Posted under Merlife & Morocco & Travel
A very long time since I blogged and we have done so very much.
I have been bed ridden once again with a bladder/kidney infection and once again on antibiotics. I swear that I will, if not cautious, become immune to the buggers. I did try to see if I would get better without them, but fierce fevers, a temp of 40 degrees and Rosie almost crying with worry, persuaded me to take them again.
On the travel front, we went to Marrakech which we disliked immensely due to the dirt the noise and the fact that every single person in the city has the sole object of removing money from you by any means. Add to this fact the large Club Med in the heart of the Medina full of bullish American and German tourists and you start to get a picture of a sort of disney world without a hygiene certificate.
We went from Marrakech up to Casablanca and stayed for a few days at a site we really liked on the way down. Not French owned like so many, but family owned by Morroccans who are the most charming family we have met and this is where I was ill. When Mohamed the owner found out from his son Hisham that I was ill he came to visit and see if he could help and his wife sent over a Vegetable cous-cous for us which I was sadly unable to eat, but Rosie enjoyed. The guide book does not rate the site very highly due to poor facilities, and I admit that it is getting a bit tired and needs some revamping, but the warm and friendly welcome makes it 5 star in my book.
We left the site early to head up to what was to be our final stop before leaving the continent, and that was Asilah, a pretty little fishing port on the north west coast. Asilah used to be very run down and dirty, but the Moroccan foreign minister who was born there, saw how bad it had become and with the help of a local artist, set up a big international arts and music festival there, every August. The effect on the town was remarkable and it is now one of the prettiest and cleanest medinas we have seen. All the houses are painted white and blue and there are fabulous murals all over the town. We wandered through the little alleyways and bought our last few gifts from the pretty little gift shops before returning to our motorhome which for the grand sum of £1.80 we had parked right on the edge of the beach facing the sunset. A very nice way to remember Africa.
The last day was a huge anticlimax for us. We travelled up via Tangier to get to our boat in Ceuta and we had two occasions of youths trying to climb onto the roof of our van whilst moving and one occasion of kids trying to break the windscreen with stones. We eventually caught our ferry back to Algeciras and got parked up for a rest.
We decided not to stay in Spain, and so we drove the 450 kms to Quartiera in Portugal. We spent 3 nights there and used the time doing laundry, cleaning the van and sorting our trailer out after the roads of Morocco. Now tell me, is it only me that thinks that the Algarve has about as much to do with Portugal as Guantanamo bay has to do with Cuba? I will prolly get clubbed to death by a septuagenarian with yellow shorts and a niblick, but it has to be said. Anyhoo, we then drove up to Almera on the outskirts of Lisbon where we are now parked and both Rosie and I have colds! This even though the weather is actually warmer than it was in North Africa.
I hope to write another shorter blog before we return to the UK on the 1st April.
Love and Peace
Rosie and The Merman