Sidi Wassey and South to Tan Tan

13th - 15th Feb

Camp international Wassay Beach is next to Sidi Ouassaï and is located in Souss-Massa-Drâa. We have been exploring the area today, after arriving late yesterday afternoon. Camping Wassey Beach is a nice campsite and right on the seafront. It is on the side of a Natural Park. (Parc National de Sousse Massa)  We took a long walk along the cliffs, and noticed what can only be described as sheds, there are families living in these and I wonder how they eek out a living?  They probably fish and forage for shellfish, both are in abundance here.

 

 Makeshift homes built into the rocks

Another great beach

There are several beaches interlinked with volcanic like rock cliffs. The coastline like most of Morocco is very rugged, and the views from the cliffs are superb. You can feel the energy of the Atlantic coast and the sound of the surf at night is natures music, every evening it sends me into a deep sleep or possibly it may be the wine.

 

 

A silhouette of T Rex 

There are quite a lot of unfinished buildings here also, it seems a common trait in Morocco.

You can rent these one room chalets/sheds

We have French, German and British neighbours, the British couple Jack and Barbara are from Devon, they had visited this site last year and this is their second winter over here in Morocco. It is cheaper for them to lock up for the winter and travel south they do not have to pay excessive fuel bills to keep warm and it is so cheap to live here.

Our French Neighbours are travelling in this converted Merc, it is ideal for the roads over here. I sometimes wonder why they don't put a 4x4 engine in a motorhome with a good winch to the front?

On Saturday they had a banquet in the restaurant on site, and these traditional Berber dancers entertained the campsite with their Guedra dance. I took a video, the German couple next to us asked for a copy after I showed it to them, they are in the video. We did not attend the banquet as I am cooking a Tagine, also I can't see Max behaving while we sit down to a meal with the Guedra going on.

 

The weather has been very hot the last few days and Max when not on extended walks seeks shelter either in or under the van, while I cook like a lobster. Later that evening Barbara stopped by and asked me how to cook a Tagine, after divulging my authentic recipe, I had made quite a lot so gave them a bowl to taste and they enjoyed it.
Sundays the French like to entertain, and set the tables at midday with snacks bottles of wine and meals on the go. They do enjoy their Sundays and much merriment is evident on the site. We have noticed this on every site we have been on to date. Fair play to them!

16th - 18th Feb

We took off for Mirleft today, a short drive along the coast. We will be stopping at a new campsite that opened in December 2014. Camping Erkounte 29°30'28.3"N 10°04'04.4"W
The drive was uneventful, apart from the many speed controls manned by the police. We see much evidence of the devastation the floods have caused in November, with many bridges and roads that have been washed away.

The site is about 10km south of Mirleft

 

The campsite is without doubt the best we have stayed at while in Morocco, 105dir a night, and on par with the best we have to offer in the UK. It has a restaurant and grocery shop on site along with an upholsterers shop that will make almost anything you need. The facilities are spot on shower rooms clean and spacious, but the EHU is reversed polarity once again! The owner Abdul lived for 17 years in Denmark and speaks very good English he is very helpful and most of the workers are family or locals.

The site is not busy, park up wherever you want

The campsite can accommodate 200 vans, we decided to stop here after reading about it on the MHF forum. with good reviews and also CamperContact a site we use extensively along with CampingCarInfos

The Reception, Restaurant and small grocery shop are housed here.

 

There is a small beach about 300m down a small track from the site and after we set up we took a walk down. It's a nice quite small cove and I notice mussels on the rocks, half an hour later I had a bag full of large mussels, which I would have later for supper. 

The following day I'd noticed a few British vans and went over to check them out whilst going for a shower. They are owned by two MHF couples Graham and Rosie and Ken and Lynda, they have been here 10 days. We had a good chat and they invite us over later in the evening for a drink. Ken also has a Terrier a girl named Jess, Max will be in his oils when he meets her.

We took a walk down to the fishing port in the afternoon, but I had forgotten my camera so we will have to return tomorrow.

 

We met up later that afternoon and had a good chat with Graham and Ken and their wives over a beer or three , they are nice people and very welcoming. They have been coming to Morocco for winter for the last three years, and they are very knowledgeable with most areas and routes etc. I am also running low on LPG and Graham puts me right on how to hook up Moroccan bottles into my system.  

