Leg 2: Waypoint tour of Morocco

So. We're computer mobile again after picking up a bit of tax-free bargain in Gibraltar (If you're nearby - Gibraltar is also worth a visit for £5.95 1L bottles of Jim Beam, oh and also great views from the top of the Gibraltar Rock where we spent some time with the Barbary apes - make sure you've got some pounds (the currency kind) on you cause they really stitch you on the exchange rate and lots of places dont take card. There is border control for those who were wondering. We got searched on the way out).

Morocco - Where to begin. Well given it's me that's writing this I'll start with food! Our Waypoint Tour began on 6th June at La Casita camping San Roque (a good town to get lost in) Spain with a great BBQ (braai) and meet and greet. Nice change to have someone else preparing the meals for us! and I have to say no one ever went hungry that's for sure! We had nothing but great quality food the whole trip. Everything from tagines, to kebabs, Nandos spiced chicken yum yum. The only times Barrie didn't cater were once in the desert where we got caught in a dust storm we ended up eating in a restaurant in the Kasbah we were camping in - though the tagine there wasn't a patch on his, and most definitely not the same portion sizing; a lunch in Tinehir where we had stopped for the day so the cars could rotate through the garage to fix various issues - we had a couple of kebabs on a roof top terrace overlooking the markets. and Pizza in Marrakech - again the food was a let down there - but we had a great position overlooking the main square, watching the sunset and the crowds growing - great atmosphere. So definitely no complaints on the food! Did miss my cereal for breakfast but most mornings we were up and going and i much preferred the extra 10 minutes kip to a proper breakfast.

The tour was a lot more than we expected. A lot less time spent on tar roads than even we imagined! We had everything, rock crawling through beautiful gorges, steep ascents and descents on very tight, bumpy tracks through beautiful valleys and cedar forests. Then there was the desert driving, sand dunes, salt beds and those bloody corrugations! No way we ould have navigated this ourselves without having done a significant amount of prior research. Taking seemingly random tracks in the middle of plains, no signs in most places. Only once did he miss turn off. We ended up driving through a farm. Good 4WD, but obviously we felt bad driving through their fields. It was difficult to get back onto the track as there was a deep drain to get across. Some kids helped us navigate our way out and thankfully they had already done their harvest so didn't do any damage.

Kids.... that was actually one of the things I will remember most from Morocco. Unfortunately a lot of kids would just come to the car asking for "Bon Bon" "Stillo" (actually took us a day or 2 to work that one out... thought they just thought everyone's name was Stevo). They would see us coming and in some cases run for a good couple of hundred metres just to be able to get to the road and try and wave us down. Some of them would clear the road up ahead of rock (usually really small ones) .. like hey.. I've helped you... in one town they kids started showing off their martial arts and cartwheeling skills in a hope to get a bit of a 'present'.
At the end of first day off-roading we were airing up our tyres, right across the road from a school just as they all started running out at the end of the day... Started off with just a few kinds checking out the cars, saying hello. But in the end there must have been about 50 kids. All good fun to begin with - blasting the air-compressor at them. Trying to explain we were from Oz... they all had a good laugh at Matt when he bent down to do one tyre and showed a little too much! But then one kid decided to throw a stone at the car... then another and it all started to get a little out of hand. Matt cracked it when one hit the car and took off, almost literally - scaring a few kids out of the way!! Shame that a couple of kids wrecked it for everyone else.

I mentioned car issues before. Trevor, one of the other travellers on the trip, decided on day 1 to start an issues log. It made for interesting and lengthy reading by the end... over 40 issues, luckily mostly minor , by the end of the 14 days. We, personally had cracks in the tyre sidewall, bash plate for the gas tank fell off, bust in a pipe for the auto-transmission cooler - not good when you've just started through the sand-dunes, fuse for the dash and the alternator (were glad it was just that and not the alternator itself) ummm.... overheated on climbs when we had the air-con on (had to do away with that luxury).. think that was it... others had flat tyres, broken leaf spring, cracked steering rack, Pete's dodgy exhaust on his Discovery kept falling off... so all in all.. our cars definitely kept us on our toes!

