We had a list of things we needed to accomplish. First stop was at a motorhome service point along the way, but it was quite busy with other motorhomes. We waited and watched for ten minutes or so, but the people using it weren't moving too fast and it looked like it was going to take a while.
Next stop was a fuel station that also had motorhome service facilities. They were pretty basic, but it did the job and Max now has empty holding tanks, and a full fresh water tank to start our trip to Morocco on Monday.
A lot of storks in this area!
More storks.
Then we drove into the outskirts of Algeciras to a section where there are a lot of big box stores, and ample parking for motorhomes, many of which spend the night because it's so convenient. It's also the location where the cheapest ferry tickets to Morocco are sold.
We went into a huge Carrefour super store. We've been wanting to buy good quality rechargeable headlamps for a long time now, and we want them for our trip to Mauritania.
A little pricey, but we bought two of them.
We walked over to a huge Decathlon sporting goods store as well. Was it ever busy! For our train ride in Mauritania, it is recommended to wear some kind of eye protection because of the dust and sand. Some people buy skiing goggles, but we ended up with swimming goggles because we figured we might actually use them in the future. Not as likely with ski goggles. Wait until you see what we will look like riding that train! It will be hilarious.
By now it was lunchtime and we went back to Max for something to eat. After lunch we walked over to the ferry ticket place but it was quite busy with a lineup, so we decided to do some grocery shopping first.
This Carrefour store had a huge gluten free section!
We returned to the ferry ticket place and the lineup was about the same. No choice but to wait with them. They were all people from France except for one young guy from Germany. Morocco is very popular with French motorhomers because it used to be a French colony and French is the second language in Morocco next to Arabic.
It took about 45 minutes.
Our turn next!
The tickets cost €310 ($444 CAD, $330 USD) for Max and two adults from Algeciras to Tanger Med. They are open return tickets, meaning that they are valid to and from at any time for a period of one year.
We could have got Algeciras to Ceuta for €280, but I had read that the customs processing is much more efficient at the Tanger Med port.
Our tickets to Morocco.
When you go to Carlos the ticket guy, you get free wine and cookies!
We then went over to the Mercadona to stock up on our favorite cheap wine.
There are a lot of motorhomes here!
Max, parked as far away from the others as possible.
One of two of them even had portable generators running.
It was actually a really quiet night though.
Today we only have to get some more euros cash for emergency, get the laundry done and fill the LPG (propane) tanks.
Then tomorrow morning, the Morocco adventure begins!
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Nice deal on these Fridge Organizers.
And in Canada...
I can't wait! Those headlamps looked very reasonably priced to me, at least by US standards. Seems like I paid about $75 for mine years ago at REI. It's a really good one, though, and still works many years later. We enjoyed going to the Decathlon store in Merida, Yucatan numerous times, and I wear have a couple of things I bought there on the cheap (yoga pants, jacket, etc.). Best purchase was a rechargeable camp lantern we bought to use during the numerous power outages at the beach north of the city, where we lived. Really looking forward to your adventures going forward!
ReplyDeleteThe headlamps were reasonably priced but they certainly aren't good quality ones but they should do the trick and hopefully last for a few years with any luck. I don't think that we were ever aware of any Decathlon stores in Mexico but then again, we really didn't spend a lot of time in the big cities in Mexico and if we did, we rarely were out shopping. They have a lot of these stores here in Europe and they are really big, similar to REI. I tired to get Kevin to buy a pair of hiking pants there but he wasn't in the mood for trying on clothes.
DeleteI think we are going to have some interesting adventures over the next few months, we can't wait to write about them. :-)
How cool to see all those motorhomes in the header pic!
ReplyDeleteAnd, that was only a small portion of the motorhomes parked up in the parking lot!
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