Rain Rain Go Away.

We drove down to the South of France to try and hunt out some waves and some sunshine and so far we haven't had much luck! We have been gobbling up some yummy cereal though.

I like to mix these two together. The one on the left has dark chocolate in it and the one on the right has strawberries. The cereal is clusters of deliciousness! Yum!

Steve getting dressed in our hotel room.

It took us a few days to get down south. When we got to the South Western Coast of France there was a massive storm in action. The sea was heaving and the rain was having a riot. After one freezing and blustery night we decided to abandon France and try our luck in Spain where the accommodation was hopefully cheeper and the waves and wind more favorable. night  Below is a little town we drove through in Spain. 

Here is Steve with our cool new car.

We drove around the coast heading West until we reached Mundaka. Here is Steve contemplating the surf. Unfortunately in was a a case of "You should have been here this morning." We decided to go camping and tried out our new awesome pop up tent. You just through it up and it's erected! Then chuck a few pegs around the edge and Wala! You have a tent. We also got a cool bed that is an air bed with a cover on it and a duvet type thing that has clips around the edges so Steve can't nick the bedding in the night. Here he is checking the surf at Mundaka.

And here's a bit of Mundaka.

Here's our campsite.

And our tent and bed!

Steve taste-testing tea.

A little bird that came to visit us quite a bit.

The view from the campsite.

We were getting a bit lonely after not really having anyone to talk to for ages and were missing A.J. and Jeff. It's hard when you can't just talk to randoms all the time. And super tricky to switch your brain from French to Spanish when you pretty much can't speak either language at all. We met 2 Auzzies (Nathan and Lisa) there who were camping too so that was cool. After Mundaka we drove back towards France. 

A massive wave breaking on rocks on the way back to France.

A right-hander Steve surfed on the way back to France.

We stopped for a night in Zarutz and camped on the hill. (Remember that campsite Bec, Tim, Chris, and Callan?)

Here I am up on top of the hill.

This is our campsite.

And the next day we drove back to France. We have been hiding from the weather in a little cabin and hanging out with our 2 new Auzzie mates Nathan and Lisa. Steve got drunk with them on Friday night and had a nasty as hangover all day on Saturday. Poor boy. Nathan cooked us up a yummy tea last night. Yum! Roast! And he made the nicest mushroom sauce. Mmmm. It's raining like crazy still so we are thinking of going inland for now and coming back to the coast at the end of our Europe leg. Missing all our friends. Love you guys! xoxo 

Involuntary Midnight (De)Tour of Paris.

