Day 5 Marrakech

Nice easy day today with a lie in and breakfast in the hotel. We loaded up the car and had a trip round Casablanca stopping at the very impressive Hassan II Mosque to take some pictures. From there we headed on down the road to Marrakech stopping for fuel and a cuppa on route. We are now at the Villa Dinari on the outskirts of the city. Nora found it on the internet and booked us in one of the bungalows in the gardens. We are now based here for new year until the second of January. The plan is to have a few days exploring the city and also have a drive up into the Atlas Mountains. I will be glad to finally sort the back of the car out a bit neater  tomorrow. Having dinner here tonight and looking forward to a peaceful nights sleep!

Day 4 Casablanca

It seems a long time since the alarm went off at six this morning. We  loaded the car and headed off with five of the other cars that are heading to Bamako the short drive to the port of Tarifa. From there we caught the fast ferry over to Tangier. In hindsight I would probably get the slow ferry next time as by the time I queued for the passport control on the boat the thirty minute crossing was over and it would of been nice to have been out on deck to have seen some of the crossing. Once off the boat the customs bit was fairly easy with the longest bit being the queue for car insurance outside the port. From there we filled up with some cheaper petrol at last and headed on the road to Rabat. We left the others on route as they were racing to the Mauritanian Embassy in Rabat to try and get their visas before new year but we slowed up as we will apply for ours on the second of January. The temperature has now hit high enough for me to break out my sun hat and sun cream and Nora to discover the aircon is broke! I am guessing it's somewhere  in the seventies now with my face changing from a pasty white to a glowing red. We are starting to feel the change as we past our first camels wandering near the side of the road and as we headed into Casablanca the city driving is more like dodgem car driving at the fair. It was nice to see in the half hour of mad rush hour driving the odd courteous driver letting you in with a smile. Nora picked a hotel out of the lonely planet guide and it was only as we pulled up outside I realized it is the same hotel I stayed in eight years ago when I was here working. After a quick wash we had a walk along the promenade to an Italian restaurant on the beach for a bite to eat soaking up the luxuries before they run out somewhere near the Mauritanian border. Easy day tomorrow at last.
*slightly drunk grin*

Day 3 Tarifa

We left Valencia at eight this morning and followed the coast down past Benidorm, Alicante, Almeria and Malaga and stopped in Marbella to find a chemist and supermarket. From there we headed the thirty odd miles to join the queue into Gibralter for a quick drive around and stop at the bank. We are now in the hotel near Tarifa at the bottom of Spain about five miles from the Moroccon ferry with about eight or so of the other teams that are mostly heading for Bamako. After getting the room sorted I had a chat with some of the guys who plan to leave for the ferry at seven thirty and bolt for Rabat to try and sort their Mauritanian visas before new year. We are going to head for Marakesh for three or four days over new year then head back up to Rabat for two days to sort the visa then meeting up with them later near Dakla in Western Sahara to join them through the desert of Mauritania. Well that's the plan anyway. I am getting excited thinking about where we will be a week from now. First proper border tomorrow so just hope we don't have to empty the car but at least it may end up a bit tidier than it is now! :^)

Day 2 Valencia

Long day today which started with good intentions at six am but somehow ended up getting on the road at seven thirty. The jeep is still a mess behind the front seats with some of it spilling into the front if I hit the brakes too hard. France sped by courtesy of some empty roads on our detour via the Millau Viaduct. We reached there and stopped at the car park on the north side only to find out all you can see of it from there is a hill obscuring the view of the bridge and only the flashing beacon at top of the first pylon in view but a full view of  the museum and gift shop Mmmmm. After a cuppa we decided to crack on. I tried my little video camera filming the drive over with mixed results. The bridge itself is more impressive driving up to and from a distance than on it. From there a few hours later we crossed into Spain and we have stuck to the east coast down to Valencia. We seemed to have left behind the snow and fog in France with the car heater coming off the MAX mark on the heat scale for the first time. We had planned to stop in the city but after a wrong turn ended up in their fairy deserted technology park with selection of hotels and restaurants. Fifty five euros later we are in a nice four star hotel with secure parking and an Argentinean restaurant across the road that opens at nine pm. Result. Today we made up a little time from the delays yesterday so we hope to make the five hundered miles to the Tarifa hotel by tomorrow night.
*Grin followed by a yawn*

Day 1 Orleans

End of day one and all went fairly well. We are a little south of Paris in a motel next to the town of Orleans. The day started well getting to the Eurotunnel for half nine to find out they were running a few hours late. Once over we had a clear run to Paris then a bit of slow traffic for an hour or so round it and out the other side a bit. We have stopped earlier than planned as I am knackered after the Christmas run around and only a few hours sleep last night after loading the jeep with a rather untidy catapult!
The French don't seem to do tea and coffee in the hotel room so after a quick trip down and back to the motor we had a nice cuppa tea brewed up on the gas stove with the camping kettle.
Planning an early start tomorrow and do a bit of mile munching so we can have a bit of time in Tarifa before the Moroccan ferry to sort the contents of the jeep out a bit neater, so early night
*big grin*

0 days to go!

