Europe
At 6am on August 1st, we waved a tearful goodbye to our friends and family. We successfully completed our drive down to Dover, as many had commented that the Land Rover would not make it that far!
Two of our very good friends, Jo and Simon. Very kindly drove down to the ferry port, to wave goodbye. After a few more tears, the white cliffs of Dover were in the distance and we had started our journey.
Last view of Dover
On reaching France, Tubbs boldly decided to navigate. All went well until we reached the outskirts of Paris, where we were supposed to take the ring road around Paris and onto Poitiers, to meet some friends for the evening. However, on arriving at the Arc de Triumph at rush hour, at 4pm, at the start of the August holiday season, we realized we had taken a wrong turn. (Tubbs would like to add, that the map was large scale, covering the whole of France and Paris was depicted in 2cm). (Slade would like to add a bad workman always blames his tools). Yes we are getting on well!
Tubbs successfully managed to send us to Versaille and onto Rambouillet, mind you it did take us twelve and a half hours to get this far. Let`s hope we get better with the navigation.
We found a lovely campsite in the middle of the forest, where we were supposed to only spend one night. However, on inspection of the vehicle, Slade found that the shock had torn free from the turret. A lot has to be said about fitting non genuine parts instead of original Land Rover ones.
As it was the weekend, no dealerships were open, which meant we were stuck until Monday, at the earliest. We decided not to be despondent on this set back on day two, so using our best French we made a plan to go to Paris. Tres Chaud! (very hot).
We walked around the sights and inevitably back to the Arc de Triumph, a good tiring day was had by all. On Sunday we took a beautiful walk around the forest. Our French is improving by the day but Slade is still speaking Spanish. Hopefully someone will understand us.
Eiffel Tower
Monday arrived and we enlisted the help of the very nice lady on reception to order the shock turret. An explanation of turret from the French dictionary lead to a few smiles and an offer to come and have a look herself at the wounded beast! She seemed confident that the right part had been ordered but it would not arrive until Wednesday. Pants! A quick call to Simon to check part numbers and Tubbs brother in law who works for Land Rover to get hold of the part was as much as we could do to get the show back on the road.
We filled our days with walking in 30+ degree heat (sahara training) and sightseeing in Rambouillet, although everything was closed, well it was a Monday!
Tubbs came up with a great idea to ring the garage to confirm that the part would be ready, so our nice French lady gave the garage a call. To our surprise the part had come in - hurrah, on the road again! So we frantically packed up and Slade fixed the offending shock and we were on our way. As we were driving down to meet our friends in Deganac in the Dordogne, we lost 3 pounds in weight due to water loss. It was 45 degrees inside the vehicle- who didn`t want air con, Slade!
We had four great days with our friends the Pickfords traveling around the Dordogne and The Lot. Tres formidable! We now feel in holiday mode. Wine, cheese, pate, great sights we are in heaven but the clothes are getting tighter and as Slade says, "weight is the enemy"!
Mr and Mrs Pickfords chateau *Sarahs house at Souilliac Sarlat
Must sees in the Dordogne and The Lot are definitely Gourdon, Rocamadour, Sarlat, Souillac and St Cirq Lapopie. Thanks to Pickfords tours we soon became well acquainted with the area and drove about 500 miles! Not a problem! We were completely over whelmed with the scenery and extremely spoilt by our friends at their lovely house, Mont Prau.
After stocking up on fondue we set off to Spain on Saturday morning. Three hours later we were crossing the Pyrennees. Slade blanched as the mountains drew closer but Sid did us proud and sailed up the passes!
The Lot St Cirq Sarah and her men
On reaching Spain it was time to find a campsite as Sid was getting tired. Unfortunately as it was the holiday season all campsites were 'completo' (full!). We eventually found one, along with 500 other campers but managed to find a spot with a view.
There are many ways to cross the Pyrenees and lots of tunnels to avoid the high peaks. We did take one 'scenic route' which was lovely but took 2.5 hours to do about 50km and probably cost a lot in diesel.
It was over 40 degrees by the time we reached Madrid and the thought of navigating the city after the 'Paris experience' wasn't appealing! As we couldn't find any camping on the outskirts we decided to head for Toledo, south of Madrid.
After the first hick up with the shock turret, Sid seemed to settle down. In the extreme heat and with some steep hill climbs, the temperature did seem to worryingly rise. Since retro fitting the viscous fan to help the electrical fan, the temperature seemed to be stable.
