Greetings from friendly Morocco! We took the ferry from Algeciras to Tangier a week ago and had a warm welcome through the border. Then, a beautiful Spring drive through the Rif mountains to the town of Chefchaouen, the “blue pearl” of Morocco named for its blue-washed walls. It felt great to finally see this place that’s been on my mental list for quite a while now and we had such a nice time there. We stayed at a campground above the town that had great views and was very quiet at night and then there was a nice stone pathway downhill through the walls and into the tight corridors of the town. It had a peaceful vibe and loads of cats striking cute poses in every corner. Tons of color, pretty artwork, scents of good food and nice places to just sit a minute and take it all in. We went out to dinner for Moroccan cuisine both nights trying out new foods and desserts. The Kefta dish has a flavorful tomato and cumin base, then meatballs topped with a poached egg. Better than the usual tagine in our opinion. Back at the campground, we always had cats to pat and even a few baby goats. They would come by and eat all the flowers. For the first time in forever, we could sit outside with the sun on our faces and have a beer. Everyone has been so friendly to us.
We did a nice 12 mile hike way up into the mountains above the campground on a 4×4 road to find about 6 inches of fresh snow near the mountain pass. It was great to be out and a good workout and we met a few friendly locals and a bunch of wild, Barbary apes along the way. So nice to see them doing their own thing rather than chasing us. It was good to get back down to the warmth of lower elevations for the night.
We moved on after a couple of days to work our way south but I guess I have a few weeks to back up to first….. here are the highlights:
On our last day in Porto, Portugal, it was of course pouring rain but we had a plan to visit the Pinhais Sardine factory so that would keep us mostly out of the rain. Let’s see what do I remember from that tour? It was a really nice thorough tour that started in the old offices of the two brothers who started the factory back in 1920. After we were all garbed up, we could enter the factory and go through each step to get a can of sardines ready to sell. It starts a km away down at the docks where the fish are selected & purchased. Then, each morning, they are brought in and put into a brine briefly that helps make them firmer for handling. Then, they are washed and sorted on large, original marble tables. Then they are placed in metal racks and partially cooked. They come back out and enter the line where the staff (mainly ladies) have prepared the seasonings for whatever they are canning that day such as tomato sauce. On the line, they gut and trim the fish, pack them in the cans, then they are filled with olive oil, inspected for quality control, lids put on, washed, cooked again, then cooled. Then they are wrapped and labeled by hand (we got to practice this) and packaged on pallets like gold bars where they rest for at least 90 days, before being mainly exported as a premium brand of sardine- Nuri. The ones that stay in Portugal are the same but the name is Pinhais. You can even buy ones that have been aged for 2 years (??!!) I guess they are like a fine wine.. haha! It was all very interesting and we of course like sardines so it was a win. I thought of my Dad who has been a lifelong sardine-a-holic and so I got him a shiny Pinhais sardine fork to do them justice. The tour ended in a pretty room with a lovely table set up with sardines and bread. We got to try the tomato based ones as well as the olive oil. We learned that while you would think that they would use extra virgin oil and want that flavor, they actually don’t. They want the olive oil as neutral as possible so as not to impart any off flavors to the sardines while in the can.
Back out into the rain, we decided we had had enough and were desperate to get to better weather for my birthday so we started driving south to Portugal’s Algarve where many Europeans spend the winter. We hadn’t planned on driving that far south but suddenly, it made sense from a sanity standpoint and in the end, we were glad we did. There were places we wanted to stop along the way such as the famous huge surf wave at Navare but in the rain and coastal fog it would have been a waste of time. Instead, we drove through damaged areas with tons of downed trees & flooding. It didn’t impact us in our truck but we could see that the locals were suffering and whole agricultural fields were ruined. It has been in the news for months now so we expected it.
We arrived to the Algarve region the following day and while it was still foggy, it at least wasn’t actively raining and by the end of the next day, the skies cleared and we could see more of the colors of the rock formations that were were supposed to be seeing. It was nice to be out walking along the cliffs and smelling the ocean. We did some reminiscing over the fact that we were in this area on our sailboat back in 2017 and we used our inflatable dinghy to tour the rock formations from the sea rather than atop the cliffs. Both have their benefits.
My birthday was a sparkler and we were out all day hiking in the Rio Formosa area on a lovely path full of flowers. It was another long boardwalk in parts. We parked right next to the path in a pretty lot not far from the beach. Not a bad way to ring in 57. I felt very happy and I realize that it doesn’t take much to make me happy. Being with my VIP, outside in the natural environment, hopefully someplace new, getting exercise and yes, the sun!!!! Top it off with a nice dinner and a bottle of champagne with homemade cake and the day was a 10.
