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Sidi Infi a quiet and peaceful break from the hectic cities and we found ourselves coming back to it again, on the way north from Guilmim. Love this place. If your favourite colour is blue, then Sidi Ifni is your town.
Limited wild camping here, which involves parking on the large market green in the town but it was a souk day so we went to a camping park.
Best place?? Apart from a number of smaller campsites up on the hill, there are three campsites by the beach just north of the town. Camping Solymar was the cheapest for our family (70 DM) and has great bathrooms. We stayed there last time. Camping El Barco is closer to the beach but the extra charges brought the total fee to about 135 DM so we decided against it. Camping Sidi Ifni which sits between the two was the best option. 95 Dms for the night and nice French people, mostly retired. Toilets didn’t work well but it was the best choice. No regrets.
If I was backpacking, I would stay at Hotel Suerte Loca, just up the hill from the campgrounds. Good breakfast there also.
Gotta love that cobalt blue!
TJ has been having a great birthday. We had to do alot of driving on the actual day so we did as we do so many times when we cant fit everything in and have made TJs birthday 3 days long. So, on the day we drove alot while the girls watched a movie on the computer and ate popcorn.
We arrived at a very special campground and waterpark. Yeah! a waterpark. Bright colours and lots of slides and water. We decided to wild camp, as the campground is really expensive, when you count how many people we are. They want to charge the same for all the kids and adults. We will come back in for a full day of playing in the waterpark. Some of our friends, Ales and Karim, have come with us so that makes it a birthday party. TJ has been to pools with slides but never a waterpark. This is TJs big birthday gift – a birthday party at a waterpark.
The wild camping was great. Karim found it. We are just north of Tagazhout (really nice surfing town) at some ruins on the beach. There were lots of little fishing boats out last night as it was a full-moon which apparently makes for great fishing. Abi and Alana made apple pie.
We all ate it from the tin.
Some other wild campers came up in their van to camp with us last night. Melle is a fashion designer. Very cool clothes but a bit fancy for me. She has been living in her van for 5 years and has fixed it up real nice. She doesnt have alot of suff so her van feels really spacious. She sells clothes through her website and her mom sends things out to people. I looked up her website at www.rhizome-fr.com and it doesnt seem to be working right now. Maybe later
It was a great nite. We had great food, great friends and even a guard dog that loyally sat outside our truck all night. When it got dark, Karim made a huge bonfire – as he loves to do and we finished off the night with some jamming.
Hello – what’s going on?? I find it curious that blogspot, the world’s leading blog provider, cannot be accessed in Morocco right now. Can someone explain? Is there a censorship thing happening? A few of us here are having the same problem. I am using a Maroc Telecom USB stick – the same company that blocked youtube a few years ago. Have they blocked Blogger.com and all the Blogspot blogs? Hope not. Google seems really slow so we are all using Yahoo.
 Also, the Best of Morocco Blog Awards (BOMBies) and the Maroc Blog Awards are a good place to find blogs and vote on them. [Oops - voting is closed now, sorry] Blog of the Year award in 2009 went to Robin Des Blogs. HT: Global Voices
Speaking of blogging, its good to see the blogging world is alive and well in Morocco. The Association of Moroccan Bloggers was formed last year – read it in English here and there are already 500 members. Estimates of Moroccan bloggers suggest about 30,000 Arab language blogs, according to Said Benjebli, and quite a few French language blogs as well. As for English language blogs in Morocco, I havent found many but my favourite is Calabamuse, who uses wordpress rather than blogspot so his blog can be picked up from Morocco.
Also check out Eatbees and The View From Fez, although the last one is a blogspot blog so I cant access it. Maybe next week?
So, here we are. Still in Morocco, actually still at Hassan’s. Not the Aourir Hassan but the south of Gouilmim Hassan (sorry the spelling keeps changing but this is a multi-spelling town that I cant be bothered to have a consistency of influences for my spelling – by the way thank you for reading my spelling disclaimer).
It is hard to leave a place when the hospitality is so full and rich. With a great big smile Hassan will say time and time again, “It is your home. You are at home here”. You just gotta love the Moroccan hospitality!
