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.

Around Olhao

Olhao has an old part of town with small alleyways with many tiled buildings and quite a few decaying old buildings with rusting balconies. 

Parts of it are similar to Northern Morocco.

There are large daily fresh fish & vegetable markets and a large visiting market on Saturdays when the town really fills up.






It's easy to pass the day in the cafes enjoying the good coffee and cakes and watching the locals, most of whom seem to do the same thing.












It rained and I decided to try making some bread rolls in my Omnia Swedish oven. This works on a gas ring and has been quite successful as an oven which is the main thing missing from this van as there is no space for one. The bread turned out as successful as being made in a conventional oven the only problem is if you make loaves or quiches they have a hole in the centre. I have made mushroom roast & roasted vegetables and it will be used to make Christmas dinner.

This is my large pitch at the campsite which is a bit too shaded for winter but I can follow the sun around through the day.


It's been warmer than I expected and drier but there are some windy days, but quite good for December.

I have a visitor for a week, Lynne an old friend has come to stay over Christmas, as she is also alone we will have some company together. She flew to Faro airport which is only 11 miles away and I collected her there. Close to the airport is Faro beach which was a surprise as its directly on to the ocean unlike most other places around here which have long sand islands in front of them. There were surfers there and quite a few wild camping motorhomes.

I saw this unusual UK registered van on market day in Olhao which had many admirers.

On my way to Portugal

It was still cold and I wanted to press on to warmer climes. I drove about 7 hours and made it to Vitria Gasteiz in Spain before it got dark. As it was Sunday there were few trucks on the road so the drive was very easy. One of my worries was how far I would be able to drive alone in a day before feeling tired but with occasional stops and the benefit of the cruise control the driving was very easy. Having electric windows helped at the 6 toll booths I had to stop at and climb over to the passenger window to pay. After a quiet night at the free Aire I drove all day on even emptier roads as it was a public holiday. Most of the day it was -4.5C with freezing fog but visibility was ok. All the bushes on the sides of the road were frozen white and I was getting ice building up on the wing mirrors. Suddenly it cleared, the sun was out and the temperature soared to 14C and I needed sunglasses for the first time. From the free Aire in Caceres it was only a 10 minute walk into the old Plaza Mayor which had a few pavement cafes open.

Next day was an easy 4 hour drive via Seville then west to Portugal. I stayed with 35 other motorhomes at the free Aire just over the Portuguese border at Castro Marim and before I had even taken my seat belt off I was sold a big bag of oranges for 3 euros. Freshly squeezed orange juice everyday for a week at least now. I managed an hours bike ride out to the coast, it was great to stretch and move my legs again.

It was only a short drive to my destination in Portugal, Camping Olhao, a large tree filled site with many nationalities overwintering, even one or two in tents. Its certainly much milder, 16-18c in the day and the lowest so far 10c. I walked around the site twice to try to find a suitable pitch then found one on the main road in where I can see lots going on and there are always people passing to chat with. This was partly why I decided to stay here, there is always company, there is a bar, restaurant, social room and cafe. We had stayed here for 3 nights on our last trip through Portugal and liked the place. There is a big national park bordering the site with trails and a visitor centre and the town is a big fishing port with a good fish and vegetable market and numerous cafes & restaurants.

I have cycled twice to Fuseta along the coast where part of the Algarve cycle route goes through the salt pans in the National park where I have seen Flamingoes feeding quite close up. 

I have also cycled the other way to Faro using the cycleway where possible. Its good to be able to cycle everyday as so far the weather has been dry but sometimes there's a bit of a head wind. There are lots of excellent local cakes and breads to try so I need the exercise to work them off. I plan to stay until mid January as long as I am enjoying it here. It's giving me time to getting used to doing everything by myself and also I'm finding out what I need where in the van and getting used to the daily routines. There's all sorts of characters here including one man aged 73 who cycles from England every year and stays in a tent. Nearby are enormous 30 foot american rv's with just a couple and a dog in them and of course there are many retired couples most of whom come here every year for the winter. It's great to see the sun and Blue skies and bushes with flowers still on them. The site has free wi-fi which is slow but I can usually listen to the Today programme on radio 4 using my laptop and read the main articles from the Guardian, so I keep up with current affairs. I have watched some Portuguese soaps but I still can't make much sense of the spoken language but at least when its written down its quite similar to Spanish.