Many of our friends are travelers too and it isn’t unusual to meet up on different shores. And so it was that the last time we saw Mark & Liesbet was in Paraguay, but then this time it was Faro, Portugal! We both completed our tour of South America within months of each other and now they are back to Europe touring in the same area so it was easy to meet up and spend 2 days together. We walked the beach, hiked over the cliffs looking at more of the famous sandstone formations, had a picnic in the sun & sand (yay!) and had a nice dinner out. They are wonderful friends and we can’t wait to meet up again.
We spent one more day in Algarve to do the Luz to Lagos coastal trail. Then it was time to head north to Lisbon because we had made plans to make a 2 week trip back to the US to visit our parents.
We stopped in a town along the way to stay the night and of course they had one of Portugal’s famous boardwalks!
We found a nice place to store our truck at Tecnocamper near Sintra. We always dread leaving home and worry that something will happen to it but so far so good. Because of the distance to the airport and the time of our flight, we had to stay in a hotel the night before and renting a car was the easiest option. We’re back to cheap car rentals in this part of Europe. Total cost to rent a car for 24hrs? $11. In the end though, our hotel was so close to the airport we actually returned the car after storing the truck and moving our bags and just walked to the airport the next morning. It felt free and easy.
We had a good visit with our family. We made the triangle of Florida to Vermont and back to Lisbon. The weather was refreshingly good compared to what we’d been enduring. It’s nice to hang out together and talk about old times, cook nice food together and try to help out where we can. Mariette’s dog KL got lots of pats, we celebrated my mom and my birthday’s late with a cake. I got to see my sister Ann and Bruce too. We are forever torn with living our lives as we want to and feeling the distance that living this way requires. Thankfully, planes can bring you closer. It is a bit grueling at times but we recover. We returned to the truck with the usual checked bags of spare parts and food that we can’t get over here. Remember we had to ship the truck from Uruguay with no food whatsoever. Oh and we got a new BBQ. We now have a new Cuisinart grill to replace the marine one we had that never got hot. And via ferrata gear. We’ve wanted to get into it for a long time and now that we’re in Europe, we can get going with it. Everything made it back to Lisbon except the Trader Joe’s Ranch seasoning. TSA treated it like an explosive when it set off the scanner. It was confiscated and Jon got a super duper search of the rest of his luggage and his body. They really weren’t very nice.
It felt good to be back home. We wasted no time getting going since when you’re in Europe, the visa rules require that you only stay 90 days out of every 180. And we can’t expect any kind of leniency with the rules as we encountered when we were sailing Evergreen here in 2017. You can’t expect kindness when your country doesn’t spread it. That means we have to make every day count even if we’re in a jetlagged stupor. So we got all unpacked and restocked that day and then hit the road the following morning stopping in the cute little town of Aracena to get some exercise and to visit a lovely cave.
The Maravilla Cave complex is full of spectacular formations and blue pools which are unusual in what we’ve seen in the past. These pools still provide the town with water. Over top of them is a castle ruin with a historical museum and then the old cistern building has been turned into a geological museum. We spent the morning visiting these places and then drove some more for the final push to get close to Algeciras. After a run that morning along a nice path along a river, we spent a few hours at one shopping center getting everything we needed for Morocco from truck parts to groceries before parking at our old marina Alcaidesa, next to Gibraltar. It was funny because the shopping center parking lot was full of other RV”s doing the same. You want to bring all you can with you so that you can have the things you like and need. It felt really weird to be at the same marina again because we remember the RV’s from when we were there in 2017 on Evergreen. It wasn’t super warm but we could at least sit outside for happy hour and that felt good. I’ve been going back to my old Sailblogs write-ups recently to try and remember what we’ve done and where and it’s funny how fuzzy it gets. But looking brings all the memories back.
As we had the ferry to Tangier booked for Monday, we spent Sunday walking around Gibraltar. From the marina, you just walk across the runway until you get to the casual border crossing. It was as we remember it, a big rock that’s been well used over eons and it does bear the scars of that use. It was a beautiful day and we didn’t feel like touring the tunnels again but wanted to walk up high to the Mediterranean steps but that whole area is covered under one big entrance fee now. So we stayed low and walked to Europa Point passing through the Botanical Gardens where my sister left some of my brother’s ashes when she passed through on her boat years ago. She felt moved to do it there as I felt moved to drop some in the ocean as we were sailing past Cuba one night on our way to the Yucatan. It is a comforting way to handle the loss of someone you love, in my opinion.
It was exciting to cross to Morocco on the ferry because we’ve anticipated it for a long time. The time we spent here on Evergreen was great but there is so much more to see and what better way than in a camper! It is neat to travel a little less “vanilla” for a bit. Europe is really cool & fun, comfortable & predictable- vanilla. But other places, like the depths of a Moroccan medina or age old mountain villages that are almost frozen in time are a little more raw and evoke a little more emotion. More of the world lives that way than not. I like vanilla, but the flavors with chunks in them are really good too because they give you something to chew on.
More about Morocco in the next episode!
