Calum's Road - A Ride Of Two Halves

Oh, and the freezing fog was inded f-ing cold -17 if I recall

I'd forgotten that - here's your bike at the services, just after emerging from that fog; see the white stuff on the bike..........that's not salt that's frost picked up from the fog :eek

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Andres
 
Poor Mikey didn’t have hand guards (let alone muffs), how he coped with the cold feck only knows :comfort

Twas a tad on the baltic side and there are a limitied number of times you can get a heat via this method... :eek
 

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On the road for 7 the next morning the rest of the crew were starting to pack up their bikes as I rolled out of the car park and out onto the still dark M-Way south to the Spanish border. I was on a mission; my folks were just south of Barcelona near Sitges and I wanted to pop in for a couple of hours - the original intention had been that we would stop over with them but timings didn’t work out in the end.
Hopefully I’d catch up the others in Valencia where we had decided we would crash for the night.

As I crossed the border the sun was coming up and as the Mediterranean sun did its business I began to feel proper warm for the first time on the trip. Hacking down the M-Way was good fun, I could go as fast or slow as I liked without constantly having to check in my mirrors, I was having so much fun that I decided to ride through central Barcelona rather than skirt around it – hitting it at full on rush hour time I rode past the Sagrada Familliar and down through the new developments in the harbour area, picking races with the locals on their scooters, but never with a chance of winning :rolleyes:

9.30am and I’m at my folks and we sit outside on the roof terrace having a slap up breakfast – the weather we’ve just come through already seems a million miles away, sat there with a coffee looking down on a calm, deep blue sea:)

Mr & Mrs Outtomunch Snr:

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Back on the road and I’m off south again, heading for Valencia. It’s warm but very windy. I get me head down and decided I’m gonna catch up the others :roll

Stopping for petrol I got a text saying that the ‘southern’ contingent (Crapaud, Paintman and Milk Tray Man) were in Benidorm and we’d all meet up there, finally the Calum’s Road riders would all be together (well nearly all together, Sockpuppet was heading for Madrid at this stage having ‘sort of’ sorted his bike).

Sat there, Red Bull in hand I’m thinking Benidorm? BENIDORM? FECKIN’ BENIDORM? Now, I’d not particularly enjoyed staying in Ibis/Etap hotels on the way down……being a signed up middle class, Radio 4, Guardian reader I would normally steer clear of such places and go for yer local town centre cafe/hotel type of place but needs must and Ibis/Etaps answered that need so no real probs there. However, feckin’ Benidorm I thought to myself………..what sort of feckin’ ‘adventure’ is it staying in Benidorm :(
Arriving in Benidorm I wind my way through the streets looking for the Hotel Diplomat and I start to chuckle………..and before long I’m laughing out loud ………….and as I pull up outside the Hotel I’m beside myself – this is gonna be fun I thinks to myself :bounce1

And it was, despite myself, I couldn’t help but like the place :)

Walking into reception I spies Crapaud lost in a PC – I introduce myself and then go off to book in – feck this hotel’s hot :mad: No sooner am I in my room there’s a knock on the door and in comes Paintman :) We have a good ol’ chat about our respective trips, the highs and the lows and wander off down to the bar to catch up proper loike. Turns out Milk Tray Man has gone on ahead to Algeciras……….. At this point the others arrive; turns out they did an ‘Outtomunch’, choosing to go through the centre of Valencia en route, rather than go around it :D – feck this hotels’ hot :mad:

As we all slowly cooked at the bar I noticed a temp. gauge above the lifts; 32’C :eek: No wonder it felt so feckin’ hot – turned out the hotel was full of elderly Brits on cheap ‘escape the winter’ deals and they liked to keep warm!!!! At least it meant I could wash and dry my kegs in record time.

