Dec 2017 – Aug 2025

Meandering East

Our family of three travelled in our off-grid camper, slowly making our way East, literally and metaphorically. Currently static in Al Andalus. For now. Taking in the history and learning a bit about natural farming. Read more

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Trip start
December 21, 2017
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- Thursday, December 21, 2017
- ☁️ 9 °C
- Altitude: 49 m
- England Hastings Beach 50.85831, 0.56845850°51’30” N 0°34’6” E
Bexhill and Hastings
December 21, 2017 in England ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
We said goodbye to my family and where we had been staying in Bexhill on Sea and Hastings in the winter temperatures and set off for the Poole to Cherbourg crossing. Adventure begins.
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- Sunday, December 24, 2017
- 🌧 1 °C
- Altitude: 418 m
- Spain Obanos 42.680451, -1.7843742°40’50” N 1°47’4” W
Puenta la Reina and Obanos
December 24, 2017 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 1 °C
After driving from Cherbourg through a rainy and cold France we spent Christmas in the Basque Country enjoying the Navarre region. We stumbled upon the traditional folk festivities in Puenta la Reina featuring the character of Olentzero - a kind of Basque Santa, a shepherd who brings the children presents on Christmas Eve. This involved a procession of children through the streets carrying flame torched and an effigy of Olentzero, and sweets being thrown from the balcony of the town hall. We rented a cosy Air BnB cottage in foggy Obanos, a lovely cobbled traditional town in the Region and rested and ate on Christmas Day and boxing before driving on through Spain to Portugal.Read more
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- Friday, December 29, 2017
- ⛅ 5 °C
- Altitude: 636 m
- Portugal Mido 40.608572, -6.92259940°36’31” N 6°55’21” W
Almeida
December 29, 2017 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C
We entered Portugal on the A25 and visited the amazing star shaped fort town of Almeida but what we found more amazing was the almost prehistoric landscape which the A25 towered above in concrete. We parked the bus under the motorway bridge and took a beautiful still haunting walk along the river among giant ferns and ancient trees.Read more
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- Saturday, December 30, 2017
- ⛅ 13 °C
- Altitude: 68 m
- Portugal Largo do Pelourinho 39.607539, -8.41561339°36’27” N 8°24’56” W
Tomar
December 30, 2017 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
We enjoyed rambling about in the grounds and gardens of the Convent of Christ, Tomar - after walking the very steep hill climb to the top, with buggy.
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- Sunday, December 31, 2017
- ⛅ 9 °C
- Altitude: 186 m
- Portugal Largo Rainha Dona Amélia 38.798443, -9.38821938°47’54” N 9°23’18” W
Sintra
December 31, 2017 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
Sintra was a must-see fairytale landscape: many castles, palaces and mansions built in a mountain forest, the town seemed like a rich mans playground and something out of Disney land rather a real functioning place. We parked and slept in the campervan right in the centre of town (not advisable) walking distance to the Quinta de Regeliera - a palace built in the 1800s by some eccentric millionaire who was hung up on masonic symbols. The palace gardens featured a series of ‘initiation wells’ dug deep into the ground with spiral staircases and secret passageways connecting in a maze underground. Just for fun.Read more
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- Monday, January 8, 2018
- ⛅ 5 °C
- Altitude: 16 m
- Portugal Praceta Dona Elisa dos Santos Gomes 37.103055, -8.360637°6’11” N 8°21’38” W
Porches and Armacao de Pera
January 8, 2018 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C
We stayed in this area for a month and spent fond times with Luke, Lisa and Aria who put us up in their yard for a few weeks in the beautiful village of Porches then we found a flat to rent In Armação de Pêra, where we spent every day in a gorgeous beach cove called Praia dos Beijinhos. We ate good food, drank wine and tried our best to encourage positive vibes among toddlers.Read more
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- Saturday, February 3, 2018
- ⛅ 10 °C
