Sunday 8 March 2015

A cold night, not what we've been used to, before an early rise to say ta-ta to Colin & Tina. Then bacon and eggs for breakfast (at last – didn’t realise how much we’d missed them. Note to selves for next year….) before discovering that all the supermarkets were closed. Not to worry, so we pushed on west along the coast past Tarifa for our last glimpse of Morocco across the straits then north towards Cadiz.

We had been told about a free aire at the estuary town of Sanlucar de Barrameda, situated right in the town and next to the Rio Guadalquivir which runs up to Seville. Satnav and book disagreed so we chose the book, which took us through the town and to a quite large area designated for motorhome parking, capable of taking around 100 vans. It wasn't full so we chose a nice sunny spot and had lunch. There is water and waste facilities so this looks like a nice place to stop for a couple of days.

Later, as the heat went out of the sun, we took a walk along the promenade, along with hundreds of Spanish out for the evening with their wives/kids/boy/girl/friends. There is a long line of bars and restaurants, most of which were closed but we learned later that they were open at lunchtime – we might investigate later. Then back to Bertie for a late evening meal – with the clocks now an hour later we've got to get used to it being lighter later.

Promenade at Sanlucar de Barrameda

Beach - it's actually a river estuary but still nice and clean

Saturday 7 March 2015

Well today is when we cross back to Spain and as it’s a 2 hour run to the port an earlyish start was planned – and actually achieved. It’s motorway all the way so, in company with Ray and Mary, we took a steady drive north, stopping just once to fill up with the incredibly cheap fuel.

Approaching Tanger-Med

Waiting to board

Apart from completion of the building works, not a lot has changed since last year – you still have to go to the ticket office to check in and get boarding cards and the guy is still not very cheerful! A ship already waiting, we processed through Police and Customs checks quite quickly but no x-ray. Joined the line, but only had enough time to make some sarnis to take on board with us for lunch before we were loading. Same ship as inbound so we found a comfortable spot and settled in for a quite smooth crossing. And the ship even left on time!

Once across, whilst Colin and Tina managed to get away quickly, we got stuck behind three vehicles that were searched at every checkpoint, although no-one actually bothered with us. Then up to a fuel station to refill the almost empty gas bottles (we worked out that we used almost exactly what we were expecting so our careful planning paid off). Back down to Algeciras, we popped into Lidl for some European shopping before parking up in the car park outside Factory for the night.

As a farewell celebration with Colin and Tina we decided to go out for a meal. Terry went out and investigated a couple of restaurants across the main road, both closed, while Colin found a pizzeria just round the corner, which turned out to have just closed and the café only served coffee and cake – though it was very busy. Wanting more, we had a little wander but eventually resorted to that mainstay of all European cities – McDonalds! (It’s food, Jim, but not as we know it!)

A final get-together over a cup of hot chocolate (honest – although there was a little “something” in it) before an early night. They have a long way to go tomorrow and want to be away asap in the morning. Solong guys, we've had a great 64 days and 14 hours – see you at Peterborough.

Friday 6 March 2015

It’s our last full day in Morocco and we intend to enjoy it; doing nothing. The sky is blue, the sun is hot, the beer is cold……

Then Desert Detours France turns up. The first we knew was a stroppy Frenchman tinkering with the already dodgy electric circuit breaker you saw yesterday – he actually by-passed it! Then his party of 11 vans, including a huge RV with big trailer, turned up and he made a through nuisance of himself pushing vans in here there and everywhere, just so they could be “close” together. Notwithstanding there was a large open and reasonably empty space a little further in – but apparently with no electric.

After much argy bargy and a “discussion” about his electrical skills, it all settled down again. We’re leaving tomorrow anyway so it’s not worth getting upset. It just reinforces our view about an element of the French “Camping Caristes”.

We've had a great time in Morocco, just over 7 weeks, and we've seen a lot more than last year too. It’s probably because we now “know the ropes” about the country and it’s also allowed us to identify what we most like, and dislike. We’re not keen on the large towns and cities; some are just tourist traps while the rest are just scruffy and offer us nothing. We DO like the small towns and villages where you can find the true Morocco. The people are friendly and helpful, without being pushy, although by our standards many of them enjoy a standard of living far, far below anything we've seen before while a certain elite live a very high life – but this is Africa of course.

The scenery in the mountains and surrounding areas is just stunning – and we haven’t seen the true desert (yet!). Obviously the weather plays a large part in our reasons for travelling this far from home and we've not been disappointed. Yes, it can be cold at night especially in the mountains, but the days make up for it and our last few days have proved it. However we would probably not want to be here in summer.

Of course we've met a lot of like-minded people, not least the Funsters, and made some good friends especially Colin and Tina Rice, and their two Yorkies Bobby and Woody – see you at Peterborough guys.

We’re already discussing next year, but for now the sun sets on Morocco 2015.

Sunset at Moulay Bousselham

Wednesday/Thursday 4/5 March 2015

Kenitra is a nice enough place but we were told last year about our final destination but didn't have time to stop so this year we've deliberately left a few days to see what we missed. So Wednesday is our move day to Moulay Bousselham, a small village that overlooks a lagoon and is a designated nature reserve, a haven for ornithologists. We're not all that interested in birds but are suckers for a nice view!

But first a quick call into the local Marjane (that as usual lasted an hour!) before rejoining the motorway for an hours run through well cultivated land. TomTom took us straight to Camping International where we registered and were told to park anywhere, electricity points were everywhere. Hmmmm, well the latter was true, but a lot of them didn't actually have any power on them and whilst we found two spaces together with a partial view of the lagoon, the French of course having bagged the best, finding an electricity supply was something else! Eventually by running long leads we were set up and settled in. Some piccies of the site :

Nice sunny pitches

Lovely views of the village..