We also camped in some spectacular spots. In a riverbed, in the dunes, in the forest... every now and then (and more regularly than I had hoped for) we camped where there were toilets and showers. The Kasbahs were quite cool... Drove through a fortress looking entrance to an open area then a building that had internal courtyards as well... Would love one day to be able to afford to build my own house like that... one can dream.

Didnt spend a lot of times in the towns themelves, but when we did, we had fun. Wandering round the food markets in Tinerhir and other towns, a lot more authentic than what you get in Marrakech. But that was good as well. Would love to furnish my house (when I have a home that is larger than 2m wide by 5m long) from the antiques shops in the soukhs. Some great stuff, everything from rugs, to lamps to pots to chests... loved it all... maybe when I have that dream house I'l be able to fly back for a special shopping trip :)

So thanks to Barrie of Waypoint Tours, and our travel buddies, Peter aka Tom/Jerry/Ralph/Stevo, Sam aka Pedro, Trev and Nick... we had a fantastic time in Morocco - a great start to our adventures through Europe and beyond.
Now in the Costa Del Sol... soaking up some sun... sorting out some admin things, catching up with friends and need to get the car looked at... it's making cranky noises, even after we've washed it (we thought that may pick up her mood).

Quick Update

Just a quick update from a Cyber Cafe in Cascais Portugal, near Lisbon.
 
Can´t believe it´s been almost a week already. Had a great send off from Epping, Essex. Bacon "sarnie" and all!. Thanks to Rick and Viv for their hospitality for our last week in England. It was great!
 
Headed off on LD Lines from Dover, after picking up some last minute supplies on the way... some clean fuel for the fuel stove and other essentials like that!
 
We spent 2 nights in France, one camped in the bush right on the ocean which was nice. Have been avoiding the toll roads so travelled through some really quiant little French villages... great meal and vinho in Bordeaux :)
 
From there a couple of nights in Northern Spain, Basque country. Absolutely beautiful scenery... really enjoyed wandering around San Sebastian.
 
We headed south-west from there... I got to drive the really, really, steep bits... across some very very high bridges... not good when you´re scared of heights!
 
We wandered through Salamanca... enjoyed the great architecture
 
Now in Portugal... Have visited Coimbra, the beaches of Nazare, spent a nice afternoon drinking Super Bock in Sintra and are now in Cascais near Lisbon.  Had a great meal last night at a restaurant overlooking the sea... pity that while we were enjoying the meal and the vinho, the car got broken into... Laptop was stolen and a few other little bits and pieces... but they´ve caused us more hastle than the value of the items... oh well....
 
Off to fix the lock of the car now, have already had the fun of lodging a police report in a foreign country.... then the joys of insurance claimn. Will need to find a more secure way of storing a computer... Kensington lock through a bolt to the chassis was not sufficient. Not the way I wanted to spend our last couple of days in beautiful portugal. Them the joys of travel I spose. Just glad we had backups of everything... ... Will write a better update before we head off to Morocco on Monday.

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We're Off

3 Continents; 20-ish countries and who knows how many kilometres… The journey starts from Epping, Essex in 1 hr!

 

The dream has been in the making for a few years now, but in the end all the organisation has been very last minute! Getting visas, fitting water tanks, sorting out foreign currency, these last few weeks have been absolutely non-stop. The enormity of the journey has really only just dawned on me, haven't had much of a chance to stop and think about what we're actually doing until now! [Which may be a good thing as I may have chickened out!]

 

A few people have asked for an itinerary, but really we only have a few fixed dates. A tag-along tour with Waypoint Tours through Morocco from 7-20 June and Russia as our time there is dependent on the dates of our visas… but the general plan is…

 

1 week in Northern Spain and Portugal

2 weeks tag along tour in Morocco

3 or 4 weeks in Spain and Northern Italy (we love food… hence why so long here! Looking forward to doing some cooking classes!)

