20 July

Hydraulic fill-up on the road

ROUNDING OFF WITH A MECHANICS STOP

What we thought would be arrival time at 2am in Barcelona was to be 7h30 in the morning !! Customs issue of course! They do not work in the early hours… well, at least we had a full night of sleep as I am not the best at driving in the early hours!

It took us an hour to get off the ferry and through Customs before heading off on the highway direction Bordeaux where the spare parts for c(r)utching Deffie were waiting. Luckily we only had the highway to take with a couple of stops so not much changing gears!

We’re still on the highway while I write this last blogpost and I am positive that we will make it to Ollie’s parents. Once repaired we’ll leave for another 650 kilometers up north towards our final destination Epône…. A mere 5000 km in total !!!

We rounded off the trip exactly as we started… with a mechanics stop… but rich of great, great memories of yet another country & culture discovered.

Richness lies in the experiences one acquires by discovering the vastness of this planet and its people and the Love they share with you...

With all our Love,

Milna, Olivier, Peter, Sheridan, Keone & Kimo

19 July

Sunset on board...

HIS EXCELLENCY

Blue Mediterranean skies were all around when we sat down outside on the deck to have breakfast. It was warm with a little breeze and just perfect to pass the day on board of the "Excellent".

Mum wasn’t feeling well and had probably caught a Moroccan stomach bug.. she spent her day asleep in her cabin. I managed to catch a deckchair and enjoyed the sun on one of the top decks where the wind was by now a welcome cool-down!

Compared to the “Majestic” the “Excellence” was fantastic !!! The boat was clean and less run-down and there were more activities organized for the kids (although the boys spent their time running around playing hide and seek in the corridors).

We had a beautiful sunset on the Spanish horizon with dolphins following the ferry before heading off to the cabins for an early wake-up the next morning…

18 July

Boarding the ferry

IN TRANSIT

Today our main goal was to get to the seaport with the Defender with a functioning clutch !!! So once packed, stomach filled with breakfast and shopping done for on the boat we headed off direction Tanger.

It was only an hour drive via the highway with a blasting mistral wind!! But we arrived with c(r)utching Deffie still in shape. Now the endless waiting began on the parking in front of the ferry… 5 more hours to fill. Outside the gusty mistral was still blowing. We had a bite and decided to seek refuge in the cars listening to music and dowsing off. Then finally at 22h we could start the engine and drive on board. Phewww.. we made it!

17 July

 

THE CLUTCH ISSUE

This morning when leaving for our final destination Asilah, the Def decided to play up again! 

We had already filled up the clutch hydraulic liquid in Sidi Ifni but the reservoir apparently was empty again just after our departure.  We toppled it up and bled the system at the gas station on the toll road, with Ollie underneath the car and dad pushing the paddle to get the air out.

Once arrived at the hotel in Asilah, the hunt was on for spare-parts. With the help of Ollie’s dad in Bordeaux and Aziz here in Casablanca we searched for a solution. It was already 16h and we decided to just drive to Tanger tomorrow and see how the Def will handle its deteriorated clutch-state. In the worst case dad will have to tow it into the seaport and into the ferry…

 We’re asking you to keep your fingers crossed so we can at least make it to Bordeaux where normally we will have the spare-parts available!

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the beautiful medina of Asilah! It is breath-taking and reminded us a lot of the white and blue painted houses seen in Spain and Portugal.  We enjoyed the last visit at a local pub with local beer and as an ‘apero’ freshly grilled anchovis & local olives.

I’m heading off to the internet café around the corner to upload this onto the blog… no wifi to be found here. We’re rounding off this great trip around Morocco with our minds full of beautiful memories and impressions of a country in full expansion and transformation brought about by its younger generation.

With our greetings from a lively Asilah!

16 July

SCORCHING HEAT ON THE ROAD OF RETURN

The freshness of the morning air a Sidi Ifni wouldn’t last very long as we set off on our road back up North.  As soon as we turned inland towards Marrakesh at a mere 20 km from the coast in the hilly countryside there, mum & dad informed us from their air-conditioned car that outside temperatures were at 40°. It was only 10h in the morning and I avoided thinking of what was awaiting us around Marrakesh later on that day.

