2nd December 2012

Crisis Bulletin!

Where to begin…first the nice stuff.

Well we have encountered some supremely helpful people in the last few days. 

Those nice chaps at Iveco Casablanca

The guys at the Iveco dealer who diagnosed that our steering rack has to be replaced.  Obliging, kind, helpful and took a sharp intake of breath when I asked where I might get a right hand drive steering rack.  ‘Well we may get one from Italy but it will take a month’. Their boss would not permit them to charge us until the whole job is done.

We have identified the need to get a more sophisticated GPS device and having spoken to loads of useless people who did not know enough to advise us as to what to get, we found Bernard Houlier  down in Casablanca.  His company is a merchandiser of Marine equipment. Having recently taken on the Garmin dealership, he is quite accustomed to selling these things in wholesale quantities. 

He was such a delightful man who took time out from his busy schedule to, not only sell us just one  but also to show us in detail how to use it. He then allowed and helped us use his computer to download maps of Africa from Garmin.  He spent ages with us speaking his excellent English both entertaining and informative. Having experienced our protracted and stressful journeys around city centres without knowing our way around, this gadget should be great.

So Bernard recommended a camp site just outside Casablanca and armed with our new GPS, of course we got a bit lost.  We found a campsite probably not the same one, but it was horrible. We were hungry for a wifi  site and a hot shower. Sadly the unhappy old man in charge said ‘no wifi’ and looking astonished at the question, told us that there were no showers.  We found ourselves wondering what was the purpose of a campsite with no facilities  when we realised that there was a pack of 4 German Shepherd dogs roaming around in the dark outside the van. The man was nowhere to be seen.  Actually the whole thing was rather spooky. So we bailed out and spent a comfortable night on the forecourt of a petrol station.

We returned to the Ocean Bleu as we had to collect visas for Guinea from Rabat. In contrast to the treatment we got in the Mauritanian embassy the lady in the Guinea embassy was a true delight. Charming, relaxed and quite beautiful. What more could one ask for?

Time has passed and I got to realising that we have not made any progress in getting our steering rack. I was getting a bit upset. I set up the van for the night and found that something in the winding mechanism of the awning broke I couldn’t wind it out fully or wind it back in. it was getting cold and dark. So I thought what’s the worst that can happen? I will leave it leave and look at it in the morning.

That night we had a really bad storm Lots of wind and rain, and at about 4 am there was a loud crash which was of course the awning being torn apart and ripped from the side of the van. It was completely ruined. 

In the morning as I was still getting my head around these mounting problems, Ping knocked up a great breakfast. 

                                      Pre dental  crisis breakfast

As we were enjoying it one of her front teeth broke off and came out. So the day was taken up with collecting our visas, negotiating with a parts company in the UK to find out if they have the right parts for us. We had to find a dentist for Ping. Now I have to say that a lot of this was made possible by our new GPS. Ping went on the interweb and found the very first entry ‘do you need a dentist in Rabat? The entry was from a traveller who  had a good experience and gave all details including Coordinates for the GPS. 

We found the dentist who seemed very nice though he may have been an axe murderer for all we know as he spoke no English.  He removed the remains of Ping’s tooth in under 5 minutes and insisted on showing the bloody remains to her where she nearly passed out. She was fine up until then.  She has to go back for two more visits.

So to sum up we are in a country that appears to be full of people who only want to be helpful if only we could talk to them. We are getting to grips with the mechanical problems (though we still have no idea how to get these parts). We are managing to make some kind of a provisional awning from parts salvaged from the wreckage. Interestingly the Italian man at the campsite managed to salvage some parts of the mechanism to get his own broken awning working. It’s a funny old world .  So we continue to kick our heels in really quite bad weather, most days are quite cold with torrential rain. If we don’t get our problems sorted by a week today then we will have to go back to Rabat and get a new visa for Mauritania  as we won’t have time to travel down before it expires.

This the guy next door salvaging parts from our trashed awning to make his own one work

I know it sounds like all we do is moan, and it is true that a number of things have not turned out as we expected, but actually we are not in bad shape at all.  If only we can stop Ping’s teeth from falling out!

The latest is that John in Charlton may have a steering rack for us by Monday.

  

Oh and on my birthday I bought a nice bottle of Morrocan Merlot to celebrate. I have been looking forward to it. The cork crumbled as I opened it . and when I tasted it Blurkgghhh!!!

Still look on the bright side theres always someone worse off than yourself!

Cheers for now suckers!!!

Peace and  love to you all

Folks please remember that our mailing list has been mostly lost I really hate to think that our supporters are not getting the  blog so pass the word around and remember we are so enjoying the emails you are sending  please keep them coming they mean a great deal

28th November 2012 

It has been a quiet day at Le Ocean camping.