Went out for a (very good) authentic Spanish Chinese that night and once again we were up and off the next morning head yet further south, this time destination Granada, a short hop and hopefully the chance for some R&R :clap

Everybody was very excited to be off and away on their bikes again…………

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1.27am 14/01/10

“Lying here in bed, can’t sleep ‘cos it’s sooooooo feckin’ hot! Been a long day today, up at 5.30 and at my folks for 9.30, shame we couldn’t stay there…..actually quite warm……got a message to go to Benidorm. Off the M-Way and all you see is row after row of tower block hotels and we’re staying in one! The streets are just full of old Brits, even had one guy come up to me and say “I used to have one of them, one of them Nortons” – just like home! When I speak Spanish to the hotel staff they speak back in English? Met Sid and John, John’s cool, Sid’s bonkers ;) Mikey and I watched the old ‘uns dancing in the disco; Mikey was the first one to notice it but the place smelled of poo and wee, guess that’s what the Airhead Weekend must be like…………right, try and get some sodding sleep……………”

Andres
 
Another day, another dollar and next stop Granada. Quite a ride that day, started off lovely, warm and dry but as we climbed into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada we hit some pretty full on windy conditions. Violent gusts that did their best to blow you across the lanes of the M-Way. Overtaking trucks was interesting and the conditions meant that we had to limit our speed somewhat. The scenery was stunning in places and at one point the most beautiful rainbow appeared, perfectly arched over the church in a village we were passing, like a sign from the heavens. You could see the dark clouds that we were heading towards us and we were playing kiss and tell with the rain.............it was only a matter of time before we got wet.

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..........and if you’ve ever wondered what a rainbow looks like in b&w :D

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Eventually the inevitable happened and it pissed it down. It was all Bhud’s fault ‘cos he’d reckoned the bad weather was at last behind us and taken his muffs off, told him he was tempting fate but would he listen.............. :mmmm :D

We hit Granada and finally the rain relented, I tried to get us into the ‘old (Jewish) quarter’ but my failing memory and road works/diversions conspired against me so we stopped at a bar and re-grouped to discuss where to stay. As we stood there dripping all over the nice polished wooden floor Roger took a call from Sockpuppet saying he’d just arrived in Granada and where were we? Bizarre and uncanny timing or what :clap Five minutes later and Thunder’s taken another call from Sockpuppet. This time the news wasn’t as good, he’d lost the front end on his bike, trapped his leg under the l/h pannier and was convinced he’d broken his leg :(

Bhud and I set off to try and find him, all we knew was that he was somewhere on an industrial estate beside a Carrefour. After some fannying around we eventually found his bike but no Sockpuppet – he’d been carted off in an ambulance. The Police were still at the scene and couldn’t have been more helpful so, once they’d given me directions to the hospital Bhud went back to the others to sort out getting a rider (Crapaud) out to the bike and I headed off to the hospital to find Sockpuppet.

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I found him in casualty, smiling and happy (must’ve been the drugs!!!!) and then promptly got kicked out by a very officious nurse. Sitting in the waiting room I passed the time watching some rather lovely security guards watching me :)

We ended up stopping three nights (I think?) in Granada in the end, while we sorted out Sockpuppets med. Insurance/bike repatriation etc.............

Granada is a beautiful city (Alhambra Palace etc) but I didn’t get to see much of it on this visit, I did get to know the hospital really well though! On one visit, just after they operated on Sockpuppet’s ankle I found him in the recovery room – judging by the reaction of one of the nurses I’m not sure I was supposed to be in there :augie

Had a lovely meal in a Moroccan restaurant one night with Mikey.......a taste of things to come :bounce1

All things, Sockpuppetwise, sorted and we were ready to head to Algeciras; gateway to The Dark Continent :bounce1 :bounce1 :bounce1

