Kapp 2 Cape: Nordkapp to Cape Agulhas starting Oct 2012

guy you are just not going to want to leave morocco are you.......

Wholly different to what's coming as you head further south into Black Africa, both in scenery and culture. It's probably called something totally different these days for fear of offending the PC Brigade, but it's the only way I can think of describing leaving the Arabic states in the North.

Think you're right Tuggy, it's be hard for them to leave, and once gone, they'll be yearning to get back. Time will tell.

I think the 'PC' version is: Sub-saharan Africa. And yes, it does change quite a bit but that is what makes it an adventure!

Yeah, I have no doubt that we'll miss Morocco ...

... but I am excited to be starting the next stage in our journey towards my home country

Something special about that

Another update from the road ... enjoy!

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13th December 2012

Safi, Morocco


We always knew that getting our Mauritanian visas was going to be a chore.

For starters, Rabat was out of our way. We couldn’t apply for visas when we first entered Morocco, and so we had to make the 600km trek from Agadir to Rabat to apply for the visas nearer to us entering Mauritania.

It was 48 hours which do not need repeating.

We left Agadir in the morning of 11th December, and thought it would take 2 days to reach Rabat. In fact, the toll roads (yes, we used them) were quicker than expected and we almost made it to Rabat in 1 day. We found a less than ideal spot to wild camp between the sprawling cities of Casablanca and Rabat. Next morning we awoke at 0430, set off at 0515, and reached the embassy at 0600 to join the queue. In case you thought we’d be first, we were number 26 and 27 as many people slept in their cars outside the embassy. Finally we were able to have coffee and breakfast!

After lodging the application at about 0830 (see more details in the Visa section) we had a few hours to while away until we could collect at 1530. Off to Marjane – the first supermarket we’ve used or seen in Morocco. It just felt like being in Europe – not in a good way. We have become accustomed to shopping in markets so wandering the aisles of Marjane felt odd. No longer did we feel that we were exploring a foreign land, we were merely heading down to the local to do some shopping. In any case, we stocked up.

Then, we thought we’d see a little of the city. The highlight of the day was meeting the first South African of the trip! Only took 2 months. Dan and Kumi left UK on the same day we did, but have been cycling their way towards South Africa. We had tea together before they headed off to find accommodation for the night – something we should have joined them in doing.

Parting with Dan and Kumi, we continued our tour of Rabat. With no disrespect, it wasn’t as enjoyable as wandering around the smaller towns and villages as we have done the last few weeks. It was such a sharp contrast to the Morocco we have been savouring. It was a culture shock – and not in a good way. Busy roads, noisy, semi-chaotic and it just seemed to be lacking in charm. The lack of sleep the night before didn’t help my demeanour and outlook either.

Back to the embassy to join the queue to collect our passports with freshly glued in visas. Mission accomplished, but it meant stupidly we were back on the road at 1545 and looking for somewhere to wild camp. We found a perfectly lousy spot – which we only realised in the middle of the night when we were repeatedly disturbed. Trying to wild camp near big cities is a bit of a no-no.

Up early yet again this morning and back on the road to Agadir. We’re taking the scenic route this time – it meanders all the way along the coast and is a pleasant relief after the previous 48 hours.

Tonight we found a campsite for the princely sum of 7 euros, with western style toilets, hot showers – and peace of mind.

As for wild camping? Yeah, gone off it for a bit …

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Viking Explorer is adding information about the visa process on our blog, so do please have a read if you'll be needing it.

kind regards
African GirlChild

Wild camping - the clue's in the name. Unless funds are really bad, then campsites are always preferable. Anywhere near cities is a complete no no, in fact secturity-wise you are taking a risk.

You're learning fast ... wild camping has to be in the wilderness.

16th December 2012, just outside Agadir

In spite of the fact that I love camping, being outdoors, running, mountain biking hiking … I also like to look good (don’t we all) and having a decent hairstyle is important to me. Furthermore, I like short hair – soooo much easier to manage than long hair.

So, the prospect of travelling for a year without the services of dear Emma has been daunting to say the least. I even suggested to Viking Explorer that maybe I completely forgo the idea of a hairstyle while on the road and resort to a number 6 all over. At least then I know what I am getting! He wasn’t having any of that.

It has now been 10 weeks since my last fabulous haircut – and try as I might to make it last longer, the hairstyle had reached the end. I had to find a coiffeuse. Fast. I hoped that I was in the best spot I could manage. Afterall, we were outside the tourist hub of Agadir and very near the Atlantica campsite which has 1,000 pitches mainly occupied by retired French and other Europeans in their luxury mobile homes and camping cars. Surely the best possible spot to have a cut!

