Bilbao

We are parked up this afternoon in glorious sunshine at the ferry port in Bilbao in preparation for our 10.30am sailing tomorrow. It's the end of the journey, almost. We left Burgos this morning and stopped to brim the diesel tank and gas cylinders before calling at Lidl for some wine and beer and a couple of pies for lunch! The ferry port is about twenty kilometres from Bilbao so there's no chance of us doing any sightseeing other than watching the seemingly endless stream of Motorhomes and caravans arriving for tomorrow's ferry. There are probably about a hundred here already and we don't sail for another eighteen hours! Mind, nothing like being early eh? After our experience at Tangier Med returning from Morocco I was dreading the guy here giving me a ticket for bay 7. In fact I think I would have begged him for any other bay, as it turned out we are in bay 10 so all should be good, I suspect the organisation here will be a little better than in Morocco. We've been steadily eating our way through the fridge and freezer contents over the last few days as we dont want to leave the fridge switched on during the crossing and we hate throwing food away. We've judged it pretty well and apart from the remains of a curry I made in Morocco and half a lettuce they're won't be too much for the bin.

Since we left home we've travelled 4,737 mile, 2,889 in Europe and 1,846 in Morocco. We've been away for 80 days and stopped at 37 campsites or parking spaces. I stopped recording the diesel used some time ago and I'm not even contemplating trying to work out what we've spent but it's probably not much more than if we had stayed at home in Yorkshire. At least that's what we're telling ourselves! We've met some wonderful people on this journey, both fellow travellers and some lovely Spanish and Moroccan folk. The van hasn't let us down, in fact considering some of the roads we've been on I'm more than impressed. We've had a leaking rooflight now, hopefully, repaired and the near side mirror has the glass cracked. All in all we're more than satisfied with the choice of vehicle we made a year ago.

So that's it really. Our next trip will probably be to the west coast of Scotland during May and June, before the midges get too ferocious. Thanks to everybody who has followed our adventure and found the time to post comments, they're much appreciated. Thanks also to Paul and Chris, our travelling companions in Morocco, it wouldn't have been half as much fun without you.

Meanwhile I'll leave you with a few pictures:

Dover at sunset:

Bitterly cold on our second morning in France:

Sprucing the van in France before setting off:

Great view of the bridge at Millau:

Spectacular sunset at Cambrils:

Bizarre rock formations at Bolnuevo:

Enjoying the easy life in La Garrofa:

View of Granada from the Alhambra:

The Alhambra:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving Algeciras for Morocco:

Rabat, looking across to Sale:

Boat building in El Jadida:

The Palmerie at Agdz:

The dunes at El Chigaga:

Sunday morning souk at Midelt:

Chefchaouen:

The Alcazar in Seville:

Iglesia de San Fransico Javier, Caceres:

Waiting for the ferry at Bilbao:

 

 

 

 

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Salamanca

Saturday 15th March 2014.

We are parked up tonight in a nice campsite just outside Salamanca. We arrived yesterday after driving up from Caceras through some lovely countryside. We've done nothing for the last day and a half, and the city of Salamanca is now on our "places to visit next time" list. Consequently not much to report today so I'll just post some pictures of Caceras from our visit there as promised. Tomorrow we head for Burgos where we were looking forward to a last meal in Spain at a restaurant recommended by Paul and Chris. Unfortunately it's closed on Sundays but I'm sure we can find somewhere to celebrate the end, almost, of our twelve week adventure. We land back in the UK next Wednesday and while it will be great to see family and friends again we'll miss the experience of not knowing what the next day will bring or what surprises are in store for us. But we are planning our next trip so we have lots to look forward to.

Caceras:

 

 

 

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Caceres

I tried to post this last night but couldn't so everything on here refers to yesterday 13th March.

We are parked tonight in a Motorhome car park in Caceres, it's free and it has services but no electricity and we are only permitted to stop for 24 hours. There's room for 14 vans and we arrived at about two o'clock and took one of the last two places. Whilst we had some lunch prior to exploring the town vans kept arriving and, finding the place full, turning round and parking further up the road in the area reserved for buses and coaches. By the time we left half a dozen had parked there despite the signs prohibiting them and we suspected things would end badly. Sure enough when we returned at about 7.15 there were about a dozen Motorhomes there,as were the police. We guessed from the body language and arm waving that they were being told to move on. It's now an hour later, the police have gone but there are still a half dozen or so vans parked. Looks like we'll have some entertainment later this evening. There is a campsite just outside town which we looked at before coming here but it meant getting a bus into town and back so we decided to stop here instead. We reckon if we are having a "moving" day we need to be where we are heading by 2pm latest to be sure of a spot or, even if it's a big site, a decent spot so whilst it's disappointing not to get the spot you want, I don't have a great deal of sympathy for the French convoy up the road who couldn't get themselves out of bed this morning.

