Persistent Policemen

We set off early to give ourselves time to get across the Senegal border and to Zebrabar before sunset not realising two things, firstly, how far Diama (the border) was, and secondly, how bad the road would be to get there. On the plus side, the road was through a national park so there was lots to look at, and because it was so bad it was a very quiet border.

No real issues getting to the border other than a policeman taking a shine to our camping chairs and demanding one - fortunately he took a firm 'no' for an answer. We like our chairs! We also had a guy from the national park requesting 20 Euros in park fees. I noticed the sign behind him saying the price was 1000 Ouguiya (just over 3 Euros each), so he didn't persist either.

The police at the border were a different matter altogether. Constant requests for 10 Euros from every policeman we spoke to. Requests for receipts and even names met with a firm "no, we're the police, everyone else has paid". Eventually, threats to phone the embassy to verify the additional charges, and when that wasn't working, getting out the satellite phone seemed to work and we were waved through.

So, Senegal at last, and on to Zebrabar for a few days relaxation. A few more hassle free police stops, one guy just wanted to chat, and we were through St. Louis. Just leaving town we were pulled over. The policeman told us we had to pay a fine as we didn't indicate when he pulled us over. This rapidly changed into a fine for driving too fast as he realised the indicator was still flashing. Much arguing followed -
"How fast were we going?"
"Too fast"
"But what speed?"
"Excessive speed"
"What's excessive speed"
"Too fast"
And on and on and on the conversation went. Anyway, driving license and insurance documents were soon confiscated. He eventually backed down and returned documents when we demanded to go to the police station in town rather than deal with the "infraction" in his little office. I really don't think "Too fast" would have stood up in court anyway.

So after that moderately traumatic day we felt we deserved a few days relaxation. (relaxation for Hannah, checking over the whole car for me).

Nomadic Encounters

We headed off down to Dakhla the next morning for one last Tagine before a planned push for the Mauritania border the next day. Another windy night gone by and we set off, the plan was to get close to the border, camp there and the cross over in the morning. While stopped to take the compulsory photo of us by the Tropic of Cancer sign Chris, a Swedish travel writer who was on his own and wanted someone to travel with to help protect from corrupt officials. We decided to travel in convoy with Chris and cross the border that afternoon. We had managed to get tangled up with the Budapest - Bamanko rally, and the border was quite busy. It took us over 4 hours to get across by which time the sun was setting so we headed for Nouadhibou to find somewhere for the night. No wild camping in this part of the world due to land mines! No real problems at the border, plenty of 'Cadeaux' requests but polite refusals seemed to work fine.

We headed on to Nouakchott with Chris passing through some of the most beautifully barren desert we've seen yet. Plenty of camels thrown in to complete the picture. Several police checks and cadeaux requests later we got into Nouakchott but struggled to find a good value place to stay due to the rally, we were really starting to look forward to losing them. They would be heading east from here to Bamanko where as we were going south to Senegal.

We spent a couple of night in Nouakchott, we had a Mali visa to sort out and had a look round the town and the fish market. A friendly city, and judging by the amount of building going on, rapidly expanding. Plenty of livestock in the streets and at least 95% of the vehicles must have been damaged from collisions. We survived 4 taxi journeys with only one knock, thought we were doing pretty well.

We set off again for the Senegal border. We were starting to miss beer and Hannah was looking forward to not having to fully cover up every day, the weather is really starting to get warm now. We took a side road and found a beautiful beach then headed back inland a little for the night. Found a lovely spot in the middle of nowhere, no sign of human habitation anywhere. Just as we were settling down to make tea a voice broke the silence. "Bonjour", Hannah and I, both a little surprised to see another person said hello, and rapidly got invited back to his place which was near by. So with a very bad choice of flip flops as footwear we set off on a 1km trek with spikes impaling Hannah's foot through her flip flops several times. We struggles with the language barrier as usual, Brahim was a nomad who collected resin from trees to sell in the local village. He lived with his friend so the 4 of us settled down to traditional nomads evening. The tea was lovely, the drink made from fermented milk, sugar and water was better than expected, I was concerned I wouldn't be able to swallow it! We then all settled down to a risotto type dish of rice with onion and dried beef. All served on one plate and eaten with hands, was very careful to use right hand only!

