Morocco 2010
It
all started in late 2009 when we were discussing what to do after we got back
from Karin's mother's 95 birthday in February 2010!
It was bitterly cold and
wet and Karin fancied going to Syria but the "experts" said it would
be too cold - so where else?
Some ten years ago we had spent a couple of Christmas
breaks in Morocco and it had been beautifully warm during the day but somewhat
cold at night
BUT what the heck if we are taking the caravan it will not
matter as long as the heater works OK!
So
the research started - when we had been before procedures were not that simple
and to take your own vehicle was prohibitively expensive!
Insurance companies
in the UK hid under a table if you mentioned North Africa in general and Morocco
in particular.
So we were pleasantly surprised to find that attitudes had changed and SAGA (yes
we qualify) even offered a full (according to your policy) Green Card at no extra
cost!
The Caravan Club said that their Red Pennant would cover Morocco BUT
they did not have representation there so we would have to arrange any repairs
and/or recoveries ourselves
and that if we could get the car and/or van back
to Spanish territory then they would "spring into action" plus as long
as we got receipts they would reimburse us for the Morocco costs!
The
next thing was to look at caravan & camping sites and here Vicarious
Books came into their own, it was the best £12.99 we have ever spent.
With the aid of a good map ( Michelin
do an excellent one ), the INTERNET, a route planner (we use Garmin and they do
a very good TOPO
map of Morocco ),
plus our previous experiences and information from the
Moroccan Tourist Office in
Regent Street we were able to draft out an itinerary.
We
decided as it would still be winter when many sites in France are not yet open,
we would use the P&O Pride of Bilbao and take the easy route to Spain.
We have now discovered that this is the last year that P&O will operate on
this route, a great pity.
Our
plan was to spend a few days driving down to the south coast of Spain and probably
take the ferry from Algeciras to Ceuta a Spanish "colony".
We had
not booked in advance as it was reckoned to be cheaper to get the tickets locally,
which was just as well as we found we would clash with a large group of motorhomes
so we decided to go to Tangier instead - a slightly longer crossing but we could
then start our travels down the Atlantic Coast.
Our "rig" for the trip would be our 2005 KIA Sorento 2.5 Diesel Automatic 4X4 towing our 2009 Airstream Europe 532