We had never heard of Caceres until a couple of days ago when a guy we met at Los Gazules recommended we stop here and we are glad we did. The historic old town remains pretty much as it was six centuries ago. Narrow high walled streets suddenly open up into plazas with a church or palace on every corner. The town is still contained by it's protective walls and when you view an empty cobblestoned plaza with its ancient doorways and windows and it's skyline of turrets, towers, domes, gargoyles and storks nests it truly is like a film set. We visited the Concatedral de Santa Maria (another climb to the bell tower!) which whilst not as opulent or ornate as Granada or Seville feels much more like a place of worship and which contains a sixteenth century carved cedar altarpiece perfectly complementing the gothic stone roof arches. The ecclesiastical museum doubles as the sacristy however the priest preparing for mass welcomed us warmly as he put on his vestments and robes. The church of San Mateo is undergoing renovation but we could still visit, (another spiral staircase) and had a collection of small nativity scenes from around the world, beautiful, weird, charming and tacky as we moved around the exhibits.

The town's museum held an eclectic collection of items donated by local families as well as two floors of sixteenth and seventeenth century paintings, mostly, of a religious nature together with portraits of people you or I have never heard of. Every corner we turned brought another gasp of surprise at how this town could have remained so intact, giving us a peek back to the Middle Ages. The town has another claim to fame; Franco was declared head of state in 1936 in the Palacio de los Golfines de Arriba although they don't mention this in the official tourist guide.

Unfortunately, I've had problems with my WiFi over the last few days (what else is new) so I can't post any pictures today but I'll definitely post some tomorrow of this amazing little historic town within a city.

 

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Seville

We arrived in Seville yesterday, driving the ninety minutes or so from Camping "Los Gazules" after the wind had died down a little. The parking space here is just that, a corner of a compound where the main activity is the redistribution of new cars but it has water, waste disposal, electricity (although our cable won't stretch to the socket!) security, WiFi and most importantly it's a fifteen minute walk into the the centre of the city. And what a city this is. Yesterday we had a reconnoitre and noted the places we had to see today as we only had one full day in Seville. Everywhere we looked there were ornate buildings, museums, parks, gardens and all of it in the Centro Historica dominated by the Cathedral.

The Real Alcazar was a must see and it didn't disappoint. Although the original site dates from the tenth century it was during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the Christian monarchs used it as their main palace, that the sumptuous tile, plaster and wood carvings created the palace as it now is. We were blown away by the Alhambra in Granada but although the Alcazar is not on the same scale it surpasses the Alhambra in the degree to which it has been preserved. The colours of the tiles, mosaics and polychromed wood are breathtaking and still vibrant. Artistic and architectural styles encompassing (and I'm reading from the official guide now) Taifa, Almohad, Gothic, Mudejar, Reinassance, Baroque and Neo-Classical have all been used here and it's amazing. I can do no better than quote the Lonely Planet guide which says "If heaven really does exist, then let's hope it looks a little bit like the inside of Seville's Alcazar". There are two rooms hung with sixteenth century tapestries that look like they were produced yesterday so bright are the colours and they are almost outshone by the tiles on the walls and floor and the ornate ceilings. It truly is an amazing place.

We emerged four hours later, footsore but ready to visit the Cathedral which is right next door. Built on the site of a former Mosque between 1434 - 1517 with additions over the next five hundred years it is enormous and houses chapels larger than many churches we have visited. It's 126 metres long, 83 metres wide, 37 metres high and is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world with the biggest altarpiece holding over a thousand biblical figures. I didn't know there were a thousand biblical characters and you probably didn't either eh? The Cathedral also houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus, as in: "let's celebrate Columbus day by walking into someone's house and telling them we live there now" (revisionist history). Or possibly not. Doubts have been cast upon the authenticity of the bones in the casket and DNA testing is inconclusive but let that not bother us. Whilst the opulence displayed can be a little overpowering, to say the least, the scale, artistry and craftsmanship are amazing. Not content with walking round the Cathedral we also climbed the 104 metres to the bell tower, the Giralda, which was the minaret of the original Mosque and built in the twelfth century.