He was trying to persuade us to say the night originally, then saying we should stay for a week, but seeing as the language barrier made things quite difficult we decided we should head back to our tent. The sun had set so we were escorted back to our tent with our flip flop prints used for tracking. We offered them some English tea but they politely refused, they seemed to find the fact we put milk in tea mildly amusing. So M&S humbugs and eclairs it was (thanks Edward). They seemed to go down well.

Into the desert

We ended up braving the tent as we had to open it anyway to get the sleeping bags out. It was a fairly comfortable night in the end. Unfortunately due to the relentless rain all night long our campsite had turned into a wet, slippery clay pit. Got filthy trying to clear up and put the tent away.

We headed for the coast, ending up in a camp site in Sidi Wassay so we could use and abuse their facilities to wash clothes and ourselves. Spent two days there, met the first other English people we'd seen in Morocco, and had our first real T-Shirt weather of the trip. That lasted one morning until a gale started to blow. We had a relaxing couple of days lazing around, picked and cooked mussels and checked over the car.

On leaving Sidi Wassay we went into the fantastically named Tiznit to refuel ourselves and the car then carried on South having another night of wild camping just south of Sidi Ifni. Got a cracking fire going and settled in for the evening. We then headed on to Fort Bou Jerif. Our first bit of driving that actually required a 4x4. Had a couple of tricky patches but we got through it in the end. Just before we got to Fort Bou Jerif we came across a mass wild camp, stunning location with a crumbling French fort on one side and a picturesque desert river on the other. We went down to Fort Bou Jerif proper and decided we'd rather pay nothing for a better location and went back to join everyone else. That night we managed to bring rain to the Sahara and woke up to a wet and windy morning.

We packed up and headed back in the direction of the coast road taking a slightly different route. The coast road we'd left to go to Fort Bou Jerif had been beautiful tarmac, unfortunately the road we rejoined was most definitely not. It took us about 4.5 hours of tough driving to cover the 50km to Plage Blanche, with the road washed away in places and just disappearing for no obvious reason in others. Upon arrival we found a car park full of motorhomes which cheered us up as we knew there must be a good road back out! The beach was stunning, but the prospect of a night in the tent in a howling gale was not. So after a walk on the beach we headed back inland eventually opting for a hotel in Guelmim, the self declared gateway to the Sahara. Found a busy evening market, so restocked and treated ourselves to a nice meal.

The following morning we wandered off to find a coffee and some bread and got talking to a Mauritanian man, he introduced us to his friend who owned a shop in Camden. He bought European cars, drove them to Mali to sell them on, bought jewellery and flew back to stock his shop. We drank some mint tea with them, chatted and absorbed advice from this seasoned traveller. Upon asking what vehicle we had, when we said a Land Cruiser the response was 'Ahh, a camel' - a reliable desert vehicle. Stanley was starting to feel a little more at home here, there were armies of Land Cruisers all over the place ready for trans Saharan travel.

The next couple of days were mainly long drives, we found some stunning coastal dunes to camp in on our first night just north of Tarfaya. We also managed to run into our first bit of trouble with the Police. We were pulled over to join a French and Spanish vehicle at the side of the road and were told we'd have to pay a 400dh (£33) fine for not stopping at a stop sign. To be fair, they were right... but A. Do you really need a stop sign when you can clearly see down the road you're turning on to? B. Who's stupid idea was it to put a stop sign in the middle of a roundabout in the first place? Still, they had my driving license and we didn't fancy going to court to argue the case, so we just paid up and with the production of an official receipt we were on our way.

We headed into country No.2, Western Sahara, although Morocco seems to think it's actually Morocco now. No border control to worry about, and with people becoming much more scarce the police checkpoints became far more frequent. We're still not sure why we were stopped twice and asked all the same questions within the space of 100m. There seems to be one or more checkpoint at every town in Western Sahara, with a few more in the middle of nowhere thrown in for good measure.

