Friday 7 February 2020 - Camping Le Calme to Kaouki Beach

Le Calme to Kaouki Beach - 30 miles travelled although only 12 apart.

Yesterday was a generally casual day, our only task really to get a couple of loads of washing done, which we set to after a latish breakfast. A warm steady bereeze and plenty of hot sunshine meant that by mid-afternon everything was dry so it was just fold and put away. We don't do ironing while we're away and our wardrobe is full therefore of non-iron stuff. Who cares about a few creases.

This is a very nice site, if a bit expensive, but we had a sort of hankering to visit Essaouira again so today, after waiting for a very nice Austrian couple to finish pratting about servicing their campervan, we headed out a little later than we'd hoped for Essaouira. We were not surprised to see that the old guardian parking was not in use, although apparently we could have parked there for a couple of hours, but it is still a long walk into town. The nearby campsite, which had a very poor reputation, was now being built on; in fact there was a lot of new building going on, mirroring what we've seen elsewhere. Morocco is changing.

We drove along the promenade towards the Medina but were soon confronted with “no motorhomes” signs so with little chance of being able to park relatively close for a short visit we reluctantly gave up that idea and instead, wait for it, went to the local Carrefour supermarket! As it was now our plan to go the short distance to Sidi Kaouki and stay for at least a week, we thought a little bit of topping up would not come amiss.

That done we noticed the adjacent Afriquia fuel station had gas bottles on the forecourt, they don't always, so a quick side trip to exchange the empty bottle we have been carrying about since last year for a full one to augment the inadequate on board gas storage. At the princely sum of £3.50 for a 13kg bottle – in the UK that would be £35.00! Hopefully that will be enough for the rest of our stay but we may get a small bottle as an emergency reserve.

So on to Sid Kaouki and perhaps our favourite campsite last year, Kaouki Beach. It being lunchtime we hoped that we'd be in the empty changeover period and sure enough we had a good choice of pitches, choosing one with a little shade from the sun for Bertie but with plenty of room to spread out for the all-important sunbathing!

A light lunch, sort out the paperwork and get set up properly. It's our intention to stay here now at least a week so don't expect a daily blog for a while! This is what we've travelled 2517 miles for!