Monday 30 January 2017

Dar Bouazza to Essaouira - 207 miles

Although we're not rushing, we tried to get the chores done a tad faster this morning as we had quite a long way to go. Steve/Christine and Keith/Sue got away a little before us but we were on the road in good time and headed for the N1 as it was pointless using the motorway, it only went as far as El Jadida – we thought!

Typical Moroccan main road, generally good 2-lane with the occasional rough spot and also two diversions where bridges were being rebuilt. This road passes through the villages and towns where the road can deteriorate quite badly; coupled with the dust, fumes and now quite warm sunshine it at times got a bit stifling. Added to this it was also market day in many of the towns so it was down to 10 mph picking our way through pedestrians, donkey carts, taxis, trucks, buses...........

But it's all part of the fun and we were never held up for long. We took a lunch break on a service road on the edge of one small town, only to realise we had done the same in exactly the same place northbound last year! We still had a long way to go so kept it short. Out of the towns the traffic was very light, save for the occasional fleet of suicidally driven buses racing each other to their next stop – we took a short pause for fuel to let them get away! But we did notice how everything was very green and agriculture seemed to have stepped up from what we remembered from last year and it wasn't until late in the day we started to encounter hamada, the dry desolate hills more typical of Morocco.

It was quite late as we approached Essaouira, noticing what looked like a bank of clouds on the hills overlooking the city. As we descended so we encountered thick mist which turned out to be a sea fret which had apparently formed mid-afternoon; it dissipated late evening however. We had been a little worried that because it was late afternoon the popular guardian parking would be crowded and we decided to forego the planned call at Carrefour; our fears were unfounded, however, as there was plenty of room and we settled in with a welcome cuppa. The two other vans had said they intended to go to the campsite just along the way; we saw Keith and Sue later and it turned out they were very unhappy about the site, facilities being “disgusting” and no electricity which was their main reason to go there.

This having been the longest we've driven for a while we spent a quiet evening which, although the skies cleared, turned out to be relatively warm.

Oh yes, the motorway. We saw lots of signs indicating a motorway which we not aware of but it turns out that the motorway has now been extended down to Safi with a toll of a reasonable Dh38. The others used it and said it had saved them a lot of time. Another reason for using up-to-date maps!