8.36pm 14/01/10

“A mad day, met up with the wonderful Sid and left Benidorm. Had a great Chinese and it ‘was’ a fun and surreal experience, so glad we went there! Nice sunny, warm ride then the wind picked up and the heavens opened.......most amazing, strong gusts of wind coming down off the mountains, kept the speeds down even slower than normal – is that possible! Beautiful scenery, fab rainbows, very cosmic! Pouring rain in Granada and got lost in road works – message from Richard (Sockpuppet) that he was also in Granada then another one that he’d come off. Bhud and I had a little adventure trying to find him, found the bike. I’ve now been sat here in the hospital for three hours, feck it’s hot, just like Benidorm again.................prognosis is a broken ankle”

11.13am 16/01/10

“Saturday morning, went to see Richard and his room’s empty. Finally found him in the recovery room after an op on his ankle, still out for the count. Got back to the hotel lunch time, most of the others had gone on up to the Alhambra..............said I’d join them but TBH was shattered so crashed out. Had a night off whilst t’others went to visit Richard. Mike and I wandered up to the old Jewish quarter and had a Tagine, probably the first of many......................
At last we’re on our way again, stopped on a M-Way services, sat outside, having a coffee and an hour away from Algeciras – should be a another ‘day off’ tomorrow and then t’others will get their tyres changed first thing Monday morning, ready for the off..................................”

Andres
 
Feck this is taking ages to write :eek Thanks for your patience :)

Another fun ride, down to Algeciras. Hit some resurfacing for a few miles which was entertaining, lots of little parallel grooves on the road, great fun on the Heidies as the blocks locked into the grooves :D It was actually better the faster you rode – I enjoyed that bit. Sun was out and we were all in good spirits and as we pulled into the beautiful old colonial Reina Christina hotel in Algeciras Milk Tray Man was there to greet us :beerjug:

Nowhere had been arranged to get the tyres changed so Paintman and I went off to find somewhere for the crew to get sorted. I remembered seeing a bike shop in the way into town and so we headed back there.

Ruiz Brother Special Motorcyles

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And it was there that we found Jesus, Jesus Ruiz :cool: Well we did eventually, after he’d got off the phone sorting a domestic………………….

Whilst waiting Paintman practised his poses

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Any way, got the tyre changing booked in for Monday morning; 8am if possible, 10am if Jesus has shot his sister in law. Somehow I had the feeling he was only half joking when he said that…………………….

Back at the hotel and the evening was getting under way. It was fab. The locals and not so local came out to play, dancing to some smultzy Spanish music and Salsa

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Boys got smart

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Mikey pulled

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and the next morning a mysterious Eastern European had left messages for the boys……………some got a more comprehensive message than others :(

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11.05am 17/01/10

“Saturday night at the Reina Christina is dance night! A middle age guy with wet look perm on keyboard and his good lady wife singing. Full of middle aged and elderly locals dancing Salsa and the like – fantastic to watch, really beautiful. Met a mysterious Eastern European woman and her partner, a US Intelligence Officer, all very James Bond…………………”

Sunday comes around all bleary eyed loike and bikes are fettled.

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The only problems has so far were electrical; Thunder and I had no power to our GPS’s. Easily sorted on mine (poor connection due to corrosion) but Thunders problem, whilst the same, couldn’t be fixed.

Paintman had no aux power or headlight, again (eventually) sorted by dodgey connections being sorted out.

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Whilst most of the lads went off to ‘The Rock’ for some sight seeing and shopping Paintman and I decided to head up to Rhonda, whilst following Paintman’s GPS down a dirt track we located and rescued Monkey :comfort

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and turned Paintman’s lid into a bunny :D

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There then followed a very memorable ride up into the mountains and Rhonda. It was the first non M-Way ride of the trip :bounce1 And we had a ball. Everything from tight and technical (SM territory) to fast and sweeping (sports bike territory). Of course, being on GS’s we demolished everything in our path :rolleyes:

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Andres
 
Having got into a quickish groove we hooked up with another GS, happy to ride at our speed, got annihilated by a R1 who wasn’t even trying :eek and then came across a bunch of Harleys……….fair do’s to the lead rider, he needed both lanes but kept us at bay for a good couple of Klicks :bow

Now Rhonda is a beautiful old Spanish city, most famous for the deep gorge, and bridge over it that runs through the centre of the old quarter.

