Wednesday 27th March – Vila Real de Santo Antinio to Alvor

Vilas Real de Santo Antonio to Alvor - 79 miles

After a relaxing day yesterday with a walk into the lovely little town and longish chats with a France-based English couple who originally came from County Durham, our intention today was to find a campsite so we could get the washing done and get cleaned up, ready for the run home, which we must get started on. A check of the books showed a couple of ACSI sites along the coast so after the usual chores and goodbyes to new friends we rejoined the N125 for a pleasant run along the Algarve coast.

This road has now been significantly improved over the glorified dirt track it used to be when we first came to Portugal and although reasonably busy it is now a fast and easy route. We stopped off at an Aldi in Olhoa for some basics, which as usual turned into a trolleyfull, before finding our first selection at Armacao de Pera, near Albufeira. First glance looked okay so we checked in, but then spent half an hour trying to find a pitch that wasn't on a hillside, wasn't in the howling gale blowing off the sea and was reasonably close to the facilities. On the basis if we don't like what we see we move on we did just that.

The next was a little further on, past Portimao, at Alvor. Again it looked okay so we checked in but again spent time wandering around. Eventually we settled on a smallish pitch next to some Brits which satisfied our criteria so dropped anchor. This site seems to cater mainly for long-term stayers and is a bit higgledy piggledy, but we're only staying for a couple of nights so it'll do – and it's relatively cheap too despite having otherwise excellent amenities including a cafe/bar, restaurant and swimming pool. The mini-market had closed down but we quickly discovered a “Pingo” supermarket a short distance away, not that we needed anything.

Monday 25th March – Rota to Vila Real de Santo Antonio

Rota to Vila Real de Santo Antinio - 210 miles

We decided to stay another day at Rota as it was such a nice spot, it was warm and sunny …......... and it was Sunday! But ever onward and after a delayed getaway due to chatting with a solo Brit who was new to European motorhoming (actually we think he was just a tad lonely....) we set off with a view to visiting El Rocio which apparently is the venue for one of the largest celebrations of the horse – no that didn't come out right. But at Pentecost apparently thousands of horsey folk descend on the place as some form of pilgrimage with parades, carnival etc. and is quite a spectacle. However as it's not Pentecost we didn't expect to see much.

So a nice run up to Seville and we took extra care negotiating the very busy motorwork network. After a few miles westbound we turned off towards El Rocio, pausing to refill the fuel tank as it is cheaper in Spain than Portugal, before entering the town. First impressions were that motorhomes were not welcome, with signs everywhere, then the one and only campsite didn't help by not accepting dogs, despite assurances in our ACSI campsite book that they did. Then when looking for somewhere to park for an hour to have lunch and look around, it was all pay parking. Now we're not averse to this but the place was deserted and looked decidedly scruffy with lots of closed “touristy” places so we turned round and cleared off.

The road skirts a National Park, which is why it is awkward to get to and we could either return the way we came, anathema to us, or continue along the scenic coast road. Not our day today as it was neither scenic or coastal with fences along both sides and next to nowhere to stop. We eventually pulled into one of the service access roads and parked by the locked gate – nobody was obviously using it – and had a very late lunch.

It got no better as we headed towards Huelva and into our normal stopping time, so with no prospect of finding an overnight spot we just got back onto the motorway and headed into Portugal where we knew of a few aires close to the border which should be okay. Once registered for automatic toll payments we headed for Vila Real de Santo Antonio and the aire on the riverside, where we found a few spaces left and slotted between two English couples, now resident in France and thus being French registered. A bit chat when we discovered they were both originally from County Durham then a welcome drink, tea and settle, having to be reminded to turn our clocks back one hour because Portugal is on UK time.

We'll probably stay a couple of nights before heading onwards. However a check of the longer-term weather forecast indicates it is going to turn much colder everywhere at the end of the week so we'll have to consider some alternatives.

Saturday 23rd March – Castellar de la Frontera to Rota

Castellar de la Frontera to Rota - 110 miles

Awoke to a somewhat cloudy, windy but warm day in no rush as we were planning on being a bit flexible for a while. So after breakfast and the usual seeing to the van, we decided to take a ride up to Sanlucar de Barramedar, a place we've stayed before and loved, but we had heard about some difficulties with motorhome parking there – however we had an alternative planned.

