Cleared the apt and loaded the car by 9.45. Note to self: get everything laid out before packing … amazing how i can never pack the same. Corrie travelled some of the journey with a chair across her.
We do like a journey with a stop. Tetouan is known as the Daughter of Grenada due to Andalucian architecture. All very grand.
Very Andalucian. Stopped here for coffee €3 including the tip. Not tourist pricesEntrance to one of the King’s palaces. He destroyed a garden, so had another builtelsewhere
Then you enter the Medina. A huge rabbit warren of narrow passageways. First all the jewellers, clothes and then leather products.
Leading to the tannery. Fortunately, this didn’t stink, as not used since the Romans.
But some put on a show for tourists
We only had 3 men offer to guide us around. Ice cream a disappointment. May only have been €1.40 for both of us to have 2 scoops, but lacking flavour … they all tasted the same. And definitely no cream. Completely the opposite to my milk shake of yesterday, which was ALL cream, with 2 ice cubes and caramel sauce squirted on top!
Liked this 11th largest Moroccan city … a lot.
Tonight’s destination was Oued Lalou, on the north coast. Camping Ahmed was primitive to say the least! Two Turkish / long drop toilets, flushed by a bucket with a scoop. Showers? Try a refreshing dip in the sea OR stand over the loo and throw the bucket of water over your head. No difference between the 2 options really …the water in the bucket came from a salt water well! But we could pitch the tent on grass and we had the sound of the sea. €5 per night.
I’d pinned some sights in Tangier. Off we set with Brian and Zoa. the Hungarian Vislar. He (Zoa!) got sooo much attention from the men … cos he looks butch. Little do they know that he is a girl’s blouse. Most women and kids seem to be terrified of all dogs, even our puss, Corrie. And it’s obviously very unusual for Moroccans to see hounds out with their owners.
Tangier was a good intro to Morocco. Walked the medina and old walls. This side of Morocco is much more European due to proximity to Europe and occupation. Spoke to some young ladies during our coffee stop. “This is Morocco, so women are liberated and we wear what we want”. These ladies worked in expensive restaurants and wore Western clothes. One displayed her midriff!! When pressed … married women tend to cover heads. And in the country, women are scared not too. It’s shameful not to comply.
So many British,that an Anglican Church was built. Garden very much in the style on an English country garden with Mediterranean plants. Entrance gate guarded by a seriously viscious cat who wanted to take chunks out of our dogs.“But marched breast forward”Hotel Continental top left. The place to partei, during French occupation
Carrefour hypermarche on the way home. Booze in a separate section. A bottle of mediocre red €14. A young chap ahead of me needed a thick blue bag to conceal his bottle of vodka! But I do like the prices here for veggies.
Two large tomatoes equivalent to €0.27
Friday 11th
Do not trust any weather forecast. Weather here seems to be totally contrary. Parc Perdicaris called us for a walk. Interesting drive up along Rue de la Montagne. Super sized walled and gated villas. Security guards on many. I googled … min price >€2m. Rebat is the capital, so presumably the Ambassadors live there? So who lives here?
About 30 street sweepers along millionaire’s rowThe start of Parc Perdicaris.Views of the MedLots of locals out too … including solo runners and walkers of both (main) genders
Walk was progressing well. Nice paths. Nice scenery. Till we felt the first drops of rain. Rain that wasn’t forecast till late pm. It turned into a monsoon. Having set out in sunshine, we’d no jackets. Suffice to say, we drive carefully back through standing water to the apartment … stripped off every soaked garment and had hot showers!
After lunch the sun came out. Forecast was rain! Back up past the huge houses to Cape Spartel. Every place we go has “officials” who “help” you park. But for a euro or so, we’re happy to have the car watched.
Cape Spartel
Not much there other than where Med meets Atlantic. But busy with locals.
The next stop was the Caves of Hercules, where he is reputed to have stayed before accomplishing his 11th labour. And the Barbary Apes are said to have navigated underground passages to inhabit the Rock of Gibraltar. Super busy with locals, and another €1 private car park.
At €8 pp entry, they were a little disappointing, except for the patterns where the rocks had been carved out
Last stop of the day was Asilah. Two brothers had a vision of lifting the town out of depression. In the 70’s, they invited artists to paint the town. It now has an annual mural (graffiti!) festival.
To be honest, all this geometric stuff ain’t to our taste. Bristol has a graffiti festival and that is art! The walled old city was worth wandering. However, there seemed to be only 2 gates. How on earth would folk evacuate if a fire, let alone fire tenders get in?Having eventually found a gate to exit the old town, we walked to the Jewish cemetary. Closed sadly. Retraced our steps for refreshment. I had a milk shake … a novel version as it was whipped cream, two ice cubes and smothered in caramel sauce … I coped!
The rush hour drive home was like being in a video game, but with higher stakes. No rules and nerves of steel! Clare and I have cancelled the hire cars when the family comes over to celebrate my 60th in Marrakesh we’ll get taxis!!!
Slainte folks – my first blog for some years (J here)….. on the sandy Spanish campsite of San Jose we met Karen and David – friends from Turkey Sundance Camping in lock down 2020 – but originally met on a boozy day in Espana 2016 – fellow motorhomers. They know this area very well – we perambulated along lovely beaches for 20km over the two days. Coffee and vino tinto we forced ourselves to imbibe – no difficulty there.
