Spain/Morocco 2014

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March 28th 2014

Published: March 28th 2014

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Jackievick

Moulay-Bousselham

Campsite on edge of lagoon

End of Moroccan tour

On the way back to Marrakesh we followed Malcolm and Linda through some traffic lights which changed to amber just as we reached them. The van in the lane next to ours braked hard and skidded to a halt, he had obviously seen the policeman on the central reservation who leapt across the road and signalled for us to pull over. This was Chris's second traffic offence of the journey, the first resulting in a 30 euro on the spot speeding fine. He decided not to take this one without putting up a fight and tried to explain that it would have been far more dangerous to stop than continue, pointing out that the man in the van could easily have caused an accident. The policeman proceeded to ask him to step out of the van and took him to the central reservation to demonstrate how he controls the lights and demanded a 70 euro fine. After much debate and banter, some of which was good humoured, the laughing policeman reduced the fine to 30 euros and didn't issue a ticket – it obviously went straight into his pocket! Africa!

The

Moulay-Bousselham

rest of the 360 mile trip was quite uneventful and we arrived at the site in Moulay-Bousselham on the NW coast. The campsite was a more familiar forest style site on the edge of a lagoon, already very popular with the french motorhomers. We eventually managed to find a space for both vans with electric points that worked and bumped into Edith and Andy who had decided to return to Spain the following day. Walking into the small town we were accosted by fisherman trying to sell their catch and others offering boat trips around the lagoon. Linda and I decided to take the boat trip which proved to be very interesting, watching local people fishing for eels and women sifting the sand and dredging the bottom of the lagoon for shellfish. Interestingly the men did their fishing from boats while the women were up to their waists in water or bent double looking for their catch. Who'd be a woman in Morocco! The flamingos we were supposed to be seeing could just be made out in the distance at least a kilometre away but we didn't mind.

After enjoying a lovely sunny day relaxing in Moulay-Bousselham

Moulay-Bousselham

we set off for Tangier Med at 6.30 the next morning. The rest of the journey was relatively easy – our 10.00 ferry left at about 11.30 which is not bad for that particular crossing. We were sad to part company with Malcolm and Linda who have been great travelling companions with whom we have enjoyed sharing the experience but hopefully our paths will cross again sometime in the future.

The trip has been memorable for many reasons and we are really pleased to have shared our experience of Morocco with such a great group of people.

Back to Europe! We arrived at Motril, south of Granada by 6.00 and were very excited to use the cleanest, most elegant shower block we have ever experienced in Spain! We are going to chill out here for at least a week before we head for Granada and the Sierra Nevada. The site is right next to the beach which has a long promenade for walking and cycling and the town is nearby. We've already enjoyed a meal in the campsite restaurant which is very good and had coffee in the golf club house on the beach.