Finally moving on away from the coast

So I finally moved on to Sidi Ifni a bit further South down the coast and had a good drive on the newly resurfaced coast. As it was Saturday I wanted to be sure to get the internet football commentary so I parked up on the rough parking next to the site of the weekly souk and got a good strong signal. I listened to the match and nipped out of the van to stock up with fruit & veg at half time. The Seagulls won 3-1 and now progress to the next round of the FA Cup, next match Hull.

I could have stayed on the parking overnight but its quite busy with traffic arriving all evening to set up for the big market. I went and looked down at the beach side camping from the top of the cliffs and saw there were spaces so decided to drive down there and stay the night. Walking through the town it was noticeable how the attractive Art Deco style buildings had been restored and smartened up. Also I remember we found quite a good bun shop there so I stocked up with a good supply for the next few days.

The camping was much more interesting than where I have spent the last 2 weeks, many more different nationalities, surfers and different looking vans. I only stayed the one night as I was heading a bit further South to meet up with Kevan & Barbara & Peter & Mary and 3 other vans with them at an inland site South East of Guelmim.

I was looking forward to having a few folk to sit around and chat with and the odd bike ride with some company but when I arrived they were nearly all sick, I was almost tempted not to stop in case I caught something. It turned out they had all had a meal with the campsite owner and got sick from the sardines or possibly salad they had eaten. Fortunately it seems to have been a 24 hours bug and they are much better today.

Its a small site set next to a Palmerie, much more desert like and loads of great tracks to get out and explore on the bikes, though not very hilly close by. Much more the type of Morocco I like rather than the busier coast and much quieter without the constant crashing Atlantic waves that I have been next to for the last two weeks. 

There was quite a lot of rain here about a week ago and things are starting to turn a bit greener which I'm sure the donkeys, goats and sheep are happier about.

Aglou Plage life

Kevan and Barbara emailed and said they were at Sidi Wassay about a 30 mile drive back up towards Agadir. I decided to have a change of scenery and visit them there for a few hours. They are travelling with 2 other vans who are also on their first visit to Morocco, so I got to meet them all. Whilst looking out the front of their van I recognized a German number plate of the van belonging to Karl & Helga, an older German couple that we have met on various sites around Morocco and we spent our last day of our last Morocco trip with them in Martil on the Med coast. Obviously their first question was where is Gill, so I had to explain what had happened as I will have to do to a few others whom I no doubt will meet later on.

The site here is now completely full, unfortunately everyone who turns up is French and I have no one to talk to. I have been out on my bike though doing 20 mile rides in 3 directions, the other is the sea. Time to move on soon, I have made use of the washing machine today once I finally managed to get one. Another reason to leave is the paint fumes. French drivers must be bad as so many of them are getting the paintwork resprayed, mostly their colour matching bumpers. The problem is the man comes to their pitch with his compressor and does the job there, so if its nearby you get all the noise and the paint fumes. One van opposite had it done for 5 days in a row, luckily the wind was blowing away from me. Now today my neighbour is having some done and it is blowing my way. They're not all bad though, tonight one French man at the washing up sinks told me, and showed me, that I could get Hot water from the disabled toilet as the washing up sinks only have cold. Actually more of a surprise is that even have disabled toilets.

Internet connecting and a new gadget

Trying to find a signal to get an internet I took my Nexus tablet near to the reception and saw a hotspot for Peter Smith. As everyone else here has a name like Freddy French I figured it must be Peter & Mary,whom I knew were heading here. I put on my Wi-Fi analyser App and followed the strengthening signal to their van, well I assumed at it was their van as it had GB plates. As it was late they were all closed up for the night. In the morning their van had gone, luckily the empty pitch still had their chairs & mats left behind so I knew they had gone out for the day and we met up later in the day.

I took along some of the Essaouria buns in Gill's memory. Peter & Mary like their gadgets and I found the answer to my internet problems, a TP-Link Portable 3g wireless router. With this I could connect my laptop, tablet & phone through my own personal router, all at once if want to! Being in Morocco at the front of the campsite there are various tradesmen, Solar panels, re-sprays & repairs, satellite dishes, windscreen covers, outdoor carpets and anything a motorhome may need. Within a couple of hours the wi-fi man was at my pitch setting me up with my own portable router and at last I could get back in contact & even share my connection with others if I want to.

I have been testing my solar panel to see how long it will keep my leisure batteries powered without having to connect to the the electric supply and without driving which will recharge them. After 6 nights everything was functioning, despite the poor, wet & overcast weather, so I was very pleased and with sunnier days forecast I should be able to stay off grid for plenty of days when I want to.

Steve & Jan decided to head off back North slowly exploring places on their way. They were very glad to have me show them the ropes and I was glad of their company for the first few days and also giving me a look back to how it feels and and the new experiences and encounters that happen when you go somewhere new and a bit different. After 4 days of following the back of my van I am sure they will enjoy seeing a different view but they will have to spot the endless Police checkpoints and the dodgy road surfaces without my braking warnings.

First few days in Morocco

Well I am finally in contact from Morocco where I have already been for a week.

I met up with Steve & Jan at Lidl in Algeciras and we bought our ferry tickets from Carlos and got the usual gift of a cake & bottle of cider. My ticket (190 Euros) was 10 Euro cheaper than theirs as I was only one passenger.

Next morning at the ferry terminal we found we had been given tickets for different ferry lines and mine was due to sail an hour later, so much for being on hand to help them on their first entry to Morocco. In the end both ferries were late and I arrived at the customs about 5 vehicles behind them at Tanger Med port and I was processed about 30 minutes after them.