But first Bertie was in dire need of a thorough wash so having identified a suitable place yesterday, we went back to Los Palomes and spent €10 on a thorough jet-wash, before taking to the motorway once more with a now fully serviceable TomTom in charge.

The problem with satnavs is that they need to be kept up to date and as we hadn't done this, whilst at Mohammedia we'd given it a try. All we needed to do was connect to the internet and, yes, there were a few map updates waiting so off we go. Until our Maroc internet expired, which had the effect of deleting the existing maps – they were still there but we couldn't get at them....... We subsequently tried again several times but were only finally successful yesterday afternoon once we had re-connected to a new simcard with lots of gigabytes to play with. Lesson learned!

So TomTom did his stuff and took us straight to a campsite outside of Sanlucar. No, that's not where we wanted to be so reprogrammed the old-fashioned way, that is using lat/long, and tried again. That worked but on arrival we were not surprised to find the aire had been closed down, as well as it's associated service point. It's a real shame because it's a lovely town to visit but we guess it became a victim of its own success – we had heard of problems whilst it had been in use.

We did see, however, a large beachside parking area just outside the town with several motorhomes parked on it and no apparent restrictions so we went there for lunch in the now blazing hot sunshine. Unfortunately it was also very exposed to the still very strong winds so we elected not to stay longer and instead headed for our alternative at Rota.

Rota is known for it's large US Navy base, but the aire is well away from that, in a nice beach-side location that was reasonably protected from the wind by large sand dunes. Only a few spaces left, we squeezed in then took Jamie for a quick run down to the beach before returning to spend the rest of the day relaxing.

Friday 22nd March – Algeciras to Castellar de la Frontera

As luck would have it, last night we got parked next to our friends June and Derek who, unbeknownst to us, had also crossed back to Spain a lot earlier than expected, so a small reunion took place. Then after breakfast we went our separate ways, us to spend several hours completely restocking our supplies, ready for the next part of the adventure.

After lunch we said our final goodbyes (well maybe, their plans are not too dissimilar to ours) then went off to refill the gas bottles before heading to the quiet aire at Castellar de la Frontera, a few miles up in the hills behind Algeciras, which we've used before on several occasions. As usual, only a few vans parked up so we settled, sorted out the shopping and relaxed, both of us still a bit fraught with yesterdays shenanigans.

Checked the weather forecast and we've sort of planned to head west to the Algarve then amble slowly north through Portugal.

Thursday 21st March - Mohammedia to Algeciras

Mohammedia to Algeciras - 228 (road) miles plus sea crossing

Well we stayed three nights and did precisely nothing, just chilled out in the sun, walked the dog and watched the comings and goings, including a biggish group of Swiss/Germans who stayed for one night – they'd obviously booked because at least 15 spaces had been “reserved” by the guardian.

But all good things come to an end and it was time to move on. Our plan was to go to Asilah and overnight, getting a crossing on Friday but, with hindsight, Terry's subconscious must have kicked in because we did some calculations and realised we could make the 1700 ferry. We'd seen the weather forecast, which was for strong winds and indeed we were already encountering them on the motorway, although this hadn't actually registered with us. There follows a tale about what can, will and does happen when plans start to fall apart...........

Having decided to miss Asilah and go for the 5.00pm ferry, we arrived at checkin at 4.05pm with the board saying checkin closed. About to have an investigate we were accosted by an "agent" who told us the 5.00pm was the last ferry of the day, all others cancelled today and tomorrow due to the weather. However he said, "just because you are British" (and he should also have said gullible) "I can get you on the last ferry". He took me to the side door of the checkin office, took my documents and after some shilly shallying around handed me our boarding passes - and asked for 100 dirhams (for my brother in the office). Okay, thinks I, probably worth it, but at that point Bren had been to the bureau de exchange and changed all our dirhams into Euros, which she had in her hand. To my deepest embarrasment I managed to give him the 50 note - yes €50 rather than the €10 she was also holding. I put it down to a mental lapse due to the rush, but he must have thought it was Christmas!