3 or 4 weeks through Eastern Europe and the Baltics

1 month driving across Russia (with a detour through Mongolia) to Vladivostok. We will ship the car from Vladivostok and make our own way in to China and down to Hong Kong… back in Oz at the end of September… Ish!

 

Our first stop will be – somewhere in France – how far we get will really depend on how tired we feel once we reach the European continent. We are on a 1pm ferry from Dover.

 

That's as detailed as our itinerary is at the moment! Feels great knowing we don't have many fixed deadlines. We can just go where the wind takes us!

 

So we say farewell to the UK. We will miss the rolling green hills, the diverse and vibrant capital, the pubs, the multitude of travel opportunities, and of course our family and all the new friends we've made along the way. You all have a place to stay in Oz!

 

We will keep in touch as often as we can!

 

Here goes…

 

Tracey and Matt

aussie-cruiser.blogspot.com

 

 

 

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Northern Ireland - March 12 to 14

We spent last weekend in Northern Ireland having got some relatively cheap Ryanair (£40 each return including all charges and taxes) tickets to Belfast. This is despite me having said I would never fly Ryanair again! Although you really do feel like a herd of cattle, it was only a 50 min flight and Ryanair flies into Belfast City airport which is only a 10 minute (£2 bus ride on route 600) to the city centre. Easyjet flights were about the same price but they currently fly into the International terminal which is about 45 minutes out of town, though I think they may be switching to the city terminal later in the year. Just something to watch if you’re heading to Belfast.

We met at Stansted airport straight from work. Me on the Stansted Express (quite expensive at £16 one-way, and that’s at a £2 discount if you book online at least a day ahead) along with hundreds of other people jetting off after work and lots of groups of guys heading off for their “Stag Dos”. They’re not Bucks parties over here... Matt had driven and parked in the long-term parking, which again, is significantly cheaper if you can book a couple of weeks in advance. It was certainly a lot cheaper than my ride on the Stansted Express! We had a whole ½ hour to spare before our flight so had time for a quick drink at the Stansted Wetherspoons.

We stayed at the Europa Hotel, which I discovered after booking has the great reputation of being the most bombed hotel in Europe. It’s meant to be one of the best hotels in Belfast, though we got a great deal on Booking.com (perhaps now I know why!) so didn’t pay the price! (We always use this site and hotels.com. Hotels offer different discounts on the sites at different times so it’s always worth checking both). After checking in around 9pm and immediately managing to lock our passports and cash in the safe without resetting the pincode, oops, we headed downstairs for dinner. It was “ok”. There wasn’t actually a lot nearby in the way of food that looked open, but the dessert was absolutely yummy.... choc vanilla crème brulee mmm !!

On the Saturday we headed out on a 1 day Paddywagon tour to the Giants Causeway and L/Derry. This a really good value trip (£18 each), particularly if you’ve only got a couple of days in Northern Ireland. While it is a little rushed in parts, you do squeeze a lot into the day. We left Belfast about 9am and headed straight for the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. It was kind of billed as this really wonky rope bridge over a gap between 2 islands that was used by salmon fisherman to get out to the best spots. They’ve obviously done it up a bit since those ‘old times’ cause even I, who is a bit scared of heights, had absolutely no trouble with it! The bus driver did have stories of people who had had complete melt downs on the bridge or who had got over but wouldn’t come back the other way... So I wouldn’t go there thinking you’re going to have an adrenalin-filled experience, unless you’re really bad with heights. But I would recommend it for the views. Really stunning. We could see all the way across to Scotland! We spent about an hour there, it’s a 1km walk from the gate to the bridge, with some quite step steps in places, so that’s probably the minimum amount of time you would want stay there. I imagine it would get quite busy in Summer too and there may be queues to cross the bridge. NB: Entry of £4.90 per adult is not included in the paddywagon tour price.