We drove on to Asilah and arrived mid afternoon so had plenty of time time amble around the easy going town and have a meal and experience Moroccan life. Parking is on waste land next to the harbour with no facilities but the parking guardian wanted 50Dh,(5 Euros) or some items like alcohol or clothes to exchange, many campsites are cheaper!

We then headed to El Jadida on the motorway getting experience of mad Moroccan driving and unfortunately it started raining, many cars didn't have lights, some didn't even have windows that closed and they were weaving all over the road, luckily as the Motorways are toll road there isn't too much traffic but it's very tiring driving and checking the mirrors constantly is essential.

There was a very helpful man in the Maroc Telecom shop who spoke English and got our 3g dongles sorted out to connect to the internet and even set them up on our laptops. The only problem was the next time I turned my laptop on and connected Windows Vista came up with the Blue screen of death, showing a startup driver problem. I tried every trick I know, safe mode, restore from last successful connection point, but still no success. (Pacer.sys) seems to be the problem if anyone knows how to sort it out) I also have Linux operating system installed on the laptop and I could see all my data on the hard drive was still there. Unfortunately Linux could not see the 3g dongle as the install programme is written for Windows. As my Nexus android tablet is rooted I could connect the dongle and this worked ok for an evening but after that I couldn't get a connection. I had three frustrating days trying to get connected in different locations but no success.

El Jadida campsite is just the same, a good tree shaded site but poor basic facilities, squat toilets, open drain for toilet emptying and general neglect, but for 4 euros better value than parking at Asilah and the option to also pay extra for electric hookup if required.

We then headed to Essaouria on the inland road which was quite hectic for the first couple of hours mainly with buses & taxis trying to overtake everyone usually at the most dangerous point. There is often a solid white line down the centre of the road but it's mostly ignored. Whenever we passed through a town it was the usual chaos, pedestrians just cross without looking, carts, bikes, motorbikes all over the place but we survived intact.

Essaouria is always windy but when we arrived it was awful, sand blowing everywhere and stinging our eyes. Sadly the convenient campsite next to the lighthouse at the end of the promenade has been reduced in size as part of the land is having apartments being built on. We battled the wind walking into the town and had a quick look around the main attractions but it wasn't very comfortable, but I did stock up with 'the best buns in Morocco' from Gill's favourite cake shop. Unfortunately the good Italian restaurant we had found on our last visit hadn't opened but we found a good Moroccan place near the ramparts. Due to the weather we decided to continue on further South and headed towards Agadir on the coast road.

Aglou Plage camping has been my main first location to get settled for a week or two and we found a wonderful new dual carriageway from the South of Agadir almost all the way to Tiznit where we headed West to the coast. The site surprisingly wasn't full, though it is almost now.

The weather for the last 4 days has been very unsettled, stormy with heavy rain but very mild. Not like my dream of sitting basking in the sun and unwinding after the long drive down Morocco. I had a wind out awning fitted to the van in Seville but its not safe to leave it out unattended with the erratic weather.

Leaving Portugal after one month

I don't know where the time goes, I have been here a month and mostly the weather has been much better than I expected. I am now making plans to head off to Morocco, I will leave here on Friday, meet up on Saturday with a couple from York, Jan & Steve whom I met here before Christmas, and they will cross to Morocco with me as its their first time there and are happy to have someone show them the ropes. We will get the ferry on Sunday morning and hopefully get to somewhere on the coast before dark.

Kevan & Barbara and Peter & Mary are now in Morocco and we will all meet up for a while soon. I will head South fairly quickly to get some hot weather, maybe stopping in Essaouria for a few days if the weather is ok. It's been good to be in the same place for a while, I meet other people and I have had time to sort the van to my liking and get used to doing everything by myself, though its still strange and quiet!

I am looking forward to getting on the road again, I’ve only moved the van twice in a month. My bike has been great for getting small batches of shopping, though my pump got nicked outside a supermarket in town the other day. Also managed quite a lot of rides, certainly a lot more than I would have done at home in wet, cold weather. Luckily the Algarve has missed all the stormy weather although just looking a few miles inland North from here it always seems very dark & gloomy.

A Happier New Year

Well Christmas & New Year have passed and I have been waiting for some rain to force me indoors and update the blog. It was very good having a visitor to share the Christmas week with, though neither of us particularly like it, so we could be miseries together. It's just nice to have someone you know to interact with through the day and to share some experiences. It's also better than going out and eating on ones own. We got adventurous one day and caught a train to Lagos, West along the coast. It wasn't much of a train ride,almost 2 hours each way with constant stops and little nice scenery. Lagos was a pleasant town with a beach and cliffs and real sea but 5 hours there were plenty enough.

Another much more successful trip was on a short ferry trip to one of the sand islands Armona on a beautiful calm sunny day. There are no roads there, just an area of holiday bungalows and a few restaurants. From there its just long stretches of unspoilt sandy beaches as it's all part of the coastal nature reserve. It would be a wonderful place for a relaxing hideaway, but only a 30 minute ferry trip back to Olhao.

After I dropped Lynne off at the airport I drove to get a coffee at Faro beach which is just behind the runway. I saw the most strange sight, a man with a motorhome was parked next to the airport perimeter fence and was outside playing a full drum kit! I guess he wouldn't upset anyone with the noise. I wish I had been cheeky enough to take a photo. It kept puzzling me all night, so next day I cycled back there but he was gone, but I did find a good track to cycle all around the perimeter fence back almost to Faro and clocked up 28 miles.

New Years eve there was a meal and dancing in the campsite bar, I wandered down and joined up with some company sat outside under the canopy which was just as well as we had some heavy downpours. There were fireworks going off and I stayed to see in the New Year and even got kissed by a French woman (though she was going around kissing everyone)

New Years day was very quiet, all shops shut and very few Café’s open, luckily I still had some bread left.