                                                   The Sea

“There’s something about watching the waves of the Atlantic” says Noel philosophically, That’s because of the wave I said, but then he said you had had the spiritual awakening that you seem to have experienced when we were up in the mountains.  It’s the rocks!  He said It is just as beautiful and bleak, staring out to sea etc etc

                                  The cute kid at the Campsite

We’ve been here for the last 3 days, not doing very much except for a few minor repairs and tidying up of the van. As usual the question arose about how much stuff we’ve got in the van and what to do with them. We are getting better at this but needs much more brutal “thinning out” and the fairly minor matter of getting our steering sorted out is starting to weigh heavy. As the mechanic has said ‘you can drive it, but don’t take it in the desert or on any long journeys’.  OH!

The local fisherman has been round on his motorbike, the box he had on the back was packed with fish freshly caught this morning. The haggling over the price was obligatory, he knew it and I knew it, in the end, even though I got it down to less than half of what he asked for it still felt that I have been had.

The Fish

Preparing the fish was a bit of an experience – I seem to have lost that skill, by the time I finished, I felt as though I have been in a massacre. It was delicious though!

So it all rather pleasant here but we are starting to get itchy feet.

                    The campsite

22nd November 2012

It’s been over a month since we left the UK, Pegasus 2 has been performing well (apart from the electrics and silly windscreen wipers).

We’re in Rabat, trying to get our visas for Mauritania, but we have found, there is a problem with the power steering, which the local mechanic thought was caused by a faulty pump. Noel has discovered to his surprise that his ‘schoolboy’ French can be used to some good effect when combined with much gesticulation and apology, but it seems to work.

After a lot of searching we were referred to the only Iveco dealer in Morocco who may have a new pump. We were given specific directions (in French ie, turn R when you see the Hassan II mosque, go to the Atlas building, you can’t miss it) on how to get there, we set off on the motorway towards Casablanca. Of course, it wasn’t easy, we could see the Atlas building from the motorway, and the difficulty was getting to it. There were several mosques between our van and the Atlas building.

                                               Getting a lift to market

Eventually, through sheer determination and driving in between, large lorries, tram tracks, donkey carts loaded with people and fresh produce, bikes and people just wandering in front of you, accompanied by some very colourful expletives from Noel, and instead of finding the Iveco agent, we saw a large breakers yard.  Noel decided it  might be worth a look, so we found eventually ourselves in the biggest vehicle scrapyard in Morocco, probably in the world. It went on for miles it was actually the size of a provincial town. Noel was especially delighted – he temporarily forgot that we were here to get a new pump for the van. 

In Morocco whenever there are complex things to be done there are helpers or runners, who make their living by helping to find what you need.  There were a lot of them trying to get our attention but one seemed to really understand what we wanted, he took us to a scrap dealer who deals only in Iveco parts. He was very nice man and did have a pump for us, but the nice man got Rashid, the resident mechanic to look at the problem first.  

A pile of old iron

To Noel’s delight, we were told that the fault was not with the pump and he would not sell me something we don’t need. Instead we should come back the next day when they have cleared some space and Rashid will try to fix the problem.  It turned out that the steering rack is slightly damaged and he was able to say with some certainty that we would not be able to get the parts we need as they are specific to a right hand drive vehicle. He absolutely refused to take any money despite the time he had spent on it. This was yet another example of unconditional helpfulness that we have found in Morroco.

Interestingly while Rashid was under the van working on it I set about providing breakfast which we ate in the sun in the midst of this busy breakers yard, fork lifts and tow trucks going in all directions. Strange place to have breakfast……….I thought it was strange when we had breakfast on the Paris ring road, but this is even stranger

At the end of this quite surreal day we returned to the Ocean Bleu campsite where we spent a lovely evening watching the waves of the Atlantic and took a long walk along the Esplanade.  

              Sunset at the Ocean Bleu

3 punctures in 24 hours 

Having raved on about how reliable the van is, we found to our dismay that even having brand new tyres does not stop us from suffering from punctures. Noel has a view on this (email him for the details). Our first one happened on the day that we arrived in Rabat, followed by the 2^nd one a few hours later in a supermarket car park. Working together, it took us half an hour to put the spare tyre on and we went to the local “pneu” shop to have the puncture dealt with. We were on our way to the Mauritanian embassy to camp for the night, when we made a brief stop on the way to find that we had a third puncture.  With much swearing and cursing, we dealt with this last one with little patience and were beginning to wonder whether this is the start of the unreliability of Pegasus 2.

The men who fixed the puncture were neither surprised or curious when we turned up for the 3^rd time. The just repaired the puncture and sent us on our way. 

    

                  Third time around I think this makes me a good customer

Needing a holiday

Having got our visas for Mauritania, we are now camped about 25 km from Casablanca, once again at the “ Ocean Bleu” campsite. We thought we deserve a break from driving and staying here is absolute bliss. I am not intending to do anything – well, watch the waves of the Atlantic, maybe read a book, listen to Radio 4 on the internet and wander over to the restaurant to see what’s for dinner.