We sourced the viscous fan from a breakers yard, some where in the north of Spain, where sign language, a large hammer and crow bar, came in very useful in removing the fan from a Ford Sierra.
Toledo renown for its Marzipan and suits of amour enticed us to take a night tour to see the sights. (Another must see town). The following morning we pushed onto Haley's mum's house (Tubbs' friend) on the outskirts of Malaga. We would have arrived at 9.30pm but thanks to some great directions (with a few typos on the road numbers, to challenge us) and not down to Tubbs navigation, honest, we arrived about 11 pm. And would you believe it they were not even in - so we set up camp outside and hoped we had the right house. (Maybe they didn't want us to come!) By midnight they had returned and another reunion took place and the cervezas came out!
Obviously after 3 days on the road we needed another holiday and Chris and Martins house is the perfect place. Perched in the hills, mango and lemon orchard to the side, a pool to cool down in, a mad dog causing lots of chaos as well as great hospitality, we settled in for a few days.
Tuesday was spent on the beach sorting out our tan lines on the Costa del Sol. (Krissy has drivers arm and a seat belt stripe!) In the evening Chris and Martin had arranged with Maurice from Radio OCI, an English radio station out there, to speak to us about Born Free. Maurice called up at 9pm in the evening and spoke to all three of us but he was more interested in Slade living with 2 girls, rather than our charitable endeavors. He even prepared the interview with the music from the Born Free film, to describe Slade striding across the desert to the girls tents! However, we did give out the website and promoted Born Free, it will be interesting if anything comes of it.
On Thursday morning we said goodbye to our friends and drove down to the Rock of Gibraltar, which took ages, due to the holiday traffic but we eventually found a campsite. The only problem being, it that it smells and is very noisy, we must be getting old!
The following morning, we decided to venture to the rock, which looks most impressive from the Spanish side. As we entered border control, Slade was told due to not having a multiple entry visa, once he returned to Spain from Gibraltar the visa would expire. As we are undecided about which route we are still taking, going into Gibraltar would not be a good idea. So, after a discussion, Slade boldly faced Spain on his own, armed with the phase book and the girls went off to shop.
What can we say about Gibraltar but it's very strange, everything is English, the road signs, the shops and even the fish and chips. But it's a weird mixture of English and Spanish speaking, which together gives Gibraltar its own type of language. You do get the feeling, that the Spanish do not enjoy the English company, every where you go here.
As for sightseeing, if you do not want to take a shared taxi around the Rock for F6314 each, go to the end of the high street and catch the cable car for F636.50. A long wait but well worth it, brilliant views and very cool monkey's. Once at the top, we could at last see, 'Africa'.
We ended the day by telling the taxi driver how to get back to the campsite and met up with a sleepy Slade. After a very chilly swim in the sea, we settled in for the night, with half a ton of fly's and the neighbors that never sleep. Next stop Morocco.
We decided to catch the ferry from Algerians to Ceuta, Spanish enclave on the Moroccan coast. We had planned to get the slow ferry but apparently these do not run any more. So, we had to get the fast ferry, which takes 45 minutes and was pretty pricey. The vehicle cost 96.30 euros as we were a car with a roof rack, so we were told and it was 17.25 per person. An expensive ferry trip to say the least but very posh.
To get to the border, bear left out of the port, as the signs are non existent as this can be confusing. As we arrived at the border, we were offered a few dodgy substances but gallantly drove on following the frantically waving and whistle blowing officials. We parked up to discover Sid had sprung a leak, after consuming too much duty free fuel. Slade dived underneath with a small cup, for Sid to alleviate himself into, before siphoning off twenty litres of fuel, watched by bemused customs. In the mean time Krissy and Tubbs started the rig moral of the paperwork. There are about ten windows to choose from, on which there is no logical order. We started at window 4 and 5, to get our Moroccan visa, this involves filling out a yellow or white embarkation form. Then you hang around in the crowd for about ten minutes, while your visa is being processed.
Onto the next window, where we were told to register the vehicle but we needed insurance, which was the grey card, which was another window. By the time we had exchange our monies and paid for the very expensive insurance (one month insurance will set you back 840 dinars about F6350), we thought we had finished the paperwork but no, we were wrong. On reaching the officials at the border, we were told one of the forms was lacking the all important stamp. So, back we go to get the final stamp and an hour later we eventually crossed the border, hurrah, we're in Morocco.