The little “beautician” place was very impressive on the inside – tiled, soft soothing music, light fragrance filled the air. And they were even open on a Sunday. Of course, since I am a lady, I had to have a coiffeuse – I think having a man cut a lady’s hair would break every religious belief. Since most ladies in Morocco wear their hair long and under a scarf, I didn’t hold out much hope for a stylish short cut.

Anyway, my coiffeuse spoke no French, and so another lady came in to translate my almost non-existent French to Arabic. I was shown some very modern, glossy hairdresser magazines and asked to indicate what sort of style I wanted. I tried to say “just like Emma does it” but that clearly wasn’t going to work. I tried to say “I want it short, and we are travelling so it needs to be easy” and pointed at a few pictures. Who knows what they understood!

Out came the scissors, and off she went! It all went fine: good trim down to a stylish short length on the back, sides, top – all looking very stylish. Then she reached the fringe. My only interpretation is that the lawnmower veered slightly and lost control. Either that, or one of my nieces snuck in with a pair of scissors. Chunks appeared in my fringe – distorting an otherwise very respectable haircut.

All in all, though, I am happy because:

1. Viking Explorer hasn’t laughed! He is the one who has to look at it, poor guy. I don’t actually see it!

2: I still look like a lady (not always a given with a very short haircut). I may need to don some make-up and wear pink for the next week just in case

3.: It is super easy to manage being very short again.

4.: It cost me the princely sum of 50 dirhams (5 euros).

5: I’ll likely make another 10 weeks until the next haircut (although Viking Explorer will likely need to even out the fringe again in a few weeks)!

Well, as a friend of mine once said – “It’s like grass. It grows back”.

Tom Mc wrote:

Wild camping - the clue's in the name. Unless funds are really bad, then campsites are always preferable. Anywhere near cities is a complete no no, in fact secturity-wise you are taking a risk.

You're learning fast ... wild camping has to be in the wilderness.

Yip - we're learning.

Actually, we have tried wild camping again ... but done it the "right" way. We passed through a little village and asked someone where we could park to sleep for the night. He pointed to a little hillock in the village, and said lots of French and Germans up stay there. A man arrived and guided us through a souk (!!!) and up a very windy road (unsuitable for camping cars!) ... onto a gorgeous spot with 360 view of the valley around us! Just perfect.

Although not an official campsite, it certainly is the spot known by the locals. We even had to provide a fiche to the chief of the village - which surely makes it official

Only a few more days in Morocco now ... it has been an amazing start to our African Adventure.

rgds
African GirlChild

Hi have you planed where you will be on Christmas day, some where warm (jealous) we are in North East Scotland,
cold wet and forecast snow.

"the lawnmower veered slightly and lost control"

Come on, let's see the finished article.

Roamingman - we'll be in Dakhla for Christmas. The last (almost) sensible place in Morocco.

Tom - ok ok ... I'll try to get a photo sorted here ...

... <time passes> ... <more time passes> ...

yeah, no luck with photobucket. I'll have to refer you to the blog for a photo
http://www.kapp2cape-blog.net/2012/12/first-fight-with-the-lawnmower/

In case I don't get a good internet connection again ...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS to you all!

Have a blast!
best wishes and lots of kind thoughts to you all
African GirlChild & Viking Explorer

It's fine! You're lucky insomuch you've the face to carry off short hair. Could be a skinhead and you'd get way with it. Worked for Sinead O'Connor! Now that's something you haven't tried yet.

And a Happy Xmas to you and Viking,


happy xmas by ganggerl, on Flickr

All the best on your journey next year.

Lots of blogs to catch-up on during your post Christmas reading

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19th December 2012

Just under a week ago we left Agadir to start our journey towards the Mauritanian border. We had a choice of going down the coast via Tiznit, or venturing into the mountains via Tafroute. As we would be following the coast from Laayoune southwards, we chose to go through the mountains. What a good choice! At our campsite just north of Agadir we met some Germans, and we copied a piste from one of their guide books. After stopping off in central Agadir for some provisions, we hit the road to the mountains towards Tafroute.