We’ll stay here for a few days, then maybe we’ll set off.

The next day was a further contrast as we drove far down a largely unmarked track back up to the mountains. We pressed on but after a while it became clear that although our van and the Toyota Land cruiser of our friends were easily a match for the snowy track, we were in danger of going up a path where the weather may close in so we went back to a lower level and spent the night surrounded by patchy snow.

It is certainly true to say that the scenery, but most especially the gorges we have been through is truly spectacular and having been lucky enough to have visited other places such as the Grand Canyon, these parts of Morocco certainly compare well. As we drive through The Todra Gorges there is a constant flow of Coo! wow! Amazing and incredible from Ping who appears to be undergoing some kind of spiritual awakening as she takes in this beauty. By the way she also has a stinking cold which means that this stream of superlatives are punctuated by the violent sneezing and nose blowing that are peculiar to Ping. Overall it has been quite a noisy day.

We are high up in the mighty Atlas Mountains - 2300M above sea level, and it’s very, very cold at night even though it’s brilliant sunshine and warm during the day. The best bit about the van – wonderfully warm, comfortable and snug bed welcomes us at night and we are as warm as toast.

Just had a nice Tagine dinner with our friends in the gorgeous, tranquil surrounding of Lake Tislet, sitting by the warm log fire and knowing that we have to leave them tomorrow. They are off further south for more adventures, whilst we head off to Rabat to get our visas for Mauritania.

Part of this journey is along some 150 Km of mountain road that is marked on the map as being difficult or dangerous. In fact it really is both. Narrow steep winding roads up the mountains they have few safety rails and numerous lengths of unmade up surface. Apart from ourselves this road appears to be for the sole use of suicidal psychopaths. As I write I have completed that part of the journey which was truly exhausting.

Well that’s about it for now we are missing family and friends but not enough to return just yet. We would love to hear from folks so do please drop us a line and tell us the trivia and news at home. We will reply to all as soon as we get to a wifi place.

If you are following our blog but do not have an email address here it is

Pingbow54@gmail.com and noelbow51@gmail.com

Sunday 18^th November

 

OH Gite! we need somewhere to stay.

Well here we are in deepest Morocco. I have to say that we have travelled long distances and Morocco really does not disappoint. We had first thought that we would just drive down the coast and have a nice time travelling down to the Sahara.  Instead our present travel companions Oyvind and Sheelah have shown us a thing or two. 
 

      Our new chums Oyven+Sheelah

Sheelah is South African and she is going to her old home with her beau Oyvind who is from Norway. They are confident and willing to try a much more adventurous path, and with them we have experienced good roads for long distances and desert tracks, we have taken mountain passes, travelled through the most exquisite gorges in the whole wide world. Camping in the wild has been a new experience and we have gained much more confidence to take these paths and to camp under the stars.

 

                                               Camping in the desert

On one of our daily drives, we were all surprised to find ourselves driving in a snow covered area. Thick snow on the side of the mountains and as far as the eyes can see.  It became apparent that we would not find a pleasant campsite any time soon. Suddenly we saw a sign for a ‘Gite’ 1.5 Km up a steep snow covered path.  .

 

Up that hill 

 

 

Great Gite

So deciding that what we need was a good Gite, up we went. Our van performed well as we drove up this hidden track making the steep incline and soft ground easy.It was a very strange experience, the ‘gite’ was almost medieval in appearance. Built on the side of the hill with low mud walls and basic electricity and plumbing. There was a wobbly toilet with a flexible polythene seat.

True re cycling  a farm gate made from a mattress spring. I think it came from my bed.

 

The beds were excruciatingly uncomfortable it was also terribly cold. Despite all this we had such a lovely time there and the family who lived there and ran the place were delightful and generous in their hospitality, the kind that one would not expect in England.

 

So after a jolly good gite we set off back down the track with the owner of the gite on board as he wanted a lift a few miles down the road.

We drove over the mountains and down into the desert. It can seem in this part of Morocco that the vast Atlas Mountains are always all around you.  Later that day we camped in a wild and remote part of the desert. The sky alight with a myriad of stars and two blokes on donkeys staring at us as we prepared our meal. I did also make the mistake of carrying out what should have been a quite minor repair.  Before we left my brother donated some super duper heat reflecting fabric  that would protect our spare tyres, mounted on the roof, from the persistent hot sun , which we are yet to experience.  Unfortunately we found that it was not terribly durable as we passed under a low tree which ripped it to shreds.