From here we jumped back on the bus and headed along the coast to the Giants Causeway where we stopped for 1.5 hours. We were quite blessed with the weather. It was relatively cool and a little windy, but it didn’t rain! So we took the longer walking route across the top of the bay, then down some steps to the causeway itself. The story goes that the steps were started on both sides of the waterway by 2 giants, Fionn McCool on the Ireland side and Benandonner on the Scottish side so that they could meet for a fight. One was tricked into thinking the other was a larger giant than he actually was and retreated back to the other side smashing the stones as they went (I’ll leave anyone who’s visiting the area to work out the story). I was expecting to see stepping stones out to sea, but they’re all actually small hexagonal stones connected to each other, all pretty similar in size and shape. Really unique and different, but not quite living up to what I had built in my imagination! The scientists explanation of the rock formations being a result of volcanic activity probably makes more sense unfortunately.

After our long walk (combining the Rope Bridge we had now walked about 6km today... Pretty good for us!) we went into the pub for our Irish stew, which we had been advised by our driver to order before we went for our walk. It was really yummy... as was the Guinness we enjoyed with it! We had about 30 mins to eat... those that came in about 15 minutes after us must have wolfed it down!

I actually slept a bit on our drive from the Giants Causeway to Londonderry/Derry. A combination of the full warm lunch and the sun in my face... Luckily we had headed back inland so wasn’t missing too much scenery! The driver did explain quite a bit about the history of Northern Ireland. Really quick on the older stuff and spent more time talking about the more recent ‘troubles’. I didn’t appreciate how tense relations between the 2 groups still were in some areas. In some towns, the gutters are still painted in various colours denoting which side they support. The “London” in Londonderry is blacked out on a lot of signs. And as we drove through one town, a guy walking along the street made some ‘gestures’ towards our very green bus.

We didn’t have a lot of time in Derry. We got dropped off near where the Bloody Sunday events occurred and walked around looking at all the murals and memorials. It feels like a really dreary, unwelcoming place... didn’t feel unsafe but it’s just such a contrast to the beautiful Irish countryside that we’d just driven through. I say I didn’t feel unsafe, but just this week there were a string of bomb alerts in central Derry... mmm. We caught the end of the Ireland v Wales 6 Nations game before jumping on the bus back to Derry.

It was a long day, but the driver had pointed out some of the best bars/pubs in Belfast.... 2 of which were right across the road so had to give them a go, even though we’re getting old and don’t go out late anymore! The Crown is really decorative with lots of booths.. a great place to enjoy a couple of pints. Next door at Robinsons the music is a bit more lively and through the back there’s this pub called Fibber Magees which has quite good Irish music. But being a Saturday night, and just after the Irish had won the rugby, the place was absolutely jammed... couldn’t move! So we spent most of the evening with a couple of pints and a meal at the Crown!

On our 2nd and last day in Belast, we did one of the Belfast Black Cab tours, which took us round all the key areas to do with ‘the troubles’ in Belfast. Again, neither of us were really expecting a huge wall to still be up between the Catholic and Protestant areas, let alone hear that the gates still get locked each evening. We didn’t see any trouble whatsoever, and I think most people just want to live their lives peacefully, but as our driver said, still too soon for the wall to come down. There’s still some tension and at the moment the wall just takes the edge off any risk of that spilling over into violence. It was a really interesting tour and well worth doing if you’re in Belfast. It’s only £25 for the cab and lasts about 1 to 1.5 hours, depending how many questions you ask!

Nothing opens in Belfast until 1pm on a Sunday so wasn’t much left to do while we hung around and waited for our flight back to Stansted. Just enjoyed a coffee and checked out the view from the top of the Victoria Shopping Centre. All in all Belfast's a fantastic place to go to get away from the rat race that is South-East England for a while!