Really enjoying having a dongle, by the way, having this handy, dandy little maroc telecom appendage that enables internet access and me to keep blogging, even in the most isolated corners of our journey in the south of Morocco – who knows why it took us so long to pay the money to get one. The only problem we can see with it is that it is selective on what it will talk to on the internet. The only major inconvenience is it istruggling with google, gmail, youtube, and totally BLOCKING blogspot which is annoying to say the least. Sorry Kerstin and Barbara (with blogspot blogs) and other friends. I have been trying to take a look at what you are up to but have been unable. Also, Barbara, if you are reading this some friends might be coming your direction as we have been telling them wonderful things about you. Another note on dongles. You have to show your passport to buy your own personal tracking device, ooops internet dongle. DUDE!
Hassan has gone into town with me and Sergio for the last couple of days looking at cloth. Bless him, I think we are exhausting him. Hassan is great. He seems to know half of the men in Gouilmim. As we walk down the street we keep hearing his name yelled from shops, moving cars and passers by. Of course these are met with kisses and handshakes and a few words. I love seeing this. I love seeing the affection between men here as well. It is not unusual to see 2 men embracing, kissing cheeks, arms around each other or holding hands as 2 good friends.
Poor Sergio with his list of 20 things to get done today. Nothing seems to bother him. He just keeps opening up his little folder, looking at his list, no ticks yet, smiles, shrugs his shoulders and gives me a hug while we hear another “Hassan” from another friend of his from down the street. Now, back to the cloth. If you know me you know I am in heaven. I want to make stuff to give away and perhaps, if I can get my act together enough I might even make some extra stuff . I have been having images of making colourful angel wings and frilly skirts/tutus, halos. To me the best treasure chest would be one filled with colourful cloth and beads and wool just waiting to be transformed by a small group of men and women into strange and wonderful expressions of individuality. Oh the strange things that dance through my head.
The fabrics that the women wear draped around them, that btw miraculously stay in place through the gales, is an unusual mix of tie dye and a little old ladies apron. Heck I can’t even get my neck scarf to withstand gravity without declaring mutiny every 5 minutes much less an entire body covering in the Saharan winds. I tell you, if I were to decide to wear one of those body wrap fabric things it would not help me appear more modest but would make me into a flasher. We will go in again today to finish our buying before Sergio and Pavla head off for the raw-food rainbow somewhere in Spain.
Andrew, in the meantime, is not having as much fun as me as he is working on the solar with Melchior. Roadtesting our 2 Tenesol T2000 solar panels. We kinda expected having 2 impressively huge solar panels on our roof would have given us enough power to run our little fridge or maybe even charge up a couple of laptops in the Saharan sun. Dang maybe we should have bought the Sharpe ones. Maybe these German solar panels that we bought in Morocco weren’t such a great deal after all. We’ll see, we are in touch with the manufacturer. We’ll keep you posted. Hope we can work it all out. Well, as we always say, it helps to have a friend who is really smart and just happens to be a dutch geek with way too much higher education to help with your solar energy when you get into trouble.
A more normal day yesterday.
Abi was in a baking mood and made fresh bread, lemon cake and banana bread. All of our collapsable stove-top coleman stove. Oh yeah, I like it when Abi gets in a baking mood.
TJ lost her second tooth and is unsuccessfully practicing her sssss sound.
Abi woke up in a cheeky mood and is showing off her 10 stitches during her dressing change.
And the new dressing is in place.
Had a great time with our old friends from the rainbow gathering that we found in Guilmim the day before.
The time was great but way too short time together before they took off to hitch to Mauritania and Senegal.
We were hoping to go with them but have decided to start going north at this time. We have heard that we need a Carnet de Passage to go further house because our truck is too old. I think we need to get to work on a Carnet so we can go next time.
After they left Andrew got some work on greasing up the wheels and steering. A messy job with lots of gooey grease.
Well, do you ever say it was one of those days. This is one of those days that is one in which you fall into bed at the end of it and try to block out thoughts of “what if”. You just dont want to go there. Here is our day.
 It started out just like the day before, only less wind. You see the Plauge Blanche is a part of the Sahara that pushes out to touch the Atlantic Ocean. One of the most beautiful, most void of people beaches. Little overland jeeps showing up like ants to drive up and down the 60 km stretch of beach. Fisherman shacks dotting the coast. No shops. Only an occasional fisherman offering some of his days catch. We had to bring in all the food and fresh water we would need for our stay. We showed up to find 3 other trucks full of friends already there. Friends from Holland, UK, Spain, Morocco, Czech Republic. Actually, more like family now.
