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| Aourir to Mirhleft - 103 miles |
Earlyish start to a
cold van but when we opened the door the wind had got up and it was
very warm, coming straight off the desert. Breakfast, finish packing
and servicing the van then paying the man. Nellie was having a
tantrum this morning and wouldn't play, but we're only going to
Agadir for now and we know the way. Quite busy as usual as we drove
more or less along the seafront, the nicer part of the city, to the
large Marjane hypermarket to top up the supplies as it's probably the
last chance for a while. Got some more cash and also called at a
pharmacy for something to ease Brens cough, which refuses to go away
(Murphy's Law – since we bought it she hasn't coughed once, but
it'll be there in the medicine box).
An early lunch in the
carpark before programming Sidi Ifni into TomTom and heading off into
an afternoon that had become very warm indeed, not helped by no
aircon, and mostly straight into the sun which, however, at these
latitudes is actually quite high in the sky so not quite as bad as it
could have been. There has been some new road building to the south
of Agadir which TomTom knew all about and took us on what appeared to
be quite a circuitous route, but was obviously much faster than
before as we avoided a few known bottlenecks and were soon bowling
along down the N1, for now an excellent dual carriageway. It soon
became much quieter, but of course Friday is a “weekend” for
Muslims so not unexpected, and eventually returned to a single
carriageway.
The scenery was now
becoming more of what we are used to seeing, that is miles and miles
of scrubland with the occasional patch of cultivation and, of course,
herds of goats being grazed on the sides of the road. The
temperature was steadily getting higher and the tyre pressure monitor
kept complaining whilst we were more concerned that Jamie, although
shaded from direct sun, was maybe getting a little too warm as he was
panting a bit, even with as much ventilation as we could being
directed to him. We did consider a stop but there was really nowhere
in the shade to walk him so just carried on, checking every few
minutes.
The Anti-Atlas Mountain
range became visible in the haze and before long we were entering
Tiznit, a large town situated on a main crossroads, once again
passing through one of the numerous police road blocks which are a
feature of most towns of any size. You have to slow right down and be
ready to stop but we've always been waved through – although
occasionally the policeman will leave it right until the last second
and we've nearly come to a standstill. We're sure they sometimes like
to make a game of it!
It was here that we
decided that, although Sidi Ifni was easily reachable, we'd heard
reports that the campsites were very busy so instead changed our
target to a site we'd stayed on for a week last year just past
Mirhleft, Erkounte Park, where we were confident there would be
plenty of room. The road ran towards the coast from here through the
western end of the Anti-Atlas mountains, a lovely run through green
valleys and hills on an excellent surface. At the coast we turned
south before entering Mirhleft and wondering what was going on.
From about two miles
away we started to encounter groups of Moroccan ladies dressed in
their finery walking towards the town, which became more and more
crowded. From a little way away we could see that the centre of town
was absolutely heaving, the roadsides full of parked cars and even
more folk heading in. Eventually we were reduced to a crawl, trying
to avoid pedestrians who just wandered into our path without a care,
and oncoming vehicles whose drivers were obviously trying to find
somewhere to park. At one point we came to a complete standstill
surrounded by the crowd and worried about trying to get through
without hurting anyone, but then the familiar whistles brought a trio
of policemen who managed to open up a path for us and we were
through. We can only surmise it was some sort of festival but will
ask at the campsite. (Later - yes a big religious festival).
We thought a short
video of the scene would prove interesting to our readers but when we
came to download it from the dashcam we discovered that nothing has
been recorded onto the simcard for twelve months! So we're very sorry
that we can't show you the scene, and now have something else to sort
out! Oh the joys of motorhoming!
But the good news was
that there was, as expected, plenty of room at the campsite.
Abdullah, the owner, remembered us from last year (yes we're sure he
was genuine) and once the paperwork was done invited us to park
anywhere. There's been a few improvements since last year, some new
facilities and now all the very roomy pitches have been marked out
and numbered to avoid the overspill that was common last year. Only
about half full, we learned from Funster friends who had been here a
few days that it had in fact been very busy right up until this
morning when a large number moved off. We later thought we knew
why..............
So once again settle in
and chairs out to enjoy the late afternoon sun. There was a nice cool
breeze which, after the heat of the day, was very welcome, not least
by Jamie who didn't seem to have suffered any ill effects and
polished off a huge supper later. A brief chat with our friends then
a quiet evening. We'll probably stay here a few days then maybe a
quick visit to Sidi Ifni before heading into the mountains. The
weather forecast is for hot sunshine but a serious chance of very
strong winds on Sunday.
Footnote posted
Saturday.
Woken during the night
by a very strong offshore wind that had got up and was rocking the
van about. Fortunately the only thing left out was the mat and that
just folded itself up against the van. This wind continued until the
sun had got up properly when it suddenly dropped. For those with some
weather knowledge it was most likely the land/sea effect – once the
land heated up the winds reversed and we were left with a pleasant
onshore breeze.
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