Written 19^th April 2012

Last night was horrible! We arrived in Paris okay and after getting a bit lost in the airport (little did we know this was just a taste of what was to come...) we picked up our brand new Renult Sandero. It only had 9km on the speedo. We headed off to the mall to see about buying some replacements for the things that got stolen. We found the mall easy enough and spent the next few hours looking at the different electronics stores and buying a few supplies from the hypermart. (A bit like a really massive Warehouse but with a full supermarket inside too.) Then the trouble began. While we were in the mall it had begun to get dark and it was also pouring with rain. We knew the hotel we wanted to stay at was not far from where we were but were not sure of the direct rout. In hindsight we should have kept driving round and round the roundabout until we got clear on which direction to take and then headed back to the airport to start from there. I'm not sure where we went wrong but we drove for ages and ages through confusing streets that we could not see the markings on properly because of the lights reflecting on the rain soaked streets. There were hundreds of silly lights to stop at that let people cross pedestrian crossings but there were no people about. (our system where the pedestrian presses the button to activate the lights is much better!!!) We were hopping on motorways and getting off then on to others. All the roads seemed to be twisting around each other and changing directions. We became thoroughly lost and disorientated. Eventually we stopped and went into a restaurant to ask for help. I took my map of Paris (which had not been helpful before as the airport area is off the map) and asked the lady where we were on the map. She said we were not on the map still. We had driven from the north east of Paris to the south east of Paris. We were exhausted and asked if there was a hotel nearby. She directed us to one and we made it there successfully. In we went and I asked if the haughty lady on reception spoke English – She didn't. She began speaking rapidly in French at me. I stared at her in incomprehension. Steve had found a price list and it was twice as expensive as the hotel we had planned to stay at. The lady was still speaking at me. Then angrily she said something like “Why do you come to France if you can't even speak French!” or at least that was the understanding I got from the few words I could understand and the tone of words and body language. So we left that hotel and began driving around searching for another one. We had no luck. Finally we found a hotel that was super expensive. I asked the man “Where is a youth hostel” in French. He was not sure but helpfully found us one in the general vicinity and printed us off a map. Away we went on foot. We found it. It was massive. All Full. Great, we went back to the man's hotle and he let us use his internet. We found a hostel nearby that had room (it said – on hostleworld ) so he printed the map for us and we headed off there. He was such a nice helpful man! We made it to the hostel. All the hundreds of rooms were full!!! We were getting desperate. We were so SO tired. We were near the Periferique (the motorway that rings around Paris.) So we thought if we got on it we would be able to find our way to our old skanky Formula 1 Hotel which was starting to look like heaven. We got on there and did find a Formula 1 Hotel that was near our other one but much bigger. I went inside. ALL FULL!!! We were gutted. Why is Paris so popular on a random Wednesday? So and the hotel next door was full too. I asked if our old hotel was full. Yes. Full. He showed me on a map all the ones he knew were full but said he was not sure about the others. We decided our best bet would be to hop back on the Periferique and head south to get on the A6 which had a whole lot of Formula 1s and just keep driving until we found one. It would have been a good plan if not for one thing. A little while along the Periferique it was suddenly closed and we had to get off. There were 2 detour signs to follow and then no more. We would get a bit lost, find a sign leading to the A6, follow it, and end up at an entrance to the Periferique that was blocked off. This happened again and again. We didn't want to abandon our plan as we had no other one. We saw the Arc De Triomph and a bunch of other bits of Paris. Eventually after being rejected from an entrance to the Periferique once again we found ourselves driving up to the feet of the Eiffel Tower – a dark silhouette against the city glow of the night sky. We crossed the bridge next to it and carried on our mission. Not long after we ran out of steam. It was about 2.30am. We tried to sleep huddled together for warmth on the front seats of the car. It was not comfortable. It was not warm. But we managed to get a few winks, enough to recharge and carry on. We had a new plan. We would abandon the illusive A6 and drive back to the Airport and try and find our original Formula 1 Hotel where we were going to stay. If they had no rooms for the night of the 18^th (which was nearly over) we would try and book a room for the 19^th and just get some Mc Dee's and use the WiFi there and wait until we could check in at 12pm. We found our way back to the airport motorway fairly easily. And then we spotted a Formula 1 from the motorway. Yay! And we managed to get off and make it there. It was 5am and we had about 150km on the speedo. We were both shattered. The guy said there was room now but none tomorrow. He said to try next door. I almost cryed. The fellow next door spoke better English and we were able to explain that we wanted to pay for the night that had just been so we could go right to sleep and then stay the night of the 19^th as well. He said - you guessed it - NO ROOM. I said maybe we should go back to the formula 1. Steve explained how we had been driving around all night looking for somewhere to stay. Then the guy picked up the phone and rang Formula 1. He spoke to the other bloke and then said we could stay there until Friday midday. (Which was what we wanted.) We were so happy. We went back to Formula 1 and the guy wrote down the price for 1 night. We were confused. We tried to explain we wanted to pay for 2 nights so we could sleep for longer. He did not understand. He rang the other guy back and said that he had told him to just charge us for 1 night. I think the confusion had been that he thought we wanted to stay Friday and it was full then. So we finally got our room and only had to pay for one night! Yay! We fell into bed and slept until 3pm. Steve woke up feeling crook in the gutts. He's not been well most of the day. We made an excursion back to the mall (which was close by) and got a few more supplies. And now we are back at Formula 1 our favorite hotel (luckily this one is much cleaner and nicer than our other one) trying to sort out our insurance and ready to get a proper nights sleep.