We only progressed slowly on the first part of our itinerary as the road was filled with slow-driving trucks, carts with donkeys and more…

The toll road (highway) came as a great relief (even for our toilet stop!) and we hit the pedal to progress a bit faster.. at least that’s what we thought! Outside temps had risen to 46° by this time and we attacked a mountainous area. Ollie was pushing the Defender a bit too much on the very first slope and for the first time in the poor old car’s life the motor was showing signs of heat distress!

Well.. we had to drop back at our previous speed of 60k’s here…. Joining the trucks again! The air inside of the car was like a huge blow-dryer and wetting your face only helped for a split second as your skin barely had the time to become wet! I told Ollie that we should have organized ourselves differently. Driving in such heat was unbearable. For us .. & for the Def ! He seemed to be fine and wasn’t too bothered by the scorching heat but Kimo & I were boiling in the back of the car! Keone had already deserted and was enjoying the cool air in the Toyota!

Mum was no longer announcing temperatures, most probably for psychological reasons, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Kimo and I quickly fell asleep. After an hour or so, with the hot winds still blowing round our faces I decided to switch cars with Kimo. Ollie was fine with this. He found it a challenge to drive and thus I joined the oldies in their comfortable cooled Toyota. What a relief! Mum pointed at the temperature on the dashboard. 50° by now at 14h. This was madness! Not long after, Olivier reported that his iPhone and the pc he was using as a GPS were shutting down from the heat!

When we pulled over to have lunch, we decided to continue driving to get out of this scorching center of Morocco and join the coastal area of Casablanca… only problem was finding a hotel. We were to find out once arrived around 21h… Our goal was to avoid thecenter of the city and this reduced our chances to zero.

Only one solution left, highway to Rabat and see what we could find around there. I checked the little town of Kenitra. The “Guide de Routard” gave a couple of addresses to stay for the night and I decided to call “Hotel de France” (good choice, no?).  Ollie even found the hotel in his Tomtom and so we ended up in front of its doors at midnight.

The men went to check it out and quickly returned telling us that this was NOT the correct hotel! It turned out that I had called a hotel in Kenifra, NOT Kenitra! But what a coincidence that both places had a hotel with exactly the same name!

Well, our luck wasn’t turned down, we found a hotel quite quickly around the corner. By this time we were happy with anything as long as we could sleep and shower the sticky sweat off our bodies!

Tomorrow we’ll head to Asilah, our last stop before boarding the ferry on Wednesday evening 23h.

 I may not be able to update the blog after this post until on French territory as the hotel in Asilah is the same one we had for our first night (without wifi).  So for now, we are sending you all our Love from this warm country and the warm hearts of its people.

15 July

The Bush Mechanics Boys

SUNDAY MORNING BUSH MECHANICS

Coming down to the restaurant this morning to have a brekkie I didn't find the men at one of the tables but instead outside with the camping gaz burner soldering a broken wire of the power converter we use for the pc in the car.


Dad thought he had a soldering iron, but NOT! So they used a Bush mechanics solution... And it worked !

Ollie finally went out for a surf session... eh, 3 waves only .. and was back again in no time... the age is starting to catch up with him.

Today's waves at Sidi Ifni

The rest of the day could be considered a quiet Sunday. We spent it hanging around the peaceful little town, sunbathing, shopping and packing for our leave tomorrow morning returning northwards...

Malika's Boutique

 We visited the Malika's little boutique just next to the hotel. She has an impressive collection of beads! Either you buy one of her creations or you create something yourself.

Tonite we had a last glass of local beer and wine in the Berber tent on the roof of the hotel to close off the great time we had here at Sidi Ifni.


Well, if we can recommend you an excellent address to stay then jot down Hotel Suerte Loca !

14 July

THE NARROW ESCAPE ON THE ESCARPMENT!!!

The day kicked off with a Landrover reparation... hmm this isn't the first time !!! Where have I seen this before??

The bonnet was taken off, and the men had to find a local mechanics shop to buy hydraulic fluid to fill up the master clutch cylinder which almost ran dry. Luckily this didn't happen in the middle of nowhere yesterday on our off-road trip!!! This could have been disastrous as my dad's car would not have been able to tow us up and down the rocky slopes.


