The Marrakesh Express

[CaptainPaul]

Weather looked a bit iffy over Morocco today - very dark skies.
Looked like the tail end of the storm that got us yesterday


.Definitely not

 

[garry55]

Day 24 to Morocco.
Zero progress as we stayed in Tarifa and chilled. Tomorrow we are off up the coast to Barbate.

 

[garry55]

Today is day 25, not 24. Silly me

 

[garry55]

Day 26 to Morocco.
A short drive up the coast to Barbate. We are parked on the front row of the municipal aire next to the marina. There is a great, unspoilt beach behind us and another on the other side of the marina. Toilets, showers, washer / dryer and ehu for 14 euros, although the toilet block is a 400m walk from the aire.
Highly recommended

 

[garry55]

Day - erm, let me check, 27 - yes 27, to Morocco.
Another short drive up the coast to Conil de la Frontera for our next overnight stay. We are parked where S4S reviews say you can legally park, opposite the municipal sports ground, facing the river, although there are 8+ vans and motorhomes parked in a car park right next to the beach. I was going to decamp to there until a chance conversation with an English couple who have been visiting here every winter for the past 20 years told us that they got a 200 euros fine for parking there, so we are staying put! No services but easy access to the fab beach and lovely town centre.

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[garry55]

Day 28 to Morocco.
A big step forward today, even though we haven't moved from Conil de la Frontera as we really like it here.
The vets contacted Sharon to inform us that they have our dogs serology (titer) test results and all is good for them to issue the AHC's we need to go to Morocco. The tests were due to take 7-10 working days but we have got them back in 5 days so that's a big bonus. We can now arrange an appointment on Monday with the PIF and collect our documentation from the vets, which should, hopefully, see us boarding a ferry to Morocco on Wednesday. It's getting awfully close now!

 

[garry55]

Day 29 to Morocco.
Nothing exciting today
Travelled a whole 3.3 Kms from our riverside parking spot in Conil de la Frontera to La Rosaleda Camping in Conil de la Frontera. My idea of motor-homing hell - it's a very large site (we are on plot # 200!) with a lot of long-termers in residence. We have got a good size plot for 20 euros a night and the facilities are excellent. We need to do some laundry and charge some of our electricals before heading for Morocco, so it's a needs must stop.

 

[Barryh]

Just been catching up on your trip. Great stuff.

 

[garry55]

Just been catching up on your trip. Great stuff.

Thanks Barry. Hope you are enjoying it a half as much as we are!

 

[garry55]

Day 30 to Morocco.
Spent most of the day sunbathing as it was 20c and we had nothing much else to do but watch the washing dry. Walked into town late afternoon to time the walk to the dog groomers as Sharon has to have them there at 09:00. I will stay back and pack our stuff away, fill the drinking water tank and empty the grey and toilet waste. Then I'll drive the 3.3kms back to the riverside parking and await her return.

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[garry55]

Day 31 to Morocco.
We left lovely Conil de la Frontera this morning and made our way back to Los Barrios. Stocked up with provisions at the local Lidl store, collected the dogs Serology and Animal Health Certificates from the local vets and got our ferry ticket from Carlos. We sail for Morocco at 13:00 local time tomorrow. Hopefully no more earthquakes whilst we are there!

 

[garry55]

And this beautifully restored old motorhome has just joined us on the holding car park

 

[Just smiffy]

Again… have a good trip…

 

[garry55]

Again… have a good trip…

Hope so. Are you any where near where the earthquake struck? That is our planned first stop!

 

[Just smiffy]

Hope so. Are you any where near where the earthquake struck? That is our planned first stop!

Marrakesh is only one place we have been too where they had damage, only saw a little bit and that was covered up.. when we go into the heart of Morocco we may see more but to be honest there is a lot of ruins and badly kept buildings so would be difficult to know if it was earthquake damage, sounds bad I know but some places look like they’ve been in a war for some years, I’m not being disrespectful but that’s how it looks sometimes…

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[garry55]

Day 32 to Morocco.
PIFfing about at the port getting the dogs export licences

 

[garry55]

More PIFfing around.
Our pre- booked 11:00 appointment at the PIF office hasn't been "recognised" so we can't have one until 12:00 now. Our ferry sails at 13:00 so it's cutting it mighty fine. If we miss the 13:00 ferry we have to wait and get on the 16:00 ferry. PIFffffff

 

[garry55]

Got the export document in 10 mins so we had plenty of time to get to the ferry embarkation point and join the queue for the 13:00 ferry. Soon.......

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

No one seemed to worry over whether dogs had paperwork or not on the Morocco side or going back to Spain.

