Wednesday 12 Feb 2014

Early start today, it's quite a long way to Assilah and we've got Casablanca and Rabat to get around. There's no shop on the site but the  guardian went off on his bicycle to fetch us some bread, then after breakfast a quick service of the van and on our way.

The site manager told us of another route to avoid the cart track back up to the N1 and also Casablanca, but we must have misunderstood because we ended up a back street in Dar Bouazza, so turned around, got some fuel and headed into Casablanca anyway - just to say we've been there!
Traffic was chaotic

Tour de France?

Rush hour in Casablanca

but we managed. Eventually we found the motorway and gratefully got back onto a nice smooth road and "put the pedal to the metal".

Sun shades anyone?

Wanna put your donkey and cart on as well?

Egret at the rest stop

Motorway driving can be boring but this was not, the views changing all the time. It was hard to remember that we came down this way four weeks ago. Stopped off at a rest area for lunch and agree plans for our overnight stop. There really isn't anywhere more suitable than the guardian parking we used on the way down, at Assilah, so that is where we headed.

Up to now the forecast rain hadn't showed, but it slowly became grey and dark, and before long we had to switch on wipers and headlights.

"Sunny" Morocco

Once we started descending towards the coast it eased off and Assilah was wet but rain free. The parking was almost empty but we were still welcomed and I sit here now looking over the beach to the Atlantic waves gently breaking on the shore. And it's still actually quite warm.

We plan to walk into the town later for a final Moroccan meal with June and Derek - we'll be going in different directions when we get back to Spain but hope we won't lose touch.

The Medina at Asilah

Then tomorrow we tackle the mystery of getting out of Africa (film in there somewhere) and back into Europe....