It started off gently, with sweeping curves and panoramic views, until we reached Ait Baha where the piste turns off to the right. We asked the fuel attendant for the entry to the piste, expecting a “behind that house over there”, only to be told that the piste is now tar! After a few kms we turned left towards Aougounz and started heading up into the mountains proper, the road taking on a very serpentine quality. I quickly lost count of the number of hair pin turns, instead focussing as much as I could on the fantastic scenery we were driving through. I cannot remember how many times we went up a switchback just to go down one on the other side of the col, but there were many!

As we entered the village of Targa n’Touchka we stopped a man by the side of the road to ask for directions to a place to spend the night. The village has an unofficial camp site that is used by people climbing and trekking in the mountains, and this is where we were shown. We were lead through the souk and up twisting roads of a small hillock. Suddenly, we emerged above the trees – on top of the hillock surrounded by mountains on all sides. It will be a long time until we wake up to a similar panoramic view.

The next day saw us following another piste from Tafraoute down to Foum El Hisn. This time the gravel had been maintained, but the majority of the piste could easily accommodate a convoy of camping cars. At least until the village of Igmir, where the piste narrowed to LandCruiser width only, with the need for some extra ground clearance. We wound our way along an old riverbed, snaking between the small houses. Already, though, the signs of development are everywhere – perhaps the sound of tar being laid?

Towards nightfall, we again asked the locals for a recommended spot to spend the night. We were pointed in the direction of Icht where we found a beautiful campsite run by a Frenchman, Phillipe. A well earned shower and sundowners were on order.

In any case, a fantastic experience and a highly recommended trip.

Viking Explorer
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Another from Viking Explorer:

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Such a contrast to reach the flats of Western Sahara.

We left Icht and headed towards Tan-Tan on the tar. Although we had originally planned to drive the pistes from Assa to Smara, local opinion was divided on whether the military would turn us back or not. In the end, we headed to the coast and started the long journey to the border.

Kilometre after kilometre without anything in particular to rest the eyes on. It seems such a desolate place with no real purpose – other than as a transit route between Morocco and the rest of southern Africa. There are lots of fishermen along the cliffs, and there seems to be some heavy industry in some of the major towns we passed along the way. Apart from that, there is just what feels like an endless stretch of road, only broken up occasionally by a river estuary or a lagoon, or more frequently by a string of what (to me) are pointless police checks where you have to hand over your life story. The most bizarre was the police dressed in grey standing 100m ahead of the police dressed in blue. Both asking for the same information… I have no clue what it is being used for.

We stayed a night in a Bedouin camp north of Laayoune, and experienced a very special sort of quiet. The following night we spent in a fully lit campsite in Boujdour – with many Senegalese driving heavily laden estate cars heading southwards.

After Boujdour, the scenery seemed to shake off its dourness – suddenly, tiny blue, red, pink and yellow flowers appeared along the roadside. The barren flatness gave way to small scale canyons. And eventually, on approaching the turnoff to Dakhla, the sand dunes and flats emerged.

And so we have a few days to relax from the relentless driving, celebrate Christmas with new friends and prepare for the next border crossing.

Viking Explorer is close to putting me out of a job as his pen scribbles furiously (or fingers fly over the keyboard ...)

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26th December 2012

Wow, that was a close call… we almost ended up becoming residents of Dakhla!

After checking out all the camp sites at Dakhla we chose to stay at Camping Moussafir. Not because it has the best views, but because it has electricity – important since we were planning to stay for a few days. We settled in, and decided to go for a walk as we had been driving solidly for a few days. In the distance we spotted an interesting vehicle, and decided to check it out. We were invited in for a beer, and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon with a group of newfound international friends. Just as we were about to leave, we were invited to lunch the following day, which we happily accepted. Lunch expanded our group of new friends, and we had a lovely afternoon eating juicy burgers and home grown salad.

At this point we had also become best friends with our French neighbours at the campsite. It is a hard life some of them live… 2 months in Dakhla in a luxury campervan with a quadbike attached (or in a huge bus with a Smart car inside), with a massive satellite dish to ensure golf can be viewed on the flat screen TV. The rest of the year is spent in Cannes playing golf and driving the Ferrari… But our neighbours were very friendly, served us French wine (because we weren’t allowed to eat lunch without wine!), and we really enjoyed their company.

The next day we went into Dakhla to do our shopping. We were offered a lift by Chrystal (Swiss) and Francesco (Italian) in their home, a small Citroen campervan. They spend most of their time in Tarifa (Spain), but head south during the colder winter months. Our shopping was done in the souk, followed by a fresh fish lunch at a local restaurant. This happened to be Christmas Eve, and African GirlChild and I enjoyed our Christmas dinner at the campsite, listening to “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas”, with our Christmas tree hanging from the tailgate. Slightly surreal, but very nice. Christmas dinner (of beef stew) was completed with a big slice of home baked Christmas cake brought all the way from the UK. Christmas Day we were invited back our newfound international friends for lunch, which had now expanded to 8 people from 8 different nationalities! We were made to feel so welcome, and really did feel like we were amongst family.

