Bye Bye Europe

Tue, 24/03/2015 - 12:00

The late arrival in Tarifa coincided with a downpour, or rather, an introduction to what the locals have been suffering for quite a while, judging by the flooded fields. And campsite. A bit squelchy underfoot is an understatement. No bother, just need to get some fuel. We're running on empty since there have been no garages at all for the last 60 miles, which we hadn't expected.
The lady at the site office confidently assures us that " there's a petrol station 200 metres further down the road that's open." With vague memories of similar promises to do with food – twice, remember? - we decided to get fuel for the truck before fuel for us. I know you are already ahead of us here, but...... the garage was not only more like 2 kms away but was shut and on the other side of the road with no left turn for another kilometre or so. By the time we returned to the campsite we were on fumes and had almost to get into the pitch on the starter motor. As we stopped, the passenger windscreen wiper flew off into the darkness and landed somewhere with a splash. With the Costa Blancas annual allocation of rain falling, Mike calls from the roof for his Leatherman. The zip on the roof tent cover has jammed, and then breaks completely (or perhaps patience had been exhausted by then?). Supper is pasta and red wine - plenty of it, the wine that is. A looooong day.
Friday 20th March - 8am.Not raining. Hoorah! Particularly as Mike's got to hike 4 kms with a fuel can. Stripped to speed gear he reckons he can be there and back inside 30 minutes if he only puts 5 litres into the jerry. Mike takes on the story here: " As I reached the gas station, the reason for last night's inactivity is clearer. It's shut, and has been for quite a while. The overhead sign is swinging in the breeze like a corpse on a gibbet, and a family in a camper van aren't waiting for the place to open, they're living there. The next fuel is 3 kms away in Tarifa. Could it get worse? Well, it could be raining.....5 minutes later, it is. Oh, well...skin's waterproof".
By 10 o'clock, however, we are in Algeciras, at Carlos' legendary ticket emporium. The fuel problem was resolved quickly thanks to 2 generous Spaniards who didn't mind picking up an unshaven hitchhiker with a smelly gas can, and the wiper was successfully reattached which was a Good Thing, as the earlier shower is now another deluge.
It takes less than 5 minutes to get tickets for the Tanger Med ferry. This leaves at 1400, so plenty of time to lay in stocks of liquid ballast and saunter down to the port.

We arrive there to find the place deserted and the anticipated bun fight for a place in the queue …. well, we are the queue. For awhile, at least. Eventually the place fills up a bit, which is reassuring. After all the glitches and misinformation of the last 24 hours, it wouldn't be surprising if we were in the wrong place.
1445. The ferry has docked and is still disgorging wheels and freight. Best estimate for boarding is "about an hour" - at least, that's what I think he said. Perhaps now is the time to adopt a different concept of time? Manana?
We sit peering through our rain streaked windscreen at giant artics reversing aboard through a hole in the end of the ship barely wider than they are. Reversing horns, throbbing engines, shouts, bells, whistles, bad tempered yelling and arm waving. Mayhem. No surprises that we're running an hour late on departure already.
Aboard at last, we clear immigration at the purser’s office. It “used to be” the pursers office, to be correct. That was when the ship was running the route between Portsmouth and Le Havre with Brittany Ferries, according to the logos everywhere.
The information we have suggests the trip will take 3 hours, so we’re pleasantly surprised- in fact, a lot surprised – to see Africa appear out of the murk nearly 2 hours before we’d expected it to. Sue is suspicious and gives Mike one of those looks that says “we are on the right ferry, aren’t we, Vasco?” but sure enough, we are about to land at Tanger Med.

The Rain in Spain

Tue, 24/03/2015 - 12:00

We arrived in Santander at 1815 which allowed us time to head out for a 2 hour drive, mostly in the dark through mountains and tunnels, climbing all the time.
We had planned the campsite which was situated in Burgos. "Campsite Fuentes Blancas". We'd been told that the cafe and bar would be open until 2200, so had enough time to put up the tent and sort ourselves out with the usual domestic stuff before heading for a well-earned meal and a beer or three. Regular readers will not be totally surprised to discover our renewed disappointment at the lack of local knowledge regarding opening times....drinks were possible, kitchen was closed for cleaning. Once again however, we were able to impose upon the goodwill of the management and secure 3 slices of Spanish omelette and what was left of the bread from lunchtime. This was produced with much shouting, gesticulating and crashing of kitchenware. We couldn't work out whether the racket was normal behaviour or in sympathy with the losing team in the widescreen football match being played above our heads. The tortilla, given the state of exhaustion we were in, tasted like manna from heaven.
We had a noisy night due to the rain, but packed and were ready to go by 0745 with the exception of a minor running repair to the t-piece on the hose that feeds the turbo gauge. Mike noticed last night that it wasn't giving any readings which could've meant one of 2 things, but as we were still able to make satisfactory progress it probably wasn't the turbo at fault! As it was, the t-piece in the line was broken and Mike bypassed it with a bit of fuel hose. Normal service resumed.
The day proved to be a long one, as we had to drive all the way down to Algeciras in a one-er. The Spanish autovias are excellent, mainly because not many people seem to use them. Towns and cities passed by quickly: Palencia, Valladolid, Caceres and Seville was the final major city. I had already identified a campsite near Tarifa and used an old satnav to get directions to it as the all-singing updated one that Mike had set up for the trip didn't have campsites in its database. How useful is that if you want to go camping?
We're about to get to Cadiz, and it's dark now, and still raining....