Arsenal v Bolton January 20, 2010

We were able to get tickets to Emirates on one of those rare occasions that tickets go on sale to the general public and aren’t snapped up by all the members. We saw a Arsenal v Bolton game. I had been told our tickets were near the back... fair enough... so we found the right entrance and started trundling up the stair to our seats... turns out “near the back” means second row from the back!... It felt like a long way up but I was doing ok... until I turned around to sit down! Knees went wobbly... thought I was going to fall! Took me about 15 minutes to settle as all the visions of me falling down the stairs / stand collapsing all went through my mind! Then was able to enjoy the atmosphere! The crowd never lets up.... and this was a game against a lowly ranked side! Was a closer match than expected with Bolton going up 2-0... but right result in the end with Arsenal winning the match 4-2. The fans are amazing – can’t believe the enthusiasm and commitment they have for their teams!

Getting out of the stadium was actually a better experience than I was expecting too! Everyone cleared out pretty quick and headed for the tube where barriers had been put up to control the crowd - pretty well organised I thought. A lot of the houses along the way had little stalls set up selling arsenal supporter gear.. food... was such a good atmosphere even out of the stadium

Was a great experience seeing our first ever Premier League game and something I would recommend to everyone, even those not particular interested in football/soccer (as is case with me!)

New Years in Cologne

We stayed in Cologne for 6 nights and used it as a bit of a base to see the area from there.

I found Cologne similar to Belgium... similar architecture... dominance of beer halls... What I liked about the beer halls here was that they served the beer in 200mL glasses.. small I know... but they come around with a replacement as soon as you’ve finished unless you indicate you don’t want another by putting your coaster on top of the glass... I liked it... and meant the beer was a lot fresher!

We weren’t blessed with great weather for our time in Cologne... it rained most days... So our first day there we decided to do the big bus tour... It started at the Cathedral which dominates the skyline, and which I found quite scary and ominous... the hotel was over the river directly opposite the cathedral so had to make sure the curtains were shut at night or I couldn’t get to sleep.... really eerie... anyway... the bus took us past all the sites, of which there are few.... and we jumped off at the chocolate museum... heaven! It was a lot more sophisticated and interesting than the little museum in Brussels... It must have either been sponsored or run by Lindt cause there were Lindt chocolates being made on the line.. taste testing was definitely a highlight! As were the old confectionary vending machines... found them quite cool...

We took a day trip to Maastricht, Netherlands, where my grandfather grew up. We took the train... we managed to get on different trains at Cologne – cause the others had first class tickets through their Eurail passes, and I was just in second class – I was on the right one... didn’t realise in time that there were actually 2 trains on the same platform! Still we ended up in Maastricht only 45 mins apart... funny....

Again, weren’t blessed with the weather which was a real shame. Maastricht is a great little place, not yet too overcome with tourists... and the shopping is really good amongst all the little streets – so probably a good thing it wasn’t a good day to be strolling around! We visited the church where my great uncle helped design the stained glass windows... the house where my grandfather grew up... I had been before, but it was nice being there with mum and showing Belinda and Tash around.

The rest of my time in Cologne was really chilled out... for New Years Eve we had dinner at a little Italian place that didn’t require bookings then had a couple of drinks in the hotel room watching the crowd gather on the river front... what I love about New Years eve in Europe compared to Australia is that everyone is still allowed to set off their own fireworks – so the fireworks started about 7pm!! Funny watching people scare other people with bungers as they walked past!... Just before 12 we headed down to be amongst the crowd and it started snowing – was a really nice fun atmosphere... I’m not sure if there were actually any public fireworks displays but it was good all the same!

From Cologne I said good bye to Bel and Troy as they headed to Frankfurt for their flight home... Mum and Tash got the Eurostar back to London and I flew –there was a bit of delay on my flight because of weather... so took almost the same time as it would have taken on the train! (But it was cheaper!!)

Christmas in Switzerland!