That's it we are packing the car ready for an early leave today. I think everything is in place if not hey ho it's too late now to worry about it. Passport, keys and wallet everything else we should be able to sort on the way. We both just want to get on the way now next stop hopefully somewhere in the south of France!

What could possibly go wrong!

T-5 days to go
Well we have 5 days left before we leave and we still have no v5 log book through and the Green Card insurance came through with Morocco deleted from the list of countries after a 40 minute call saying the word Morocco about 20 times. Grrrrr.
That's the bad news and the good news is I went looking last week for a hi lift air bag jack for the car and after a couple of places I ended up finding 'Surrey Off Road' not far from  the Top Gear track in Dunsfold. As I drove in there was about half of their car park full of Jeep Cherokees. It's a family business run by a really nice and knowledgeable bloke Chris. After a brief chat he kindly squeezed me in for a basic service and a look over to see if there was anything imminently about to go bang!
So I picked her up tonight and much to my delight Chris tells me I have been very lucky and bought a bargain that is a good clean example that has been well maintained through it's long life. Apart from a basic plugs, filters and oil service all he had else to do was to change an £18 oil seal that was the source of an annoying oil leak and tighten up the handbrake and the prop shaft joint. Result. As a bonus all the tyres were all in a sorry 'if not illegal' state but again Chris had in his Cherokee graveyard 5 steel wheels with 4 brand new budget tyres that came off a not so lucky Cherokee owner whose engine went bang a few hundred miles after fitting the new tyres. Again result.
I am now about to head off on the usual round robin Christmas trip to up Glasgow, Fort William and Birmingham to see family and friends for a few days before heading off on Boxing day with a 0930 checkin at the hopefully running Eurotunnel.
Oh and I still don't have a jack yet!
*Grin*

Getting there

T-12 days to go
Had a few days off work so I managed to sort the gear out a bit more into crates that slide into the back of the the car. Hopefully it should work OK with everything a bit easier to hand. I also spent a mind numbing amout of hours punching in some waypoints into my GPS for the three days crossing the dunes in Mauritania. That is definatly the highlight of the trip for me though I'm not so sure about Nora! I also managed to pick up a few more bits for the trip like a second spare wheel from a breakers yard in Chobham and a new bigger tent from a tent supermarket near Farnham. Next on the list was getting cover from my car insurance company for Morocco which I only found out from the internet that some companies offer Green Card cover for even though it's not in the EU. £31.00 and 40 minutes of my life later listening to really bad elevator music I'm covered.
Nora has found a nice place in Marakesh to stay for three nights over new year before we have to break the tent out further south. It's a villa on the outskirts on the east side towards the Atlas mountains called the Villa Dinari run by an English woman and her husband.
Two nagging things left are Nora has been pushed piller to post trying to get her new passport by the Glasgow Passport Office she has now ended up going to the Liverpool Passport Office tomorrow morning to get it processed in time! then while sorting out the insurance today I looked at the piece of the car ownership document, the green V5 New Keeper slip that the car trader gave to me which is supposed to have my details on it but he has filled out his name and address, mmmmmm! So I am guessing that the new V5 is heading his way with his details on it. Bugger!
*stuggling a bit and only managing a small grin*

Running out of time!

T-16 days
Prep is going fairly well considering we have done next to nothing for the last six months. The Channel Tunnel is now booked for 10 am Boxing day and in the past few days I have managed to get some more bits and pieces for the trip including a good quality tyre inflator, a pair of sand ladders, a couple of jerrycans and 10 boxes of army 24 hour ration packs. The ration packs are great they come a variety of main meals, deserts, biscuits, tea, coffee, biscuits, chocolate, chewing gum, matches, water purification tablets for about £7 each and all pack into a small box. Well worth the space they take up.
I paid a trip to the Twickenham Travel Clinic and managed to get up to date with my vaccinations with a Hepatitis A and B booster and Yellow fever jab. With them I also got 2 months supply Anti Malaria tablets and a sterile pack of syringes, needles and drip lines which we hope never to use. All that for a wallet busting £180 and the joy of getting to feel groggy for the next couple of days with the Yellow Fever jab!
Nora has had her Hepatitis Booster but has to go to back to finish her jabs. More worryingly she has to get a new passport before we go which her appointment has been cancelled twice so far because of the bad weather.
That makes left on the list to track down are a couple of spare wheels, some basic engine spares and a couple of shovels.
Just over two weeks to go but that's not really the case as we have the usual Tommy and Nora 1500 mile round trip to see family and friends at Christmas starting in just 12 days time *tense but ever present grin*

