19th October 2024 – a 3 meal out day!

We were packed and under an hour to leave the apartment.  J didn’t have breakfast! So we knew we would have to stop for coffee and a bun.

We drive back over the mountain to the N coast. We even saw some roadside monkeys! 

Breakfast stop was El Jebha.  A very pretty fishing village. Tempting to try the fresh prawns and sardines being loaded into the ice cabinets … but no.  We’ve a good few hours to go and plan a fish supper.

Cala Iris was our planned picnic stop. Super pretty looking down on it.  But I’d an urgent need! We found a barely open hotel / restaurant. The smiley lady got an English speaker on the phone. He was 20 mins away and would come and open the kitchen. We didn’t feel we could just ask for mint tea, so ordered soup. Our Heinz tomato going cold in it’s flask. Nice facilities!!!

We’d booked an apt in Al Hoceima … sticking out to sea.   J nanny napped and I took Corrie for a walk, past a huge new apt block area, to a viewpoint.

Supper was my promised fish. Sadly, deep fried so dry. 🫠 Been spoilt by Greek bbq skills.

20th October 2024 – All about birds

A walk on the beach at Al Hoceima.  A massive Mercure on the beach to satisfy the package holiday makers flying into the local international airport. Beach full of chairs, so we sat, drinking our coffee (own tin beakers) and contemplating the early stillness.  Al Hoceima really did feel more European … not for us.

We followed the coast road east.  A lot of very long ascents and then long descents. Pleased not to have been in the motorhome.  The coastline really is similar to that of Greece. 

We stopped briefly to find the Nador bird park closed. So stopped for the now tepid soup planned for yesterday, just outside on the edge of another new 5 storey housing development.  Only thing of interest here is the large lagoon with houses on the narrow boundary.

Onto the Moulouya Estuary. A huge flat expanse after all the hills, twists and bends we’ve driven along.  A bird sanctuary. Might be the wrong time of year. Might have been impatient.  But we did see flamingo … from a distance.

Onto Oujda.  A city of 572,00.  An apt booked for 2 nights.

Shame the shower didn’t work.  Gave the host the opportunity to fix it, but no hot water.  They knew it too, as they had supplied a large bucket to fill with hot water and pour over oneself.  Pursued this through Airbnb and got a 50% refund.