So, back to the residency question: Dakhla is an easy place, especially when you know someone who is local. We were grabbed by the hospitality of the people we spent time with, and their easy-going chilled-out attitude. It was very easy to say yes to staying another day, and then another day, and it would have been so easy to wake up in Dakhla in two months time being completely part of the place. Reluctantly we bade them all farewell, but with fresh anticipation of what we would encounter as we continued our journey southwards. We look forward to seeing them again – inshallah.

My turn! Budget update from the road ...

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We are about to leave Western Sahara and cross into Mauritania. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Morocco and Western Sahara, but look forward to heading southwards. Before we leave Western Sahara, though, I thought I’d add another budget update.

Our daily budget has continued to fall steadily through Morocco as we take advantage of the low fuel price. We have covered about 5,000km in Morocco and Western Sahara, and so the low prices have certainly helped us. In Morocco, diesel was about 8.4 dirhams per liter (about 84 euro cents) which fell further to 6.3 dirham per litre (about 63 euro cents) in Western Sahara. So, daily fuel cost fell from £25 per day to £15 per day. Unfortunately it’ll rise again as we continue south.

Food in Morocco has been rather inexpensive, and our daily food has been approximately £8 per day (for both of us). We have savoured some of the local cuisine, but mainly browsed the markets for fresh fruit and vegetables to cook ourselves. As a result, we have now used 2 bottles of gas (small 3kg bottles) since we left the UK. Considering the first replacement bottle cost 80 dirhams in Morocco (about 8 euros) and the second bottle cost 30 dirhams in Western Sahara (about 3 euros), we shouldn’t have bothered actually buying a second gas bottle until we actually reached Morocco! Learning for the rest of you!

We have had a bit of maintenance done on the vehicle – first we had the inner oils seals and outer swivel ball seals on the front axle changed. Then we had a full oil change done.

Accommodation has remained at an average of 65 dirhams for camping. We have camped about 70% of the nights, and about 15% wild camping with the remainder mainly staying with friends.

Overall, our daily budget for 2 people in Morocco and Western Sahara has been just under £40 per day. This certainly has helped to offset the relatively more expensive travelling through Europe, and so we are now close to our target budget. I had hoped, however, that by this stage we we’d be well under our target. Anyway.

Hope this information is useful to you in your planning!
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Happy New Year all!!

rgds
African GirlChild

Again a nice read, glad to here budget is dropping, and you have met some good people.
Has you say you might meet them again.


happy new year in your next country.

We're with you all the way, escaping the cold (actually - quite mild in the Midlands), wet, miserable weather that's currently sweeping across all of Britain.

Yep, meeting great folk along the way is a major part of the experience - so far so good! Keep on truckin'.

Glad to here it is going ok enjoying reading your blogs and all the best for 2013.



Mugwump

Thanks everyone for your New Year wishes!

We are splashing out in a B&B in Nouakchott, Mauritania - and it even has free wifi!!!

Updates coming through ... likely tomorrow ...

Please would you all do me one kind gesture: we are in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ... so alcohol is scarce. Please have a drink for me and a drink for Viking Explorer on New Year's Eve

rgds
African GirlChild

We will lift a glass to you two, on new years eve.

GirlChild wrote:

Thanks everyone for your New Year wishes!

We are splashing out in a B&B in Nouakchott, Mauritania - and it even has free wifi!!!

Updates coming through ... likely tomorrow ...

Please would you all do me one kind gesture: we are in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ... so alcohol is scarce. Please have a drink for me and a drink for Viking Explorer on New Year's Eve

rgds
African GirlChild

PRETTY SURE WE CAN DO THAT......

Sorry, no can do. Still feeling rough after the bug that hit me over Christmas, only now I have a stinking cold and cough which keeps me from getting any kind of decent sleep.

I'll raise a glass of hot honey & lemon instead. Well okay, maybe chuck in a brandy or two purely for medicinal reasons of course.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - both to you two on the Kapp2Cape and all the forum users.

Yikes - we're well into the new year ... and very behind on the blog ...

OK.

Sit tight ... here it all comes ...

rgds
African GirChild