Bikes parked up

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a lovely lunch was had (bloody Twat suits get everywhere!)

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and some sight seeing done

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Andres
 
Up early on Monday morning, we pack and check out, tyres are strapped to the backs of bikes

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gear put on

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and the plan is to get the tyres changed and head off for the ferry to Tangier……..

We arrive at Jesus’s place and he’s not there, looks like he carried out his promise :eek:

Now Paintman and I negotiated a deal with the man and that involved handing over loose wheels to him, I think some of the crew were a bit surprised when told :D but everybody soon got down to it :)

Mikey and Milk Tray Man gave a master class

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Bhud got his hands dirty ;)

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But most of all fun was had pretending to be ruffty tuffty adventurers :)

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10am and out of nowhere Jesus is amongst us and tyres are at last changed

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As I wasn’t changing tyres I wandered off to admire some of Jesus’s bikes

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and discover that Harley riders suffer none of the confusion that we do when deciding what oil to use :augie

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Now peeps were getting a bit on edge as we were all expecting to be heading off to Morocco that day and the clock was ticking on ‘Spanish Time’ which isn’t always the fastest even if it is a more congenial way of doing things.

I have to admit I was loosing it a bit too, having run around sorting a courier for the lads to ship their winter gear back, going with Thunder to an industrial estate to get a bolt for his side stand and sorting a charging lead for Paintmans iPod in order to speed things up, all whilst the tyres were being changed. I was somewhat ‘disappointed’ to come back to the group to be told that the decision had been taken to stay another night as there wasn’t time to post the kit off and get an early enough ferry…………………

Back at the hotel we all check in again and a couple of beers later I’m chilled again :) and we relax on the hotels world renowned crazy golf course :D

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Come hell or high water tomorrow is a first thang start and, at last Morocco :bounce1

“Monday afternoon and I’m listening to cheesey lift music in the bar of the Reina Christina again…………….spent the morning changing tyres, took a while and one thing and another it’s all dragged on and peeps think it’s now too late to cross over so we’re here another night, hey ho………..any way, no worries, Morocco tomorrow”

Andres
 
Enjoying this immensely.

Rhonda looks stunning, I have put it on my list of places to see - soon, I hope.
 
It’s Tuesday morning now and, at last, we are heading off to Morocco :JB

All up ‘dark and early’ and we make our way down to the ferry and as the sun comes up so we find ourselves waiting to get on the ferry surrounded by French, German and Dutch camper van things

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and one very strange truck thing, reminded me of Space 1999 or summit :confused:

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One more quick shot of the crew and we are called onto the ferry :clap:bounce1:clap

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Bikes are parked up and we make our way upstairs. Forms are filled in, stamps obtained and then there’s just time to sit and watch Tanger from outside the port as we sit there waiting for a berth.

The second you roll off the boat the difference that Morocco is hits you. People and dogs everywhere and a guy waving you off to the right with no obvious route through the melee. Eventually you see a chaotic queue of vehicles ahead and join in

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trying to find the shortest lane and every time a vehicle inches ahead it’s back on the bikes and try and claim the new found gap

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We were in the queue quite some time, but nothing compared to how long we’d be hanging around sorting the ‘paper work’ :eek

Moroccan customs are an experience and a half; eventually we got to the head of the queue and despite not really wanting to have to make use of a ‘helper’, of course, we eventually did – unless you are very strong willed and really know what you are doing the chaos all around you can be quite overwhelming and it’s all too easy to let somebody else ‘take the strain’. Having said that, our ‘helper’ was pretty crap, needing constant reminding that he was supposed to be looking after our documents as he’d disappear into the throng with our passports etc :eek: A right comedy of errors followed with some of us disappearing up some stairs into, I think :nenau , a Police area only to be escorted back out, having to move bikes whilst this was all going on, trying to sort insurance and all the while Crapaud did a sterling job hassling at one of the booths and eventually got us all the stamps and sigs we needed :clap

So, that was it, we were, at last, after two and a half hours sorting paperwork, in Morocco, in Africa no less :)

We would head to Rabat for the first night, ready to start sorting Mauritanian visas the next day at the Mauritanian embassy there. It was decided we should break into two groups to make negotiating Rabat traffic more easily and meet up again in Rabat so I found myself with a new set of riding partners; Paintman, Milk Tray Man and Crapaud.

