Wednesday 20 January

Guardian campsites don't always provide waste disposal facilities and that at Essouira is one. However in the next “carpark” along there was a closed disused toilet block behind which was an opened manhole with access to the sewer system. You needed to be a bit athletic to avoid “accidents..............”

Ever onward south our next “target” was a small village where we had been told it was okay to overnight overlooking a nice beach, about 100km away. Using the main road – no motorways here – we negotiated several towns and villages on a reasonably surfaced highway (we didn't need to replace ALL our fillings) to find a not so small village experiencing a lot of development and the parking was roadside amongst this building work. However the views were fine so we joined a couple of other vans and settled down to lunch and a lazy afternoon.

But at teatime the security man came around and, quite apologetically, told us we couldn't overnight here, despite a couple of “older” vans quite clearly having done so for a while. Perhaps it was the influx of our 6 units, plus others who followed on later which pushed tolerance to a breaking point. He suggested the campsite, which we knew about but didn't exactly have rave reviews, but it being quite late we thought it at least worth investigating.

After a hairy turn onto the very rough and ready access road, we found quite a well-organised campsite with adequate separated and marked pitches and all facilities, including hot showers and electricity if required, all at a reasonable price. Caravan Club it was not, but easily as good as many we have seen in Europe, so we settled in.