We parked up somewhere in the middle of nowhere today for lunch. Decided it was a nice enough place so upon the decision to stay on for the night we went for a stroll in the direction of the coast. Eventually reaching a deserted beach with an old shipwreck beached on it. Fantastic place! We lazed around and collected firewood to take back to the car. As we were leaving the beach we were fast approached by a Moroccan man. Neither his, nor our French was particularly good, but he kept saying 'post' and pointing. It appeared he wanted us to follow him, so we did, to a little building set back slightly from the beach. Eventually with a very slow conversation using his and our broken French it turned out he'd been posted there by the military. The 'post' was his military post, to keep watch on the coast for people landing in Western Sahara and using it and Morocco as a route into Europe. Apparently there is a military post every 5km down the coast. We're guessing he's not usually very busy as he showed us his impressive collection of flint arrow heads, fossils, and even ancient jewellery he'd found lying round the surrounding area. After the ritual mint tea we headed off to find the car again before sunset.

Mountains and Mud

After Chefchaouen we decided to head for the coast, somewhere near Rabat was the plan. Upon arrival we struggled to find any campsites. The only one we knew of for sure was closed down, we were directed to another that was closed eventually stumbling across a patch of overgrown grass round the back of a police station that the guy wanted 100 dirham (£9) for. There was no hot water, showers or toilets to speak of, and his main selling point was the good security next to the police station. So rather than be ripped off we slept in the car in a car park overlooking the sea, a much better option!

We then moved on to Ouzoud the following day to visit the famous waterfalls, we arrived quite late and settled in for the evening with Hannah eating (or trying to at least) the biggest plate of couscous I've ever seen! I had a more moderately sized tagine. The next day we went for a walk to the falls after spending a while trying to shake off guides figuring we didn't need one for a well trodden foot path, we then got lost in a olive forest. It was a lovely place to be lost though. We turned back and took the 'easy route' without a guide instead. We couldn't go too far wrong with that. Stunning waterfalls, and a few more barbary apes (same as the ones in Gibraltar) to complete the African image. Hannah has now decided she doesn't like monkeys after one pulled Michelle's hair in Gibraltar and was a little terrified of them coming too close.

The next plan of action was to head to Essaouria, but having had a long discussion with a Morrocan where we were camping we decided to head to Agadir instead. He was telling us about the amazing and constant winds that blow up the coast. Makes the place a windsurfing Mecca, but we decided probably camping hell in the middle of winter.

We are most of the way to Agadir, unfortunately leaving later than expected, and the journey taking longer than expected we've driven off the road round behind some trees for our first night of wild camping. We have however decided to sleep in the car as we're at 1100m, it's a little windy, very cold and raining! Stunning scenery however.

Into Africa

I realised our first evening camping in positive temperatures hasn't gone as planned when the locks on the roof box were frozen the following morning and there were shards of ice falling off the tent. We got up nice and early to soldier on to Granada for another evenings camping, not realised that the city itself is at 800m altitude, so the camping rapidly turned into a night in a hotel. The brake lights on the car decided to play up again, so after several hours of fiddling I'd managed to isolate the problem and disconnect the faulty wire so it could be looked at when we had a little more time. We were better off driving with 3 brake lights than none.

Due to the delay we didn't arrive in Granada until the sun was setting. We carried on with our Spanish ritual of driving round cities realising we can't park anywhere. We then headed to the outskirts of town to find a hotel with available parking. A pleasant evening in Granada, if a little cold, followed by a shockingly bad meal.

Up again early the next morning to race down to Gibraltar for yet another attempt to beat the cold. Had a picnic in the Costa Del Sol just outside of Marbella. Not the nicest part of the world, lots of English cars too. We eventually arrived in Gibraltar in luke warm sunshine and were treated like royalty by JP and Michelle for the next few days. Got a fantastic tour of 'The Rock', loved the views and the apes. We also had great food to fuel us up before the push into Africa. It was quite surreal being able to see Africa over the water. We think of it as being so far away from the UK, yet there it was, the towering Rif mountains on the horizon just a 35 minute ferry ride away. Break light fixed, the car fuelled, watered and checked over we were ready for the push into Morocco.

We got up bright and early the following day to jump on the ferry to Ceuta, a Spanish territory on the North coast of Africa. We left the sun of Southern Europe to arrive in overcast skies and the first rain of our trip. Not the Africa we were expecting. It's amazing how much more lush and green the North Coast of Africa is compared to Southern Spain considering they're just a matter of miles apart. Upon getting off the ferry we followed signs to Morocco reaching the border a few minutes later. No problems at the border, just looked in the boot and didn't want to dig any deeper.