The relatively easy traffic of Tanger was easily dealt with and we soon found ourselves on Morocco’s one M-Way heading south (yet more soddin’ M-Way :(). Lunch time beckoned and we pulled off at the services to fill the bikes and our tummies

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We hit Rabat bang on rush hour and what fun we had, after the monotony of the M-Way this was what I needed to wake me up. Crapaud had a wee run-in with a Merc driver who tried to run him off the road which looked quite scary from behind but this was certainly more like it, more fun ………….. looking for the Embassy in order to get our bearings we failed miserably and with Milk Tray Man’s 1150 starting to get a bit over hot we decided to find a hotel, except, all the ones we tried were full :(

Coming out of yet another hotel Paintman called across to say it was full, thinking he’d seen another other nearby hotel I sped off towards it, literally just around the corner. Milk Tray Man followed, Paintman and Crapaud didn’t :blast All my fault and I was pissed off that after not one incident of loosing anybody thus far I’d managed to be such a twat and loose them in Rabat. Any way, the hotel had rooms; we booked rooms for all the others and eventually Paintman and Crapaud found us after several texts and phone calls.

In the mean time I’d been texting our position to bhud and and when they turned up a wee bit later there was not great surprise to see them – only thing being, he hadn’t received the texts and they had found us and the hotel purely by chance. In a place the size of Rabat what was the chance of that :thumb2

Now, when I previously rode to Morocco with Amanda a couple of years ago I actually didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped I would. I didn’t ‘get it’, My expectations had been raised to such a level from all the reports I’d read on here. There were several things that contrived to make me think of the place as a ‘shit hole’ – a term I used, and immediately regretted, when talking to some of the crew on the way down after a bit too much vin rouge – but one thing I’d found hard to deal with was how ‘in your face’ peeps could be and the, at times, almost constant hassle you can get.

So, when we went down to the bar and a local ‘big wig’ started chatting to me and buying us beers my immediate reaction was to think ‘what’s he after’.

I’d had a good talk to myself before coming on this trip and was determined that I wasn’t gonna let the same things piss me off this time so it was interesting to see the reaction of a couple of English guys that we were sat talking to. I was determined to go with the flow, to suspend any suspicions. One of the English guys, in particular, was actually quite rude to the Moroccan guy, refusing any of his offers of a drink and just generally ignoring him and when, after the Moroccan guy had left and Crapaud added up our bar bill wrong this English guy immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion and assumed we’d been stung by the guy that had just left. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case and having had stick from the English guy for being so trusting I felt smugly vindicated.

Crapaud, Paintman, the two English guys and I then went in search of food, having found the others in an Irish bar we didn’t stay and found a great little ‘kebab’ joint where we had a some good, cheep and cheerful grub :)

19/01/2010

“Well here I am, about to go to bed, what a bonkers day. Finally crossed into Morocco on the 8.30 ferry and got into Tanger for 10ish. Took two and a half hours to get through customs, shear chaos! The busiest border crossing I’ve yet to experience, running hither and dither sorting paper work. Finally through we split into 2 groups, I’m with Sid, John and Glen. Hit Rabat ‘cos they need to get Mauri visas. Traffic, when we got there, was hilarious, full on Moroccon madness, really good fun. Lots of full hotels, eventually found a place with room, I managed to loose John and Sid who eventually found us by following some lads on scooters. The others also found us and even bumped into 2 English guys we’d met earlier at the services. Stuffed on salad and chips from a kebab shop. Not a bad hotel and the bar is full of hookers and pimps, really rather surreal. Shattered so early night and sorting visas tomorrow. So far I’m enjoying Morocco, loads, have met some really friendly and helpful peeps here – what a great place!”