All at Sea

Wed, 18/03/2015 - 12:00

We got away from Portsmouth on time yesterday, having spent most of the day in the Historic Dockyards and, more specifically, the "Mary Rose" exhibition. We left Moray a day earlier than our original plan specifically to do this, and it was well worth the effort.
The "Mary Rose" is/was a Tudor warship which sank in the Solent in 1545 with the loss of most of her crew. The remains of the ship were rediscovered in the 1970's and raised in 1982. These relics tell a truly remarkable story of disaster and reclamation, and the artifacts are as interesting as the remains of the ship herself, and very well presented with background stories, personal items and a fair smattering of forensic investigation. The latter aspect I found particularly interesting as I'm at the beginning of a Masters degree in the subject.
We left Ascot and Mike's mum at 7 am yesterday, expecting to avoid the notorious traffic around the area. We hit the first delay after 10 minutes with a 2-lane queue of traffic trying to get onto the M3 motorway. Luckily we were heading west not east so managed to get past it fairly quickly, but everywhere we went there were queues of traffic trying to head towards the east and London. Really makes us appreciate the relative lack of this "up North". It really seems to be an anthill in the south-east, with everyone trying to get one step ahead of the norm. Mike said the behaviour of the traffic reminded him of the scramble at the Saudi border with Bahrain, with every opportunity to get a bit further forward in the line seized with reckless desperation.
The satnav boldly announced that we'd be in Portsmouth at 0815. We got there at 0940...so no time wasted waiting for the dockyard to open and just enough to grab a quick coffee and fail, once again, to get a wifi connection. Writing this blog may not be as easy as we'd thought.
Mike takes over now...
Sue is busy with her homework while there's not a lot else to do.

Her Forensics course is proving to be more time consuming than she thought and she's had to bring some of it along with a promise that it'll be put away when we get to Spain. I'm glad, though, that the weather is calm otherwise she's have her head, not in her books, but in a bag. I watched the forecast for the last week and hoped the High from the Azores would extend far enough north to give us an easy crossing, and we've been lucky. Nevertheless I've got a lot of barfbags concealed about me, just in case. And, as you can see, the ship's wifi works.
We're due into Santander at about 1730. Sea calm, winds light, no signs of scurvy, crew not mutinous. Poor blog material so far. No dramas, no disasters. Hope that doesn't change. The plan is to get as far south as we can by about 8 this evening then find something to eat and a bed. In that order, after the last attempt.

Setting course....

Sun, 15/03/2015 - 12:00

A frosty morning, cloudless blue and half an inch of ice on the pond - a perfect day to head for the heat. We were briefly regretting having to leave the not-yet-emerged daffodils and blossom behind us, but scraping the ice off the windscreen has reminded us that British ex-pats head to Spain for a good reason.We got away in time to enjoy clear roads and a beautiful sunrise. Mind you, in this part of the world, Sunday mornings are generally pretty quiet.

We paused for a few photos to mark the event but, since this is our own backyard, we didn't spend too much time on this which was, in retrospect, a mistake.
The "Great Dividing Line" - the Grampian Mountains - that adds an extra £10 on every mail order addressed to "The Highlands" looked spectacular with the morning sun on the snow but we missed most of the best opportunities to capture these postcard-perfect views. We decided right then that some discipline would be required in future or we'd just rush from place to place and not savour the moments that make the memories.

We elected to take the more direct route south which takes us through the mountains via the A9 trunk road. In our opinion the biggest barrier to commerce north of Perth, but one of only 2 viable routes to the north of Scotland unless you prefer to crawl over the ski route to Glen Shee.