We decided to take the Def for a test-drive up North to a different beach, driving away with a sunny sky.... well, that sky turned more and more hazy and foggy as we advanced on the road! Halfway we decided to make a Uwie and head back to our own beach. 


The boys stayed at the hotel to play pool and table football while we went for a long beach walk at the foot of the rocky cliffs on a pebbly beach.

We rounded off our walk in the local pub (men only!!) after a shower. Olivier went for a beachvolley session with the boys. The local pub was an empty cantine-like room selling only alcoholic beverages.. no coke, no juice, no ambiance to be found! We only stayed the necessary time to empty the beer bottle...


Tonite we are closing off the day at our usual dinner address: Restaurant Suerte Loca. The food is always tasty and service very friendly!

13 July

EXCURSION TO THE OASIS & THE OFF-ROAD EXPERIENCE

After breakfast we took off 50km inland nearby Guelmim to visit an oasis there. We were accompanied by Abdellah, the brother of the owners of the hotel, and his daughter Laura. 

Once arrived there, we visited the little settlement there, houses, vegetable gardens and even a little shop. A few locals ware still living there but most of them have left for more comfort to the nearby towns.

Abdellah arranged for us to have lunch at one of the typical Khasbas. We were warmly greeted and happy to find some shade with temperatures soaring up to 40 degrees! The place was actually a local bed & breakfast. We sat inside and had our lunch there before heading off to the nomad museum a bit further on in the oasis.

Nomadic kitchen utensils

Our guide Abdou & I

The same man gave us a guided tour and decided to transform me into a typical Bedouin. He did the same with Laura and then Olivier. He asked Kimo and Keone if they agreed to trade me for 2 Camels. Kimo agreed but not Keone! 

Laura & I

We had to cut the visit short as we were running out of time. It was already 15h30 and we had planned to drive to the coast and back up to Sidi Ifni via offroad tracks. 

Ollie & I

It was scorching hot in the Defender and the wind was like a blowdryer! We drove for km’s through barren landscapes before reaching the endless stretching beach “Plage Blanche”. In the meantime temperature had dropped to 22 degrees! We were even cold now..

There were local people camping there with self-made tents. The beach was unreachable by river  mounding there and so we decided to look for the track to take us back up North. At that point we didn’t know that we miscalculated our point of reference, thinking the track to be 25km in distance. It was around 17h and we set off over the cliffs following the track indicated to us by one of the locals there. He told us to keep left whenever reaching a fork.

The route was quite impressive with the high cliffs and the lower beaches stretching for kilometers without a person on it. Once in a while we had to cross a riverbed taking us down to the water-level only to climb up again over rocky terrain to the cliffs.

We were lucky to have Abdellah with us as we had several incidences where weren’t quite sure what direction to take! On the map only one track is indicated but driving out there you find out there are many more!!  The trip started to seem endless and some of us were starting to wonder if we would find the asphalt road before sunset. 

Well, it turned out to be 80km of track when we finally saw the road in the distance just at dusk.  Some sighs of relief could be heard over  the walkie talkie and we arrived at Sidi Ifni at 21h30…

It was quite a day with lots of new impressions to take in. I would like to give my special Thanks on behalf of all of us to Abdellah and Laura, for without them we would not have experienced the local lunch at the inn and we could have ended up taking some wrong turns here and there!

Shukran Abdellah and Laura!

BURQINI

Thanks Almar for sending this along! 

You always amaze me with your findings! 

I love you dear Brother!

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Woman in a burqini

A burqini (or burkini) swimsuit is a type of swimsuit for women designed by Lebanese Australian Aheda Zanetti under the company name Ahiida.

The suit covers the whole body except the face, the hands and the feet (enough to preserve Muslim modesty), whilst being light enough to enable swimming. It was described as the perfect solution for conservative Muslim women who want to swim but are uncomfortable with revealing bathing suits.