- Altitude: 29 m
- Portugal Cacela Velha's Small Church 37.157318, -7.54662537°9’26” N 7°32’48” W
Cacela velha
February 3, 2018 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
We camped outside the tiny fortified cliff top town of Casella Velha, a popular free spot for campers and loved exploring the cliff top gardens and allotment and paddling on the beach here in the beautiful Ria Formosa natural park.Read more
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- Wednesday, February 7, 2018
- ⛅ 9 °C
- Altitude: 156 m
- Portugal Minas de São Domingos 37.674388, -7.50027537°40’28” N 7°30’1” W
Minas de Sao Domingos
February 7, 2018 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
Heading north along the Guardiana river from Castro Marim we really enjoyed this part of Portugal: Mértola, the border outpost of Pomarão and Sao Domingos the ruins of an old open caste mine, where the vast flooded quarry glistens red with poison and the skeletons of the old industrial buildings scatter across the landscape, and people still lived in the old miners cottages while the officers mansions had been renovated as a hotel.Read more
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- Thursday, February 15, 2018
- ⛅ 12 °C
- Altitude: 10 m
- Spain Playa de Varadero 36.19138, -6.02306836°11’29” N 6°1’23” W
Los Canos de Meca
February 15, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
We read about the fresh water springs here (‘los canos’) that flow onto the beach, and the healing mud, so we made a visit. We stayed on Camping Pinar San Jose, in Zahora, camping among the pine trees and it was so tranquil we relaxed here. We made several different friends here, and we were drawn to stay here and put our feet up for a bit. We rented a flat, Sea Dream Spain, for a month, walking distance to the beach. And then the rains came. It rained solidly for the whole month. After this, we thought: let’s go to Morocco. I liked this area though. We felt quite at ease in this out of season sleepy hippy seaside place. Nearby Conil had all the shops we needed and a swimming pool. El Palmar was cool too, to pretend we were surfers. Vejer de la Frontera was an awesome visit: a moorish hilltop town. Complete with kids play park.Read more
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- Thursday, March 29, 2018
- ⛅ 13 °C
- Altitude: 45 m
- Spain Duna de Bolonia 36.090573, -5.78318536°5’26” N 5°46’59” W
Dunas de Bolonia
March 29, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
We stumbled on this dune the size of a mountain by accident. We went to Bolonia beach and turned right and drove up a narrow road into the pine trees and found ourselves a top of the biggest dune I’ve ever seen. It was populated by local day trippers tobogganing. You could see Morocco across the water.Read more
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- Wednesday, April 4, 2018
- 🌙 12 °C
- Altitude: 720 m
- Morocco Uta el-Hammam Plaza 35.172535, -5.26039435°10’21” N 5°15’37” W
Chechaouen
April 4, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 12 °C
After faffing around in Mdiq and Tetouan trying to sort insurance one of our first tourist stops in Morocco was this amazing mountain town in the Riff, all painted blue and white, the blue apparently indicating the origin of the Jewish houses. We camped in the only grotty campsite at the top, which involved a walk into town where H got his first haircut.Read more
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- Wednesday, April 4, 2018
- 🌙 12 °C
- Altitude: 329 m
- Morocco Hafet Lahmam 35.264136, -5.24029235°15’51” N 5°14’25” W
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Akchour falls
April 4, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 12 °C
We read about these falls as one of the hidden gems of Morocco. We set off in the campervan into the Riff mountains, which we were told were full of bandits who would kidnap us and force us to buy marijuana but we found no such trouble, only some children who drew on our van with a marker pen. We camped on a cliff top outside the village of Akchour and set off hiking to the falls in the morning. We didn’t make it to the falls with a toddler but found a bloke who took us to a river beach where we swam in the amazing crystal clear and cold waters.Read more
Traveler Wow! Brilliant picture xx
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Traveler It’s mental isn’t it!!?