Phew! By now we are ready for lunch, provided by a nice tapas bar situated just outside the Cathedral. To be honest anywhere serving food outside the Cathedral would be described as nice by now but we did have some lovely food which set us up for a walk through the Barrio de Santa Cruz, the medieval Jewish quarter full of winding streets and pretty palm lined plazas. Seven hours after setting off we returned to the van, tired but still in awe of the fabulous Alcazar and Seville in general. We've said this about a few places but this is one we would definitely try to return to. A day and a half in no way does it justice and there is so much more to be seen but Bilbao and our ferry home beckon so tomorrow we set off for Caceres where the old town has, apparently, remained untouched since the sixteenth century. It's a long drive but I'm sure we'll find coffee and churros on the way.

Real Alcazar:

Roof detail:

 

 

Tiles, plasterwork and an amazing timber door:

 

Amazing.

 

Fountain with Mercury

 

Yes, they're tiles!

 

 

These tapestries are about twenty feet wide and twelve or fifteen feet high;

Tapestry detail:

No pictures of the Cathedral today or else the dodgy WiFi here will fall over trying to post this!

 

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Still in Alcala de Los Gazules

We are still on the campsite! It has been so windy we haven't fancied driving at all. We've had these strong winds for four days now and whilst it's been bright and sunny it's a bit unnerving in the van, especially at night. Whilst common sense tells me that four tons of van isn't going to be blown over it's still pretty scary on the occasions when it feels like someone is picking the van up and shaking it! The forecast suggests it's going to ease off tomorrow and then we'll probably head off for Seville for a few days. We've just met a German couple here who have also just returned from Morocco and he has suggested a couple of places for us to visit on the way to Northern Spain, namely Caceres, Salamanca and Burgos. As we are running out of time now I think we'll have to forget Cordoba and Toledo and save them for our next visit to Spain and follow our German friend's advice as the places he has mentioned are on the way to Bilbao.

So we've had a few "nothing"days here really while we've waited for the wind to drop but at least it's given us the opportunity to relax before we set off on the last leg of our journey and time to plan our next trip. Time to practise the ukulele as well!

 

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Little bit windy

We are still parked up on the campsite in Alcala de Los Gazules, and a very nice campsite it is too. Unfortunately it's blowing a gale at the moment and has been for thirty six hours or so and according to the weather forecast shows no sign of abating in the next few days. We were awoken at about 4am yesterday with the van rocking in the wind and the awning groaning. I had a look outside and everything seemed safe so I crawled back to bed and lay there listening to the wind howling until I noticed a change in pitch to the awning noise. Had another look and sure enough one of the legs had dropped a bit. On with the clothes and spent the next five minutes battling the wind whilst I secured the awning, I know from experience that damaged parts are expensive to replace. Whilst it's blue skies, sunny and warm the wind hasn't stopped and we're getting a bit fed up with it now but not as fed up as the guy opposite whose caravan awning was shredded yesterday whilst he and his wife went out to do some shopping. Me and the guy next door tried to save it and we managed to take it down but it's not looking too good. They're an elderly couple and although they put a brave face on the situation when they returned I could tell they were upset. I've got some really strong tape with me and I've told them I'll have a go at a repair, but not till the wind drops a bit!

When we arrived there were only two other couples here on the site apart from us although a load of pitches were taken up with caravans with massive awnings and outside kitchens. Last night and today the place has really filled up with maybe twenty or so Gibraltese families who have come for the weekend, or maybe it's half term. They've swept out their caravans and generally spruced up their pitches, the kids are all playing football or basketball or tearing around on their bikes and their dogs are chasing each other round the site. It's a really nice atmosphere and I suspect the bar/restaurant will be rammed tonight. We won't be there as the elderly couple opposite have told us about the restaurant next door, which we passed when we went for a walk earlier. They went there for a meal last night, had three courses of delicious food with wine, water, bread etc for €11.50. That's for two people! I've just been down to book a table for tonight and the place is heaving with Spanish families enjoying a leisurely lunch and making what looks like a brave attempt to drink all the wine in the restaurant. The fact that we're five kilometres from the nearest town and there are about a dozen cars parked outside the restaurant is a bit worrying but, hey ho.

So it looks like we're stuck here till the wind drops, which is no great hardship. We're not on a schedule and as long as we get to Bilbao by the 18th all is ok.

