Hitchhike to Morocco for Charity!

We had a nice lie in at the hostel ad grabbed some breakfast from the supermarket down the road. We made some signs on cardboard – ‘AUTOSTOP DE CARIDAD’ and ‘SUD/OESTE’. We wandered to the slip road to the west and the hitching begun! The weather was perfect – far better than freezing on the M1! Sarah employed the method of standing in the middle of the road to attract people attention, whilst Shaun and I employed the more orthodox method of holding our thumbs out! A lot of people drove past beeping their horns and offering Sarah a lift, but nobody wanted to take me and Shaun! After about an hour and a half we got a lift off a Spanish bloke called Juán (again!). He drove us down the motorway to the first service station. Again he did not speak English, but he gave us some good advice and names of places to aim for.

When we got dropped off there were lots of trucks parked up, but none of them would give us a lift. Our chances of getting a lift were not helped by the fact it was siesta time for the Spanish. A British car pulled up, and they were headed for Morocco, but they had no room in their car which was a great shame. A car with two young Spanish guys in pulled up, but after enquiring, they were headed North so no luck there. After an ice cream and another wander about the car park, me and Sarah returned to the bags to find Shaun jumping up and down shouting that he had got us a lift! It was the same Spanish guy who we had asked before – he said that after checking with his brother, they were infact heading to Malaga and would give us a lift. Alejandro and Estebán were legends and spoke good English. The drive to Malaga was about 400km.

As we neared Malaga, Phil test us saying he was on a bus to Algeciras because they got stuck in Madrid (cheating bastards!). We mentioned that we were going to Malaga, and coincidentally their bus was stopping there. We arrived at the same time and met up at the bus station. Alejándro and Estebán went out of their way to drop us off at the bus station where Phil, Soph and Jenna were – they were so kind and had given us what could be our last lift! We met Phil, Soph and Jenna and the talk of girls, bikinis and sun started! We were planning on getting the ferry to Morocco, but Shaun’s Aunt had an apartment in Fuengirola, which was South of Malaga. A €2’50 train journey later and we arrived at the apartment to be greeted by Shauns Aunt Carmel and Uncle Dave- a lovely couple! We dumped out bags in the apartment and grabbed some food and a much needed pint! One pint led to another… and another… and so one, and we all ended up suitably drunk! Phil & I had a right laigh when we got in (haha)… After watching some Jeremy Kyle we nodded off to sleep no problem!