Having been running from the cold for several weeks, we decided to prolong the suffering by heading for Chefchaouen in the mountains. A beautiful little town, very picturesque. We tucked into our first tagine and mint tea, slightly frustrated that Spanish seemed to be the spoken language rather than French - and our Spanish leaves more than a little to be desired!

Carry on South

We had a pleasant evening in the hotel we were staying in. Put on our best clothes, which aren't that great, and headed into the restaurant for a meal. It was all a little out of our budget so we ordered the two cheapest things on the menu. Hannah braved the one she didn't understand, a mistake I'd made in the past when I ended up with offal sausage. She also ended up with an offal sausage and after a couple of mouthfuls had totally lost her appetite. Hannah ended up trying to hide bits under my fish skin to make it look like she'd at least eaten some of it. Why is it that the delicacies of a country are often the ones you really don't want to eat?

We carried on south racing the cold air and spent the following evening in a cheap and cheerful hotel near the coast. Wanting a break from the driving the following day we headed into the Camargue delta for a bit of flamingo spotting. We spent the day wandering round soon realising there are only so many times you can say 'Oh, there's a flamingo'. It was still pretty cold, but the sun was out and had some warmth in it. Flamingos are renowned for flying around at sunset, so we hung around to wait for that as they are spectacular in flight. They didn't disappoint, with the orange light illuminating their pink feathers they looked stunning.

We then had another subzero night in the roof tent, although waking up with a warm sun made such a difference compared to waking up in Belgian snow flurries. We had our first problem with the car too, our break lights had stopped working. It was fairly quickly tracked down to a short in the lights was blowing the fuse whenever the break pedal was pressed. So a few blown fuses later and we were on our way to Barcelona to go and visit Barty.

We arrived in Barcelona with the temperature in double figures! (Just). We then proceeded to spend almost 2 hours looking for a suitable place to park. Having picked up Barty to act as a translator we eventually found a car park near the beach that was free during the winter, so that worked out pretty well. An enjoyable couple of nights in Barcelona eating tapas, drinking wine and going up hills so Hannah could get her rooftop fix. She has a condition that causes her to love looking at rooftops, so we always have to try to get to the highest point of every city we visit.

It turned out we'd timed our visit perfectly with the 3 kings parading through Barcelona throwing sweets, the parade marched through the street under Barty's flat window, so we hung out the window to watch the parade and kids scrumming to get the biggest haul of sweets they could. There was an amazing number of people lining the streets, it was a impressive sight from 6 floors up.

We're now on the road again racing away from the cold. With snow forecast in Barcelona and Valencia tomorrow we figured we should try to get south west of them for what will hopefully be our first night camping in positive temperatures!

Well we've had enough of camping, decided a nice hotel would be a better idea for tonight. Had a lovely day in Brugge yesterday, just a little bit nippy. Not sure the temperature rose above freezing all day. We had to retreat back to the tent to try any warm up and have a sleep before the evenings new year celebrations began.

Ended up having a really good evening, the sing song in the square was good fun. Having got everyone bouncing and spinning all over the square with several raucous Flemish numbers (We narrowly missed out on several black eyes), they threw in a curve ball at 11:45 with Unchained Melody. The situation was soon rectified with YMCA however before the final countdown began with what else, but The Final Countdown. Was a really good laugh with a great atmosphere. Made a good change from a London new year and I'd recommend it to anyone.

We then retreated to a well chilled tent, and had a well chilled nights sleep. We were the only people on the camp site not in some kind of sensible vehicle. This morning an English couple we'd spoken to the night before felt so sorry for us they donated a hot water bottle that will be very welcome the coming few nigths.

Today we've had an unexciting day of driving, the aim, to head south away from the cold! We did consider getting to Lyon and camping there, but we were told by the campsite owner that we couldn't sleep in a tent because it was too cold! We were in fact more defeated by daylight and tiredness, so didn't make it as far as Lyon, so we're spending the night in some random spot not far from Troyes.