Three months around Europe

Tangier to Istanbul

Google says it is nearly 5000 km from Tangier to Istanbul and I travelled the first 2000 km on a big Italian registered ferry. I shared a cabin with three French educated Moroccan business graduates. In their late 20s and early 30s they were quite disillusioned by their lot. Five years getting a qualification from a prestigious French University and for three years they had been trying to get jobs.

“ We will go anywhere but we ...

Ouarzazate to Tangier

It is very difficult to get accurate road information in Morocco. Google maps told there was a road through the desert from Mhamid to Foum-Zguid, the hotel manager was unsure, but a Dutch motorcyclist assured me there was a road.

“ Look it is drawn on my Dutch map. So it must be OK”

Anyway I rode the 300km to Mhamid and as I got deeper into my ride, the desert changed from rocks to sand. There was a single strip of ...

Al Hoceima to Figuig

I wanted sun, peace and little drama on the next stage of my journey. What could go wrong if I took in the old Imperial cities of Taza and Oudja then headed south into the desert town of Figuig.

Al Hoceima is having serious money poured into to establish it as the next Mediterranean must go to resort. The road is being dual carriaged, shopping malls being built and perhaps even an Irish theme pub – Paddy Mohammeds.

I took the ...

Figuig to the High Atlas

The desert around Figuig is destined to be the battery of Europe. Plans are well advanced to set up solar and wind farms that in the next 25 years will meet 15 per cent of Europe's power requirements.
Adding to this a huge aquifer under the rocky desert has been discovered and there is the potential to grow biofuels.

As you drive along this desert highway, you see the infrastructure being developed and wonder whether anything, even ...

Border to Al Hoceima

As nothing was open at the border and I really did not want to hang around, I headed for Chefchaouen, about 100km in the Rif Mountains.

The single lane road was busy with smoky buses and trucks, potholed, being repaired and waiting for repair. As I climbed, the temperature dropped and the wind rose , but after about 90 minutes I had my first glance of the town.

Chefchaouen is the tourist face of the area that supplies around 40% ...

The Border

I awoke with the sun and an audience of five stray dogs , I made a brew, packed up and headed for the Moroccan border. Ceuta is a pretty town with duty free petrol and a razor wire fence surrounding it to keep out illegal economic migrants.

I was waved through the Spanish checkpoint and girded myself for Moroccan authorities. I had read about the touts posing as officials and extracting money to “assist” you to enter Morocco. I planned to do it ...

The plan for the journey to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Morocco's coast involved three ferries. The first was from Newhaven to Dieppe, across the turgid and turdy English Channel .
Catching a ferry only 50km into the trip means you can cast aside early along with the mooring ropes your previous routines. You now have to invent, find, refine a whole new set of standards. You have to be more aware, sharper, sometimes cautious and get into a mind set that allows you to accept ...

The first glimpse of the UK after a summer spent in New Zealand was comforting. It is, in spring; a soft land, without the intensity of light and the raw,adolescent edge of the Coromandel landscape. The spring flowers and trees blush colour against the grey overcast sky.

In a few months, the Olympics will be held in London. And like the rugby World cup's impact, there is a dulux freshness about the airports,public buildings and roads. Union Jacks, bunting, billboards, ...