Okay, so we were on. Down to Immigration, we'd somehow "lost" the yellow immigration exit forms so the nice policeman told us to go back to the gate and get new ones, which we filled in then went back to him, accepting a mild telling-off. Customs clearance was dead easy, didn't even want to talk to us. Then we found the original yellow forms - talk about idiot Brits - not our best day!

Onto the quayside, last motorhome in the queue as promised. Until 3 others came in after us. At 5.00pm there was no sign of a ship - the 3 others which had been berthed had gone. At 6.00pm a ship hove into view. At 7.00pm we started loading. At 8.15pm the ship finally sailed and we enjoyed a nice chat with a fellow Funster and his wife on a remarkably smooth crossing. Docked at 9.45pm, we managed to get a flyer by driving around all the other idiots waiting patiently for someone else to move. By 10.00pm we were parked up at Carlos', the ticket agents overnighting area, walked and fed the dog then into McD's for something to eat - didn't matter what, we were starving! 

We subsequently learned that several sailings had already been cancelled and this was indeed the last ferry for a couple of days and had combined several departures. We're not altogether sure these cancellations were weather related, but did discover that all departures for the next two days had in fact been cancelled. Subconscious? Luck? Whatever, we could have been stuck for a few days.....

And so endeth our Morocco visit for 2019. At the beginning we said this was probably going to be our last visit but this has now been reviewed and we'll likely come again next year. Yes Morocco has changed significantly since our last visit and looks to be rapidly dragging itself into the 21^st century. However there is still enough of the old left for a good few years not to completely lose it's character.

Monday 18th March – Oualidia to Mohammedia

Oualidia to Mohammedia - 150 miles

With Terry feeling much better we decided to carry on north today so transferred the water “reserve” into the tank, emptied the loo and departed this very nice spot. Our intention was to use the motorway but, in case of problems, we wanted to exchange the small Moroccan gas bottle so started out on the coast road. After we were refused at a couple of places we realised that nobody wanted our Atlasgas bottle, everywhere was Afriquagas, so forgot about it for now.

Bren was feeling a little queasy and the road, not as good as some, was not helping so when we saw a sign to the motorway we turned off. Bad move! Firstly it took us almost back on ourselves, which we didn't immediately realise until Terry noticed the sun was in the wrong place and secondly because the road was awful – so bad the waste tap opened and spilled the entire contents over a verge; oh dear me!

But eventually we found the access road and were soon bowling along on a blissfully smooth carriageway in 6^th gear with the cruise control looking after things. Past Al Jedidah then we paused for lunch on a service area before deciding that Mohammedia was an eminently doable destination. So TomTom was programmed for L'Oceane Bleu campsite, a place we've stayed a few times, and we carried on in ever increasing traffic as we passed Casablanca. Barely recognisable from our earlier visits we turned off the motorway after paying around a tenner in tolls, and found the approach road, noting large numbers of recently completed holiday apartments. We were guided to an excellent pitch in full sun and, formalities completed, Terry took Jamie for a quick walk on the beach then a cuppa and settle in.

There have been a few changes here; the surrounding developments have now all been completed so there is no more building site noise, some new pitches have been created at what was the rear of the site plus a number of “bungalows”, in reality glorified bedrooms, have been added. Sadly nothing has been done about the inadequate ablutions block which in view of the tremendous advances we've seen elsewhere is letting the place down.

Not sure yet how long we are going to stay but we plan to cross back to Spain on Friday and it is a decent day's drive to the port so we'll probably have to build in one more stop somewhere. We'll think about it but it is pleasant enough here and the sun is shining............

Oualidia (again!)

A very unsettled night and Terry was out early to find a pharmacy, where a friendly and helpful lady sold him a 5 day course of strong anti-biotics – you don't need prescriptions for run-of-the-mill medication here. The first tablet had an almost immediate effect, relieving the pain, but he spent the rest of the day asleep! There was a warning on the packet – don't drive or operate machinery.........

So a quiet day for Bren and Jamie, and this continued into Sunday as well as we decided to stay over a couple of days rather than chance any problems with side effects. At least Sunday Breakfast was manageable, listening to Michael Ball on Radio 2 and catching up on logs and blogs. Seems the weather at home is not very nice.

But by bed-time he was much improved and we decided to carry on north tomorrow.