Winter News I 2004

After much mending fixing and bodging, “Trundle” our converted motorhome was finally ready for her winter Morocco-bound trip. We made it to Dover and caught an earlier ferry than we had booked, by paying £4.95. Wish everything was as easy as that. We accidentally got weighed as we drove along the truck lane to the ferry and found Trundle to be 5.25 tons. The ferry ride was the smoothest I have ever been on, and for the first time ever, I ate a meal as we crossed the Channel. I think this means that I shall pay for it on the way back.

As it was cold in France, we headed south rather quickly, meeting up with some friends en-route, and together we arrived in southern Spain about a week later, where we met up with some more friends. The weather in southern Spain is quite glorious, and had us donning our shorts and t-shirts rather quickly. We are already going brown from the effects of the blazing sun. (for those of you in colder climes, that’s that big warm yellow thing in the sky) Still, we shouldn’t complain having heard from friends in the UK that it was now snowing and below freezing!

We camped on the beach in Guardias Viejas, a small town on the south coast just west of Almeria. We met Alan a friend we met in Morocco last year, Alan, an Englishman who has a 5th wheel 7.5 ton artic camper unit, pulled by a VW LT50 tractor unit. As we talked over a meal the other night, Alan told us a true story that happened to him last year.

Dieter and the Donkey.
One sunny day, whilst camped on a beach somewhere on the southern coast of Spain, Alan was telling Dieter (a German with a strong Scottish accent, and who has an old converted coach) that one of his dreams would be to own a donkey.
‘Wouldn’t it be great.’ He told Dieter. ‘If you were able to buy a donkey and cart at Tangier, dress up like a Moroccan and wonder through Morocco for 3 months blending in with the locals for a hassle free winter?’ Dieter didn’t agree, as he didn’t like Morocco at all.

Whilst Alan and Dieter were having this conversation a young German couple visiting Morocco in their 1960’s MAN ex-German army truck, converted into a camper, were welcoming a new edition to the family. A donkey! The couple were already travelling with an Alsatian , a cat and a parrot, and the donkey travelled inside the camper as part of the family. This awkward manoeuvre was facilitated by means of a tail lift on the old truck, which lifted the donkey up to the back doors. Living with a donkey in your camper couldn’t have been easy, as it certainly wasn’t house trained. It also had a nasty habit of lunging off the tail lift before it reached the ground, taking whoever was holding onto it, with it. Its landings were less than graceful and it would spend the remainder of the day hobbling around as a result. The long suffering husband, tolerated the donkey as it was his wife’s wish. With the donkey’s paperwork in order, the family then drove to the port to leave Morocco, only to discover at immigration that the husband’s visa was two weeks out of date. The Moroccan authorities were not impressed with his oversight and threw him into jail for a few days, leaving his wife to drive their menagerie out of Morocco and into Spain, where she waited for his release. A few days later they were reunited, but unfortunately had an argument, fell out and split up. She moved into a girlfriend’s camper to give them time to cool down and her husband moved their truck and its contents a little further away from where she was staying.

A couple of days later Alan arrives on camp and happens to park up near the wife and her friend. Alan made friends with the wife and they sat talking around a camp fire until late that night, long after most of the other campers had gone to bed. Soon after, Alan went to his camper and the wife went to her friend’s camper.

During the night Alan was abruptly awoken by the violent shaking of his camper. He thought that it was an earthquake, but couldn’t understand what the strange noise accompanying the movement was. When he went outside to investigate he found a donkey tied to his bumper, protesting loudly. Dawn lit up a scene of chaos and confusion, with the donkey ee-awing, dogs barking and occupants of campers all around staggering about bleary eyed, wondering what on earth was going on. Most of the campers wrongly assumed that the husband had tied the donkey to Alan’s camper in a fit of uncontrollable jealous rage, believing his wife to have spent the night with Alan. Gossip spread as the donkey was taken and tied up to some nearby trees to calm down.

Earlier that very evening, the husband wakes up in the night to find the donkey missing. He spends the rest of the night searching for his wife’s donkey, distraught that he no longer has a hope of reconciling his marriage until the donkey is found. The following morning, he still hadn’t found the donkey and he reluctantly goes and gives the bad news to his wife. They argue some more and the donkey is eventually located and led back to the husband’s camper. All the campers are moaning about the night before, telling the couple to sort their lives out and that of the confused donkey, so that they can all sleep peacefully.

Alan seeing all this taking place, decides he doesn’t want to be implicated in the complicated love triangle, between the husband, wife and donkey, so slinks off further down the coast, where he just happens to meet up with Dieter again. Over a beer, Alan relates the tale of woe of the previous night’s events, between the husband, wife, donkey and his self, to which Dieter shows Alan his donkey bites and kicks, received from his clandestine efforts trying to make his friend’s wish come true! ‘All that effort and you don’t appreciate it.’ Said Dieter. Dieter had taken the donkey from the husband’s camper and tied it onto Alan’s camper, getting bitten and kicked in the process, then ran off.

No one knows what happened to the donkey after that, or if the German couple reconciled their marriage. I remember seeing the 40 year old truck in Morocco as I took a photo of it for my ever growing collection of home built campers, but didn’t notice any donkey nearby. I guess they must have been only thinking about buying one at that time. If only they had known the trouble it was to cause.

Next newsletter, we drive into Morocco and meet some of the characters on the famous Tahgazoute camp, near Agadir.