Jonesberries

We are just outside Guilmim in Morocco. We are borrowing a “dongle” for internet. We have not managed to buy our own. Always ” a day late or a dollar short” as my mom used to always say. They just seem to be waiting for some more every place we go to. Anyways.

Saw a beautiful bunch, herd, flock, whatever, of camels today along the road. We are at a hot spring tonight. The last few days we have been staying at a few campgrounds the last few nights. They are only between 4 and 11 euros a nite but I have been quite enjoying hanging around hippies and travellers. Andrew says I am becoming a snob.
I think part of my snobbery comes from a nice Moroccan man I was talking to last week.

He asked me if I was a tourist or a traveller.

” I dont know”

He looked at me intently and said, “Do you like the Moroccan people?”

“Oh yeah”

Do you like to go out alot and meet people and try new things? You do dont you. I think you are a traveller. Tourists just sit like this (he stretched out his arms, closed his eyes and put his head facing the sun like someone sun bathing) and they do nothing. He looked intently again and said, “Yes, you are a traveller”.

Dang, wow, Yeah. A traveller. Loving and experiencing new cultures and making friends. Problem is now I have snobbery issues with hanging with “White plastics”.

How lame am I. OK I need to try not to be a snob and I need to love all cultures – even the white plastic/tourist culture. They are normally very nice and dont deserve my snobbery. They travel with cute little travel sized dogs, take pictures of flowers, read lots of novels and have great tans. Deep breath. Tonight we hang with white plastics and some nice surfers in an old beige plastic with a bit of personality. Perhaps tomorrow we will venture out to the uncivilized hot springs, 4 km from Fask. Apparently we need to drive to Fask and find a guide as there are no roads going to the uncivilized hot springs.

TJs birthday is coming soon. She turns 8 on the 28th. We would like to take her on a camel ride for her birthday.

So, lost another post to the trials of Ecto. You see I have sort of a love hate relationship with Ecto. Anyway, not much lost just my moaning mum stuff as 2 of my kids fly the nest in the same week.

The night before the flight to London the nearby river overflowed and took the path of least resistance down the road in front of the mechanics. In the middle of the night people were climbing over the wall and tow ropes were hauling cars in from the road as the river took over. In the morning what was left was some destroyed fish carts littering the street and sludge everywhere. We put on our welly boots, Sam took our boots back in a bucket as we jumped in our… taxi.

Lizzy is taking off to Texas to hang with Jessica, our amazing, wonderful Woman friend (notice the capital “W” for woman which I reserve for only my favourite women in the world) who we love.

This is a photo of our first leg of the journey. Lizzy’s first hitchhiking experience. Actually we were waiting for a taxi to the airport and some of our friends saw us and gave us a ride in their big blue horsebox.
The rest of her trip was a bit more normal with planes and trains. Well, maybe not that orthodox as we flew ryan air to London. Every time we fly ryan air we say NEVER AGAIN but we always get drawn in by the illusion of cheap prices. We did get free entertainment on the plane this time. With a handful of drunks, an angry primadonna with a huge carryon and a man with a lost boarding card.

Sam, Donald and Alana took off for Scotland. The only drama we heard this time came from Alana. Dear Alana, Andrew drilled and drilled them in the taxi on the way but her carefree attitude, optimism and lack of extensive funds were no match for the near impossible border control in london and she was denied entry. She is now in a detainment centre in London – Ramada with bars – waiting for the next flight to Morocco in 2 days. Not sure if she will continue on with us or what. So, this time our clan got to provide the drama. Ahhh life.

Miracle of miracles Sam and Donald got in. I guess they had to let Donald in because he holds a british passport. Samuel, however, well, he did try. He put on all clean, all black, clothes that promptly got really dirty as we are presently living in a mechanics backyard. You see, miracles do happen in the modern day.

I AM feeling much better. Glad you missed my empty nest moan and groan. It was very sad and I am sure would have brought you all to tears.

Now we are all thinking, North or South. Do we continue south towards the Sahara or do we high tail it North. Hmmmmm, you know we do have sandmats proudly displayed at the back of our truck. We also have a large group of new friends gathering in Sidilfni preparing for Mauritania and beyond. There are visas to get and a carnet to figure out if we go further south.

The Mauritania visa is near impossible to get in U.K. Once you go to the Mauritanian Embassy, London website that has no clue to the Embassy’s closure until you take the long trek and knock on the stranger’s door where the embassy is supposed to be. If you probe deeper online they say to go to the French embassy where they say send in lots of paper and wait 4 months and they might say yes. Seems the thing to do is go to Rabat, Morocco and you get it in 5 hours. You know, you try to set things in order before you get on the road but I think it takes a leap of faith. Jump on out there and the answers come along the way. Oh no, there I go again with one of my rants. STOP ME PLEASE!

You know alot adds up if I havent blogged for a while.

Enough for today.