We had been in contact with Paul and Andrea from followourmotorhome for a while as we had both been planning our trips to Morocco. They had arrived about 3 weeks after us at the beginning of December and had been making their way slowly down south. But the prospect of snow in the Middle Atlas (and the possibility of getting stuck up north!) had nudged them on to head southwards so that they could carry on unimpeded. It meant that our paths were about to cross for the 4th time in just as many countries.
We had first met in Hungary in 2017 (and Solvenia shortly afterwards) when, with their identical motorhome to ours (their Boris to our Kaya), had rescued us from a potential disaster of having to cancel our trip because of a failed battery charger. Turns out they had had the identical issue but, in thir wisdom, they had insisted on a spare charger for their travels. Their problem seemed to have settled down so they offered to loan us their spare charger which we had promised to return to them when we were all back in UK again. It meant that we had power back to Kaya again (no charger meant no way to keep the leisure batteries in good condition which meant the real possibility of ruining both batteries and with flat batteries no 12V system without 220V electric hookup, meaning no off-grid camping!). In the meantime, we were fighting with our supplier who finally relented and sent us a new battery charger via Post Restante to Dubrovnik, our stop about 4 weeks ahead of us.
We’ve used Poste Restante several times throughout our years on the road and successfully had items delivered to post offices in Malawi, Tanzania, Greece, and now Croatia. Items are sent to the main post office in a city or town with just your name and Poste Restante plus the city and country name (as the address) on it. You then, at some time in the future, collect it from them with your passport as proof of ID. The system has been keeping travellers in touch (more over to the internet now) and parcels delivered to them for around a hundred years now and still in use today.
So here we are today, waiting in country 4 for the arrival of the 3 of them. Note to readers: when you’re on the road and travelling for so long, inanimate objects like vehicles take on their own personalities and demand a name!!
Aaaaaaaanyway, to continue….. they finally drive into the campsite, parked up and Ahmad prepared a tray of tea for us to share as we caught up on current travels, passed countries and intervening time since we had last seen them in the UK. Supper arranged, chicken on the spit slowly turning round and round, hot fat spluttering on glowing charcoal, the smell of roasting meat, savoury rice and burning olive wood filling the air & wine shared. As the sun set, fleeces on and as the moon rose and the stars began to erupt in the dark skies, the fire stoked and a friendship rekindled along with the fire.
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