..and the lagoon

Fresh milk daily

Lawns were kept well trimmed

Modern electricity supply

Being fixed again!

Thursday morning was spent chasing around the electrics, with one lady constantly tripping the supply trying to use her hairdryer! UK electricians and Health & Safety eat your hearts out. Some of the sights are unbelievable and it's a wonder nobody gets killed!

But they weren't and we spent our time just relaxing in the hot sun. Later our "breakdown couple" from the original party turned up and, with another couple we had met earlier, we spent a nice couple of hours as the sun went down (drat, missed the sunset - get it tomorrow).

We're now coming to the end of the Moroccan section of our trip; Colin and Tina have to head home for family commitments and it fits in with our plans so we'll head to Tangier on Saturday for the ferry back to Spain.

But we've still got one day of Moroccan sunshine hopefully.

Tuesday 3 March 2015

Monday and despite being "on holiday" there are still the domestic duties to see to so today we dealt with one of them i.e. the washing! There are not many campsites that have laundry facilities in Morocco although by asking around it is sometimes possible to find someone locally. However we're lucky enough to be travelling with Colin and Tina who have managed to fit in a small twin tub, so all we need is electricity and plenty of water. Actually we could manage without electricity (and have) but it's easier.

Monday is washing day......

A hot sun - 29 deg - and gentle breeze means it soon dries out whilst we enjoy the peace and calm.

Unfortunately, it seems we're parked against the wall of the local football academy and they seem to start their games at 8.30 am. Also we're not far away from the local main hospital and the ambulances announce their imminent arrival by the use of their sirens. Meanwhile the site cafe/restaurant opens quite early to service the local population and has Moroccan music playing constantly - and quite prominently too! So much for peace and calm.

Camping Chenaie

Tuesday. As forecast a cloudy start although it's still warm and after a gentle start we decided to stroll along to the local souk, a few essentials being needed. Although we'd been given directions by another Funster, we couldn't quite tie them in to what we could see. Inevitably, then, we set off in completely the wrong direction and even after asking several times only succeeded in finding an old clothes market. Now we know where all the stuff the UK charity shops don't sell goes!

Eventually a better-educated gent headed us in the right direction and we found quite a sprawling street souk; these are a little different in that they're generally every day affairs whereas a normal souk tends to be a temporary affair put up in an open area. It seemed to radiate from one central point and would probably take all day to see completely. Now with the sun out it was quite hot so we sampled just one street before finding a cafe for welcome refreshment. Then a gentle stroll back to the vans for lunch and relax for the rest of the day.

Moving on again tomorrow.

PS. The link to our photos is now on the side-bar ->->->->

It's handy travelling with an IT wiz!

Sunday 1 March 2015

Well we're now into our third month of our Winter Snowbirding break and still enjoying it, although we're now starting to look forward to returning to Spain. It's not that we've fallen out of love with Morocco, but we much preferred the south and the mountains.

So a confab last night decided that we'd move on to a site at Kenitra that had been recommended to us for 2/3 nights to both visit the town and also get a little more domestics sorted. After that one more hop to Moulay Bousselhem, an area we missed last year but everyone says we should stop at, before the last leg up to the port at Tangier Med, to cross over at the weekend. Colin & Tina need to be heading for home and this also ties in well with our plans for Spain and Portugal.

We're now close to the motorway system so decided that we'd happily pay the tolls in exchange for some better roads! This was okay, of course, until we came to the Rabat ring road, which isn't motorway and is probably one of the busiest and worn out sections of the Moroccan "road" system. We had suffered it on the way south, of course, but even without the heavy lorries it was awful.

The main highlight of the day, though, was encountering literally dozens of Renault 4's, painted in all sorts of colours, decalled up with sponsor stickers and mostly covered in mud and dirt! They were apparently on, or at the end of, a rally which was something like Les Sables des Roses, and judging by their "competitor" numbers there were over 1800 of them in total.

One parked up in the services

Another broken down on the side of the road.

A support vehicle on the back of a breakdown truck!

We took over 40 photos of them - which was about the sum total of todays photographs!

Leaving the motorway we followed Colin and quickly found Camping de la Chenaie. Following the advice given we found a couple of pitches with a nice outlook and which promised to be in the sun all day. Registered, hooked up and that's us settled for a couple of days!

See all our photos on Google Drive

Saturday 28 February 2015

Oualidia is a very nice, peaceful and pretty village. On our way out we passed through the main village centre which again, for Morocco anyway, was clean and tidy and quite attractive, probably as befits it's role as a holiday area.

But it's time to press on and our target today is El Jadida, for shopping and hopefully a couple of nights stopover. Deciding to avoid the coast road for a change, there was actually little difference and we eventually rejoined the coastal route and north into El Jedida.

Part of the long lagoon at Oualidia

Approaching industrial El Jedida

There is a lot of industry to the south of El Jedida, which is accompanied by extensive development. The Marjane supermarket was brand new and currently all on it's own on the outskirts of town, but that's not going to be for long judging by the new blocks of flats being put up. It was, however, very quiet so shopping was a breeze.

Then on to the campsite, which we found okay but were not impressed so after a look around decided to push on. Dar Bouazza, just south of Casablanca, was within suitable range and one of the sites had a reasonable report so we headed there. And on arrival we discovered we had stayed here, Camping Oasis, last year and at the time we didn't rate it very highly but it seems to be under new management and clear-up work is well under way. We were told that further development was being planned. It's now a smart, clean and tidy place.

See all our photos on Google Drive