We saw little traffic until south of Pitlochry but by then the churchgoers and last night's stopovers were all up and about. We thought we'd escaped unnoticed from Moray, but on the outskirts of Perth a white van passed "one-eighty by zero", as Mike would put it, with all lights blazing....2 colleagues from the Windswept Brewery on their way home - sorry we didn't wave back, guys! Given the amount of their product we've got stashed in the back it's a pity that we couldn't have arranged to collect it on the way.
Into Glasgow to have lunch with daughter, escorted for most of the way into the city by Dundee United fans on their way to get thrashed by Celtic I assume, anyway). At one point we were surrounded by cars and coaches with dozens of scarves fluttering from the windows, making us feel like we were part of some crazy cavalry charge from a Mad Max movie. Judging by the number of scarves littering the roads, they were going to have a cold day.
And so, down the M6 which seemed to take for ages. I had insisted on doing my bit of the driving to make things fair. Of course, that had nothing to do with the fact that Mike was getting tired and getting increasingly "mardy" as the locals say in Doric.
The satnav thingy said we'd be at the Holiday Express outside Coventry by just after seven. We arrived at 8.50. We had been told the adjacent pub would be serving meals till 9.30. They didn't tell us that didn't include Sundays. We managed to persuade the hotel kitchen to supply pizza...I did have to persuade Mike from immediately firing up the cooker in the van as I wanted my Pinot Grigio. He then spotted the lager on offer!
We hope to get another Internet connection tomorrow but if not this missive will have to wait until we get to Portsmouth -and the nearest Starbucks to the ferry.
Thanks, BTW, to all those old friends who've "checked in" as a resultof the link to this blog; we'll be in touch as soon as we get the chance.

Just one more sleep..

Sat, 14/03/2015 - 12:00

The 3 "P"s progress. Mike has done all the planning over the last few months sorting the travel arrangements, acquiring maps and practising his Arabic. This aspect has now pretty much stopped as we decided that having anything more definite than "point towards the mountains" might act like a carrot to a donkey, and we'd end up chasing a schedule. We've both marked up the maps with our Must See lists and hope that we'll be able to join them together,perhaps not.Packing has been delayed a lot, mainly due to the horrendous gales and sandstorms we've been having lately. This week has been especially bad with what seems to be all of Moray's topsoil migrating eastwards at 40mph. We've parked Daphne out of the worst of it, but there's still a not-so-fine layer of sand over everything now so all of what we've packed so far will have to come out and get dusted off. Then we will have to remember where it all went.

Preparation - well, that's Mike's department. I don't think he realised that prepping Daphne for the trip was going to be quite so uncomfortable. Our trips are normally in the summer, and getting the truck ready can be done in relatively warm weather. A trip at this time of year though, means working when it's wet, windy and freezing. Daphne won't fit in the garage so absolutely everything has to be done outside on the driveway which hasn't been pleasant.

Nonetheless, he seems happy that all has that can be done has been and I am beginning to understand the difference between "reliable" and "serviceable". Mike's view seems to be that Daphne will break down but we have the means to fix, repair, lash up or otherwise deal with most things. Judging by the list of spare parts and the weight of the tool box, I can believe it.
I organise the kitchen department, and as long as all the boxes are replaced in the correct places they WILL all fit in neatly. As we will be away for nearly five weeks, the first priority is to ensure that we have enough teabags. We ran out last year in France and what was on offer in the supermarches there was NOT tea as we know it! The second priority is to make sure we have wine boxes. Mike will probably say that I have got the priorities back to front there!
We are leaving tomorrow. A leisurely drive down to daughter's flat in Glasgow and travelling to Porstmouth via Mike's mum (HALLO EILEEN) near London. The ferry leaves on Tuesday so we'll take a day to see the sights of Pompey, particularly the Mary Rose museum.
So, one sleep to go! We will be missing the spring flowers here and more especially the cherry blossom on the trees around the local hospital. It's a fantastic show every year and always lifts my spirits. However, the thought of the sights, sounds and smells that are awaiting us in Morocco is overwhelming! We are all set to saddle up and wagons ho!
Mike? Have you seen my driving license......

Getting ready to go...

Sun, 08/03/2015 - 12:00

Planning, Preparing and Packing. "Planning" began 8 months ago having read a short resume of someone else's trip. That spark has brought us here. "Preparing" has filled the interval as well as our spare room with maps, boxes and books. Now we are "Packing" it all into our One-Ten Landrover...Planning, Preparing and Packing. "Planning" began 8 months ago having read a short resume of someone else's trip. That spark has brought us here. "Preparing" has filled the interval as well as our spare room with maps, boxes and books. Now we are "Packing" it all into our One-Ten Landrover...In August 2014 we signed on for a 10 day guided off road driving tour of the French and Italian Alps ....catering provided ( an added bounus for me!) Following in the dust tracks of the vehicle in front proved to be a little samey, while stopping to stand and gaze at the view became dependent on group decision. Camping as a team where we could discuss the day's journey was fun especially when we wild camped. Unfortunately, there were only 3 opportunities to do this, the other 7 or 8 nights being at campsites which at that time of the year were heaving,
Having decided that we liked off road driving, and feeling that we could organise it ourselves brought us to the light bulb moment of reading Sheikh Jerry's foray to Morocco. The seed was sown!