It looks rather like a full-length wetsuit with built-in hood, but somewhat looser and made of swimsuit material instead of rubber.^[1]

In August 2009, a woman in France was prevented from swimming in a public pool wearing a burkini.^[2] This was due to a long-standing law requiring swimwear in place of street clothing in public pools, for hygienic reasons, rather than the result of any specific political position on the garment, despite controversy in France over Islamic dress.^[3]

"Burqini", a portmanteau of burqa and bikini, is a registered trademark.^[4]

There are other styles of Islamic swimwear such as the veilkini and mycozzie which was the actual garment worn in the France incident.^[5] Aheda Zanetti criticized the mycozzie suit, claiming it used lycra and was unsafe. This was disputed by the designer of the mycozzie swimsuit.^[6]

Notable wearers have included Nigella Lawson.^[7]

12 July

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

Keone finally found what he was looking for at the local market this morning ! A typical Moroccan shawl "The Shesh"


Thanks to the local cleaning lady of the hotel, wifi in the hotel and thank you Youtube for explaining how to twist it around your head! Here is the result:

Today was spent at Sidi Ifni beach in the afternoon with chaotic waves and temperatures soaring to the 30 degrees. Finally we are tanning a bit as the French sun didn't do the job this year...

Keone ran into a girl from his school here.. quite a small world sometimes!


Tonight the lady at our hotel proposed us to buy fresh fish at the market and prepare it with fresh salad and fried rice. The taste was just delicious !!! Sidi Ifni's fishing port is one of the major ones in Morocco and most of it is exported to Europe. Only a small percentage is kept for local sales. You can get some very fine species here.. 2 of which we tasted tonight !


Sending you our Love from this great little village...

11 July

SURFERS' PARADISE & CO.

Night-time has fallen here in Sidi Ifni …. And as I remembered so well from Saudi Arabia as a child, that’s when the place becomes alive !!!

We arrived in this very peaceful and quiet town this morning around 10h. The little hotel by the name of “Seurte Loca” was highly recommended everywhere and we managed to get two very nice rooms with balcony and views on the ocean which is just at 200m.

We decided to stay here for a couple of days to rest and enjoy the beautiful beaches in the area. The boys were getting quite fed up with the Medina’s and souks and so were we.  They were really happy to find a pool- and soccertable once we were checked in and had our breakfast.

First real afternoon on the beach was a ‘warm’ welcome ! It was great to rest and not be ‘out and about’ around the towns… Again we seemed to be the only foreigners. According to the locals we spoke to earlier, October thru December are the high season months, when the place will be buzzing with surfers coming from all over the globe.

Many Moroccan youngsters were floundering the seaside. Young girls were in bathing suits, although always with a shorty of some kind. Not one was wearing bikini pants… apparently the older ‘teenage’ girls prefer to keep their clothes on and bathe dresses, just like in Saudi Arabia. I haven’t been able to find one married woman uncovered… I can tell you I felt quite odd on that beach this afternoon!!!

Berber tent on top terrace of the hotel

On top of the roof of Seurte Loca was a big terrace with a nomad tent where you could sit and enjoy the views. We asked the hotel manager if we could have a beer and rosé there. (Dad’s coolbox still had some reserves as most hotels don’t serve alcohol).  

View from the terrace

Well, what more could we have wished for… this place is definitely the best one we have found so far! I adopted it !!!

10 July

T 'IZNIET* AT TIZNIT

Tiznit is situated about 50 km inland from the coast, just under Agadir. We reached this town partially by very dusty tracks but most of the tracks had been asphalted over the recent years so not much off-road!

Dad didn't mind too much as he was the one disappearing in a huge dust-cloud from he Defender every time we turned on a track.

Oasis on the road to Tiznit

We quickly found our hotel without the need of a guide this time, just outside of yet another fortified Medina. 

Once all the baggage was taken out of the cars we decided to have a walk around the place, but somehow this town just didn't seem to 'have it'. Many of the little shops were closed and there was a certain coziness missing somehow.

We decided to check out the local swimmingpool but unfortunately for the boys it was closing at 17h .. they had only 30 mins. left. Well, with the afternoon heat there was not much to do but to chill with a drink at a terrace and so we did!

Tiznit just isn't it ...... but we enjoyed the relaxing afternoon before heading off to the beaches of Sidi Ifni tomorrow!