 Two days before we braved coming out of the truck with goggles and scarves to face the wind for the sheer adventure of it.
The day before was filled with eating together, surfing, boogie boarding, smothering ourselves in blue mud and rolling in sand dunes.
Yesterday started with boogie boarding and surfing. Andrew and Hannah went out with boogie boards under their arms to join Leike and Pavla to get some surfing tips. Being around so many surfers lately has caused Andrew to frequently reminisce the days of his youth on the beaches of New Zealand. Here was his chance to add to his image of surfboards strapped on to Maggie somewhere like some kind of trophy. I am glad that I was up at the truck and oblivious to what happened next until all were safe and back on shore.
It was Andrew’s turn to sit on shore while the boogie boards and surfboard were occupied by the other three. Andrew looked out and saw Hannah way out at sea being tossed by unrelenting waves. Leike and Pavla were desperately and unsuccessfully trying to reach her. Without even thinking about his own safety only thinking of his little girl, Andrew plunged into the water only to be caught up in the same rip tide being pulled out to sea WITHOUT A BOARD. Leike, like an angel, caught up with him briefly so that Andrew could rest on her board then catching a wave in to find help. Pavla, in the meantime caught up to Hannah, like a rescuing angel and brought her in to shore. Leike now came back out with Pavlas board only to find no Andrew. All feared they wouldnt find him again. Andrew was still being pulled out to sea without a board, continuing to be tossed about. Andrew was now too tired to do anything but kick his legs slightly while he tried to keep above the unrelenting waves. He was completely disoriented by this time. He didnt know where the shore was. He focused on staying afloat. At one point he tried again to touch ground with the tip of his toes. He touched ground and realized he was coming in to shore tho thru no effort of his own. There must have been an angel in the waves. He finally reached shore completely void of any strength and shaking with cold and sheer exhaustion.
 All went into a fisherman’s shack belonging to Hassan and his brother who had also gone into the water like a brave warrior angel, bringing people into safety then wrapping them in blankets and serving tea to the shaken swimmers at his shack. Later the 4 came walking back up to the trucks emotionally and physically exhausted.
 As we were still recounting from the events Abigail, Alana and TJ decided to go for a mud plunge. Smothering themselves in blue-black mud like the day before. Forming their hair into bizarre shapes like the Leningrad cowboys. Having a great time plunging themselves into the bank of mud. I was in the truck still reeling from recounts of the other events, laying down and having cuddles with Hannah, who was still shaken. Pavla comes in and is being held by Rachel as she starts to recover from the events. Abi comes to the door and says, in a very calm and composed manner that is very Abi, “Mum, I think I cut myself”. I look out the door to see Abi covered head to toe in blue-black mud except for the blood streaming down her right leg. I grabbed a jerry can and doused the leg with water to show 3 bloody stripes across her leg. The worse being a gash about 6 inches long and open about the width of my thumb. I yelled to Andrew inside the truck who was in a half stupor from exhaustion that we needed to go to the hospital. I wrapped the wound with clean rags and Alana, our cleaning angel, brought Abi down to the small inlet to rinse off some of the mud while we packed up the truck. We were ready in 5-10 minutes to drive an hour to the hospital in Guelmime. After a very bumpy one hour ride and alot of assistance by the newest member to our truck family and resident communicating and culture angel, Rachel, we arrive at the hospital.
 Walking into the Urgencies department we expected to be there for hours and pay a huge bill. Quite to the contrary, we were out within half an hour after great care, 10 stitches, no bill and a perscription to fill.
After filling out our perscription and replenishing our fresh fruit and veg supplies we were driving out of town to Hassan’s, our friend and personal oasis in the Sahara, and Abi (our family observer par excellance) looks out of the window and sees Philip, a good friend from the Rainbow gathering. Andrew pulls over, I jump out and half an hour later 5 old friends are jumping into our truck on the way to Hassan’s. They say we were their angels bringing unity after a very difficult day for them. I like being called angels. What is better than that.
