Archive for January, 2009

January
29th 2009
Oualidia

Posted under Uncategorized

23 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and we are parked by the lagoon in Oualidia (pronounced wah-leed-ya) a small almost sleepy, if that adjective can be used to describe any town in Morocco, fishing village between El Jadida and Essaouria. Famous for fresh seafood and for oysters, the latter delight we will be trying before we leave.

As soon as we arrived near the beach, we were pounced on by a couple of guys who it transpires are the local guardian and a local fisherman. The guardians are in my opinion a vital part of travel by motorhome. There is no official camp site here, so they get a piece of waste ground or parking spot, and give 24 hr security for a very small fee. We sleep safe and they get a couple of pounds. The former is a fisherman who for 150 dirham, about £13 pounds, will cook fresh seafood outside on a portable grill. As much sole, sardines, salad and bread as you can eat for two for a very reasonable price.

We are going for a walk to the lagoon later to see if the broad sand is suitable for Sandyachting, although from a distance it looks a little soft. Here is a piccy I just took from the roof of the van looking over towards the town.
Oualidia lagoon

Another piccy of the fisherman preparing our lunch!
fishy

He has a website HERE

Here is a nice little texting tool that I came across.


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Love and peace
Rosie and Mermy

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January
26th 2009
Update to the update.

Posted under Morocco & Travel & Uncategorized

Oh how long since the last blog entry. So long in fact that I hardly remember that long ago.

We are now sat in a campsite at El Jadida between Casabanca and Safi and about 125 kms from Marrakech. We just left a lovely friendly site right next to the roaring Atlantic Ocean in El Mansouria, about 30 km north of Casablanca and about the first point that we are feeling ok about Morocco. The northern part of the country seems at a loss for identity, and does not know if it is Europe or Africa, but as you travel down that sense changes with every town you pass. That said, we are still a long way from Camels and sand, and are still very much in agriculture and greenery.

We were warned about the expense of booze here, owing to the fact that it is a moderate Muslim country, so we stocked up with a little bit for our journey. 4 litres of brandy 20 litres of wine and 20 litres of beer. Nine days into Morocco and we might have wildly underestimated our requirements as we have already gone through seven litres of wine and a bottle of brandy as well as 24 cans of beer.

Some of you might know that Rosie and I like to bird watch and we are excited about the amazing wealth of bird life here in Morocco. We were sat having a coffee at a motorway service station and three Crested Larks were hopping around in front of the mer-torhome. We have seen cranes and eagles, and have been woken in the morning twice by what can only be described as Clangers, we cannot see them but the comedy song sounds a little like the swanee whistles we sell on our stall. We took a walk and spotted four or five birds that are not even in our European bird guide.

The roads in Morocco are fantastic… for about fifteen minutes after they are laid, and then they deteriorate into potholed monstrosities which are designed to destroy shocks and keep the speeds below 18 mph!

I am able to blog now, thanks to a superb little modem which we managed to acquire second hand from a nice guy in Mohammedia. It is an LG cellular modem and we are getting unlimited mobile broadband for £18 a month. I think the coverage is quite good so we should mostly be within blogging range.

We went to walk on the beach today and decided that this is a great place to sand yacht, so we are staying for a little while to blow the cobwebs with some x-sailing. All we need is a decent breeze and we are good to go. The tides are also perfect for the next few days.

I will post pics asap that is to say as soon as pics are taken.

Love and peace for now
Mermy and la rose

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