Picked up the car

T-19 days
Rigby gave me a lift up to Chesham yesterday to pick up the car. Nav took the cash and handed me the keys and I left back for Shepperton. As soon as I started it the fuel light was on, you have got love car traders, I headed to the nearest station to fill £80 of unleaded in her. Once on the M25 I set the cruise control at 70 and much to my surprise she sat there very quiet and smooth, steering with two fingers.
I picked Nora up at the house and we took a trip to Go Outdoors in Baisingstoke to pick up some bits for the trip. We got a couple of cheap chairs and a table which we can leave behind and some fuel for the stove. We then went over to their tent display having a laugh trying the tents fo size which then turned into a heated discussion about which one.
From there we went to Halfords for some wiper blades then back up the M3. I filled up once back and worked out she was doing about 22 to the gallon taking it easy. Ouch, 4000 divided by 22 equals lutts and lutts of money.
*grimace breaking back into a grin*

We have found a car!

T-24 days to go. As the heading says we have. After lots of looking on eBay Autotrader Loot Gumtree and whatever else the internet could turn up.  With the date getting closer and we still had not found a suitable car I had resigned to the fact that we were going to take a rather tired Subaru Legacy I had found a few weeks earlier. I had test driven it and it seemed quite low on power considering it was empty. It also seemed just a bit on the loose side and had opted to keep it as a reserve if nothing else turned up. The price he was asking made me feel sure he would still have it then.
So I was working late Monday night and had left my phone on charge on silent. When I looked at it it had 24 missed calls from Nora. Thinking the worst I rang her in a panic for her to tell me excitedly she had found a Jeep Cherokee that had just come on autotrader. She phoned him and as she was the first caller he allowed us first refusal on it.
So last night I ended up going up to view it with my friend Dan from work who used to work in the car trade. On arrival doing the usual look over it was a 1995 green Jeep Cherokee bought in America bought by a man who shipped it over to Wales in 1999. It had been UK registered since and came with a stack of old MOT's and some bills for recent work on the brakes and suspension. We then took it for a test drive and it was 'exactly what it said on the tin' a 15 year old motor with a big lump of an engine with no rattles that steered straight and had a slick and very rare manual gearbox tied to a quiet rear diff.  It was everything we were looking for.  After a haggle he agreed to put a new MOT on it and 6 months tax I agreed a price and left a deposit. *getting bigger by the day grin*

52 days to go.......aghh!

T-52 days - Time has marched on this year and we have not done a lot as far as organising goes. I've been away from home a lot and work has been really busy which has been good for lots of other things but it's time for me to pull my finger out and get on with it. I haven't managed to find a suitable left hand drive motor and as December leaving date is only next month I am sure that any on eBay will be getting bid up by some of our fellow travellers. So that in mind I have been advised Germany is a good place to source one, and with their MOT being much stricter hopefully finding a cheap reliable one will be a little easier. Questions I still have is do we keep it on German plates and if so how to insure and have owner documents in my name and address? Mmmm. The more I read visas are not something I can sort out before leaving so at least I can spend most of our remaining time sorting out the vehicle! How hard can it be! *grin*
Sent from phone

Deciding on a route!

May not be the best way to choose a route in hindsight

It all starts somewhere!

T minus 193 days - After returning from Mongolia last August in one piece and feeling pretty dam good It didn't take long for the chain of thought to think "where next?" Working out that a month would be the limit on time for the next trip it doesn't leave a lot of options. North would be great up into Scandinavia but expensive and have to be summer time (not good for work). South seemed more interesting (and cheaper!) While reading tinterweb in the prep for Mongolia I read many tales of Julian's original rally the Plymouth-Banjul and quite a few people who had got the bug for more after completing it. George and I had a talk and decided that Africa would be the destination for another little trip. We looked at the options for a four week trip and they were either West to Banjul, Centre to Benin or East to Kenya. George set the date for 1.2.12 and thoughts were if it is stable politically we would go for the Italy - Scilly - Tunisia - Algeria - Trans Saharan Highway - Niger - Benin ending in Gran Popo on the Atlantic coast. OK sorted only 700 days to go.
So I am at home and the subject of holidays came up with Nora for this winter. We both enjoy snow sports so were talking about options, then it turned to a fly drive holiday maybe California, then driving to Scandinavia in the car which we both have wanted to do for a long time, back to money again, Next thing it was Morocco and now it's the Plymouth Banjul leaving Boxing day 2010. Nora really wanted to come to Mongolia last year and loves going on driving trips. As they say that was where it all started.
We have now officially entered and are on the look for the a car which maybe a little harder than we first thought. The main and most important sticking point is it has to be left hand drive. Looking on Autotrader is pretty limited so we will have to keep checking other avenues. This blog will be pretty scarce over the next 6 months but we plan to update it every day of the trip once we get on the road. Andy *Big Grin*