 

 It was warm when I went up the ladder But as the sun went down it froze in a moment

So I set about replacing it with some other fabric  I climbed up on the roof of the van to do what should have taken ten minutes of undemanding work.  Instead as I got up an icy wind blew up. This meant that I had to chase around on the roof of the van on my knees.  Have I ever mentioned that I am a martyr to my knees! The sheet of fabric  about 2m x 1.5m blowing violently around in the freezing wind  as I wrestled with numerous straps and rolls of Gaffa tape. I managed to put my foot through the vent cover, more than once which of course meant that I had to fix that too. The whole operation took over an hour but did not break the concentration of the two blokes on donkeys. I am sure I have been as cold before but I really can’t remember when.  Oh I forgot that I also had to push some mastic into some of the joints in the roof as we had a couple of leaks and the process of doing this under such freezing and blowy conditions meant that quite a lot of mastic ended up in places that were not intended, but that’s a story for another day.

 next day to follow..................

 

 

 

 

Goodbye Europe – Hello Africa

The journey begins………………………………

Ferry from Algeciras to Ceuta

on 8th November, 2012 we woke up bright and early and got to the port at 8am to meet with Sheelah and Oyvind, whom we met in Gibraltar. They are also driving to South Africa (but taking a lot longer then we are) they were already in the queue, we were 5 mins behind, but paid for this, were told that we could not get on the 9 o’clock sailing. Noel was about to do  battle with the officials but they were not having this, and promptly got in their car and drove off, leaving a whole queue of trucks, cars and our van in the port area.

At 12md, were told that we could possibly sail at 2, maybe 3pm, at 2.30, it was possibly going to be boarding at 4pm and sailing at 5.30, when nothing happened at 6.30, I decided to make dinner where promptly a woman came along and said were moving. We drove a 100metres up the road and came to a stop and waited a further hour. We were told that the rear ferry gates were not working, so all the vehicles had to reverse into the ferry.

The boat finally left at 7.30pm exactly 11½ hours after we arrive. It all seems like such a long time ago, all in all very good training for what’s to come. Finally arrived in Ceuta at 10pm, don’t know why as it is supposed to be a 50 minute crossing!

Drove out of the port and immediately got lost and what do you do when you get lost? Ask a policeman of course! The local police were very helpful, they stopped the traffic, so that we could do a U turn in order to follow them, they took us to a posh marina and told us to park overnight there where we fell into a hard earned but great night sleep.

Ceuta is another strange place it is part of Morocco but is actually Spanish. Rather like Gibraltar is British territory.  Very odd.  So we had a half hour drive the next morning to cross the border into Morocco.  At the border there are ‘helpers who just come up and take over the paper work and tell you exactly what to do. They give you very little option but to use their services but in fact they do a very useful service working for ‘tips’ no coins please. Our helper used a very strange method to introduce himself. He established that we speak English and to show his proficiency He said  ‘Oh yes English how’s it going,lubbly jubbly,Manchester United !’

Once through customs we entered Morocco and it all changed we quickly came to realise that we were most definitely out of Europe.

So here we are in (Morocco)Africa. Has it stopped raining ? Oh no It bloody hasn’t!

 Our vans electrical problems became progressively worse with our spotlights permanently on and the windscreen wipers behaving very badly when ever it rained. I came to the conclusion that these faults might be cured by getting dried out.

 We shall see!

 

The worry of the electrics and the oppressive weather is making it all quite heavy going. We are travelling with Oyvind aand Sheelah,  for a short while, we are off  tomorrow to explore the mountains and more remote  parts of this country.  

                                         Don't you just love the mountains!

Oyvin has promised that after we cross the mountains it will become warmer and dry. We will see. 

 

 I have spent the day working through some of the faults on the van and we intend to move out tomorrow.

                                                         Doing mending!

Rain, rain go away, come again another day!

Oh yes it came  again and again!  In two weeks crossing Europe we have not had a dry day. Since we left Holland.  sometimes very intense rain. I am not complaining but it has been difficult to manage. 

There have bee a couple of repairs to do on the van it was difficult to pick a dry time to do them.

In the last week or so we have visited the Alhambra  and the Mesquita in Cordoba, both very impressive  and well worth the visit  though I think we both agree that the Mesquita  was far and away the most exciting and interesting.  A vast  and impressive Cathedral as beautiful as I have ever seen. some of the chapels are extraordinary.  What is so surprising is that the building started life as a huge Moorish Mosque That was reclaimed after the Catholic Spanish retrieved it and overlaid the Catholic cathedral  Which remains one of the most important churches in Spain.

We had a visit to Gibraltar but  this had to be curtailed due to very intense rain.  This is a shame as It is certainly a very interesting place with a most peculiar history and culture.  Would have very much liked to have seen more but we get the boat to Morocco tomorrow in the morning. As I write it is a beautiful evening and we are camped on the Atlantic end near to Algeciras of the Gibraltar Strait  watching the waves .  

Lets see what Morocco has in store for us.

P+ N