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- Saturday, April 7, 2018
- 🌙 9 °C
- Altitude: 342 m
- Morocco Douar Chouaker 33.974865, -5.56563833°58’30” N 5°33’56” W
Moulay Idriss and Volubilis
April 7, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 9 °C
Volubilis was a huge site of Roman Ruins quite spectacular, we could have spent the day studying here but the lil one had a tantrum when told he couldn’t climb the monuments and we aborted the mission in a huff. Moulay Idriss was a much better day out: a big but manageable hilltop town, home and resting place of the eponymous, who apparently brought Islam to Morocco. It was market day and we brought some veg, and meandered to the top of the town where H played football in the park with some bigger boys.Read more
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- Monday, April 9, 2018
- 🌙 8 °C
- Altitude: 1,298 m
- Morocco Iferd -n- Ighergher 32.171281, -6.52976432°10’17” N 6°31’47” W
the journey from Fez
April 9, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 8 °C
We drove from Fez to meet Gemma and Chris and Mia and Louis at Ouzoud waterfalls. We loved the journey where we drove through the busy pass through town of Beni Mellal and through a great functional working village called Bni Ayat in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains as we climbed the tiny mountain switchback roads past ruined forts and kasbahs.Read more
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- Tuesday, April 10, 2018
- 🌙 13 °C
- Altitude: 1,226 m
- Morocco Aqqa-n-Timasla 31.923078, -6.63090331°55’23” N 6°37’51” W
Ouzoud Falls
April 10, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 13 °C
Gondola Rides, monkeys, street sellers, rip off merchants, beautiful campsite called camp Zebra. We had a lovely pit stop and met Gemma and Chris and Mia and Louis who were on holiday from Scotland.
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- Thursday, April 12, 2018
- 🌬 12 °C
- Altitude: 1,999 m
- Morocco Assif-n-Tanzought 31.249586, -7.41178631°14’59” N 7°24’42” W
Tichka pass and high Atlas
April 12, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌬 12 °C
We took the N9 which was the main route over the very top of the high Atlas Mountains: the Tichka pass. We could not believe how the weather and scenery changed as we climbed and climbed the switchback roads. There seemed to be endless roadworks as they were widening the road, which on a mountainside is not that easy to do. At the bottom it was hot and sunny, by the time we got to the top it was grey and cold. We ate a tagine in a roadside cafe and slept in a truck stop at the very top of the pass where we paid a man ten dirhams to look after our bus, and made his day by giving him a pair of trainers. When we woke it was snowing and we were slightly concerned about the road conditions as we still had the peak to climb, but the man told us no problem. As trucks thundered by we presumed it was ok and set off, only to find an oil tanker dangerously sliding towards the crash barrier and queues of traffic stuck behind, as the snow settled on the icy road. Eventually snow patrol came and dug a clear path and we managed to pass and begin to descend the other side with relief! Really pleased with our trusty 609 at this point, and glad we weren’t in a Winabago.Read more
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- Friday, April 13, 2018
- 🌙 9 °C
- Altitude: 1,295 m
- Morocco Jbel Tioughrad 31.07506, -7.14404131°4’30” N 7°8’39” W
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Ait benhaddou
April 13, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 9 °C
This was an old fortified town on a cliff top made famous by the Gladiator film, and Star Wars. Great place to go with a toddler, who enjoyed playing pooh sticks from the river bridge, jumping the stepping stones in the river with the local kids, and climbing the hundred steps to the top of the town.Read more
Traveler Love this one guys...
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Traveler Love you !
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- Saturday, April 14, 2018
- 🌙 14 °C
- Altitude: 1,130 m
- Morocco Ouarzazate 30.92, -6.9130°55’12” N 6°54’36” W
Ouarzazate
April 14, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
Stunning rocky landscapes as we journey beyond the Atlas Mountains- this is film country-watch an epic biblical or fantasy film and chances are it was filmed here.