 

[garry55]

Marrakesh is only one place we have been too where they had damage, only saw a little bit and that was covered up.. when we go into the heart of Morocco we may see more but to be honest there is a lot of ruins and badly kept buildings so would be difficult to know if it was earthquake damage, sounds bad I know but some places look like they’ve been in a war for some years, I’m not being disrespectful but that’s how it looks sometimes…

Quick question for you - did you get a Maroc SIM card and if so, where from? The port or a shop outside of the port?
Actually, that's 2 questions

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[CaptainPaul]

If that ferry leaves on time, do the lotto because your lucks in.....because if it does leave on time it'll be the 1st time ever!

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Quick question for you - did you get a Maroc SIM card and if so, where from? The port or a shop outside of the port?
Actually, that's 2 questions

When we were over in Morocco we bought our from the telecom shop in Asilah very helpful and we used them each month when we needed to update.

 

[Just smiffy]

Quick question for you - did you get a Maroc SIM card and if so, where from? The port or a shop outside of the port?
Actually, that's 2 questions

Got my Maroc Telecom in asilah from what I can remember is you pay a little bit for the sim… then I buy 50dh scratch cards and send a message to 555 then put in the scratch cards number and if it’s just data you want you follow the number with *3
The cards are apparently 50dh for 5gb but at the moment you get 7.5gb…
When you buy the sim give your phone to the lad/bloke and he will do it for you…

You can buy the cards at any little shop, they will have a small maroc telecoms sign outside…

 

[billym]

Got my Maroc Telecom in asilah from what I can remember is you pay a little bit for the sim… then I buy 50dh scratch cards and send a message to 555 then put in the scratch cards number and if it’s just data you want you follow the number with *3
The cards are apparently 50dh for 5gb but at the moment you get 7.5gb…
When you buy the sim give your phone to the lad/bloke and he will do it for you…

You can buy the cards at any little shop, they will have a small maroc telecoms sign outside…

This is our 4th trip and never understood fully the system

Today we went to INWI in Larache, got unlimited internet . 200 Mad until 7 March, then 200 for a full month then 180 for third month.( Cash only)
Downside is that to recharge it you have to go to INWI office . You can tether it.

Then we went to Maroc telecom and she sent us outside to a stall where we got 15 gig plus 600 internal phone calls for 130 Mad for 30 days.

It's all working so fingers crossed we don't have to speak to each other for a month

 

[garry55]

Day 1 in Morocco.
Having had our passports checked and stamped on board the ferry we looked forward to a speedy exit from the docks. How wrong could we be?
Police at the bottom of the ferry ramp checked our passports. Then we joined 1 of the 4 queues that merge into 2 to go through the scanner. Then they pull us out of that queue and send us to the customs points. All around us are cars and vans with their contents scattered all over the roadways. Didn't look good for our 30+ bottle stash of wine....
A very officious customs officer checked out paperwork - V5, passports (both ours and the dogs), took a look inside then waved us on our way. Big sigh of relief.
We bought 2 Maroc Telecom SIM cards from their office in the car park within the port - 30 euros each for 30gb unlimited roaming and the ability to top up when needed.
Had a lovely drive over the Rif mountains, past Ceuta to Fnideq, where S4S showed some beach side parking was available. We didn't see one motorhome or campervan on the car parks by the beach so continued to our next choice - the Hotel and Restaurant La Ferma at Cabo Negro.
It's a lovely site, 20 minutes outside Tetouan with plenty of space, a motorhome service point and a great restaurant where we have just enjoyed our first Tagine dish of succulent lamb with prunes.
Hoping to get a taxi ride into Tetouan tomorrow so staying another day. Loving Morocco so far!

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[garry55]

No one seemed to worry over whether dogs had paperwork or not on the Morocco side or going back to Spain.

I don't think we would bother jumping through all the (expensive) hoops again if we go back to Morocco. Nobody has looked at or asked for anything other than the dogs passports.

 

[Just smiffy]

Welcome to Morocco….

 

[MartinandBev]

Had a lovely drive over the Rif mountains, past Ceuta to Fnideq, where S4S showed some beach side parking was available. We didn't see one motorhome or campervan on the car parks by the beach so continued to our next choice

We stayed next to the beach spot at Fnideq at the start of Jan, we were the only ones, great place for a stop over and will certainly do that in the way back - the guys in the local restaurants were fantastic and even let us have some water

 

[garry55]

Welcome to Morocco….

Thanks! Hopefully get to meet up later in our travels

 

[garry55]

We stayed next to the beach spot at Fnideq at the start of Jan, we were the only ones, great place for a stop over and will certainly do that in the way back - the guys in the local restaurants were fantastic and even let us have some water

Where in Fnideq did you park? There is a long, flat expanse of beach after the town (heading towards M'diq) with great parking areas beside it but as we didn't see any camper vans or motorhomes on it we didn't want to risk it. We usually use S4S coordinates to find parking areas but we don't have a map of Africa in the sat nav.

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