 

The following day we walked about a km down the road to the fishing port again. This time with my camera!

 

 

 

The coastline is fantastic

The weather changed later that afternoon and it was blowing a hoolie, although warm the dust and wind put a damper on sitting outside come beer O'clock. We have decided to move onto Tan Tan tomorrow further south and a step closer to the Western Sahara.

19th Feb

We said our farewells to our new friends, they are going to stay a few more days and decide which route they plan next.

L-R   Graham, Rosie, Lynda n Jess and Ken

 

It's day 100 for us since we left the UK, and day 43 since we arrived in Morocco. We are about 500km from Laayoune our most southern destination on this trip.

After leaving Mirleft we drove down the R104  along the coast and picked up the N12 from Sidi Ifni south to Guelmin. It is this area that suffered the most during the floods in November.

Sidi Ifni lost 3 campsites that were completely washed away, and there is only one left open to this day, there are several bridges and many stretches of road that are under repair and it is slow going in places.

We stopped at Guelmin "The Gateway to the Sahara" at the new Marjane to stock up and also at the bank for more dirhams, then took the N1 south to Tan Tan. This was 130km of hammada, with just one small village in between. We climbed up and over the Anti Atlas mountains for some time, the scenery is fantastic and the road a thrill to drive on as you never know what's around the corner.  

 

We arrived in Tan Tan "The Cauldron of the Sahara" late in the afternoon then drove about 30km to El Ouatia. (Tan Tan Plage) We are stopping at Camping Atlantique 28°29'38.5"N 11°20'09.8"W 70 dir inc EHU it has wifi but not very good strength. There are two other sites along the same road as this, but none look over busy.

It is windy here also, we will stay for 2 nights and then head down to Tarfaya. Tonight we will have a few drinks after we eat to celebrate 100 days on the road. "It seems to be flying by" 
Apologies to the Thursday readers of this blog for the late post.
 

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.

 

 

Onto Agadir

30th Jan - 2nd Feb


We have been here at Atlantica Park for 5 days just chilling. The site is very commercial and geared towards retirees, everyone having their own bordered pitch, We are surrounded by French but they are very welcoming contrary to what we have heard? Some have been returning here for years, and come straight here once they arrive in Morocco from Spain and stay the duration?
The site celebrated its 10th year of opening on the 25th, just before we arrived and by all accounts they threw a good party? There are more pitches on the other side of the road, with the water park, dance hall and also holiday chalets. The owner's are sitting on a gold mine, as both sides are pretty much full, possibly nearing 900 vans.

We are on plot 552

The site has pretty much everything you need, a few restaurants, tat shops a grocery and fresh fish shop and also a van valeting booth and an upholsterers. I went to the upholsterers to enquire about having our front seats done, but he wanted more than I was willing to pay but the seed is planted, I'm sure I can stripe him down? There is also a shop that makes just about anything for motorhomes. awnings, safari rooms, thermal silver screens and Moroccan mats. I bought a Moroccan mat 5m x 2m 250dir about £17 a third of the price back home. There is also a local artist that paints Moroccan theme pictures on vans, he also sells his own paintings from his shop on site, his name is Rachid Nadal and he is famous along the Agadir campsites and you will see many vans with his murals painted on them. I am thinking of having one done to the van as a memento?

 The Reception

The site is in a valley about 1/2 km from Paradise beach

Van valeting booth on site

This guy does a good job, but a tad pricey

We could not agree a price on the upholstery, so he tried to sell me a fox hat

 

There are several Pétanque / Boules areas on the site, and at the moment a tournament is taking place, and all the areas are busy with the fixtures. It also attracts plenty of onlookers mainly French, possibly the ones that have been knocked out already.

There are two other sites close by and also three Guardian parking sites on the beach at Taghazoute so we will probably be in the area for a while and will no doubt return sometime on our way back up.

One of my biggest bugbears on the road is with the Internet, I have not been able to get any reception on my Huawei and we are too far from the wifi zone for me to pick it up in the van. So on Sunday I missed the game against Southampton, we put up a good display by all accounts albeit against the run of play, and won 1-0 away from home, "Happy Days"
While walking to the shops I noticed they are building a new Mosque. I had to take a picture of the cradles they were using to work on the exterior

No Risk Assessments needed 

 

Today I bought some Monkfish, 35dir 1/2 kilo about £2.50 so it's Monkfish madras tonight, we are eating a lot of fish including Max, who has also garnered a taste for tinned sardines and gets a tin a day.