At the end of the day we arrive at Hassan’s house where he reminds us over and over, “this is your house in the Sahara, this is your garden, you are home”. Hassan was our homecoming angel. We all contribute to a nice, life-giving soup and bake the beautiful fresh bread started by Abi before her injury. We then fall into bed.
Angels all around when times are rough if we just take the time to look.
Thought I would post my response to Pippa’s nice email as they are really good questions.
” would like to ask if you would add some information to your blog about how and why you decided to travel. Did you own a home and work jobs previously? Is it hard to travel between countries? Visas etc? What about crime, have you ever had any problems break ins etc?”
I will answer the easy bits first. We have owned 3 houses in 2 countries. We gave up our last house that we owned in order to use the profits for Andrew to go to school. We still think that was a great choice as it was a catalyst event that sent us on the track we are on now. When we sold the house we went to the camping store and bout a sierra designs family arch tent and really good sleeping bags for the family in order to celebrate our freedom. When we bought maggie our truck the kids were quite keen on noting that we were home- owners once again – only our home has wheels.
We have worked jobs before. Regular ones. I have worked in offices and hospitals. I was trained as a nurse. Andrew has normally worked many part-time jobs at one time. I think he likes to wear lots of different hats.
The hardest thing about travelling between countries is our own fear of the unknown. It seems the news loves to broadcast the negative about anything bad so more people to watch or something. It seems those with bad stories of travel get heard more. You know, that one person who gets robbed – not hearing about the thousands that had no problem at all. Not all the visas and documentation can be lined up beforehand. Sometimes calls need to be made just before a new frontier to arrange insurance, a visa needs to be obtained at the border or plans just need to be put on hold. Right now, we have been looking into going to Mauritania and Senegal. When we tried to get visas in London it proved near impossible. In Rabat you can get visas in one day and 34 euro. After realizing that we could get our visas, however, we found out we need a carnet de passage for our old truck which will take over a month to get. We will need to change our plans now and try to get a carnet de passage for next time. There is no replacement for the information you get around the table with other travellers. We all learn from each other as we are doing it. Sometimes you have to backtrack 800 km to get a visa or visa extension, sometimes you go to a nice man in a small village who gives you the stamp you need. Lots of unknown but I am thinking we fear the unknown too much because the unknown seems to bring more opportunity than dissappointment. at least for me. We just need to be flexible and embrace the unknown. If we dont get across a border into a country there is always another path – possibly a better path and we can go back and try again at another time. Also, visas can be expensive when you multiply that by 6 or 7 or 9.
For us the hardest border to cross, by far, is the British border. If you dont have a british passport and your passport has too many funny stamps expect to get interrogated for long periods of time by scary, intimidating people and possibly sent away – for a 19 year old member of our group she was handcuffed and escorted to a detention centre before they could book her return flight 4 days later. There are more scary stories from this border among our friends than all others put together.
We have had things stolen in the past. Not this trip so far. At one point, when we lived in San Francisco our cameras kept getting stolen. We ended up buying a working toystore variety of camera and that one didnt get stolen. You have to be reasonably careful – as you do at home, lock your doors when you go out, dont put your phone next to your window, dont leave tempting items on your dash, dont pull out a fancy phone or computer in a slum, etc. We have a safe – but that is mainly for passports and essential documents. We also keep photocopies of passports and extra photos in our safe. It also helps to keep in mind what our real valuables are – each other. All else can be replaced.
Now, for the hard questions. How and why we travel. I try to put as much of the how in the blog as I can think of. I know there are things I am overlooking. For that I apologize, I’m trying to get better.
As far as why. Wow. I think if you get right down to it I think it is what makes us feel alive. With both me and Andrew there is a part of us that sort of dies inside if we dont travel. When we start travelling there is a part of our minds and hearts that wakes up and becomes electric. We see things in a whole new way. Like, we were created a little different.