A Grand Theft from an Auto.

Written on the 18^th April 2012.

On Saturday after checking the surf early as usual and finding it still unsurfable, we entertained ourselves by playing 500 with each other 

and relaxing in the sun on the rooftop of the Ocean Surf House where we were all staying again. Sunday was another day of flatness. We mooched around for most of the day. I operated on A.J.'s foot and got heaps more of the kina (urchin) spikes out of his foot including a really big one that was really painful. I love digging things out of people's feet!We decided to go for a drive in the afternoon to see if we could score a stormy. The surf was too terrible to go out so we decided to brave the wind and go to the beach to play platonk. On the way to finding a beach we drove down a little road and saw a man leap off his bike, ditch it in the ditch, snatch up a big rock and through it forcefully down on the ground and then repeat the process. We then saw what he was throwing the rocks at. It was a cobra! It was not that big – it must have been a baby, but it was still quite long – at least a metre. It took a lot of killing. The man had to through heaps of rocks at it. Then he smacked it a lot with a stick. Next he got more rocks to bash it with. It was pretty interesting to watch. After that display we drove on and decided to stop at the beach near Killer Point where many tourist go. I was going to take my bag with me but in the end we decided to leave our gear in the car to avoid it getting sandy as the wind was blowing the sand around badly. We hid the bag on the ground under a towel and also had the surfboards inside the car on top of it too. We thought it would be sweet there because there were so many people and cars around. Apparently we were wrong. We enjoyed the game on the beach and after 30mins headed back up the steep bank to the car. We were greeted by a smashed window and a bashed in lock in the boot. We checked to see what was missing and found that all our valuables were gone. Phones, cash, our iPods, iPod speaker, my new green top and both my camera's and bags– the waterproof one and my Digital SLR (that is the thing I am most gutted about losing.) At least I had downloaded all my photos the night before so I didn't loose any pictures. On the upside though they did not take our surfboards or wetties. Also they left my wallet (just took the money from inside.) And they left my day bag that all the stuff was in which would have been annoying to loose as it clips to my pack. We all felt so mad that we had been robbed and also annoyed that we had left the stuff in the car. It just goes to show that even in places you think look safe you are probably not. The next step was reporting the theft. We were not really sure how thorough the police would be but thought we better not touch anything until we had talked to them. Jeff and I waited with the car in the wind while Steve and A.J. headed off to call the police. They could find nowhere with a phone so they walked to Taghazout and got Mohamed (cool guy we rented the car off.) He drove them back to the car. In the meantime Jeff and I had been looking out for cops driving by and managed to hail one. They were not much help. They asked us a few questions. Said we should not have left the car there (duh, thanks we know that now!) and pretty much just stared at us with expressionless faces. Then they told us to drive the car to the police station at Taghazout. We tried to explain we were waiting for our 2 friends to come back who had gone to call the police. They said we didn't need to call the police, that they were the police. We said we knew that but we still had to wait for our friends. This conversation went around and around for a while. (There was a bit of a language barrier going on.) At that point the others turned up thankfully with Mohamed. So we all headed off to the police station. That was an interesting experience. It was very lucky we had Mohamed with us to help translate other wise it would have taken forever! As it was we had to wait around for quite a long time. We were eventually summoned in to write down what items had been stolen next to our names. (Which turned out to be a bit of a waste of time.) Then more waiting. During the next wait a man came running into the station and breathlessly exclaimed something to a policeman. The policeman listened (expressionlessly) and then followed the hurrying man (slowly!) out of the station. A few minutes later he came back dragging a fairly scrawny and intoxicated man. Following him were several woman and the breathless man who also sat down to wait. The hauled the man into a room (which I could see from the bench I was sitting on.) and began beating the shit out of him!!! They we punching him and kicking him and the blows were echoing around the cells and he was crying out in pain. It was pretty severe. Mohamed said that he was drunk and attacked a woman in her house. A while later he was wandering around the station. We had moved to wait outside in the doorway to make room on the benches for all the new arrivals. Next minute the guy walks out the door and makes a mad dash for it and is hastily persuaded by some of the coppers. After several minutes they dragged him back to the station. They slammed him in a cell and a great banging and crashing started up and the guy was calling out again and we were not sure if the police were smashing him again or he was whacking his head against the bars of they were pulling him into them over and over again or what was going on but it was very noisy and sounded decidedly painful. Finally after that show was complete our reports were given to us. But they did not have the right items on them that had gotten stolen. We got them to do it again and it was still not right but we did not want to try and explain again because it had taken SO long to even get them so we just took what we had and left cause we were STARVING since it had been hours. We got tea and then all watched a movie on A.J.'s laptop.