* T'isniet est un jeu de mot en Hollandais sur Tiznit. Cela veut dire: ce n'est pas ça (ce n'est pas ce à qoui nous attendions)

*T'isniet is a wordplay in Dutch on Tiznit meaning it is not what we expected

9 July

TAROUDANNT 

- A BUZZING FORTIFIED TOWN -

We arrived at Taroudannt  after a 3-hour drive, amazed by the impressive beautiful walls surrounding this buzzing Berber town.

Once having entered by one of its main gates, we were once again met by a local on a moped who guided us to our hotel. He lead us out and all around the superb walls to enter via a different gate and took us through the heart of Taroudannt , to end up almost at our entry point. “Cheers brother for the guided tour!”  This has become almost a standard procedure when arriving at a new destination …

Hotel Taroudannt turned out to be a very typically Moroccan-style hotel beautifully decorated with their well-known tiles. We booked 2 rooms on the top floor of the hotel looking out on an inside green patio and with a big terrace all around.  For the first time we had an air-conditioning which Keone decided to program at 16°c with an outside temperature well above the 30’s!!!

After a late lunch and having settled down we took off to walk around. Taroudannt was well alive with many locals criss-crossing everywhere, by foot, mopeds, cars, carts pulled by horsed and what not! We enjoyed the local souk and all that was for sale there. It reminded me of Riyadh and partly of my childhood years in Africa…

We sat down on one of the main squares to enjoy a mint-tea and to take in the daily activities of the locals there. The boys watched an old Moroccan entertain the crowd with two pythons and a black cobra… the snakes weren’t too active ans seemed to be overfed but the man himself was quite a show!

The Snake man

Tomorrow we will continue our trip back towards the coastline hoping to find some waves to surf for the boyzzz …

Add caption

With Love to you all from peaceful Morocco!

8 July

Souk El Had, Agadir

Our wake-up this morning was a fresh one with the morning fog of the coast covering us like a blanket.

After breakfast we took off towards the well-known city of Agadir. The cool morning was perfect for this! We paid a visit to the souk which turned out to be immense! There were different sections: vegetables, spices, clothes, electronics, fabrics and more...

Bargaining wasn't an easy task, or no longer is maybe..... too many tourists now? Paying too easily what they ask for? Certain items even had a fixed price.

After Agadir we made a stop at Thazraout on our way back, a well-known surfspot and hang-out for the surfers (although I didn't see many..) Waves were small and the beach quite crowded. We had some food instead and returned to the camping to pick up the necessities for surfing for the boys.

The small waves and flat beach near the camping were perfect for them to get back into the moves. Kimo was the only one out with a skimboard, he was quite an attraction for the local youngsters and Keone enjoyed the small waves to practice his balance.

Tonight will be our last night here as tomorrow we will visit Taroudant which is 80 km east of Agadir. It is called the "Grandmother of Marrakech" as it is a mini version of the latter.

Weather temperatures are forecasted at 37 °! A record for us so far!

Well, I'm off to enjoy a glass of Local Rosé, which we finally found at the supermarket in Agadir...

7 july

BEAUTIFUL COASTAL DRIVE TO AGADIR

After a typical Moroccan breakfast on the beach near Tharazout, we continued our trip South-wards towards Agadir, following the coastal road.  The landscape became more and more beautiful as we advanced. More hilly, covered with bushes, shrubs, Argan  and Olive trees.

Halfway we turned off the road to take a track that continued for quite some kilometers. Again the surroundings were breathtaking but there was one downside to it all: the coastal fog was hiding the view over the ocean from the cliffs we were driving on… the lady at the restaurant yesterday had warned us for this. The Agadir area almost always has fog during the whole morning .

We found a camping 27 km north of Agadir, on the coast. This time no hotelrooms but real basic camping for a change! We seem to be the only foreigners here as many Moroccans are preparing for Ramadan in 2 weeks and thus they are taking time off. 

Once our camp was up and the sun was setting we decided to see if we could find a cold beer and a glass of Rose… not an easy task here! We ended up at this very chic Hotel! We weren’t quite dressed for the occasion and apparently our shoes and slippers were too dusty as our footsteps were mopped up right after us when dad returned inside to look for a toilet!

