This is the New Year

 

 

2nd January

 

Not much to report to be honest?  A very idle day lazing about!  More of these to come in 2015.

Sitting in the sun and a walk to the beach for sundown, a walk to the bar for refreshments is about all we can say, but as promised we had a Chinese takeaway, and was it damn good.

 

No 162 was the call

 

3rd Jan

 

A late night pursued after our chinky last night? And so we never left as we had intended today, but stopped for one more day, it's so nice here. We took a walk towards Vilamoura along the beach, but after a while realise the beach goes all the way, "it's the longest beach on the Algarve by the way" we are not feeling that energetic and turn around after a while and walk back to our local bar.

Sandy Shaw if anyone can remember her?

The sandstone cliffs are amazing

We are having a whole Piri Piiri Chicken n chips to take home tonight!   And when that was ready and a few beers later, we said our goodbyes "again" to the landlord and Charlie a German chap we have been chatting to since frequenting the bar, what a nice character, happens to live here for four months of the year during winter.  Lucky guy?

Back to the van for our scoff and plan for tomorrow? We are heading towards Algeciras to cross over into Morocco on the 8th, this possibly could be our last day in Portugal, and I  can honestly say we have loved the Country, the People and Culture and will no doubt return very soon.

4th Jan

Before leaving this morning we filled up with fresh water and emptied the grey tank.I got chatting to a guy from the Isle of Man, he came here for 4 days and that was 7 weeks ago, he obviously likes the area? So leaving Falesia we headed east towards Spain, along the N125. We stopped at the Continente supermarket in Faro to stock up on drinks to take into Morocco with us. Alcohol is expensive there being a Muslim country! I bought 100L of wine a mixture of Red, White and Rose, a few bottles of port and brandy, “it has to last us 3 months”I will get the beer in Spain.

We then headed to a small town close to the Spanish border called Castro Marim. It’s a nice place with a fortress and a castle on the hilltop. The aire  37°13'11.3"N 7°26'40.9"W we plan to stay at is full but the car park next to it has several motorhomes parked up so we join them. The police tolerate wilding as such in the winter months.

 

We take a walk around, walk up the hill to the old castle and take some pics and a vid for the blog, you can see the bridge that joins Portugal to Spain we will be going over that. Decided to stop and have a frosty at a small café/bar, and sit in the sun before it sets. Another fine day and our last in Portugal

A good name for a bar

We have been in Portugal 40 days and reluctantly we will leave tomorrow for certain. Tomorrow we will enter Spain once again and make our way south to catch the ferry!

We cook a spicy Pork casserole for supper tonight. We will enjoy our last night and have a few glasses of wine and maybe a shot or two of Port..

 

5th Jan

This morning it was cold, there was a thick mist about and visibility was poor, hopefully when the sun gets his head on, it will burn it off and another clear day. Satnav set we leave Castro Marim and follow the signs for Espana. A few miles up the road we cross the bridge joining the two countries and enter Spain. “We have lost an hour due to the time difference” We are in Andalucía!

The road is good, dual carriageway all the way to Seville, we skirt Seville, it is very busy and built up like any major city. We follow the road south towards Cadiz/Jerez, another good road we stop a few times for Max and to have some lunch then drive towards today’s destination a town called Sanlucar de Barrameda.

 

The aire 36°47'01.9"N 6°21'34.0"W is busy with over 40 vans, it’s free with services no leccy! It overlooks the beach so we took Max down for a run and walked into the town

 

The town is busy with lots of shops, bars and restaurants. We find out that tomorrow is a national holiday for epiphany, the 12th day after Xmas. “The day of the three kings and when Spanish children get their presents” It’s another nice place and we are glad we stopped here!

6th Jan

We set off for Los Barrios today. We drove through Jerez and picked up the A381 to Algeciras. Another great road taking us through the southern Sierras of Spain

We stop at Alcade los Gazules for lunch overlooking a lake then drove through a National Park, “Park Natural de los Alcornocales” fantastic scenery and a great drive over many viaducts and through long tunnels! We arrived early afternoon at the Los Barrios Aire to find it vacant of motorhomes and full of Lorries? It is miles from anywhere and not our cup of tea so we reset the Satnav and headed around the corner towards Gibraltar.

The Aire we choose to stay on tonight is on a Marina overlooking the Rock 36°09'24.9"N 5°21'19.1"W  very nice with services again no lecky €12 a night.

 

So we make our way from Spain into little blighty to do a bit of duty free shopping and savour a British pint, “Nice to have a pint or two of Pride again” and a lot cheaper than at my local back home?  It is like being at home with all the shops M&S, Debenhams etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Red phone boxes with phones that work? We will do another tobacco run tomorrow before we leave, £4.10p for 50g

 

7th Jan 

We went back into Gibraltar this morning to do a bit more shopping. The price is right!!   We then headed to Carlos the ticket agent in Los Barrios  36º 10' 45 N, 5º 26' 28 W The place is busy with many French German Dutch and Belgian vans waiting for tickets. There are quite a few Vans coming over from the UK to Morocco next week, on the 15th from a forum I'm a member of called Motorhome Fun. He did me the same deal for me as them €200 instead of the going rate of €220!
Getting into Morocco can be tricky without the right paperwork, and he does the paperwork for you, which is a bonus, he also gave me a Bottle of fizzy and a loaf of chocolate cake and bade me Bon Voyage! cheers Carlos. We were supposed to meet another van from MHF, a chap called Dave, unfortunately he needed a new windscreen and due to the National holiday yesterday he could not get it done in time, a poor show by Autoglazio, so he has mailed me to say he will probably go over with the rest on the 15th, and we will catch up with us somewhere over there?
I did a last shop at Intermache 228 x 33cl cans of Cerveza @ 33c per can and a few bags of Max's fav dog food. He is not going to like the crossing tomorrow? he will be caged for the journey, bless him. 

So tonight we are parked up in Lidl's car park, along with about 40 other vans ready to leave first thing for Morocco. We have ready meals tonight "Lasagne" Sam also bought another 5 x 1L boxes of Rose @ 59c a litre from Lidl. We are sat in the van using Ronnie's free wifi from across the road. We will need to fill up with LPG in the morning, "very difficult to find in Morocco" then onto the port Algeciras for the 10am sailing. So an early night!!

We have been on the road in Europe for 57 days. We have clocked up 2616 miles. Camped at 24 different places and visited numerous others. Tomorrow we enter North Africa.
 

8th Jan
Day 58
Allahu Akbar
An early start, first stop fill up LPG, then onto the terminal. A few wrong turns along the way but we are at Algeciras port and catch the 10am ferry. It is overcast but warm. Good news for Max he does not have to go into a cage, as the web site states, but must remain in the van. Fair doe's when we get back in an hour and half later he is sleeping and has not destroyed the interior? We have gained an hour now, back on UK time zone.
We leave the port after a lot of rigmarole, re papers etc. And pick up the A4 towards Rabat/Casablanca. Stop for lunch and fill up with diesel .63p a litre!! With Marrakesh express playing in the background it's onto Asilah.

 

Welcome to Morocco

We pay the Ali the guardian on the site 40dir, £2.80, and take a walk into town. Maroc telecom first to get a data sim, that sorted we buy some nice Moroccan cakes "yummy"
We are parked at the end of the promenade, over looking the Atlantic once again.
Quite a few vans that were on the ferry this morning pull in later.

 

 

The first sunset In Morocco

Tomorrow we head south towards Rabat, we will possibly stay at a site south of Larache a small fishing village called Moulay Bousselham. I have read good reports?