, the ferry docks — missing the passenger steps. The crew shepherd us to the lorry deck, and we walk onto African soil to the growl of diesel engines and the chatter of agitated port officials. It feels like another world.

From the taxi window I see packed shisha cafes, men wearing jellabas and everywhere the streets full of families and young people, having fun and promenading.

The taxi speeds up the hill, along a boulevard and past a terrace with cannons and cafes overlooking the harbour, before pulling up sharply at the doorway of the El Minzah Hotel. A fez-wearing doorman ushers me inside.

The fourth Marquis of Bute built this grand old hotel in 1930, during Tangier’s glamour days. After a cocktail in the red-draped piano bar, I walk across the moonlit courtyard, where another doorman in calf-length baggy breeches opens another door, to the best restaurant in town. White-robed musicians play on traditional Berber instruments, my meal of grilled sardines and lamb tagine is delicious, and a green-veiled belly dancer gyrates discreetly in the distance.

I’m not in Algeciras any more.

Travel details: there are more than a dozen ferry crossings to Tangier a day from Algeciras, Tarifa and Gibraltar. The EuroFerrys (www.euroferrys.com) crossing from Algeciras costs £28; or try FRS (www.frs.es) or Direct Ferries (www.directferries.co.uk). Buses to Algeciras leave La Linea (a 10-minute walk from Gibraltar airport) every 15 minutes and cost £1.40. Fly to Gibraltar with EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) or Monarch (www.fly monarch.com). The El Minzah Hotel (www.elminzah.com) has doubles from £109.

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