Saturday 28 January 2017

Last thing last night the leisure batteries failed – that is, we got a low voltage warning so quickly reduced the load and wondered why. We've not had an electricity connection here but thought the sunshine was enough to recharge via the solar panel; evidently not so there's something to sort out.

Moulay Bousselham to Dar Bouazza - 161 miles

Never mind, the sun was shining when we got up and making an effort to recharge so we'll worry about that later; we're moving on today so that should recover the batteries and our objective campsite has electrical hookup. So breakfast, pack away, service the van, pay the man (80 Dh per night) and on our way. It's quite a long way so head straight for the motorway, the tolls are not expensive and we'll save quite a bit of time and probably fuel too.

Quiet at first past Kenitra it slowly got busier approaching Rabat but this time we chose to stay on the motorway skirting the city, rather than face the extensive roadworks. Shortly after we paused at a service area for lunch – a motorcycle cop parked behind us, lit his cigarette then fell off his bike! He was a little embarrassed......

Mohammed VI bridge, motorway past Rabat

Next major city was Casablanca and our destination was some 15 miles south. We had programmed TomTom and this turned out to be a mistake as we ended up on the N1 which was like an inneer ring road – but currently suffering, and we mean suffering, from more major roadworks – imagine 3 lanes of motorway reduced to a dual carriageway then a roughly made service road supposed to be 2 lanes but with 3 other major roads trying to join it all over the space of half a mile! Horrendous, but the alternative was quite a long diversion towards Marrakesh then a series of small roads back to Dar Bouazza, our destination.

We managed to get through without incident although our friends had an “interesting” moment when, due to the angle of the roadway, they lost traction on their front wheel drive and had to force their way backwards to get a run at it! Never say Morocco isn't interesting.

We first used Camping International Oasis 2 years ago when it was a bit run down and we were the only vans on it. We called in last year homeward bound to find new management making a concerted effort to clean up and tidy the place – this year their efforts had borne fruit because there were quite a few vans parked up, although still plenty of room and we parked with the rest of our group on wide, level pitches with sunshine all day. And electricity!

Chairs out, kettle on and relax in warm sunshine – at last!