Safe Return Doubtful

In the Allocamp workshop in Agadir they found a gas leak in my fridge, tested it again, and found a second. I can’t imagine how that has happened, but at least it is under repair. I took it in on Monday, 29th December, and was hoping it would be ready to collect tomorrow, but it may be longer. 

The rain last weekend did a lot of damage to the roads, as it seems it does quite a lot in the winter. I wanted to head into the hills around Agadir to a Gite that offered spaces for campervans, but the owner contacted me to tell me the roads were impassable. Instead I headed to a campsite at Aourir, about ten kilometres south, but about four kilometres away from the beach. The sites here are extremely busy, unlike anywhere further inland. The road to get there was just about drivable, though the site itself still had plenty of mud, and many vehicles were stuck. Though this absolutely isn’t my type of place, it was fine for a night. Many people from Northern Europe are here for the whole winter, though there were some interesting people I met; a retired Army Colonel who I helped get his motorhome out of the mud when he arrived, regaled me with stories from his career as he insisted on a whisky before I left. Next to me was a Dutch couple, who had only travelled on the coast for their four weeks in Morocco so far, and assumed all campsites around the country were as full as this.

Fortunately, the road to the Gite was passable on Tuesday, and the contrast between the two sites couldn’t be greater. Here I am the only van, in the gentle hills and typical rural villages dotted with the affluent retirement homes of the French. The Gite is owned by such an affluent French woman, but she is away in France, and her friend is  looking after the place. In the rooms a German couple are staying, and a family from Czechia, both very easy to get on with. It’s an impressive building, top graded, with several swimming pools, whereas I’m only paying 80 dirhams a night, about £6. 

The Germans are hikers but said they couldn’t find much around, though they had seen a red yellow blue line painted on rocks a few times. I followed this for a few kilometres on the first evening I was here, and did so with a greater intent yesterday. The painted rocks are old, and many are missing, so they are difficult to follow. My mission was to get to a ridge between the two peaks that stand over the Gite, and I managed that, running occasionally into blue yellow lines on rocks.

For the descent though, they helped a lot. It wasn’t the way I was going to descend, initially heading down the opposite side of the ridge into a valley. I would have headed the opposite way. But I followed them, and the route was very rewarding, through the light covering of forest, always with spectacular views.

I met a woman in a village today who told me that these trails I had found were old Berber routes. They don’t upkeep the markings as the trails are usually guided. For a tourist to hire a guide for the day costs very little, less than £5. I quite enjoyed the jeopardy of getting lost though.

Today, by chance, I found the red lines on the painted rocks, after they had split. That hadn’t been my intention though, I just wanted a circuit, initially through villages, then cross country for the return. Both hikes were about 12 kilometres, though yesterday with much more height gained. The weather has been warm also, today at 25C, with the nights only dropping to 16C. That heat I’m not used to. We don’t get much of it in the summer in Shap. 

There’s a warning out for heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday, so if the fridge isn’t ready, it doesn’t really matter. I may just stay here anyway. Actually, the mountains, where I’m headed next, are forecast to get less rain, but it’s a three hour drive, and I don’t want to do that while it’s raining. The roads are not great in those conditions. 

New Year isn’t really celebrated here. Though today is a public holiday, most people work. The economy works differently, working people cannot afford not to work.