It is funny how our western cultures seem to accept geographic stability as sensible and nomadic lives as irresponsible and immature when things used to be just the opposite a long, long time ago. To travel full-time nowadays there are so many stereotypes to break down. The stories of full-time travellers not caring about the earth, trashing the place and steeling everything is just rubbish. We have been hanging out with people very aware of their carbon footprint. Teaching africans how to compost in their gardens, carrying their trash til they find an acceptable place for it to go. Trying to bless those they stay with or around with food and love and music and money and respect and encouragement. There is community, sharing food, knowledge, rides, a needed hug and kiss. I think when you travel full-time you are more vulnerable. Sometimes a thought will race across my mind, “I am trusting my life, my passport, etc to someone I have known a few weeks… or a few hours.” We need to trust each other. We must. We dont have the luxury of big houses to hide in – we need each other.
Over a year ago when we first saw Maggie (our truck) Andrew looked at me with a gleam in his eyes and said, “We could even take her to the Sahara”. Well, here we are just over a year of having our beloved truck on the road and we drive her into the Sahara. But hey, I am so excited that I’m getting ahead of myself.
We went into Guilmim a couple of days ago. Now, I must say at this point that I am getting increasingly frustrated with the guide books right now. We have a rough guide for Morocco. It is great for tourists that want to fly in or being rough guide they talk about taking a bus in and buying some nice trinkets. So, the rough tuide didnt like Guilmim. We found it just what we needed. Getting farther south there are less and less bigger towns to get practical things done. Guilmim was a great place to find a pharmacy to stock up on insulin for Abi, get a bike repaired, get some food both fresh and to fill up our pantry, find a working bank machine.
A word on bank machines. Most places, even petrol stations, only take cash and bank machines are not always on speaking terms with out of country banks.
I made a tea party for the girls on the hood of the truck. They forgot the cards they were playing with on the truck. After about a half an hour of rough roads Andrew noticed the cards on the hood of the truck. Don’t worry mom, he stopped the truck before sending Abi out to retrieve them.
TJ got a really good object lesson on tooth brushing. You know all the preaching you do on “your teeth will rot if you dont brush them”. It just doesnt have near the impact of a small child with rotten teeth standing next to your truck when you get out. I didnt have to say anything. TJ looked at me in terror and said, “That boy didnt brush his teen did he.”
Once again, while we were in Guilmim we were asked if we were selling our bikes. This time by Mohammed who was the third person to invite us to his cafe “Ali Baba”. Well, we had to go We had a great lunch of omelette and fruit and mint tea served by Mohammed’s son.
Afterwards Mohammed told us about his village and the nomadic people that come in once a year and were there RIGHT NOW! Mohammed offered to bring us so, seizing the moment, we pulled the truck around, picked up Mohammed and his friend and took them
through the gateway to the Sahara and into his village which was at the first oasis.
On our way to Mohammed’s house for a cuppa tea we noticed this man running down the road towards us waving his hands energeically. Wait, we know that man! It was Melchio – yeah, I know, how wierd is that. They have been trying to get in touch with us to find out where we were. Nothing was working and then we drive into the Sahara and there they are. So, we continue onto Mohammed’s place for a cuppa tea, some dates and bisquits and he takes us to meet another Mohammed in a camel hair tent.
This Mohammed number 1 serves us another cuppa tea and tells us a bit of his story, with Mohammed number 1 translating. Apparently Mohammed number 2 is 1 of 12 men that have come from a nomadic saharan people with 85 donkeys full of goods to trade for food.
 It doesnt take Andrew long to go all Lawrence of Arabia on us. If you know him at all you know Lawrence of Arabia is Andrew’s favourite film of all time. Oh, is my man happy right now. Hanging with this amazing nomadic dude dressed like Lawrence having a cuppa tea.
After a while we walk back by Mohammed’s house where one of his men tells us that Hassan called and our friends are waiting for us. After inviting us to Friday couscous
one of his men takes us to Hassans where we are reunited with our friends from the hippy van and a few extra friends from the rainbow gathering.
So that is catching you up. It is now Friday morning. I am up early because I am so excited to about going for camel couscous at Mohammeds. I have heard about such meals. Friday is the day that the men go to the mosque and come back for couscous and we get to be part of it all. Yeah!
I sure do love travelling and making new friends and finding old ones.
Oh yeah, with TJs birthday looming she has chosen what she wants – a baby kitten with big slate eyes that the czechs found in town today. She and Hassan’s nieces have been with the kitten all day long.
As we are leaving Hassan’s wonderful garage we thought we would give you a glimpse into our day for the last several weeks.
