Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th October
I am writing this from a 40 euro hotel in Spain that feels like heaven! We are 2 days early in Spain so let me back track. Moulay Bouesselham was lovely and we spent yesterday catching up on washing and generally just chilling out.The site is on the lagoon so we got our binoculars out and saw some oyster catchers and we planned to get a boat and see the flamingos tomorrow. The camp was next to the little harbour and we watched the local fishermen prepare their boats for fishing nd then return with their catch.We went into the little village in the evening to eat, it is full of small restaurants selling the days catch and frequented mostly by local people.It is a popular place for Moroccan tourists in the Summer when the population swells from about 1,000 to 95,000.
So all was going well and we were looking forward to the boat trip to see the flamingos and Gav had also sorted out a 3 hour fishing trip with one of the fishermen on his little boat. That was until last night. Egypt has the Pharoes revenge, India has Delhil belly.Morocco has Moroccan misery and it hit me full force last night. Without going into too much detail, I had to visit the bathroom about 8 times during the night which involves unzipping the tent and climbing down the ladder, then rushing over to the campsite bathroom which has a variety of insects in it, all by head torch! I ended up taking a heavy duty bin bag up into the roof tent just in case, much to Gav`s disgust, thankfully it was not needed.We both woke up on Saturday morning like broken people! Exhausted, mosquito bitten and me with a dicky tummy. Gav suggested that we get the ferry today and head back to Spain a couple of days early.OK!
We packed up and headed off the 70 miles or so to Tanger port from where the ferry returns to Algeciras. We got to the port, did all the paperwork and had our passports checked by an official whom I greeted with "Salaam alakyum". "Is that all the Arabic you know", he challenged? I proceeded to recite the 30 or so words/phrases I had learnt and been using the last few weeks in Morocco, he was delighted! Except I have been going around saying "I am an Englishman" for the past few weeks, using the masculine rather than feminine version of the word! We just missed the 1.00pm ferry, and saw it slowly sailing away as we drove onto the dock.We had to wait another 3 hours before the next one and then it didn`t sail for another hour.Spain was 2 hours ahead so we would arrive about 9pm. And then Gav made the suggestion that we book a hotel in Algeciras to get a good nights sleep, a proper shower and loo and some food. Well I did a little jig in delight.Whilst I love our landy and sleeping in the roof tent, I was a broken woman from last night (!) and I never thought a hotel room would be so appealing! So we found one near to the port and here we are grinning like Cheshire cats!
OK, so the intrepid travelers have buckled a little, left Morocco a little early and booked into a hotel but it feels good! So on Sunday we will drive to Seville and spend a couple of nights there, visiting the city on one of the days.Then it will be full speed ahead with a couple of days to get to Bilbao on Thursday for the ferry back to England.
I am writing this from a 40 euro hotel in Spain that feels like heaven! We are 2 days early in Spain so let me back track. Moulay Bouesselham was lovely and we spent yesterday catching up on washing and generally just chilling out.The site is on the lagoon so we got our binoculars out and saw some oyster catchers and we planned to get a boat and see the flamingos tomorrow. The camp was next to the little harbour and we watched the local fishermen prepare their boats for fishing nd then return with their catch.We went into the little village in the evening to eat, it is full of small restaurants selling the days catch and frequented mostly by local people.It is a popular place for Moroccan tourists in the Summer when the population swells from about 1,000 to 95,000.
So all was going well and we were looking forward to the boat trip to see the flamingos and Gav had also sorted out a 3 hour fishing trip with one of the fishermen on his little boat. That was until last night. Egypt has the Pharoes revenge, India has Delhil belly.Morocco has Moroccan misery and it hit me full force last night. Without going into too much detail, I had to visit the bathroom about 8 times during the night which involves unzipping the tent and climbing down the ladder, then rushing over to the campsite bathroom which has a variety of insects in it, all by head torch! I ended up taking a heavy duty bin bag up into the roof tent just in case, much to Gav`s disgust, thankfully it was not needed.We both woke up on Saturday morning like broken people! Exhausted, mosquito bitten and me with a dicky tummy. Gav suggested that we get the ferry today and head back to Spain a couple of days early.OK!
We packed up and headed off the 70 miles or so to Tanger port from where the ferry returns to Algeciras. We got to the port, did all the paperwork and had our passports checked by an official whom I greeted with "Salaam alakyum". "Is that all the Arabic you know", he challenged? I proceeded to recite the 30 or so words/phrases I had learnt and been using the last few weeks in Morocco, he was delighted! Except I have been going around saying "I am an Englishman" for the past few weeks, using the masculine rather than feminine version of the word! We just missed the 1.00pm ferry, and saw it slowly sailing away as we drove onto the dock.We had to wait another 3 hours before the next one and then it didn`t sail for another hour.Spain was 2 hours ahead so we would arrive about 9pm. And then Gav made the suggestion that we book a hotel in Algeciras to get a good nights sleep, a proper shower and loo and some food. Well I did a little jig in delight.Whilst I love our landy and sleeping in the roof tent, I was a broken woman from last night (!) and I never thought a hotel room would be so appealing! So we found one near to the port and here we are grinning like Cheshire cats!
OK, so the intrepid travelers have buckled a little, left Morocco a little early and booked into a hotel but it feels good! So on Sunday we will drive to Seville and spend a couple of nights there, visiting the city on one of the days.Then it will be full speed ahead with a couple of days to get to Bilbao on Thursday for the ferry back to England.
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