Nevertheless, we had a beautiful view over the ocean, local music and what we were looking for to drink!!  What a treat to have a chilled Rose after a couple of days of drinking water …

Cheers!!

6 July

TRADITIONAL TATTOOS AT ESSAOUIRA

This morning we slowed down the pace a bit as the last few nights were quite late… 

Kimo and Keone had the swimmingpool to themselves as the camping only had a couple of visitors which hadn’t surfaced yet. We soaked up some sun ourselves before heading off to the Medina of Essaouira around noon.

The parking in front of the old city centre was one big ‘souq’ ! Cars were double-parked, some were just being pushed forward or backwards so you could access the spot next to it, somewhat like those games you find where the pieces are mixed up and you have to slide them along !!

This Medina turned out to be a real tourist trap and it was far less authentic then the one in Safi.  Still it was nice to walk through it and see the splendid narrow old streets that were built in such a way as to keep out the windy weather on that particular coast.

We ended up finding a cozy little restaurant “La Clé de Voûte”  where they served very tasty Moroccan dishes.  The Oldies enjoyed their glass of cold Casablanca beer and I had a wifi access to update this blog. What more could we have wished for!

We set forth our tour beyond the Medina and ended up with Fatima for a traditional Tattoo session. It was mum who had the idea although none of us were too excited about it. Well it turned out that Fatima had her day, as she didn’t have any clients for over 72 hours because of the gusty winds…. 

and Kimo, Olivier & I had her decorate our skin with Henna . Amazing how she drew the traditional designs in no time!  The ones for the boys were a bit harder on her.

Tonight we prepared bags, cars and the rest of our stuff to continue our trip tomorrow direction Agadir.

FANTA - STIC OPI

 

FANTA - STIC  OPI* !!!

Tip of a Tourist: 

When lacking shampoo use the local soap and your hair will look outrageous all day long !!!

(Even after the swimmingpool ! )

Petite remarque de Kimo: 

Si tu bois de l'alcool tu es alcolique, si tu bois du Fanta tu es Fanta-stique !!!

* Opi = grandad in Dutch

5 July

VIA SAFI TO ESSAOUIRA

After a typical Moroccan breakfast with ‘fried Crepes’ we drove off southwards to Safi first, known for its Portuguese influences and pottery. The landscape was becoming more and more arid as we progressed and we were wondering what all the goats still had to graze in the barren landscape, for sure not much as they were skin over bones!

We decided to visit the old Medina in Safi. Once arrived and having parked our cars we were greeted with ‘goedemorgen’ by a Moroccan by the name of Said. (Not hard to guess why he knew that word!)

He proposed to show us around the beautiful old Medina. The Jewish people have left their marks here and there in the architectural finishes whereas the Portuguese added sole of theirs too.  Said proposed us to go and see his pottery work just on the outside of the Medina. Safi is known world-wide for this colourful artwork.

We were shown how the pottery is made on a spinning table, how it is baked and painted.  To finish off his guided tour, we were shown the different shops where his work is sold.

It was lunch-time and he proposed to take us to a small local restaurant on the seashore.  By ourselves we would never have found it, nor would we have walked in maybe… I don’t know, but did we have a delicious lunch! The ‘cuisto’ treated us on a big dish of fried fish, shrimps and calamares.  Well, there wasn’t much left on the plate!

We finished off in the Medina Souq with a kilo of different olives or 1.50 euros,  different vegetables for a salad for 60 cts and fresh Cumin and pepper. After having thanked Said for the great tour we set off to Essaouira, another 2H drive.

To  change our hotel  habits we thought we would try a camping at about 15 km south of the town.  Camping Le Calme turned out to be quite rocky, dry and hard (what did we expect …)  and was covered with Argan nuts scattered everywhere on the terrain… uhh,  this could be quite a challenge for 2 nights with our 2 mm mattresses! Luckily they had rooms for rent and we decided to take a big room and a smaller one for our stay in this area. These were nicely decorated and situated around an inside patio ‘Moroccan style’. (see pics here)

The boys quickly inaugurated the quiet pool. A great refreshing moment after what turned out to be our first warm day in the country!