Finally, for those of you wondering how the ukulele playing is coming along I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I've discovered that I only really need to learn three chords, F,G and C. (Punk never died did it?) The bad news is that I probably won't be playing them at the right time. Nevertheless I will be available for weddings and bar mitzvahs from mid June. Possibly.

 

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Alcala De Los Gazules ( and Tangiers)

We are parked tonight on an excellent campsite at Alcala De Los Gazules, about 45 minutes north of Algeciras and in the middle of the Los Alcornocales nature park. We arrived yesterday and it's a relief to be somewhere we can chill out after our nightmare departure from Morocco. I'll get the departure saga out of the way eh?

So, we departed Chefchaouen two days ago at midday and arrived at Tangier Med at about 14.15. The journey was uneventful until we climbed up just outside Sebta to an exposed section of road where for a couple of miles we were blown all over the place. It's the first time I was really concerned or, to be honest, plain scared that we would be blown over by the high winds. But we survived and dropped down into the port. The signage on entry is useless and more by luck than good judgement we arrived at our entry point and visited the ticket office where we were given boarding cards,a departure time of 18.00 and instructions to proceed to bay7. The departure process from Morocco is as chaotic as it is on arrival but eventually after showing our passports half a dozen times, clearing our van for "export", as we had "imported" it five weeks ago, and then having the van x-rayed we drove off to bay 7. In the process we had become separated from Paul and Chris but they were waiting for us at the departure point, guided us in and then we settled down in our vans for a sandwich whilst we waited on the arrival of our ferry. As anticipated it turned up late but after unloading the passengers from Spain it started loading again but.... from bay 6. Paul and Chris who were at the front of bay 7 jumped out to see the dopes in the hi-vis jackets and barriers were removed to allow them to drive on, we waited patiently. Twenty minutes later we saw them on the rear deck of the ferry and Paul sent me a text suggesting I should let the hi-vis dopes know that I was on the same ferry. I went down with my ticket, found a guy who spoke English and explained that I was a little concerned. "No problem" he said, "You'll all get on, don't worry." Ten minutes later we watched the loading ramps on our ferry get raised prior to sailing!! I ran down, again, to the high-vis dopes knowing there was nothing that could be done but......I lost it. We'd had a great five weeks in Morocco and although there had been a couple of occasions when things maybe went a bit wrong I'd not let it bother me. Carpet salesmen - just say no and keep smiling. Shop owners in the Souks hassling - keep smiling. Guys who wanted to "guide" us - non merci and keep smiling. But this fiasco was just too much. Our boarding pass said bay 7, the illuminated signs said bay 7, everybody who checked our boarding passes said bay 7 and yet here we were, watching our friends sail away knowing we should have been in bay 6 all along. I lost it with the high-vis dopes, I lost it with the police and it's probably just as well that their English language skills didn't cover the colloquialisms I was using although I suspect they got the gist from my body language. But, nothing to do than wait for the ferry to sail to Algeciras, unload, re-load and return to Tangier. We finally arrived back at the Lidl car park in Algeciras at 5.30am, found Paul and Chris and, as quietly as possible, parked up a couple of bays in front of them.

Yesterday morning we woke at 11,30 poked our heads outside and in a moment Paul arrived bearing croissants and bacon. What a star! We had a cup of coffee with them before they departed for Madrid to meet up with their godson and then had a tearful farewell. We've had a great time with them and, hopefully, we'll meet up again. We couldn't have met a better couple to travel with.

After a Lidl and Carrefour shop we set off for the campsite we are on now. In a day and a half Phil has done four loads of washing, we've cleaned the van, inside and out, and we're enjoying a campsite with excellent, clean, facilities. We are surrounded by the usual menagerie (dogs, goats, sheep, cows, cats) with the addition of frogs, croaking over the hedge and horses from the ranch next door which seem to wander freely about the site. It's lovely. Chris, you'd love it! We went to the restaurant this evening and had a delicious meal of salad, mixed grill, frittes, bread, a bottle of Rioja and coffee for €22. Paul, you'd love it! There were a couple of locals playing pool and I asked if I could play. I lost the first game, not quite understanding "Spanish" rules, but won the second after potting the black in the pocket my opponent chose. An outstanding shot, playing the black off the cushion into the pocket at the other end of the table!

We think we'll stay here for a few days. We're heading for Seville next and then we'll make our way up to Bilbao slowly for our ferry back to the UK on the 18th. But first I think there may be a rematch tomorrow on the pool table :)

Driving to Tangier, that big mountain in front was the one that scared me

The last police road block.