The day begins at 5 am here with the call to prayer bellowing from the mosque only a hundred metres away. I know the thought “hey cool. Praying at 5am. I might do it too.” It has crossed my mind. But, FIVE OCLOCK comes SOOOO EARLY!
6 oclock is when the cement brickmakers next door start working. They use a machine, that sounds like a jackhammer, and emits bricks out the other end when the right ingredients are shovelled in the other end. If this doesnt wake you the flies do.
Hassan and his men arrive between 7 and 8. There are normally at least 6 vans and horseboxes and trucks to work on. The men from these vehicles increase the workforce by another 6 or so.
Hassan is a gentle berber man with a ready smile, creativity, diligence and honesty. His men are the same. We found Hassan through other travellers and he has a great reputation. They do not have as many fancy tools and expensive paint. Many times they weld with sunglasses instead of a proper shield and the paint isnt cut to be super shiny after painting but…. they are fast and efficient. I think it might be because they are used to keeping old things going instead of throwing them away. They have found the oil leak caused by the French mechanics. They have fixed the step that the Scottish welders said couldn’t be done. They have made numerous old vehicles new, including ours, with meticulous attention to detail to bodywork and paint.
The oil leak was fixed in true Hassan fashion. Andrew opened up the hood and showed Hassan where the oil was leaking on the inside of the bonnet/hood. Hassan put Andrew to work by showing him where to start looking. Andrew found the leak. He thinks the french mechanics forgot to put sealant around the valves when they fixed the engine. Hassan concurs and gives Andrew some sealant to do the repairs.
Jose has been our main guy working on the truck. Referring to Hassan when he gets a job too difficult. As Jose and Andrew are getting the cab ready for painting, Jose finds out the passenger door doesnt open from the outside. This has been a real problem at times as it is the only door that is not in the traffic if we park up on the side of the road for the night. Jose thinks nothing of it and fixes it right away. Andrew goes to show Jose the step that the Scottish said couldn’t be fixed. Done already. I think Andrew likes going back and forth between computer and boiler suit. He takes his laptop down to the hotel with wifi and does some email and intellectual work. He comes back here, puts his laptop bag on the hook and puts on his boiler suit. The extremes of it all. Once again he comments that he likes that he is just another working man when he has on his boiler suit. He is one of them. It is funny how that happens. The power of the boiler suit. It is a communal working experience here. Everybody helping each other out.
Sometimes other workmen come in from other business to help out. Hassan introduced us to some men from across the street to do the canvas bit of our work.
As for me and the kids. I think I have become my mother. After homeschooling I clean up as much as I can after all the workers and the kids help me or Andrew or hang with the other kids and army of dogs and sheep.
There are other calls to prayer during the day but people just keep working, hardly noticing.
During the day we sometimes go out onto the street and get avocado juice, fresh squeezed orange juice or pistachio yogurt. We would normally go out for an ice lolly but they are probably made with unboiled water which rules them out.
The workday ends at dark – around 7 pm. We have dinner. Sometimes we cook and sometimes we go out for harira (spicy bean soup) bisara (pea soup) or Andrew’s favourite. His favourite is, what he calls, Moroccan fast food. A man with a small silver cart who emerges on the sidewalk surrounded with local moroccan men. He makes a different kind of meatball (kefta) or kebab sandwich each day and puts it in some bread with some sauce and onions. With either of these meals we can feed the whole family for about 12 – 15 mad or a little more than a euro. The price makes it even more of a favourite for Andrew. We have gone out for tajine a few times but this is less often than we thought we would. It is difficult to cook here in the mechanics yard. We also suspect that it we dont save any money cooking for ourselves.
We do have electricity and we sometimes use this to watch a movie but we normally dont. We talk, read, play a game, do a blog entry on the computer and go to sleep early to the sound of music and barking dogs. The barking dogs give way to the roosters before the 5 o’clock call to prayer and another day begins.
As we are leaving we got our bill 6000 mad and a bicycle which translates to less than 600 euros. This is what we got done – rebuilt exhaust, raise the roof, rust removed and cab painted, black underside repainted, new hinges on box, collapsible roof rack, 13 small jobs. A pretty good deal. And we got to camp out with some very interesting people.
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