Agadir

6th Feb

We arrived in Agadir today, after a short drive from Terre d'Ocean approximately 20km. We drove past the vacant areas on Taghazoute that were full of vans a week ago, I feel sorry for the local traders, they will have lost a lot of income and be feeling it now?
Our intention is to get the rear bumper repaired after it was damaged in Portugal and some other bits. We stayed the evening at the Marjane car park along with about 200 or more other vans 30°23'45.5"N 9°34'58.4"W , most of these were at a guess parked at Taghazoute beach prior to the eviction.

Lots of vans in the overflow car parks

So after a shop at Marjane and Mr Bricolage (similar to Homebase) I settled in for the reports on the evening rugby match. Disappointing!!!

7th - 8th Feb

We took the van into Mustapha's in the morning 30°25'21.1"N 9°34'36.4"W, he has told us it will be ready by Tuesday. We have decided to check into a hotel for two nights, as we don't want to be stuck on the outskirts of town in his yard over the weekend.
Our hotel is in a nice location, close to the seafront with easy access to shops etc. .

The Mosque in the background

Unfortunately it is right next to a Mosque and we hear the cry to prayer 5 times a day.

Agadir would not be on my list of places to visit, totally uninspiring. The Blackpool of Morocco. It is very commercialised and not our cup of tea.

There is a campsite in town "Camping d'Agadir" 30°25'30.7"N 9°36'27.0"W but the reviews are poor, and it looks rundown. I personally don't think much of Agadir.

 McDonalds and Pitza Hut, says it all about Agadir

  Max is easy to please, as long as there's a beach

The Marina area was nice with plenty of restaurants and designer shops

A helpful sign on the beach

Swansea played Sunderland and got a get out of jail card with a late equaliser, we are riding our luck now, we are a poor side, and I am so grateful we have the points already in the bag, or we would be looking down to the abyss and Championship football.

 

9th Feb

 

Work had started on the van albeit not a lot? there are a few other vans and cars here and it appears they do a bit on each of them during the day to keep the customers happy, so progress is slow!

The yard is in the north of the town with not a lot going for it with many half built houses. 

Our vistas from the yard

You can see another Mosque in the back

It appears they put scaffold poles through the building and rest boards on them?

 

They are building another Mosque here, the skyline is dotted with Mosques already? All throughout Morocco we are seeing this!! The old part of town is interesting and very busy the souk is huge, a labyrinth of shops inside selling everything

Downland Carpets Maroc™

 

10th Feb

 

This morning we had a surprise. The vans were shuffled about to let another van leave that had been here prior to us, owned by an English couple John and Pam, and our friends we had met from MHF arrived to get their radiator fixed, or in their case replaced as it was shot.

They are also getting some other bits done. And Max was happy to see their dog Izzy again

In the evening we got very drunk at our van catching up on where they had been after we last saw them at Terre d'Ocean. 

 

11th Feb

 

We are still at Agadir and are biting at the bit to move on, we have been told we will defiantly be away tomorrow? Pray to Allah.

We have done nowt today after our excesses last night. I picked up a good free wifi signal in the evening and watched the Swans loose to a poor WBA!  we have rode our luck for too long and it has finally run out.

 

12th Feb

 

Great news, we are finally on our way out of Agadir and travelling again. The van has had its makeover and looks better with damaged items now repaired. We have had the old worn decals removed from the sides and had the bumpers and wheel trims sprayed, and the back and sides buffed. I will get new decals in the UK when we return.

 



Before

And After

 

So after saying our goodbyes once again to Colin and Sandra and also Mustapha and his team we hit the road south to Camping International Wassay Beach at Sidi Wassay

 

The drive down was good, the weather today is hot. It has been overcast the last few days but it is warming up, and forecast to get better over the next few days.

The campsite is along the beach front 30°03'30.1"N 9°41'12.1"W and we have a great view. We will stay here for a few days to catch up on laundry and just chill

 

The view from our van

The site is predominantly full of French vans, and I see quite a few of them fishing on the surf. When I get back to blighty I will visit my brother, he has promised to kit me out with rod reel and tackle etc, he's a good to me.

At the moment we plan to head down to the Western Sahara town of Laayoune, stopping at several places on the way down, and leap frogging them and stopping at other places on the way back. We then plan to travel inland to Tafroute and then up through the centre of Morocco. That is the scheme of things at present but plans change daily.