I don't think they want you to sit on this bench at the ferry port!

That's our ferry!

Our route in Morocco (thanks Paul)

 

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Last Post From Morocco

Well, it looks like this will be our last post from Morocco. We are still parked at the campsite in Chefchaouen but tomorrow we set off for Tangier Med and the ferry back to Spain.

We'll be sad to leave Morocco, we've had a fabulous time here, seen some amazing sights and met some charming people. We will definitely return here, hopefully next year and stay a little longer. Unfortunately our time here this time was restricted due to having to return to the UK to MOT the van by the end of March. Meanwhile here are a few random thoughts about our time here in this fabulous country.

We found the people here charming and helpful in the main. Ok,a few folk are out to make a quick buck out of travellers but that's the same wherever you travel and if we got conned out of a few dirhams it didn't bother us too much, after all, we've got far more money than a lot of folk here. The scenery pretty much everywhere we travelled was beautiful and in some instances jaw droppingly magnificent. The desert and the mountains particularly so. We only travelled to the edge of the Sahara with our guide but it was breathtakingly beautiful and serene whilst at the same time a little bit scary. The views travelling over the Atlas Mountains were amazing, the different colours of the rock from grey through to purple took our breath away. As we travelled south we passed oasis and Palmeries. Big splotches of green in a dry desolate landscape.

Donkeys. We've never seen so many donkeys; there must be hundreds of thousands of donkeys in Morocco transporting just about anything that will fit on their backs or their saddle bags or pulling carts the size of our Motorhome (almost). Camels. The sight of herds of camels walking majestically across the sands of the Sahara is an image we'll never forget. The ride we had on a pair is something we won't repeat in a hurry. Dogs. We rarely spent a night on a campsite where the local dogs didn't bark all night; we got used to it and it didn't bother us after a couple of weeks. Barbery Apes. We felt privileged to have seen them in the wild in the cedar forest near Azrou. Cats. Far too many cats, everywhere. On the streets, in campsites, in shops, in restaurants. They say in England you're never more than six feet from a rat, I reckon in Morocco you're never more than three feet from a cat.

The roads, oh the roads. We first travelled on the toll motorways when we arrived heading to our first campsite and they were pretty good but as we travelled further south and inland we experienced some horrendous roads. This isn't a criticism of Morocco by any means just a statement of fact. The craziest are the single and a half track roads where you and oncoming traffic hurtle toward one another and then you both (sometimes) swerve onto the stony, gravelly, sandy bit off road before rejoining the road again. We found we could play "chicken" with small cars but not lorries or coaches. We would travel along major, well surfaced roads, only to arrive at a large town where the road surface had completely deteriorated and we slowed down to walking pace until we had passed through. Pot holes? Enough to fill the Albert Hall, and then some. All this while dodging donkeys, mopeds, bikes, pedestrians, goats, sheep and dogs. Moroccan drivers? On the whole pretty good, considerate and not at all impatient which is good considering the road conditions even in the major cities. The whole process becomes a bit anarchic in the cities but it works and we didn't see any accidents or collisions. As pedestrians we found that pedestrian crossing areas were pretty much ignored by drivers and crossing the road was a test of nerve and courage but despite a few close shaves we're still here to tell the tale.

The waves at Ouassai beach.

The stars. The night sky without any light pollution had us standing outside getting cricks in our necks for hours. It was wonderful.

Doorways. We thought we'd seen some great doors and archways in Greece but nothing to compare with the ones we saw here.

Goats twenty feet up in trees eating Argan nuts.

Taking tea (Berber whiskey) with our desert guide, Mohammed, and his family.

Our van. We've travelled nearly 1,800 miles in Morocco over some crazy roads and apart from a cracked mirror our motor (home) is still going strong. It's a six year old Lunar Premier H592 on a Renault Master chassis and it's done everything we've asked of it. We've got a solar panel and twin gas bottles so we're pretty independent and all we really need is water every couple of days and somewhere to empty the loo and we've managed that so far. We developed a leaking rooflight but that was fixed, thanks to Paul and his glazing tape, and we knocked the spare wheel of it's mounting at a campsite in Midelt and we fixed that three days later after identifying where the rattling was coming from! So, all in all, we're pretty much pleased with our van.

