Tuesday 3th – Thursday 5th May
Camping Alboustane; Morocco.
Well now we are in Africa, our first night and it is certainly exiting. We left Granada on Sunday and drove down the coast to a campsite situated next to the beach. It was a small campsite, laid out in very organized rows, with shade over all the sites and good bathroom facilities, but not much charm but that didn’t matter as it was only for one night and had the bonus of free wifi. The weather had cleared up during the day and the sun shone enough for other campers to be in their bathers soaking up the rays, but for us it was still a little cool so we had no inclination to spend any time on the beach.
That night it did start to rain again and we went to bed with the sound of rain on our roof and were glad we had put away the table and chairs.
Monday we were in now hurry to get going and spent some time on the internet sorting our emails getting updated with the news. We were due to meet the tour group at 3.30 pm that afternoon in a carpark on the way to Algeciras, so we had plenty of time to get there and had planned to do a grocery shop on the way. We had researched about the Spanish shopping hours and worked that out, but after pulling into a large “Carrefores” shopping centre and finding it closed we wondered what was going on. We finally found a petrol station and after filling up asked about the shopping hours and were informed it was a fiesta day, (Labour Day) as well as the Tuesday, so that was not welcome news as we had planned to stock up a bit before we left Spain for Morocco. Well there’s not much you can do about a general holiday so we thought we would work it out as we go and decided we probably would manage, even if we had to rely on local produce.
Just before 3.30 we arrived at the large carpark to see 2 other motorhomes and our guide. There was speculation about whether the tour would go ahead with such a small group, and in the end we had 4 groups and the guide. It didn’t seem like the large expedition we had expected, but after a briefing we had decided we rather liked the idea of a small intimate group and it would have the benefit of a more personal experience. We had dinner together that night in the Restaurant by the carpark and all retired to bed in our respective campers in the carpark. We had to be up and ready by 7.30 am to leave to go to the ferry for the 9 am crossing. To make a long story short we arrived at the terminal, boarded with motorhomes, went upstairs and sat in the lounge area for the 1.45 min crossing to the port of Ceuta (part of Spain ) on the African continent.
We disembarked and tried to follow the leader to the meeting point, we were following a large motorhome and as we couldn’t see past him we assumed he was behind the leader, but in the confusion of traffic, people and foreign signs we missed the meeting spot and headed naively towards the border. We passed through the Spanish border with no more than a nod from the guards and then were ushered compellingly towards the Moroccan border control. We were still under the impression that our leader was ahead and it wasn’t until we stopped and consulted with the man in front that we found out that he had also lost track of him. At the border we were encouraged to hand over all the documents and really had no trouble with them but as Ewout was waiting to be cleared he had a phone call from our leader asking where we were. We had missed him and weren’t really supposed to go to the border with out him. Well we were through and the only thing we could do was to find somewhere to park and wait for the others. When everyone was through we followed the leader to regroup at a large carpark and after a short break headed for our first campsite in Morocco at seaside resort town of Martil.
Now we start to realize that Moroccan facilities will not be anything like western European standards. That’s the good thing about a motor home, we have our own facilities.
After a quiet overnight stay at Martil we took to the road again and first stop was a large supermarket. Yah, a chance to stock up a bit, we managed to get most of what we needed and after loading up the camper we again followed our leader along the road to Chefchaouen.
We followed the main road south, through small villages past picturesque countryside and finally up through the hills to our next campsite overlooking the valley near the old town of Chefchaouen. It is situated in the Rif Mountains, just inland from Tangier and Tetouan. The city was founded in 1471, as a small fortress which still exists to this day, by Moorish exiles from Spain and is noted for its buildings in shades of blue.
We spent the afternoon wandering down the hill through the blue streets, stopped to have a drink in the town square and then looking through souk at all the interesting things they had for sale. We didn’t buy anything as we have been told to wait until we get to Fes and Marrakesh to buy our souvenirs etc.
This morning we were treated to a Berber breakfast by our tour leader which was eggs scrambled with onions, tomatoes and Berber spices. We will then spend the day in this campsite, do some washing and socialize with our companions before having a group meal at a local Moroccan restaurant which we are looking forward to. (We are now down to 3 motor homes and the guide vehicle so it is quite intimate)
Tomorrow we leave and will be staying in our first wilderness camp stopping on the way to visit Volubilis which features the best preserved Roman ruins in this part of northern Africa.