I couldn't face the thought of another long dark winter at home by myself, even being somewhere alone but a bit sunny would be better so once I had sorted all the legal matters I plan to head off to Portugal and then Morocco until Easter.

Firstly, and quite unexpectedly a new van. I quickly came to the conclusion only having a double rock n roll bed and a porta potti would be difficult if I wanted to have visitors on my travels. As my van is going to be my only transport I didn't want anything longer than the old VWT5 and eventually came down to Possl/Globecar from Germany but based on a Fiat vehicle. This has the advantage of a transverse fixed double bed with lots of storage underneath, the option to make up a 3^rd bed in the front and has a separate enclosed bathroom area making it much easier to share. Very hard to find any used ones in the UK, some dealers had new White models in stock otherwise it was down to ordering and hoping it would arrive before winter finishes. Luckily I found a used 4 month old model with 6500 miles but with many extras which I would never have ordered (but no oven) I love the colour and many people stop and admire it and all the extras will get a good testing. 

I added cruise control though as I know it will be beneficial for the long runs through France & Spain. A solar panel was another must having had so much useful input from the old one and the freedom from to stay almost anywhere and still have the power to run everything (and keep everyone’s phone charged at festivals)

I didn't really get enough nights away to test and sort everything and it was often too cold to do certain jobs which have been put off until I get to Portugal.

So here I am alone and on the way in early December and finding out about the advantages of Gas and Electric blown air heating, a well insulated van, automatic & cruise control, hot water, a shower, re-fillable gas system and so much more else in such a compact van. Lets see how it holds up to Moroccan roads!

The first two days driving through France I found very quiet as I didn't have Gills rantings about everyone and everything that she would always do when we set off driving anywhere, at least until she fell asleep! Being on the road I didn't speak to anyone for two days apart from pleasantries in shops and petrol stations. The heating was well tested as it was down to 0C at night but I stayed very warm and then found I had hot water ready in the morning. I parked at free overnight Camping Car Aires at places we had stayed at before and which felt secure enough and there were other vans stopping overnight as well.

I had read about Oradour sur Glane and as it was a convenient place to stop I stayed the night at the Aire and I was the only visitor to the village early the following morning. Here's the Wikipedia description.The original population was destroyed on 10 June 1944, when 642 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by a German Waffen-SS company. A new village was built after the war on a nearby site but on the orders of the then French president, Charles de Gaulle, the original has been maintained as a permanent memorial and museum.

It had just started to rain as I walked into the empty village and the poor light and the complete absence of anyone else made it a very sombre and moving experience. Luckily I left just as a party of school children arrived, I hope they learnt something from the experience.

I then stayed two nights at Kevan and Barbaras house, a welcome break from driving and we shared some memories (and Fizzy wine & buns) of our times with Gill in Morocco. The mud+snow tyres had their first test parking on wet grass a soft clay ground and failed, I had to use my grip mats under one front tyre which had completely filled up with mud was was now effectively bald and spinning. They now have two trenches ready for planting next years potatoes!

A new start

Well, so much has changed since my last posts on this blog. Having had 5 winters away we ended up in the winter of 2012/13staying at home due to the illness of friends and family. It was far too long a winter and we were busy making plans for other winter trips when suddenly Gill died aged 55. She had Heart Disease that she was completely unaware of and this led to a heart attack at the end of one of her horse riding lessons and she did not recover.

It was a complete shock to everyone who new such a lively, cheery and caring person. We shared so many experiences in our 35 years, travelling and working almost all the time together and we were really enjoying the 6 years we had together since deciding to sell our business and retire early

.

I found this quote that Gill had written in one of her many notebooks, I can understand how it appealed to her way of thinking

How few human beings lived life as if it mattered, he thought; to most of them it was just a case of passing time. Sebastian Faulks A week in December.

Now I have to face up to a different life without my friend but I still want to carry on doing the things we both enjoyed and were so lucky to have done together. So, here goes