Morocco - Moulay Bousselham

Nicky:  Destination Morocco today, we woke at 7am on Sunday morning, and headed to the ferry terminal at 8am, ready for the 10am ferry.  We weren't sure what time we needed to be at the terminal so thought we would be on the safe side and arrive early.  And we were first in line for the ferry!  There were no lanes for us to line up in, so it was a little confusing, especially as they were loading another ferry as we reached the dock.  A while later we were able to board.  The ferry was large and it wasn't busy.  Surprisingly (considering how many we were parked with the night before) we only saw 2 or 3 other motorhomes board with us.  The ferry left about 20 minutes late, but made up some time.  Our first task to complete once we boarded was to hand in our immigration cards and to get our passports stamped.  We waited for the line to die down and then joined in.  I was a little worried whether we had filled it in the form correctly, but we were fine.  We spent the rest of the journey on the outside deck and inside in the lounge.

We must have arrived about midday, but I was too focused on the knot in my stomach to know the time.  We left the ferry without incident, stopping for the Police to check we had our passports stamped, and continued on to the vehicle importation part of the process.  We had completed a 3 part form before boarding, which the Police signed and took a copy of.  We waited for a while, then a Customs man poked his head into the van, asked if we had any guns and bid us farewell.  What was also of interest at this point was the number of loaded up vehicles.  We had two couples in a small car next to us, obviously going on the camping holiday as we could only just make out the two in the back behind sleeping mats and pillows.  On the other side was a vehicle loaded up on top and inside, which was sitting so low, he could have been driving on his rims.  He precariously passed us later on the motorway.  The Tanger Med port we used, is a new port and we thought very efficiently run.  There are no touts offering help inside the port, which is great as we found the whole process able to be done without this assistance anyway.

We had exchanged some euros into dirhams when we bought our tickets in Spain but needed some more cash, so Dale used the ATM just outside the port.  Here I felt a bit uneasy, and there was a tout that followed Dale back to the car and then peered at us through one of the vans windows until I shut the curtain on him.  We then quickly hit the road to be away from that.  Another benefit of Tanger Med port is that it comes right out onto the motorway.  The motorway is a two laned European standard road which is comforting when you have just arrived.

We had a few destinations in mind, but we settled on the town of Moulay Bousselham.  Leading up to our trip we had read online blogs and had written down useful advice, especially recommended campsites.  We drove about 2-3 hours along the toll motorway to Moulay Bousselham, stopping for petrol and lunch (at the petrol station- no beggars/touts yay) on the way.  The petrol was pumped for us and we paid direct to the attendant, not in the shop.

Moulay Bousselham is a charming village set on a lagoon, known for bird watching.  Local fisherman go out in boats, and there is restaurants lining the street up on the hill overlooking the lagoon.  There are two campsites there.  We chose the one right on the lagoon.  The owner was very friendly, and charged 80 dirhams (7.10 euro) a night.  By mid afternoon all the lagoon side spots were taken, so we parked hoping to pick up the wifi signal from the restaurant instead!

We crashed that night and spent the next 2 days relaxing.  The following day several vans left and we moved to a lagoon side spot.  An Austrian couple moved next to us, they were on their way back home after spending several weeks in Morocco.  We also met two British couples:  Helen and Tony, who have lived previously in Africa and hope to spend up to 4-5 months in Morocco, and Jane and Ian, from Devon who will spend around 3 months here.  We had planned to make our stay 2 nights, but after a drinks invitation we decided, why not? lets stay another night, as I don't think either of us were ready to leave.

Another highlight of Moulay Bousselham was our birdwatching trip out on the lagoon.  Many guides and sellers frequent the campsite or the fence that borders the lagoon and campsite, and Dale talked to Hassan one morning about going out on the water.  Hassan has been guiding since the late nineties and has very good English, he also knows what he is talking about when it comes to birds.  We decided on 100 dirhams (8.90 euros) for an hour, which quickly turned into two, when Hassan assured us we wouldn't be able to see all the birds in one hour (suckers, but he was right)!  It was an enjoyable trip seeing the birds, spending time on the lagoon and learning a little about Hassan's life.  During our stay we also visited the town, which is accessed by a large set of steps up from the campsite.  The main street is lined with cafes and restaurants and everyone was haggling for our business.  We thought a small town like this was probably a good place to get used to this aspect of the culture here, but in the week that followed it turned out we were approached the most in Moulay Bousselham.