We plan to move onto one of the sites in Taghazoute next, there are three guardian parking sites along the beach and a few official campsites so we have a choice.

 

3rd Feb

 

Late last night I read on the MHF forum that the police had told people on one of the Taghazoute beach sites that they will be evicted tomorrow, it appears the police are cracking down on these wildcamping sites. so we decided to stop at a site 4km along the road.

We set off early today as we knew that if the beach sites were being evicted approximately 300 vans would be looking to find somewhere to park.

We arrived 15 minutes later at Terre d'Ocean it is perched on the side of a mountain and over looks the coast with stunning views and 500m from the beach

 Camping Terre d'Ocean 30°33'18.2"N 9°44'20.6"W 

 

It's another nice site 115dir a day with large pitches, we set the van to South West and have a nice sun trap all day. There is a swimming pool and shops onsite and a wifi lounge. 

Max likes the new mat

Not long after we parked up many vans started arriving, no doubt from the beach eviction? And pretty soon it was full. I got talking to a German chap next door and he told me that all three beach sites are getting closed down by the 14th February to make way for the developers. It is a shame as we had planned to stop there for a few weeks, I had wanted to see how it had changed since 76/77 when I was last here to how it is now? It has been "The Place" to visit since the early 70's for surfers, beachbums and hippies alike and lately the snowbirds, but unfortunately it's popularity has been it biggest enemy.

 

 These MotorHomes have no leccy but great vistas

We are parked up there

The view from our van

Sunset from the campsite

 

We had a few visitors later in the afternoon, there are now five other British vans on site, they have been evicted from the beach site. They tell me that the military were on hand along with the police to evict the campers, and they were also at the other two sites to ensure the vans did not move onto them. Once the other two sites are evicted there will be approximately 1000 vans looking to find a home.

 

 

We also find out that Colin and Sandra are here also, having been on the beach for the last 5 days, and they have had a painting done by Rachid on their van, it looks good I am deciding where to have our one done? We had a drink with them and the other refugees from Taghazoute.

This afternoon Sam made Sincronizadas from Tortillas for a snack, a new one for me and very nice too. 

 

 

4th Feb

 

The weather for the last few days has been scorching, it's a dry heat as opposed to being humid, and the breeze from the coast is welcome, Max spends most of the time either under the van or inside it. We though are absorbing the rays like a sponge.

Rachid the painter was on the site today touting for business, so I asked to look through his portfolio and decided on a mural for the van. There were two thin cracks at the rear that I wanted to eliminate, and after he had prepped he began painting, quite a few van owners came over to watch him at work and a few secured his services to paint their vans. An hour later he had finished, and we are quite pleased with the new addition. 

If only Billy Bridgend had applied himself a little more? Who knows what he could have achieved

 

 

5th Feb

 

The sun has got his hat on..

9.50am and it's already in the 30's

 

This morning we got up and decided to stop another day, it was sunny and getting warmer as the sun rose over the mountains, and by 10am it was in the mid 30's. The fish seller was on site so I bought 1kg of Monkfish and a 1/2kg of Prawns caught this morning, he had some nice  John Dory, another time I thought?  After breakfast we headed to the beach, we got to the top of the cliffs and could see the surfers were already making hay,

 

The early surfer catches the wave

 Taghazoute beach is around the corner

Max doing a silhouette of a Chicken

 

By midday it was scorching again, the hottest time is actually 3pm and it was in the 40s by then.

We are having Thai Monkfish curry and sticky rice for our evening meal tonight. If there any executive chefs reading this? I'd like a recipe for John Dory!!

Tomorrow we plan to head into Agadir, I want a few bits done on the van and I'm told Mustapha is the man to see? So we will drop by and get a quote and if ok arrange a time to get the jobs done. We then plan to head further South towards the Western Sahara.

Another magnificent sunset to finish the day

 

Tomorrow I will try and watch "if I get good Internet" the Rugby match Wales v The Old Enemy. I don't think there will be any bars showing it over here though!!