Andres
 
Next day was a leisurely start to the day, made a nice change not to be getting up early and packing up the bikes.

Whilst the others headed off for the Mauritanian embassy to sort visas I went for a wander………..came across the cathedral, not something you see too often in Morocco

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Before long I was wonderfully lost in the outer suburbs and sat watching the world go whilst sipping mint tea

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Happy with my own company it was a lovely chilled start to the day, got chatting to some old guy in a café who told me all about his niece who was studying to be a doctor in Holland, and very proud of her he was too :)

I then wondered off into the Medina, highlight was been laughed at by a bunch of school kids, so, I laughed back at them – they looked terrified :confused: It was dead chilled in the market and nothing like my first experience of a Moroccan medina (Marrakech) . So nice to just stop and look at stuff without feeling that at any second you were gonna get hassled :) I did meet Eric Claptons cousin though, who tried to sell me some slippers :D

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Andres
 
Having got a text from Mikey that they were gonna have to go back the next day for visas I wondered back to the hotel, rooms were booked for another night and some of us wondered up to Mohammad V’s mausoleum. A bit of a mad old place and with lots of ‘courting’ couples hidden behind the myriad stunted columns


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Wandering back we looked for some lunch……………having spent the morning wandering around getting lost and doing what I wanted to do I came up against one of the flip sides of travelling in a group. We ended up in a pizza restaurant :eek Now, I hadn’t come all this way to keep staying in chain/western style hotels nor eat in pizza restaurants.. ………I know there were often practical reasons for a lot of this ……. probably says more about me than anybody else :mmmm but it’s funny how little things can bug you, some of the ‘group dynamics’ were starting to make themselves apparent and that really did bug me for some reason.

Any how, suitably refreshed peeps went back off to the embassy (IIRC?) and I again went off into the medina, later joining up with Paintman who took me off to the souk, where he had been earlier – on the harbour/coast it’s a small self contained area, with heavy Portuguese influences. All white washed and very Iberian – very beautiful. As we left it was shutting up it’s doors and the sun was going down.

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We saw this on a wall, not for the last time either – never did find out what it was all about :confused:

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Andres
 
There then followed a lovely evening, all together now we wandered off back into the medina for grub. Happy again ‘cos we were doing what I wanted to do :D we weaved and snaked our way in amongst the stalls, stopping to buy bits n bobs here and there. I bought my traditional random music CD, (something I’ve done for years now every time I visit a different country) and this time was laughed at by the kids in the shop, guess I bought a really cool CD…………I was starting to get used to being laughed at :D

One street we went down was full of food sellers with some very tempting food on offer (even for a veggie!) but we were after a sit down meal

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Mikey found us a great little restaurant, up above a shop, with it’s own little (precarious) balcony and over looking the medina

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and we all sat down to Tagines, bread and just about drinkable wine :)

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Back at the hotel, as I walked into my room for a good nights kip I heard an almighty ‘klonk’ from my leg……………………..:eek:

10.34am 20/01/10

“ Wednesday morning and the others have gone to sort visas. Booked in for another night at the hotel. Lovely day, sunny but not too hot. What an amazing place; gone for a walk, dunno where I am, on a major junction sat drinking tea. A bunch of old guys next to me have a mad argument about god knows what and I’m watching the chaos that is Moroccan traffic. People walking by, some very trendy and westernised and others in very traditional garb – quite a contrast. Really settling into this trip now, really enjoying it, really good fun.”

11.44am

“So much more laid back here than Marrakech. No hassle, just helpful, friendly people. Just now, trying to cross a really busy road, some old guy twice my age saw I was limping, grabbed my hand and helped me across the road, smiling his good byes when we got to the other side”

Andres
 


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