2025 Morocco

We got ourselves ready to travel around mid morning….. first stop was the Hypermarket, Marjane, we used just before we arrived here. More supplies including, bottled water, UHT milk, Bottles of coke and some meals which included some steaks.

Left the shop at noon and got caught in some heavy traffic jams. It must have taken 30-40 minutes to clear away from these. Now it was the boring and straight 160 mile toll road to our campsite. We arrived soon after 3pm. Sited, hooked up and kettle on the go.

Our friends have plans to catch the on site bus at 10am to take them into the city. We will be giving this a pass as we have done it before and not now able to do the walking required. We will instead stay back and chill. It has been around 25°C and been lovely and warm. Exactly why we have escaped the British winter.

Another relaxing day but it included watching some sport.

We needed to empty the grey tank as it was full so I drove the van round to the service bay very slowly and took the opportunity to fill the fresh water tank.

In the afternoon I watched the early football match followed by Man City v AFCB. We lost the match 3-1 but it wasn’t surprising. Since then I have been catching up with Youtube videos I haven’t seen.

Moving on tomorrow to Marrakesh.

Another relaxing day. Late breakfast followed by sitting and talking with our friends. I also did a few bits and pieces to the website. Around noon all four of us wandered up to the cafe just outside the campsite and ordered coffee. The waves were almost surfing quality.

The afternoon brought more chatting. I would normally stream a 3pm football match but not today. Intend to watch the remaining 2 matches today. We will stay tomorrow so that I can catch the Man City v AFC Bournemoth match late in the afternoon.

Relaxing in the warmth of the moroccan air….that was our day today. Nothing special happened. We sat and chatted to our travelling companions, Lee & Michelle, and drank copious amounts of tea. Wonderful !!

I did turn the van around so that the StarLink had a better view of the sky and no obstructions. It is now working so much better.

We have decided to stay a little longer because it is one of Tina’s favourite sites where she feels comfortable with the surroundings. We aim to drive to Marrakesh on Monday.

We decided to move on today and drive the 150 miles to an old favourite site of ours….Camping l’Océan Bleu. It is particularly well liked by Tina and we must have been here around 10 times over the years.

We first set the navigation for a Marjane Hypermarket in Mohammedia where we needed further supplies. Tina now tries to buy ready meals so we purchased a Chicken Tagine and a small whole chicken with rice and chips.

We are now set up in our allocated bay under the trees that provide shade especially in the summer however it’s not so good as it blocks the signal for the Starlink. The speed is well done and really not supporting streaming very well. Tina want to stay until Monday but unless I can get better internet speed in readiness for the match on Sunday afternoon I will be looking to move on Saturday.
 

I woke early this morning because at 6:10am there was the wailing to summon the locals to pray. Luckily got back to sleep.

This morning we were having problems with our water pump and then I realised we were almost out of water so a few trips later with the 10 litre container and our problem wained but it needed a few more trips before we could be confident that the problem was sorted. I will fill completely when we arrive at our next destination.

Later in the morning we took a stroll up to the cafe we had visited 2 years ago. We introduced Lee and Michelle, our new traveling companions, to Mohamed the guardian. Like before we sat and ordered coffee and included Mohamed. It was lovely to catch up with him. Nothing had changed.

On the walk back it started to shower and continued off and on throughout the afternoon. For the first time I went through the back gate onto the promenade. High winds were causing some large waves crashing onto the shore. It was still warm.

Woke this morning knowing we had all morning before we had to make our way down to the port to catch our ferry. However, we were on tender hooks waiting for the document allowing Tucker to travel which we expected before 10am. At that point I chased the Vet to then hear that the government dept had rejected our application. What are we going to do now. The Vet said he was in conversation about issuing us the document so we decided to go and do some shopping at Mercadona for the last few things.

We got back to the van around noon and found the Vet had been successful. What a relief. We now packed the Van ready for travel to the port. Our sailing was 2:30pm. Shortly before we were called forward and got our boarding passes. We had been issued with tickets for the Transmediterranea ferry which was quite an old ship. We were asked to drive up a very steep incline to get loaded on the upper parking deck.

After getting our CID number sorted (ID number) in our passports we sat and chatted to some other brits. One guy from Northern Ireland was on a tour on his own on his 1200cc motorbike. The other couple, Lee & Michelle, decided to follow us to Assilah as this was their first time visiting Morocco.

Next came the ordeal of getting through the Police and customs checks however this time it went really smoothly and we were through in about 30mins. It had taken us up to 3 hours on previous visits.

We arrived at the campsite in Assilah just as it were getting dark. Now to relax and see if Starlink will work in Morocco. No trouble !!!

Not in so much of a hurry this morning as we only had a 3 hour journey to Carlos office (the travel agent famous for supplying tickets to Morocco). We left at around 10:30am and were enjoying the dual carriageway of the A66 that goes from the north to the south of Spain. It makes for easier driving whilst having the cruise control set.

We pulled up at Carlos office just before 1pm and proceeded to purchase an open return ticket at a cost of €250. The sailing is booked for 2:30pm tomorrow. We then asked if we could meet with the vet later to obtain a health certificate for Tucker which is needed to “export” him from Spain. An appointment was set for 4:30pm at Carlos office.

We waited out the remaining time in the car park next to Mercadona. The Vet turned up on time and started to complete the paperwork informing us that we didn’t need to visit the government office (PIF) unlike in 2024 as it was all handled on line.

We then thought that we would top up the LPG tank and a splash of fuel so that this was one less job to do in the morning. We came back to the supermarket car park for our overnight stay.

Later in the evening the Vet called on WhatsApp requesting a copy of the document we obtained when landing in Spain. We never got such a document. Instead I was able to send him a copy of the export certificate from 2024 and that seemed to satisfy him. Lets hope we get the new document through email in the morning.

Tomorrow we will spend some time doing some last minute shopping before making our way to the port all being well.

This morning we awoke to find that we were low on power due mainly to my leaving everything switched on overnight. The plan was originally to stay an additional day and watch my team play Nottingham Forest this afternoon but as there is no solar energy we decided to move on and get to a park with free services including electricity. We therefore left at 10:30am aiming to get parked before 2pm

The journey was easy to drive the 200 miles down the autovia. We did arrive at 13:45pm to find all the recognised parking spots taken. However, I spoke to a Swedish couple who pointed out there was one remaining electric outlet not occupied and they allowed us to park in front of their camper. Now we could charge all the batteries and use the microwave.

Watched the match and we won 2-0 leaving us second in the premiere league. Astonishing !!!

We had thought we might stay on for another night but I want to keep moving south towards Algeciras where we will catch the ferry to Morocco. We had four other motorhomes join us overnight and Tucker found a female friend to run about with.

I decided it would be sensible to service the van as we had all the required services available for free. Now that the van was ready for a few more days off grid we left at 10:30am for the 3-4 hour drive. I had found another remote location overlooking water where Tucker can run without the lead…. he loves the freedom. As I write this we are completely on our own.

We arrived at 3pm and settled down to a cuppa and the bread, cheese and doughnuts we purchased at Lidl on the way. We intend to stay another night so I can stream live the AFC Bournemouth match with Nottingham Forest which kicks off at 4pm local time.