Souk Swoop

Souk + Night + Bicycle + Go Pro HD = Souk Swoop

A fruitful beginning....

Written on…Wednesday 9^th February 2011

Distraught with the state of affairs in Blighty, Carruthers and I (Lady T) decided to drive south to Africa in search of sunnier, warmer and more enterprising pastures. After a few knocks, bumps, tears and tantrums and then the eternally postponed departure on our preferred mini-cruise; Brittany ferries… we finally loaded up the Rolls with ham and cheese (Carruthers favorite!) and of course a years supply of Marmite and Gin…. and set sail from Portsmouth to Santander on Friday February 4^th 2011.

Spain was delightfully sunny as we headed south… we drove through the day taking rest on a hillside north of Madrid with a wonderful sunset view. Day 2 saw us arrive just after dusk in the Sierra Nevada, southern Spain. Carruthers had a prior engagement at Miss Peacock’s School for Wayward Boys at a secret location deep in the Sierra Nevada.

So we battled our way through the mountains past rock fall after rock fall, many of them covering the road almost completely. Incomprehensibly, or maybe expectedly (since it is Spain)… the road was only built 5 years ago and begun falling into disrepair before it was even completed.

Upon our announcement at Miss Peacock’s abode it was decided to spend the next 24 hours in the area, resting and taking in the vista.  That evening we settled down to what could potentially have been our last roast dinner for a very long time. It was quite splendid and was accompanied by copious amounts of wine A, B, & C from the local bodega. We of course later filled a 20-litre jerry can with wine B and placed it on the roof of the Rolls for maturing in the finest plastic.

Our new bedroom!

The view from bed

This area is apparently one of only five places in Europe where the water from the springs is naturally carbonated. We filled all our canteens with the fizzy wondrous liquid and even washed the windscreen with it as it was in such plentiful supply.

It is quite amazing how much time everything takes when you are living out of a car, even if it is the Rolls… Carruthers is blaming me of course… women and their faffing…. But I don’t believe it, men definitely faff too! Day 3 saw us leaving late and therefore not making it in time for the boat to Morocco…. another day in Europe! We instead spent the night in a          caravan park next to a motorway in Fuengirola What joy!

Written on… Saturday 12^th February 2011

Sierra Nevada! 

I am writing this from a beautiful campsite in Moulay-Bousselham on the Atlantic shores of Morocco… but before I tell you of the wonderful time we are having here, I would like to digress and first describe some of the trials and tribulations we have had trying to get to this dark continent.

On Wednesday we left Fuengirola with all the time in the world to drive to the port and catch the boat to Morocco… at last! En route there are many places to stop and buy boat tickets to Tanger or Ceuta in Morocco…. We passed so many of them that eventually we stopped and bought a ticket from Tarifa to Tanger from one of 2 companies making the sailing.

N.B I advise anyone doing this trip to NOT follow our example and instead wait and buy your ticket at the port…Here’s why…. We arrived in Tarifa on time and queued up for our boat. The helpful lady said we must remove our bicycles from the trailer as they were slightly too high for the roof… we thought this strange as there were many vans behind us with large amounts of interesting shapes piled high on their roof’s. Hey ho… we complied with her wishes and boarded the boat. On the boat there was another equally helpful chap directing us through the ferry, as they do… so as to cram in as many vehicles as possible. We turned the bend at the end of the ferry, so that we would be facing the correct way for departure and rather quickly got righteously stuck. The floor on the bend was raised like a smaller version of Brooklands racetrack and the gap between the ceiling of the ferry and our roof tent diminished immediately. Carruthers got rather angry at this point and enlightened the helpful chap to some of the more colorful words of the English language. Then as if disaster had not stuck enough…. in the process of reversing and moving the car, letting air our of one tyre to give more ceiling space, helpful ferry chaps jumping on the back bumper and trailer tow hitch to try and hold the roof tent down etc etc…. there was an almighty bang. The tow hitch on the trailer had bent and cracked and the tow bar had half come off the car. Carruthers used a further plethora of delightful words and we limped off the boat to assess the damage.

As we forlornly looked at our broken car, the ferry left with only a few cars onboard, there having therefore been enough room to have kept us at the entrance way of the ferry and therefore avoiding any said bends. The next ferry then arrived that was much larger and all the vehicles with high roofs, trucks and coaches entered gleefully. N.B make sure you know the size of the boat you are about to embark on before you buy a ticket!

Boarding passes... as close as we got today!

So… back to the disaster at hand, Carruthers said right that’s it…we’re not going to Africa! (his normal response to a problem these days). However, he quickly donned his dirty overalls and assessed the problem. The port police gave us access to their electricity and before you could say Jack Robinson!!! Carruthers had pulled all his tools out of the trailer and was welding and cutting and fixing right there next to immigration. I sat in the front of the car, gazing at the mountains of Morocco across the water and pondering if I was ever meant to go to Africa and thinking that maybe I should be listening to the signs, was someone up there trying to tell me something? Carruthers, a card-carrying atheist told me it was all hocus-pocus and turned his power tools back on. Unfortunately there are no photos to show of this incident, as I was rather distraught.

4 hours later we had a fixed Rolls and mini Rolls (the trailer) and had made firm friends with the port police department. We drove to a campsite for the night determined to try again the following day.

Will we ever get there?

Thursday…. We entered the port AGAIN to smiles and hellos from all and sundry… we were infamous. The police called Carruthers everything from Super Mario to The Mechanic and patted him on the back at any chance they got. We entered the ferry with our hearts in our mouths, and ignored all help from the helpful ferry chaps. We parked close to the ferry entrance and it was plain sailing all the way to Tanger.

  

Leaving Europe!

First sights of AFRICA

So now, we are sitting in the beautiful tranquil Moulay-Bousselham eating fish, drinking beer and lying in a hammock. Bliss.

Very Berry Sunset!

We have created a wonderful Gin cocktail called ‘Very Berry Sunset’. If you would like to follow suit details are here…Soak fresh strawberries and raspberries (Pims quantities) in copious amounts of Gin for 12 hours and leave in the fridge.

Pour all contents into a jug and add Tonic Water and potentially more Gin as to your taste.

Exquisite!


  

Tomorrow we leave for Marrakech where Carruthers has taken a position with an American production company for a couple of months to make an adventure television show. We will be staying in the town so unfortunately will have to say good bye to our little home for a while, which I am actually rather sad about and instead deal with the trappings of a five star hotel. Oh how wretched!

Lawnmowers arrived!

Camp Breakfast