TV In The Van

The TV in the van is an  Avtex, which can run on either mains electric, or 12 volt. We've not used it that much really except for the occasional dvd, and even then mostly when on hook up. 

Don't get me wrong, we didn't come away to watch TV but, when it's going dark at 5pm and the budget doesn't allow for socialising, then there are only so many books you can read, or blogs you can write.

There is an aerial on the van and we've tried here and there, to get the TV on, with limited success. One particular night, we get on to a station showing a movie, I forget what it was, but it was clearly American. 

Good enough unless you miss UK T.V. too much.

It's in Spanish which is fair enough, as we're in Spain. I have a brainwave and wonder if we can select subtitles in English. Not likely, but you never know!

As I'm going through the various buttons on the remote, a minor miracle happens, on pressing the 'language' button, the dialogue in the film changes from Spanish, to English! 

When I say English, of course I mean, it changes to the original movie dialogue, in this case, American English. We can't believe it, it has the same impact on us as a modest lottery win. 

Easy enough, when you know!

Neither one of us had any idea that such things were possible. So now, where we can pick up local TV, we scan the channels for a likely looking movie, or series, hit the language button, and we're away!

Two days after our 'discovery' we are in Morocco so, all celebrations are put on hold for the next seven weeks. That's ok, we'll take our victories where we can get them.

A quick word about the Avtex tv, miracles aside. They have a great reputation, and it's well deserved. We bought ours second hand and the picture quality is superb.

Make Avtex your only choice.

There are no angle issues when viewing, it has a built in DVD player, and you can play content in MP4 format, right off a usb memory stick. They are not cheap, even the second hand ones. 

People in the know, snap them up for good money on eBay. And with good reason. You only want to buy one tv for your motorhome. Caravan, or what have you. Treat yourself, get an Avtex. 

Don't fall for the 70 quid led whatever brand, because you'll be disappointed. You get what you pay for. As I keep on insisting, on finding out the hard way!

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Return from Morocco

There are 6 days left before our Green card expires. We can extend it if we ring the insurance company and pay a £20 admin fee but, we've chosen to return to Spain.

The drive to Tangier Ville port is about an hour and a half from where we are, and the first ferry is at 10am. We don't want to miss it and so, we set the alarm for 6am. Our limited experience has taught us that we can never get under way in less than an hour, no matter how organised we get the night before!

The insistent alarm takes half an hour to make us respond, oh well. We get on the road at half seven.

It's Saturday 6th Feb and our seven weeks in Morocco are coming to an end.

As we check in at the ferry port, much less fuss than when we arrived, the police want to check the van with a drugs dog, just in case we got ambitious in the Rif mountains.

It's a funny moment for all concerned, as the police dog proceeds to head straight for Harry's food bowl, and help himself. The officer gives the dog a telling off and the search concludes with no concerns. 

When they get out of the van, Harry sets off barking at the big Alsation, probably In protest at his food being pilfered. This gets a laugh from both us and the police. It's not a good idea for a Yorkie to mix it up with an Alsation but, can you tell them that?

We arrive in Spain shortly after 11 am and have to add an hour to meet local time. It's a strange feeling. Tarifa feels familiar and homely. We've on,y been once before and that was on the way to Morocco but now after the completely unfamiliar stay in Morocco, it feels like we've arrived home. A very odd feeling.

First port of call? Supermarket in Tarifa. Salad stuff and fruit and ham, who thought you could miss ham so much? Salad foods you can buy a plenty in Morocco but, I'm not convinced that it comes without risk and although we do eat plenty of tomatoes, fruit, lettuce and the like, somehow it wasn't the same. Probably psychological but not to worry. 

I'm looking forward to a ham salad with beetroot and cucumber and taziki and hummus. Anyway, on the way out we spot a great find in a an outdoor self service laundry place. Brilliant idea and the machine takes up to 14 kilos. Sue has been insisting that the quilt smells of sweat, how nice, for a couple of weeks now, and isn't about to let this opportunity pass by. 

Six euros later and the quilt, and currently in use sheet and quilt cover, pillow cases and all are tumbling away in the machine. Next, into the big dryer, no good to us wet obviously, and an hour or so later we've got Spring fresh bedding. I have to admit it smells so good now that I could be convinced to call it a day and get right in there!

Next stop. The garage where we know we can fill up the lpg tanks. We've even saved the GPS data in the sat nav, how organised are we? One of the tanks is completely empty and has been for a a week or so. 

As at 2015/16 you can't get lpg in Morocco although I'm confident that, that will change in the not too distant future. It takes 22 litres at the pump to fill both bottles and cost around 12 euros. Good. value this lpg stuff!. 

Next? Well, it has to be Gibraltar. Two reasons really. It's duty free, and Morrisons. Good old Morrisons. Semi skimmed milk, carling beer, Jaffa cakes, malt bread, sausages, sirloin steaks, I could go on but, you get the picture. I'm a Philistine and proud of it.

One trolley dash later, we drive across the car park to the petrol station to top up the diesel. It's 58 pence a litre. In the UK as I write this, there's a big hurrah going on because diesel has dropped to a £1 per litre.and it hasn't been that price since 2007. 58 pence per litre. I'm surprised that half of Spain isn't lined up at the border waiting to fill up!

We park at the local club car park at La Linea, just as we did before we left for Morocco. On that occasion, there were 4 other vans there. When we get there this time, there are 30! Whether it's always this popular in Feb' we don't know but, it's certainly popular at the moment!

On this particular Saturday, the club have a match on. As local teams go, it must be a fierce rival and as what remains of the car park fills up with fans arriving in cars, the police show up in force, complete with dogs and vans, presumably to whisk any over enthusiastic fans away. I checked...they played Algeciras and won 1-0.

The car park is packed and it all gets too much for one young German guy in his motorhome and he prepares to leave. As he's hitching his trailer onto the van, I ask him if he's ok. He does look worried. He says that he doesn't like it and I think that he feels that there will be trouble after the game. 

We'd been told beforehand that when there's a match on that it gets a bit like sardines on the car park so we're not unduly concerned. The German guy however, is having nine of it. He wishes us 'good luck' and scarpers before the game starts.

In spite of all the chanting at each other, and the police line separating the two sets of fans, once the game is over, they all just quietly disappear as quickly as they arrived.

Coming Back To Spain

After all the fuss, paperwork and bloodtests in getting Harry ready for Morocco, no  one wanted to see or check anything. Not on the Moroccan side, nor the Spanish side. My gast was well and truly flabbered! 

Sue actually went out of her way on the way back in to Spain to ask the official who dealt with us, as to whether he needed to see Harry's paperwork.
He just said 'no, no, that's fine'

I don't understand it but, I would urge you to err on the side of caution and make sure your pooch has all that's officially required before you head for Morocco.

I suppose it's a bit like bringing back too many bottles of Mr Smirnoff or cartons of fags. If you just waltz through un-challenged, there can often be the, misguided belief that, you could have brought a crate through. Until they do actually stop you, that is.

We kind of 'got away with it' on the way in to Morocco. Duty free allowances apply, as you would expect, and we had enough to attract some frowns, at the very least! 

We knew from reading online that, the police come in to your van and 'search' it. He absolutely did once we were at Tangier port. He looked around, opened a couple of cupboards, and was gone.

I'm not sure what their brief is regarding van searches but, it clearly doesn't involve looking for minor allowance infractions.