I did not sleep well. We do have insurance but I was gutted so much of my stuff got stolen. Plus we had pushed 2 single beds together and I end up sleeping in the crack most of the night.

Monday was a beautiful day but we were all a bit gutted about being robbed and there being no surf. We had a nice time sitting down near the water at a cafe though and admiring the views. (Though we were not all admiring the same things.) That night we watched another movie. The next morning we got up at 6 to take A.J. and Jeff to the airport. It was a bit sad saying good bye. You get quite attached to people when you hang out with them all the time. They were really fun to hang out with made our stay in Morocco much more enjoyable and entertaining. I will miss them. After dropping them off we went to Agadir to get breakfast and go to the Rip Curl shop to buy some shoes for us both and I bought a new hoodie. Yay! So sick of wearing my 2 cardies. And now our feet won't freeze off in Paris, hooray! Steve is a bit gutted though because we have shoes the same colour shoes – too matching for his tastes. When we got back to Taghazout Mohammed said “Oh, if you went with me they would have given you a 20% discount because the people who work there are my friends!” Don't you hate it when you get good information too late! It felt a bit strange being in Taghazout without Jeff and A.J. We just mooched around all day and in the evening it was Abdu's birthday surprise at Le Spot restaurant. We hung out there a bit and then went back to our room to finish packing. We got up at 5am this morning and now we are on the plane flying to Paris. Yay, where we get a brand new car and start the next part of our adventure. (And where it is 10 degrees and has thunderstorms, brrrr!) We are going to buy and tent and probably a new camera when we have figured out where to buy them from.

Bye, love Amy. xoxo

Essaouria.

Written 16^th April 2012.

The following morning we got up early to avoid the traffic craziness and headed off to Essaouria. The scenery was more interesting, having a little green. There were so many cop stops though. They have them everywhere we have driven and there are so so many of them it's a bit overkill!

We arrived to a fresh looking town with a cruiser atmosphere which was a welcome change. It is a fortified town – or was. We had a yummy breakfast and then went to explore the madina and buy a few goodies. I bought a box of wooden dice and a little wooden boat. Next we admired the ramparts.

The cannon were pretty cool.

There were lots of pretty sights to see.

Next stop was the fishy smelling wharf. There were stalls with men selling their fish, and places where you can get some cooked up for you. And so many fishing boats!

View looking back at the town.

We relaxed on the break-wall and gobbled up yummy fresh strawberries.

Then a quick lunch before we hit the road again. They boys were excited because a big swell was predicted and they were keen to get back to Taghazout to surf it. We drove through olive trees most of the way back and checked a few roads that led to the coast.

We were disappointed when we arrived back at boilers to flatness. And extreme wind. We sat waiting hopefully in the car for waves to turn up and I frustrated the boys with some riddles. We were not in luck with the surf. It remained poo. That night we had fun playing 500 though. We taught Steve how to play and he was really good at it. Lucky he was my partner!