Good Morning Morocco


Advertisement
Morocco's flag
Africa » Morocco » Tangier-Tétouan » Martil
September 23rd 2012
Published: September 23rd 2012
Edit Blog Post

Well at last dave and me are finally in Morocco. Unfortunately Mark and his father in law have had a hell of a trip, and are still not with us.

Just after leaving Marquenterre Wednesday morning, his rear axle lost all of its oil, due to the filler plug going missing, so he had to be recovered while we carried on. But after several hours, and being dragged to two useless garages, Mark was taken home, where the next day he took it to his local garage to get it fixed. He made it back in to france the same day and drove through the night in an effort to catch us up, but while driving through spain his land rover snapped its fan belt and so, he was once again sitting on the back of a recovery truck. By the time the recovery reached them all the garages were closed and wont reopen till Monday morning...

Wednesday we made slow progress through France, as most of the non toll roads go through small villages. But by late evening we had made it through to San sabastien, only to find there are no camp sites around there, so ended up carring on till midnight, where we found a quiet area in the hills just outside of town. It was a small carpark surrounded by flats, so we were never sure if we would be left alone or asked to move on, but we were away by 7 so it never became an issue.

Spain in comparision was a doddle, as there non toll roads are more like dual carriageways all the way. But after the last night, we decided to drive till 7pm then ask the sat nav for the nearest camp site. The nearest was just in the centre of the next town which we reached fairly soon, only to find it was now a housing estate. So on to the next which, even though was 20 miles away, it was via lots of slow winding roads so it was dark by the time we finally found it, only to find that this one was also now having houses built all over it! Another hour or so of driving, we found an actual camp site, but it was now 10:30pm and the gates were locked. Back in France they have a lot of service areas where you can pull into and theyonly have a toilet block, but are far enough away from the road to be quiet, but spain it seems doesn't have anywhere near as many, if at all, so we couldn't even pull off the road and park up for the night.

So now hungry and very tired we decided to just crack on to Algercias, as once more the sat nav had a campsite located there, but it didn't exist so we tried to drive around and find some where quiet. But after many hours of driving round in circles, we round a dirt track which turned out to be an access road to the wind turbines next to us. That night it was way too windy to set up the tents so we slept inside our trucks. Plus being so close to the turbines it was quieter in the trucks. The next moring we decided to find the nearest Mcdonalds to use their WiFi to find a campsite but 5 miles round the coast we found a campsite that was open.

While we were there we Meet up with Mac and his wife who were crossing the same time as us, and they had brought a lot of beers and wine with them. So the next morning I had to force myself to get packed and get to Carlos for the ferry tickets while having a nasty hangover! Now traveling into an unfamilier city and across an unfamilier border is unnerving by itself, but throw a hang over into the mix... Lets just say it was a long day, which in hindsight, went very smoothly.

And so there you have it, we are now in Morocco, in a small town of Matill waiting for Mark to get fixed and cross over. The campsite is basic but quiet, and the facillities are in dire need of fixing up, and they don't have toilets like ours, they are just a porceline tray cemented in the floor with a hole in, so all that cycling at home was to strengthen my legs to take a crap 😉 . After lunch we might head into town as there is a Berber market which only happens once a month.

Advertisement



23rd September 2012

Morocco
Really sorry to hear of Mike's troubles. Glad you and Dave are going along ok (fingers crossed). So in Morocco, the tents look really good. Just taken Sarah-Marie , Richard and little Rory to Gatwick. Absolutly chucking it down here, so jealous of you and Sarah being in the sun. Take care look forward to next update.

Tot: 0.27s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 20; qc: 89; dbt: 0.0941s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb