Gassing in Agadir

Tues 16th Dec

After a shower, which would pass even Ant camping Ahmed's standards of cleanliness (clean toilets and showers have become my biggest luxury) we leave by mid day. Neither of us wanted to, the sky was blue and the sun shining strongly enough for shorts and vests, a day sat about here would have been no hardship at all. However, we have a practical need - gas. Sourcing gas for cooking is not as straight forward as it ought to be, our English cylinder is finished and for reasons beyond me, gas, connectors and regulators are not universal. Even the colours of the cylinders, identifying the type of gas inside differs, so what we expect of a red or blue cylinder is not so.

Before leaving Turkey, we purchased a small Turkish type cylinder. It has only been Richard's know how, that has enabled us to us it. Now in Morocco neither English or Turkish types are available, added to this is that Fay's petite rear end reduces our options further; a fat bottle just won't fit!

Yesterday, we found a gas man who is prepared to refill our English cylinder but he can't do it until tomorrow. He tells us to meet him at a certain campsite in Agadir at 11am on Wednesday. So we remain is this area today. It has been a while since we had a day on a beach, luckily it is a warm, sunny day.

Mid afternoon sees us pull into the type of site we would never ordinarily frequent. It is packed, with little more room between vans than a supermarket carpark. The toilets and showers are barely fit for purpose. There is only one "sit upon" in the ladies; it doesn't flush and the door does not even close, let alone lock. Yet for some totally mystifying reason this site is full of "long termers," that is to say, retired Europeans in large motorhomes, staying here for the winter. Why???

The site is close to the centre of Agadir. To relieve the claustrophobia of the site we take a walk along the prom. Agadir is much more euro tourist friendly, there isn't the same edginess of the other places we have been. So for the long termers, Agadir provides a more comfortable atmosphere, less language issues, warm sunshine and a lovely long beach. I still don't understand the choice of campsite though?

Having decided to eat out, we peruse the menus of the many restaurants on the prom, then I spot a sign further along: Pakistani restaurant it says. Usually, we try to eat the food of what ever country we are in but it has been nearly there months now, since we left Pakistan and as the many good memories of our time there start to dim the not so good ones, we opt for a curry tonight. It was, of course, nothing like the food we had in Pakistan though the waiter did tell us he had a Hindi chef. (Not that there are many Hindis in Pakistan) None the less, we made a toast to Karim, our valiant guide for three weeks, and reminisced over our time in his country. When next we email Karim, we shall tell him of the evening we spent watching a Moroccan sunset whilst our minds were much further east.



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