I was worried there wasn’t going to be any snow in Interlaken itself given it’s only about 600m above sea level... but it was absolutely covered and the snow was bucketing down! Matt and I stayed in a place called the City Oberland, smack bang in the middle of the town. Right above a Latino bar which was a bit worrying – though I think given it was winter there wasn’t too much noise... I could imagine in Summer it would be quite loud. Mum had booked a Riverhouse which was great for all of us... Somewhere to lounge around and we took it in turns to cook dinner which was handy. First afternoon we organised our ski lessons and ski hire.... really straight forward, only shame was that we were staying about 30mins from the ski fields (Grindelwald) but at the same time it was good to be based in Interlaken for the shops etc .

First day of skiing I found very frustrating and painful! It took me pretty much the whole day just to learn how to stop properly! And the boots I got were way too tight on my foot... right length but I’ve obviously got a very fat foot! Lost all feeling in my toes after about 15 mins!! Not good! I was definitely the slowest learner out of the group... (Which even though we booked group lessons ended up being just us which was pretty cool)... Tash was better than she thought she was but lacked the patience of climbing back up the 3m hill to go down again... cause we were beginner beginners we didn’t get a lift .

I thought that when I took my boots off that afternoon my toes were going to be blue... but they weren’t which was a good thing I spose...

Next day was much better... Had exchanged my boots for a wider pair... and while it was still painful, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad... And we got a lift today (one of those rope ones where you just hold onto)!! We spent half the morning revising what we had learnt the day before... and there were a ‘couple more runs for Tracey’ before we were allowed down the proper beginner slope... he was very concerned about my stopping ability!!!.. Once we got going down the main slope everything we’d learnt came together and it was a lot more fun. I did manage to fall almost every run... and it was amazing how quickly our instructor could move when we were in trouble!... I found when the proper stopping method didn’t work, falling onto your bum did... I think there was a bit of a running joke going between the instructors and the lift operators about whether or not I would make it down the run (particularly that last steep bit) without falling... By the end of the third day I had really got the hang of it... but a lot can be said for doing some fitness preparation before going.... my legs had absolutely nothing left in them by the end....

First day of lessons there were 6 of us... then 4... then Belinda had a cold and she couldn’t continue just as she was really getting the hang of it ! So on day 3 there were 3... Matt was a bit more capable than I... though he was the first to manage to stack it getting onto the lift.... and Troy.... you’re just a show off!

It was sooo nice to relax the next day, Christmas eve... just wandered around town... had coffee (it was near closing time in this bakery and they had leftover croissants they had to get rid of for free.. it was sooooo hard to polish them off!!)... Kurt and Shreya had arrived the night before and Matt and Troy ended up taking them up to Grindelwald to show them around and sort out ski gear.... the 4 of them were keen for a Christmas Day ski... the rest of us just followed up on the train for lunch... it was great having the White Christmas... In the snow... gorgeous views.. snowball fights.... but overall it didn’t feel particularly ‘Christmassy’ but it was great having most of the family around. Didn’t realise just how much I was missing everyone!

We went to a restaurant in Interlaken for our Christmas Dinner.... Belinda and I ended up sharing a 3 course fondue... 1st course cheese. mmm... 2nd course was meat.. this was a bit too much to be honest... just dropped bits of meat into oil to cook... so was really heavy on the stomach... but 3rd course, of course, was chocolate!.... yummmeee.. Matt and Troy are of course quite used to all us McLeods by now... but hopefully we didn’t scare Shreya off too much!!

Boxing Day again was really relaxing... late brekkie... pack the bags... lunch.... dinner.... Bit of souvenir shopping... and lots of chilling!!

Unfortunately from here we split up a bit... Matt had to come back to the UK to work... and Kurt and Shreya were heading to Berlin for New Years... I was flying to Cologne where I would meet back with the rest of the crew who were travelling by train.

Kurt and I were both flying from Zurich about the same time and we had a couple of hours in Zurich which was nice though it was very very quiet...

Just as Kurt’s plane took off it started snowing quite heavily... my plane was about ½ hour delayed but thankfully we did get going and got to Cologne without a hitch....