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- Sunday, April 15, 2018
- 🌙 18 °C
- Altitude: 2,075 m
- Morocco Tidrit 31.643787, -5.86062131°38’38” N 5°51’38” W
Dades valley
April 15, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 18 °C
We were totally stunned by the magical, fantasy landscapes of the Dades valley. Walking along the river, through fields of crops and fruit trees it felt like paradise. We stayed at the family run camping les pattes de singes, who fed us and took us on a three hour hike into the bottom of the canyon and climbing to the top. Yes, with toddler. Amazing.Read more
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- Wednesday, April 18, 2018
- 🌙 22 °C
- Altitude: 1,538 m
- Morocco Aït Baha 31.588147, -5.59337631°35’17” N 5°35’36” W
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Todgha gorge
April 18, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 22 °C
We drove all the way through Todgha gorge, an absolutely vast, mostly barren, dry rocky gorge that went on for miles. At one end which had a hotel and restaurants along a stream, tourists gathered and merchants sold carpets and hats and at the other end was a village of mud huts, kids playing table football and camping Baddiou were we stayed for the night. The following day we drove back through the gorge and camped at Atlas camping in the valley of palm groves, where we met a Dutch couple travelling with their two year old in a Mercedes 508.Read more
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- Saturday, April 21, 2018
- ⛅ 17 °C
- Altitude: 799 m
- Morocco Moulay Brahim 31.459611, -4.30341231°27’35” N 4°18’12” W
Merzouga and Sahara
April 21, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
We spent a night in Merzouga, a town on the edge of the Sahara desert. It was windy and quite hostile/ the climate and the people. Stepping out of the campervan and walking past the swimming pool on the empty campsite, there was a mound of sand, which if you climbed to the top of the mound, this was all you could see, as far as you looked in both directions. Nothing but sand. It was erie. Obviously there was a guy with a camel, who appeared from nowhere.Read more
TravelerLooks like home xx
6/8/18Reply
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- Sunday, April 22, 2018
- 🌙 22 °C
- Altitude: 764 m
- Morocco Oulad Limame 31.330826, -4.28963231°19’51” N 4°17’23” W
Es Sfalat
April 22, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 22 °C
From the desert we traversed miles of rocky landscapes that looked lunar. Seeing all the fossil and crystal sellers along the roadside Tagan was determined to find his own fossils and crystals and we stopped regularly for him to jump out of the campervan with an axe and wander off up a mountain. Hayyan loves to throw stones and collect stones in his bucket so he enjoyed this activity immensely. At one point in the middle of nowhere a guy appeared on a bicycle, who in exchange for a cigarette and a few dates escorted us to this amazing fossil graveyard: where entire rocks were peppered with ammonites. Amazing to think that at some point this landscape, on the edge of the sahara desert was once a sea.Read more
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- Monday, April 23, 2018
- Altitude: 709 m
- Morocco Ksebt n’Aït Hakka 30.305002, -5.83608330°18’18” N 5°50’10” W
Zagora
April 23, 2018 in Morocco
After a long sun stroked journey across barren landscapes we arrived in Zagora, a cosmopolitan feeling city in an oasis of palm groves. We set up camp for four or five days at la palmeraie d’Amazrou over the river from Zagora, camped under the shade of the huge date palm trees, we recouped while Hayyan played with a French family who were spending a year travelling.Read more
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- Thursday, April 26, 2018
- 🌙 17 °C
- Altitude: 668 m
- Morocco Tata 29.740807, -7.9760829°44’27” N 7°58’34” W
Tissint to Tata
April 26, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ 🌙 17 °C
From Zagora we drove the N12 towards Tata, hitting a newly tarmaced stretch of road sandwiched between the Sahara dessert and the Atlas Mountains, following Morocco’s border with Algeria and Mauritania. There was no passing traffic here, and very few villages, and the landscape was like Mars in a science fiction film. We parked up and got out of the van and what was the most notable thing was the silence was deafening. Morocco is full of the sounds of birds and insects, but here, absolutely nothing. It was stunning. One of the best places yet.Read more
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- Friday, April 27, 2018
- ⛅ 19 °C
- Altitude: 1,016 m
- Morocco Amtoudi 29.247671, -9.18333629°14’52” N 9°11’0” W
Tata to Amtdi
April 27, 2018 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
We washed and rested at camping Hayat on the river at Tata. Like most rivers we have come across on our travels the river was dammed further up stream and only a trickle ebbed through, channeled in troughs through the dry river bed, where hayyan played stone skimming. We took a detour to the remote village of Amtdi where the only restaurant was closed but the kind owner gave us probably his own dinner. The photo is a huge fort on top of the mountain. you could take a trek from here to waterfalls and gorges.Read more
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