Monday 3 February 2020 – Dar Bouazza to Oualidia

Dar Bouazza to Oualidia - 98 miles

Yesterday, as planned, became a do nothing day, just sit in the hot sun relaxing. The few vans that were here when we arrived left early and nobody else came onto the site so we had the place to ourselves. Terry has developed a heavy cold so once again we're getting through the Beechams!

But today was time to move on so after breakfast the usual chores, pay Rashid and return to the nearby Shell garage to fill up with nice cheap diesel at 78p a litre! We've noticed fuel prices have increased a little since last year and there is now more price variety whereas before it was very similar everywhere. This, however, happened to be the cheapest we've seen so far. Similarly campsite prices have increased too, perhaps a sign of increasing popularity.

And on this subject of popularity there is a tremendous amount of building work going on, mainly holiday apartment complexes with pool etc. No high rises, thank goodness, but it is very obvious a lot of money is being spent and we thought this might well be the beginning of a new era for Morocco. We could certainly envisage planeloads of sunseekers being attracted to the area, with places like Casablanca and even Marrakesh within easy reach, although there is still much clearing up to be tackled.

But ever onward and we chose to stick to the old coastal road, a lot quieter now that the morning rush into Casablanca had ended. Initially a good dual carriageway, it wasn't long before we were back to the usual Moroccan main roads we are used to so we just modified our speed and enjoyed the sights as we more or less followed the coast. A wrong turn took us through the centre of Azemmour, a typical busy Moroccan town, but we just took our time enjoying the ambience with a nod of thanks to the policeman who helped us round a bit of road blocked by vehicles more or less abandoned where they stopped whilst the occupants went about their business – situation normal!

It seems that whenever we're on the move we're on the lookout for a supermarket and today was no different. Entering El-Jadida, a pleasant city we've visited before, we spotted and followed signs for Carrefour and turned into their modest carpark, directed by the manager – well he was wearing a suit! We're seeing more of these new shopping complexes, a main store with a number of boutiques around it, very much in the French style, this one being relatively small but still big enough for us to have a wander around before another trollyful of goodies found their way back to the van. Then lunch.

With not a cloud in the sky it was turning very warm indeed when, to our disappointment, we found the “repaired” van air conditioning was not working – words are going to be said when we get home – so wind down the windows and just enjoy, it's better than freezing at home! Continuing south along the coast, past the now-completed new port, we drove through a sparsely populated area with great sea views and good locations for stopping off if we wanted. But the day was getting on so we decided that our old favourite, the guardian parking at Oualidia was an ideal place to stopover for a night or two.

Plenty of room, although another Funster, who spotted our badges and came over for a chat, told us it had been quite full last night and indeed later on it again became very busy. After a cuppa Terry took Jamie for a walk and found our old friends Ken & Linda and Simon & Margaret, who we haven't seen for a few years, parked up in the overflow area with another van and just sitting down to a locally prepared tagine. It looked delicious so we left them to it but later the vendor turned up on his moped and we ordered a chicken tagine for tomorrow night; looked good value for £10 for two – we'll report back later.

There used to be an area of unused scrubland next to the parking but this has now (been?) flooded and forms quite a large lake, attracting local wildlife including a colony of frogs whose loud calls continued well into the night. So we went to bed listening to the frog chorus as well as the sounds of the surf on the nearby beach.