Cape Trafalgar, no battle whilst we there
Snails attached to every twig and branchSurfer beach … lots of schools and lots of falling off. Super long sandy beach.
On the second night we supped in a local hostelry – pizza, lasagne and excellent tuna…do I need to say vinlyrinto, oops, it was good !
On the walk home David did a good impersonation of Indiana Jones by leaping backwards through a timber fence into an eight foot deep drainage channel! Not intended but spectacular to see his feet disappearing ! Only a grazed elbow resulted… and all he did was lean on the top bar.
We drove to Veger with K and D – a spectacular town with all white buildings – a good walk and a little wine…
Vejer
8th October 2024
It rained on our new tent overnight – what a cheek! Dismantling and packing away was better – the second time. K and D sent us on our way with beakers of tea and coffee – we hope to see them in December – hasta pronto friends…..
We met Brian and Zoa for a long day in Algeciras centre – ferry tickets and Corrie vet visit. An anomaly with her rabies vaccination (K: I was 18 days late with one rabies vaccination which invalidates her titer tests) led to more time in the port – another vet appointment tomorrow to see if we can actually travel to Morocco! The lovely vet had communicated with the Spanish Defra in the evening, and we were told to get another titer test done, which they will email to us. Appointment at 10.00 with the vet.
A late (8:00 pm) drive to our booked hotel – very smart and quite retro. The restaurant initially looked expensive but K’s dish of cod and my salmon were both reasonably priced and delicious. Bedtime in a large bed brought quite a few noisy little feckers – mozzies! Not the best sleep but an excellent hotel.
9th October
Being anxious, we were super early. Vet confirmed that there was absolutely no chance of Corrie having insufficient antibodies given years of vaccinations. She showed me a thick wad of titer tests done and emailed for other travellers. We could travel to Morocco!
We bolted to catch the 11.00 ferry, but gates shut at 10.50. So a long wait for the 2.00, which was 1.5 hrs late. Ho hum.
All very confusing on arrival. But Brian had travelled at 0800 and sent us descriptions of what to expect: through a scanner, customs, then sim card and car insurance. On being asked to open the boot, I explained we had camping equipment and that I had packed it. He sent us off, to the chagrin of the cars in front of us having to completely empty everything. Took us just over 2 hours, which I believe is quick.
Insurance building
We arrived in rain and wind at the Tangier campsite where Brian was installed. The chap wanted to charge €40 to pitch with Brian or €30 up a bit with no electric!!! All immaterial as we couldn’t get a single peg into the hard-core under the manicured shingle. Abort! Found an apt nearby for not much more. And we are dry!
We left Crete on 15th August. We flew with 2 packed cases. Thank you Lin for taking another suitcase and some olive oil in your motorhome. Corrie travelled overland with a Pet Taxi. She’s used to long driving days and we felt this was preferable to her going in a noisy plane hold. Probably cheaper too, as €680 Chania to Slough. Collection from Brussles would have been £500!
No slumming it: aircon, soft music, cctv to drivers.Most of the pups were rescues meeting new owners for the first time. ❤️
We collected Jez and stayed one night at Stonehenge to check all systems go. They weren’t! Despite paying the service centre / storage place in Andover to check everything worked. They got it all working by mid morning!
We pretty much based ourselves in Chichester at Woodlands Farm, still £10 pn. Great friends Mick and Sue and later David and Karen stayed in their motorhomes. Walking, eating and drinking, of course! We spent time with my Aged Ps and Maddy and Jordan.
Perfect walking weatherDavid didn’t bring a jumper … this is Britain brrr!My Pat Butcher fleece made an appearance
A side 2 nights to our holiday rental house in N Devon. We are selling this as it just doesn’t generate much revenue and is a general pain in the butt. Since putting it on the market, our housekeeper, having assured us, he would continue to offer his services, had some kind of breakdown, and handed in his notice, and his eye went off the ball. He knew we were coming down but omitted leaving us any clean bed linen. Then, he lied about how many sets he had. Plonker! Whilst there we appointed a new housekeeper, who so far, is lovely. And we worked super hard on the middle day to clear the large shed. Stuff to the charity shop, most to the dump and some to Maddy’s small spare shed near Farnham.
Car probably over laden as the interior was rammed. The roof has a decorating table, ladder, jet wash etc
Maddy and Jordan got married on 7th September. It was a fabulous event. So busy chatting we didn’t take any pix of us all dolled up. Hoping for some in the professional’s pix. J’s suit was a win … charity shop £35!
Got to have hair and make up done. And had fake eyelashes!!!
Maddy and Jordan
We house sat the mad menace Kevin the Cocker whilst MandJ abused our Crete house for 6 nights. We then left Corrie with them for 3 nights, whilst we went to Dublin. 6 to see 3 of J’s 5 siblings, but the highlight for me was going out on Liam’s rib in Dublin Bay. Calm, so he cranked it up flat out at 45 knots! I then drove it back and right up into centre Dublin, where we alighted! Awesome way to arrive in the city.
Back to the farm in Chichester we did our final preparations to set off for our 3 month trip to Morocco.
Clune Gap Years 