Ceuta: Ceuta (pronounced S'you-ta) is the Spanish enclave on the African continent. A few kilometres away out of town is the border proper. We have been a bit concerned about our paperwork for the crossing into Morocco. Our registration papers for the van had not arrived by the time we left Leeds and all we had was a slip of paper that said the application had been put in. In Portsmouth we managed to get some more paperwork (under advice from Ray, we p...

Algeciras: After a huge shop stocking up at the Carrefour Supermarché, we found the meeting place for the trip to Morocco. Casa Bernardo's is a big restaurant/fuel station stop on the main highway along the Med coast from Malaga to Algeceris. The parking area out the front was to be our stop for the night as there were no campsites close enough for the early start for the ferry the next morning. Huge trucks also parked for long stretches or for overnig...

Cáceres to Alcalá de los Gazules: Leaving Cáceres we continued south driving amongst lush grazing country interspersed with newly planted vines and ancient olive trees. Sunny Spain delighted us with deep blue skies and little fluffy white clouds with not a threat of rain to depress us. Long wide plateaux up to 600 metres made the driving easy. At Sevilla we tried valiantly to find a supermarket, big or small no matter, only to find that everything ...

Cáceres: The guide books rave about Cáceres. The old town's cobbled streets twist and turn and climb among ancient stone walls lined with palaces and mansions. High up ate towers and turrets, spires and gargoyles and everywhere are storks' nests complete with this year's new pair. Everything looks untouched since its heyday of the 16th century. While everything is extraordinary, it is not a place where many people live - they all live in the newer town s...

Salamanca to Cáceres: We left Salamanca to drive to a town we had missed last trip - Cáceres. Stress the first syllable and pronounce the second 'c' as a soft 'th'. Not easy to say! Taking backroads instead of the motorways, we passed pretty countryside with scattered olive and cork trees. Sheep with an abundance of lambs in one paddock, cattle with a wealth of calves in another. Then small grey pigs in muddy paddocks, definitely free range. Ominousl...