2025 Morocco

We knew we had a long drive planned for today so we awoke an hour earlier. Had an issue with the 12v power brick for my CPAP machine last night so I had to use the 240v cable and plug it into the Jackory power bank as we were not on electric hookup. Will need to explore what I need to do about this situation when we get home.

We were on the road by about 9:30am with an estimated finish time of 2:30pm. I wanted to fill our fuel tank before we left Spain as I was anticipating the cost per litre would be more. So around San Sebastián I pulled in and filled the tank… hopefully it will get us most of the way to Calais.

We stopped in an Aire in France for some lunch at around 2pm and arrived at the Campingcar park site at 3:45pm. We have never used this network of sites before but found it was very easy to add credit and use a unique code identifying it as us to gain access. Not sure how we leave in the morning but we will cross that bridge then.

All services are here including 6amp power so no problem with keeping warm or running my machine.

Relaxing day today as we have only a 90 minute journey to complete. First we needed to get some provisions so on the outskirts of the town we came across a Mercadona. We gathered some meals and started our journey proper around 11:30am.

I set the navigation to the Vet we intend to use for Tucker tape worm treatment. I wanted to ensure we knew where it was. At around 1pm we pulled up outside and we would never have spotted it if we didn’t know it was there. We then moved 5 minutes down the road for the free parking where there were many motorhomes / campers already parked. We spent the afternoon waiting for our 5pm appointment.

At the agreed time we parked the van just along from the surgery and the vet administered the treatment and also gave us some tooth paste for Tuckers teeth. The cost was €64.

We then decided to not use the city park up but to travel to a carpark out in the countryside. We are completely on our own.

We woke up as usual around 9am and had some breakfast followed by packing the van ready to travel to Burgos. We emptied the grey tank and left the site at around 10:30am.

The journey was around 2.5 – 3 hours arriving at around 1:30pm. We travelled almost exclusively on dual carriageways / Motorways. We have travelled from Algeciras using these type of roads…. makes for easy driving when the cruise control is set but is boring to drive.

Now in Burgos on another ACSI site mainly because we are on electric hookup as we are expecting it to be cold tonight. Tomorrow we drive a short distance to the Vet where we will get the Worming treatment for Tucker to allow him to re-enter the UK. Its then a dash for Calais over the coming days.

Nothing planned to do today except relax and get ourselves ready for the trip home.

On the journey here we had the AdBlue light come up on the dash. I had been expecting it for a while now so today I dug out from under the bed the second of the 10 litre containers I brought with us from home. Tina helped me pour all the contents in and this should ensure we don’t have this warning light come again. Once the warning light appears you have around 500 miles before the engine will stop working so it was essential to get this added.

Before we leave in the morning for Burgos we will service the van.

No urgency today as the journey time was around 90 minutes. We needed to find fuel and do some shopping for basic needs.

Filled the fuel tank shortly after joining the auto via and paid €1.53 per litre which is on a par with the cost of diesel at home so its not significantly cheaper in Spain unlike the price we paid in Morocco.

On the outskirts of Salamanca we stopped at a E.Leclerc and picked up enough food for the next few days. We didn’t realise the campsite was only 5 minutes from where we stopped. We checked in and are here for 2 nights and it certainly looks very nice but we haven’t explored yet.

Bournemouth are playing Manchester United tonight and I hope for a decent result but don’t hold out a lot of hope.

We were warm again last night as we were able to use the electric heating during the night. We had a good nights sleep.

Today we saw ourselves having a chat to our neighbours who had broken down and were awaiting parts to be delivered to the repairers. They will find out tomorrow if these had been delivered. They own a caravan site on the west coast of Ireland but are English.

Tina made use of the washing machine to ensure we had clothes to last us until we now get home. We put up a temporary line and got everything dry this afternoon.

More darts this afternoon and evening. we caught up with friends from the north east using Teams which is the replacement app for Skype. They are planning to travel to Europe after the new year.

Moving tomorrow to Salamanca.

This morning we were warm again and getting up was not a chore. We backed off the parking spot at around 11am and drove on to the service area where we emptied the black and grey tanks. We needed fresh water but thought that we could fill at our destination today.

We were on the road at approximately 11:20am making our way to an ACSI site in Plasencia. I had made contact with the site a few days back to ensure they were open mainly because at this time of the year sites close for Winter especially in France.

We pulled of the main road and drove down the hill into the site which was not at all busy and gave the impression of being very tired. I asked for 10A hookup as I want to run the heating again tonight. The ACSI price only included 5A connections.

Continued to watch the afternoon and evening sessions of the darts. We plan to stay another night leaving for another ACSI site on Monday.

Last night we had the heating on and we were very warm and comfortable. Good night sleep for us both.

Mid morning we wandered around to the Spa supermarket and bought some bread and a few other things. We should have enough food now to last us whilst we are on commercial campsites for the next 4 days.

Continued watching the darts championship this afternoon and will watch the session this evening. Our StarLink is working flawlessly and giving us access to streaming content without any buffering.

We will again run the electric heating tonight and move tomorrow.

Last night we were not connected to electric and therefore could not run the electric heating. If I used the gas heating it would run the batteries down as the fan would operate all night. We chose to get up and turn the heating on in the morning 30 minutes before we wanted to get out from under the bedding. The van had warmed up by now.

Our first job was to visit an ATM and get some shopping…. we were low on most things. We drove round to Carrefour and bought all of the essentials and also some things we hadn’t had for some time like pizzas. We were soon leaving and driving the 2.5 hours to our next parkup where we stopped on the way south a few weeks ago. It was dual carriageway for almost all the journey and therefore we made good time but making sure we kept to the speed limits and cruised comfortably.

I was hoping that we would get a connection to the free electric that we enjoyed before and that the aire was not full. To our surprise there were a few spaces available and we connected up which allowed us to have the electric heating on this evening and during tonight. We should have a much better nights sleep.

Over the past few days I have been having issues with the plug from my 12v converter to my CPAP machine. It is intermittently turning the machine off or will not turn on. I did bring my 240v supply which I needed for the ferry so I found that and intend to use it tonight as we are on mains electric.

Our meal was a very tasty pizza and was most enjoyable followed by the start of the 2026 Darts World Championship which is on until after new year. This will be my daily watch all the way until Christmas.

Started the day like most days but today we are travelling back to Spain. After packing the van for travel, filling the fresh water tank, emptying the black tank and taking in the Electric hook cable we left the site at around 11am. On the way we stopped and collected some bread for lunch.

Now onto the toll road. During the journey we were informed that there was a quicker route so muggins obeyed. However, this took us to Tangier town and a different ferry port. Now we had to retrace our steps to get on the right road to Tangier Med port.

We arrived at the port at around 1:30pm and went to get our ticket for the next ferry which was due to be 2pm. I also changed the remaining 120 MAD we had left to get €10.

Now onto the police, customs and passport checks together with the mobile scanner of all of the vehicles. I remember it previously as a slow process but this year it went really well so we were in line for loading at around 2:30pm.

The boat left the port at around 3:15pm and we were docking in Algeciras at just after 4:30pm. Once again the checks were minimal and no one took any interest in Tucker. No we made our way back to the parking close to Carlos office where we bought out ferry ticket. Tina is now happy that we are on our way and back in Europe.

I walked over to Burger King and bought a burger and some chips for both of us. We’ve decided to do some shopping in the morning. We have a choice of Lidl. Carrefour or Mercadona. We will make a decision in the morning.