Finally, a few words about our travelling companions, Paul and Chris. http://travelwithpaulandchris.blogspot.co.uk/ We had only met them once before in the UK after we responded to a post of theirs on a Motorhome forum so it could have been a disaster if we hadn't got on. As it turned out we couldn't imagine having nicer people to share our adventures, they really are a lovely couple with a great sense of humour. Paul had put a lot of effort into planning the route, which is just as well because we hadn't. We didn't even have a map for the first couple of weeks!! As it turned out and although we have only been here five weeks it meant we saw pretty much all the different sights Morocco has to offer. Chris, who will always be known as the "goats cheese fairy", demonstrated her excellent haggling skills on more than one occasion and Paul came to my rescue when I had a leaking rooflight and a rumbling spare wheel. I don't think we would have had the fun we've had without them and it was also reassuring when we on some dodgy roads, many miles from anywhere, that someone else had your back in case of breakdowns or punctures. Hopefully we may have further travels and adventures with them in the future.

Bye for now, see you in Spain in a day or so.

 

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Fes and the road to Chefchaouen

We are parked up tonight in a quagmire masquerading as a campsite in Chefchaouen. It's raining. Heavily.

We survived Fes, in fact we enjoyed it much more than we expected. We had read and been told such negative reports that we weren't really looking forward to our time there at all but we met our guide on Saturday morning and he showed us some of the Medina (it's massive) a mosaic and pottery workshop, the tanneries, the inevitable carpet shop and whilst we felt our tour was a little rushed he was an ok guy with excellent English. So we'd go back to Fes and spend more time there I think. The medina is huge with over 28 kilometres of alleyways and has hardly changed in over a century, apparently the last big expansion was in the thirteenth century, and it currently houses over 180,000 people. Just about every trade and craft is carried on there and yet we weren't particularly hassled by shopkeepers as we had anticipated. Of course it's easy to get lost in such a maze but as it's built on the side of a hill if you just walk downhill apparently you'll always find a way out, simple eh?

This guy is working in his forge about 2m x 2.5m in the middle of the medina

Craftsmen in the pottery factory

A view of the medina from the rooftops. The green roofed building is the Kairaouine Mosque & University. The oldest university in the world.

The tanneries. The white tanks contain ammonia and the dark tanks the dye.

 

So today, Sunday, we set off for Chefchaouen by the scenic route which our maps and GPS said would take us about three and a half hours. We planned our coffee stop for Taounate which was a good choice. Instead of the usual coffee, bread, laughing cow cheese and a dish of apricot or strawberry jam something got lost in the translation today and we received cheese and apricot jam baguette sandwiches. That's cheese and apricot jam in the same sandwich which was...... interesting. Lunch was planned for in Ketama, then we read what Lonely Planet had to say: "Ketama has a notorious reputation. This is an area beyond the law. People will wonder what you are doing here and naturally assume you are buying hashish. There is nowhere to turn if you get in to trouble and little to hold anyone back who wants some. Travellers are strongly advised to pass through." Sounds like our kinda town we thought but as we drove slowly through the villages before with just about everybody shouting at us offering kif we decided to give it a miss. We pulled up just outside and stopped to make coffee and a sandwich and half a dozen cars pulled up offering more kif. Usually when we pass through a town or village people smile or wave at us, in the Rif mountains and valleys guys just lounge about on the side of the road giving us snake eyes. The weather got worse as we drove over at about 1,700 metres, fog and then heavy rain and more fog, none of which deterred the locals from driving like maniacs. The worse driving we've seen in all of Morocco. I managed to clout wing mirrors with a guy in a 4x4 who came hurtling around a bend. I've got cracked glass but apparently he came of worse according to Paul and Chris who were following me. His mirror was dangling by its cable. Fortunately the artwork on my mirror is still as beautiful as ever and bears no battle scars.

All in all it took us about eight hours to travel the 260 kilometres today and we were all pretty exhausted by the time we arrived at Chefchaouen. We parked up and looked for somewhere to eat and found a little restaurant. Sole and frites for me and Phil and calamari and frites for Paul and Chris, it certainly hit the spot. Up some ridiculously steep hills to reach the campsite which is a sea of mud overlooking low cloud, twenty minutes trying to find a pitch anything like level and I put the levelling blocks out only to roll straight over them and stopping two inches from the wall behind! We are as level as we can get and still have a list to port and a slope rear to front. And we have no 3G here which means I probably won't be able to post this for a day or two. Happy days but I'm sure things will look wonderful tomorrow. If it stops raining.

Ah, think I might have found some WiFi :)

 

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